Legislature(2009 - 2010)CAPITOL 106
03/17/2009 03:00 PM House HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB141 | |
| PRESENTATION:OMBUDSMAN'SREPORTONOCS | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | HB 141 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
March 17, 2009
3:05 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Bob Herron, Co-Chair
Representative Wes Keller, Co-Chair
Representative John Coghill
Representative Bob Lynn
Representative Paul Seaton
Representative Sharon Cissna
Representative Lindsey Holmes
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
HOUSE BILL NO. 141
"An Act relating to the Interstate Compact for Juveniles;
relating to the State Council for Interstate Adult and Juvenile
Offender Supervision; amending Rules 4 and 24(b), Alaska Rules
of Civil Procedure; and providing for an effective date."
- MOVED HB 141 OUT OF COMMITTEE
Presentation: Ombudsman's Report on OCS
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: HB 141
SHORT TITLE: COMPACT FOR JUVENILES; INTERSTATE COUNCIL
SPONSOR(s): REPRESENTATIVE(s) COGHILL
02/23/09 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/23/09 (H) HSS, JUD
03/17/09 (H) HSS AT 3:00 PM CAPITOL 106
WITNESS REGISTER
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN COGHILL
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced HB 141, as the prime sponsor.
AMANDA MORTENSEN, Staff
to Representative John Coghill
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented HB 141, on behalf of the prime
sponsor of the bill, Representative Coghill.
TONY NEWMAN, Social Services Program Officer
Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ)
Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke in support of HB 141.
BARBARA MURRAY, Deputy Compact Administrator
Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ)
Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke in support of HB 141.
CAROL BRENCKLE, Chair
Alaska Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (AJJAC)
Kenai, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke in support of HB 141.
LINDA LORD-JENKINS, Ombudsman
Office of the Ombudsman
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented the Ombudsman report on the
Office of Children's Services (OCS).
TAMMY SANDOVAL, Director
Central Office
Office of Children's Services (OCS)
Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS)
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions on the Ombudsman's
report.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:05:08 PM
CO-CHAIR BOB HERRON called the House Health and Social Services
Standing Committee meeting to order at 3:05 p.m.
Representatives Herron, Keller, Seaton, and Coghill were present
at the call to order. Representatives Cissna, Lynn, and Holmes
arrived as the meeting was in progress.
HB 141-COMPACT FOR JUVENILES; INTERSTATE COUNCIL
3:05:28 PM
CO-CHAIR HERRON announced that the first order of business would
be HOUSE BILL NO. 141, "An Act relating to the Interstate
Compact for Juveniles; relating to the State Council for
Interstate Adult and Juvenile Offender Supervision; amending
Rules 4 and 24(b), Alaska Rules of Civil Procedure; and
providing for an effective date."
3:06:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN COGHILL, Alaska State Legislature, explained
that compacts were a legal and technical means for states to do
things without intervention from the federal government. He
pointed out that state laws were dynamic and required agreements
between states, in this case for the interstate management of
juveniles. He noted that this original compact dated from 1955,
and that an update was necessary.
3:07:07 PM
AMANDA MORTENSEN, Staff to Representative John Coghill, Alaska
State Legislature, said that HB 141 was a replacement for the
1955 compact and would ensure the supervision of juvenile
offenders and the return of runaways. She reported that HB 141
provided the procedural means to regulate court supervised
juveniles across state lines. She estimated that this compact
would be used in 20,000 cases annually. She pointed out that HB
141 would ensure that all states had identical statute language,
and it would provide enforcement procedures. She affirmed that
it would allow for the collection and sharing of standardized
information. She shared that this would allow states to operate
without federal intervention. She observed that 35 states had
passed this compact, with 6 other states considering it. She
identified that Alaska would need to deal with each state on a
case by case basis, if this compact was not approved. She
concluded that the compact provided for the safety of the
juvenile offender and the state, and that it ensured public
safety and security.
