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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > March > 04
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Children Services struggling to pay bills, foster parents on time
Butler County Children Services is having trouble paying its bills, which is alienating foster parents and forced a brief shutdown of a system used to conduct criminal background checks, according to agency officials.
Children Services Director Michael Fox confirmed that a problem exists Wednesday, March, 4, and said he his working with county commissioners to resolve it.
He said bills are being paid late because mergers, layoffs and new rules left those responsible for paying the bills backlogged.
The result: the system Children Services uses to conduct state-required fingerprinting on potential foster parents or relatives who temporarily house children was shut down Monday, March 2, for nonpayment.
A county employee drove a check for $8,142 to the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation office in London, Ohio Tuesday, March 4, after commissioners approved the payment Monday.
County Administrator Tim Williams said there is no backlog, and no reason foster parents should be getting paid late.
“I will go to work in order to try to improve that for foster parents,” Williams said.
Numerous foster parents are also complaining that their checks show up weeks — sometimes months — late.
“It just seems the whole system is not running the way it needs to be ran,” said Sue Gregory, a foster parent who said she routinely gets her checks late. “But realistically they’ve never been able to get these checks out on time.”
But this is trying for foster parents who aren’t in it for the money, Gregory said, but they’re not loaded with cash either. They just want reimbursement for the clothes, food, toys and other things they purchase for their wards every month.
“With these economic times what they are it’s getting hard on these families,” Gregory said.
Fox said this has been a source of frustration for him, and he wants commissioners to allocate resources to get all the bills caught up before foster parents start to leave.
“Whatever we have to do to make these payments get out on time to our foster parents, we have to do this,” Fox said.
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Local GOP may sell headquarters
Attendees at a Butler County Republican party meeting in Fairfield last week say party leadership announced they would be putting the party headquarters on the market.
The two-story office and meeting hall is in Fairfield Twp at 5964 Golf Club Lane (Off Ohio 4 near Walden Ponds). No word yet on what the asking price is, but sources recollect it cost more than $800,000 to build in 2005.
The building has long been a source of controversy within the party, with some members complaining of the high cost. Detractors have dubbed it the “Todd Mahal,” in reference to Carlos Todd, who was GOP party chairman at the time.
Fans of the building say it came in useful as the local headquarters of Sen. John McCain’s campaign last year and numerous other local campaigns since it was built.
The building scored a mention in a Huffington Post piece on party headquarters’ last year:
Perched atop a grassy mound just down the road from Walden Ponds Golf Course, Butler County HQ comfortably straddles a half-circular drive with a wide awning ideal for protecting guests from the rain. It’s also the clubhouse for one of the country’s most powerful Republican politicians, House Minority Leader John Boehner. President George Bush trolled for green here in 2004, and it paid off. The county voted overwhelmingly for the president and has contributed handsomely to Republican causes over the years. Maybe that’s why this modestly-sized county sports a palatial office in a relatively high-rent neighborhood. Across the street you’ll find a residential development with $300,000 single family homes.
What do you think? Would the building be a good buy?
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Regional summit set for March 26
The following letter is going out this week from Butler County commissioners to every local elected official in the county. This is the kickoff of the regional summit Commissioner Gregory Jolivette is proposing.
As of this writing, the Web site listed isn’t running. What suggestions do you have on how local governments can share resources to save money?
Here is the text of the letter:
Subject: Regional Cooperation Among Local Government
The multiplicity of local government services creates an opportunity to look for mutual ways to eliminate duplication, improve efficiency, serve the public and reduce government costs. A discussion about reformation of local government is timely due to the condition of local and national economies. While the Federal Government economic stimulus package calls for additional spending, local governments will still be plagued with state budget reductions and apathy for changes in the local tax rates.
As result, it is mutually beneficial to engage in discussion about opportunity that might exist to find ways to share resources and save money as we “work better together”. In order to create a backdrop for a conversation to take place, we invite you to attend a Regional Summit to discuss these issues.
We are designating Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 6:30 PM a conference in the Butler County First Floor Conference Room to listen to and discuss the topic of “work better together”.
Prior to this date, we would like to hear from office holder, citizens, and relating to suggestions and comments for regional cooperation. You can forward suggestions and comments to www.butlercountyohio.org by clicking the ICON “work better together”. Once you access the “work better together” web page, please click the link and complete the “Survey on Regional Cooperation”. Finally, there is an e-mail link on the page to forward any comments or suggestions.
We sincerely appreciate and value your attendance and participation at the Summit Meeting on March 26, 2009. If you are interested in being a presenter during this meeting, please contact Timothy R. Williams, Butler County Administrator at 513-887-5647 or email at williamst@butlercountyohio.org. See you there.
Sincerely,
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO
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