First though they need to deal with the six grievances. Union President Becky Palmer has filed six grievances against the county this year, all of them before the new contract was sealed. Palmer said she has another grievance in the works that has to do with the newly minted contract. Prior to 2013, Palmer hadn’t filed a grievance in five years; she has filed about 20 since then.
Butler County Child Services Director Bill Morrison said the agency has already taken steps to try and lift morale. A group of staffers led by facilities manager Ed Roberts, formed a group called Just Helping Our Peeps (JHOP). He said there are a number single mothers on staff and employees — both those who walked the picket line for three weeks and those who didn’t — have agreed to help each other with things like lawn mowing, or help with a move and other volunteer activities.
“When you’ve gone through a conflict like this and the conflict ends, there is kind of a void there,” Morrison said. “I think Ed came up with the idea of filling that void with something positive.”
The agency has also reinstated doughnut hour — former executive director Jerome Kearns cancelled the practice because he felt it was a waste of taxpayer money — a social hour where staff can relax and also hear presentations by service providers, to learn about services they can refer clients to.
One of the biggest problems at the agency has been the turnover. The agency experienced a 29 percent turnover last year when 45 workers exited. Already this year a dozen workers have quit and almost half of them were social worker 4s or the most experienced people, they have hired 13 people, however all but four are beginners.
Chris Schultz, executive director of PARACHUTE Butler County CASA, the court appointed special advocates for children in children services custody, said the divide between social workers and management and turnover has been hard on everyone involved. She said the new rookie social workers have caused a turnover problem all on their own, with some being overwhelmed by the workload and others or the agency deciding they weren’t a good fit for the job, so some of them have also passed through what has been called the revolving door.
The fact the agency is also going through a major overhaul has further complicated the situation. Schultz said communication between BCCS and her agency has been good, but they are reserving judgment until they see whether the practice of trying intensive family, drug and other counseling and treatment, before removing a child, is really working.
“We had a case worker come and talk to us about some of the changes and what we can expect, as they are holding onto cases longer before bringing them into the court system,” she said. “They are being very up front with us and the communication certainly is still open and we’re meeting with them about the changes. But sometimes when things change you might not know you’ve stepped in a puddle until your foot’s wet.”
Defense attorney Jeremy Evans, who practices regularly in juvenile court, said the three week strike last summer was a problem but the agency seems to have moved past that hurdle.
“I know there was significant backlog from the strike, a lot of clients were telling me that they were not getting the attention they needed on their case, because of workers not being available and managers having to take up extra work and supervisors trying to make up the difference, that sort of thing,” he said. “But it seems to be kind of smoothing out at this point.”
Juvenile Court Administrator Rob Clevenger said from his perspective, if there has been internal turmoil and angst at the agency, the employees have not worn it on their sleeves.
“Whoever is in the driver’s seat at Children Services, or be it the case workers assigned to cases, what we’ve continued to see is people continue to do their jobs,” he said. “We deal with them at a lot of levels and even throughout all that strife, what we had was people still committed to doing their job. They recognized they had an important job to do and they were going to do it.”
Some close to the situation have suggested newly named Executive Director Ray Pater may be the impetus for what appears to be a positive change. He replaced Kearns as executive director over Children Services, JFS and child support enforcement — his previous position — in April. He said he realizes he is still in his “honeymoon phase” but he senses a feeling camaraderie now.
He said he has tried to make his presence known and let employees know he is there for them. He has espoused what the federal mediator will likely try to instill in the fractured labor/management relationship.
“I think if the work comes from both sides and we work together as a team, I think it can only get better,” he said. “It seems to have improved.”
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