3:09:04 PM
TONY NEWMAN, Social Services Program Officer, Division of
Juvenile Justice (DJJ), Department of Health and Social Services
(DHSS), explained that his [division] was the overseer of the
current compact, and that DJJ supported HB 141. He reported
that DJJ supervised the interstate travel for about 160 court
supervised juveniles. He agreed that this was necessary for
public safety and he said that it was necessary to update the
compact. He offered to give a brief overview of HB 141.
3:10:23 PM
MR. NEWMAN reported that HB 141 had 6 major points. He shared
that the new compact would support the establishment of a
national compact authority to independently administer the
rules, and that the compact authority would have Alaskan
representatives who were appointed by the governor. He
explained that Alaska would be subject to sanctions for failure
to meet the expectations of the compact. He noted that Alaska
would collect data and provide information requested by the
national authority. He allowed that there would be a higher
dues structure. He said that the compact required establishment
of a state council to deal with state juvenile compact issues.
He noted that the existing Alaskan adult supervision council
would now become an oversight council for both juvenile and
adult offenders.
3:12:34 PM
MR. NEWMAN, in response to Representative Coghill, explained
that the responsibility for the appointment of the compact
administrator had been delegated by the governor to the
commissioner.
3:13:11 PM
REPRESENTATIVE LYNN asked about the sanctions.
3:13:34 PM
MR. NEWMAN responded that the sanction rules were still being
developed.
3:13:49 PM
REPRESENTATIVE LYNN asked if Alaska would sign on without
knowing the sanctions.
3:14:03 PM
MR. NEWMAN said that this was the same for all the states.
3:14:29 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL allowed that he had the same concern. He
explained that the compact commissioner would represent Alaska
in the development of these rules.
3:14:43 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked what was defined by the uniform
rules.
3:15:15 PM
MR. NEWMAN explained that the rules were for all of the juvenile
justice, state to state, youth transfers across the country.
3:15:41 PM
CO-CHAIR HERRON asked about the number of youth annually
transferred in Alaska.
3:15:51 PM
MR. NEWMAN replied that each year about 160 youth came into and
left Alaska.
CO-CHAIR HERRON asked if the youth were under the jurisdiction
of other states.
3:16:14 PM
MR. NEWMAN replied that some were.
3:16:43 PM
BARBARA MURRAY, Deputy Compact Administrator, Division of
Juvenile Justice (DJJ), Department of Health and Social Services
(DHSS), explained that there were youth, in need of supervision
and under probation jurisdiction, travelling from Alaska to be
with family. She reported that about 37 Alaskan youth left the
state, and about 40 youth came to Alaska to be with family or
guardians and to finish their probation.
3:17:50 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked how often states were in conflict
regarding management of youth crossing jurisdictional
boundaries. He also asked how this conflict was resolved, and
how Alaska could defend itself, within the compact.
3:18:23 PM
MS. MURRAY, in response to Representative Coghill, said that the
current compact was an association of juvenile compact
administrators. She explained that any issues of youth movement
between states were brought to the association, even though the
group had no jurisdiction. She conceded that the sanctions were
very weak. She noted that Alaska had not been involved with any
issues for many years. She explained that the new compact could
have financial sanctions. She said that a state's dismissal
from the compact would then require a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) for every youth who required supervision
when entering or leaving the state. She allowed that this would
be a "resource drain" for any state. She reported that the new
compact allowed for mediation prior to any financial sanctions.
3:20:36 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL established that this was not an
arbitrary authority, but an interlocking system for juvenile
transfers.
3:21:32 PM
CAROL BRENCKLE, Chair, Alaska Juvenile Justice Advisory
Committee (AJJAC), explained that AJJAC was an Alaskan advisory
board, appointed by the governor, to oversee implementation of
the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
within Alaska. She said that AJJAC had been following this
national compact legislation for many years, and was excited
that Alaska would be adopting the interstate compact. She
acknowledged the "resource drain" to individually negotiate all
the issues instead of having a compact, and that a compact was
necessary to ensure public and child safety and welfare in
Alaska. She referenced the letter sent from AJJAC which
endorsed HB 141. [Included in members' packets.]
