“I feel like I’m banging my head up against the wall,” she said.
Sitting across the table was Julie Gilbert, executive director of Butler County Job and Family Services, along with other leaders from the county’s children services department. They were here to discuss their budget for next year, but it wasn’t the budget that had Carpenter upset.
It was her view of the culture in a department responsible for providing food, medical and other public assistance to county residents. To Carpenter, resources JFS provides have not been reaching the people that need them most.
“I don’t see you as a partner in the community,” Carpenter said on Thursday.
Her chief complaint was OhioMeansJobs, a career counseling center that is supposed to connect businesses to people who need help finding a job. In Butler County, the center is in Fairfield. JFS also has an office in Hamilton. Carpenter said other areas of the county need help more.
Gilbert told commissioners they recently hired a program outreach coordinator who spends more time connecting directly with people in the community.
“We do have some outreach,” Gilbert said. “Is it where we want it to be? No.”
When she told commissioners her employees have been working with transit officials to help get people to the centers, Carpenter shook her head.
“Do you realize it’s the distance that is the problem? It’s not the cost,” Carpenter said. “It’s not in their community and they aren’t going to go.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
County Administrator Judi Boyko said officials have heard those concerns. She mentioned the lease on the OhioMeansJobs building in Fairfield expires in 2025. Carpenter shook her head again. Commissioner Don Dixon looked at his phone.
When Gilbert and other department heads left, Carpenter continued talking to Boyko about the issue.
“It’s the culture,” she said. “They need to be part of the community.”
After the hearings, Carpenter praised Gilbert in an interview with the Journal-News. But she said JFS employees don’t leave the office. She said they don’t meet underserved populations where they’re at. And she said the employees there don’t think outside of the box.
“Our systems aren’t set up for the people who need them,” Carpenter said.
This meeting was part of the work commissioners are doing to approve a $495 million budget for next year. The hearings have largely gone smoothly, with most of the details worked out beforehand. For Job and Family Services, commissioners approved a slight increase in the department’s budget from this year. Included in that budget is money to hire an assistant JFS director. That position has been vacant since the former executive director retired two years ago.
More budget hearings are expected on Monday.
Staff writer Denise Callahan contributed to this report.
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