3:26:11 PM
CO-CHAIR HERRON asked about an adult compact.
MR. NEWMAN replied that the legislature had adopted a similar
compact in 2003, which was now in place at the Department of
Corrections.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL said that there were several compacts
that dealt with adults.
CO-CHAIR HERRON closed public testimony.
3:27:31 PM
CO-CHAIR KELLER moved to report HB 141 out of committee with
individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note.
There being no objection, HB 141 was reported from the House
Health and Social Services Standing Committee.
^#Presentation: Ombudsman's Report on OCS
3:27:49 PM
CO-CHAIR HERRON announced that the final order of business would
be a Presentation on the Ombudsman's Report on OCS.
3:28:03 PM
LINDA LORD-JENKINS, Ombudsman, Office of the Ombudsman, Alaska
State Legislature, explained that the Office of the Ombudsman
was created to investigate citizen complaints against the State
of Alaska administrative agencies. She listed the complaints to
include actions that were contrary to law, unreasonable or
unfair, mistake of fact, arbitrary, or on improper grounds. She
explained that the investigations were to find an appropriate
remedy, and for recommendations to correct the problem. She
mentioned some issues that were exempted from an Ombudsman's
investigation to include: issues that had been decided by a
court, a complaint that challenged the substantive decision of
an administrative hearing or appeal, or issues that could be
resolved by administrative appeal. She mentioned that the
jurisdiction was limited to State of Alaska agencies. She
reported the Ombudsman's powers to include: making inquiries to
obtain information, entering without notice as long as agency
staff was present, holding public hearings, and accessing state
agency records. She noted that the Ombudsman must retain
confidentiality. She said that the office could compel, by
subpoena, the witness' appearance, sworn testimony, and the
production of records. She affirmed that it had the authority
to go to court to compel testimony.
3:32:31 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS announced in her annual report that the number
of complaints against Department of Health and Social Services
(DHSS) and the Office of Children's Services (OCS) had
"skyrocketed" in 2008. She reported that DHSS complaints
comprised 25 percent of the total caseload, an increase of more
than 7 percent. She mentioned that the total complaints also
increased in 2008. She said that complaints against OCS almost
doubled in 2008, from 73 complaints to 140 complaints, which was
15 percent of the caseload. She disclosed that she did not know
the reason for the increase. She said that OCS and the Citizens
Review Panel had always included the Ombudsman's office as an
option to aggrieved parents. She shared that most legislator's
newsletters included a brief about the Ombudsman. She opined
that the governor's office might also be referring more
complaints. She reported that the most complaints in 2008, and
again in 2009, were for issues involving "relative placement,"
"notice of proceedings," and "reports of harm." She disclosed
that most complaints had more than one allegation. She
confirmed that the geographic distribution for complaints
remained about the same, Southcentral, Southeast, and then the
Northern areas. She pointed out that few rural complaints were
received. She said that her office was complaint driven; they
took specific issues and looked at the broader issues that these
highlighted. She reiterated that the Ombudsman's mandate was to
prevent recurrence of the problem. She explained that the
Ombudsman did not advocate for individuals, but for their
rights. There were other issues for her office to review, she
said, including relative placement, visitation, inadequate
notice, reports of harm, and foster parents. She explained the
different paths for complaint review, which included a quick
assist or decline, advise to file a grievance, or the rights to
appeal. She said that the agency helped direct people within
the process, and that the Ombudsman's office wanted people to
work with the agency. She described the initiation of a formal
investigation. She relayed that, sometimes, once the interviews
and research began, agencies would admit to a wrongfulness and
move to fix the problem. She noted that the Ombudsman would
discontinue its involvement at that point.
3:39:48 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS explained that the formal investigation was
driven by statute and was very time consuming. She detailed
that it included interviews, sworn statements, and subpoenas.
She said that the review included an assessment of the policies
and procedures to determine if these were followed, and were
legal, reasonable, and fair. She explained that the report was
submitted to the agency, with recommendations to prevent a
recurrence. She indicated that the agency's response was
incorporated into a final report. She called attention to the
example of a report that was included in the members' packets.
3:41:48 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS explained that the Ombudsman's office was
bundling cases of comparable issues, categorizing them, and
combining them into a single report. She said that the
department was conducting investigative surveys of agency
practices and she supplied some examples.
3:44:40 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS offered her thoughts on ways to make this
report more useful to the House Health and Social Services
Standing Committee. She shared that her office had a cumulative
100 years of experience, and that she had asked each of her
staff to share two things about OCS that the House Health and
Social Services Standing Committee should know. She read from
this catalog of comments, and noted reasons for each: visitation
for a prisoner could be more often than for a child;
difficulties for an agency worker to maintain regular contact
with parent and children; non-responsiveness of case workers;
disregard for relatives of a child in custody; relative
placement; notice of court proceedings; and inconsistent
treatment to the grandparents of the child in custody. She
shared that a mission of OCS was to keep the family together.
3:51:14 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS shared that another problem was for the
knowledge of and adherence to policy, procedures, statutes, and
regulations. She gave examples from the case study mentioned
earlier. [Included in the members' packets.] She highlighted
that a major problem was the lack of staff awareness for policy
and procedures, and she offered examples from OCS and the
Department of Health and Social Services. She pointed out the
problem with the "intelligibility of policies and procedures,"
and she shared that three of the Ombudsman's investigators, each
an attorney, had agreed that these were difficult to understand.
3:56:05 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS continued with the catalog of comments and
reasons: the difficulties faced when not being able to retain
caseworkers. She summarized with a comment from an experienced
investigator:
The work they try to do is some of the toughest, most
consequential work done by any state employee because
they work with the most dysfunctional people in the
state trying to protect the most vulnerable people in
the state. The staff they have to do this work is
often under qualified, undertrained, under supervised,
underpaid, and undermined by constant turnover. The
result of adding one and two is the series of small
tragedies unfolding in the lives of scores of Alaskan
families every day of the week.
3:57:32 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA, referring to the "dysfunctional people,"
shared that it was generational and that it continued to grow.
She opined that it was no longer possible to get preventative
attention, identified this as a "cultural car wreck," and
assessed that this growing cost "would jeopardize the
functionality of state government." She asked what role the
committee could assume for improvement.
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL explained the history of the ombudsman
office, and offered his belief that the increase of complaints
was in recognition for the credibility of its work. He noted
that the citizen review panel was now very active. He commented
that each of the points which Ms. Lord-Jenkins had raised needed
to be reviewed.
4:04:16 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL referred to the staff turnover and the
entry level qualifications, and asked whether the newly hired
staff were prepared for the work, but not the caseload.
4:04:45 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS said that no specific research was done on
that.
4:05:15 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL suggested that college level social work
prepared good social workers, but not good legal technicians.
He opined that the expectation was to be a social worker, but
that the job demanded them to also be a legal technician and an
"enforcer."
4:06:59 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS, in response to Co-Chair Keller, said that she
was hired for a five year appointment, through a bi-partisan
committee from both the House and the Senate. She said that the
statute allowed the Ombudsman to serve a maximum of three five-
year terms. She responded that the Ombudsman could be fired by
the legislature.
4:09:11 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS, in response to Co-Chair Keller, said that
there were only five "general jurisdiction state-wide ombudsman"
in the U.S. She said that the majority were departmental or
"executive" ombudsmen, who were dedicated to children's
services. She offered her belief that the independence of the
Alaskan ombudsman model made it the strongest, and allowed for
the best quality of work. She observed that most "executive"
ombudsman reported to the person they were overseeing.
4:10:22 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON acknowledged that some of the changes to
legislative interaction with constituents had put more load on
the Ombudsman's office. He asked if a limit to the number of
caseloads for an OCS social worker would alleviate a lot of the
problems.
4:12:24 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS replied that the pay for caseworkers in OCS was
very low, and that the work load was very large. She said that
the work was time consuming, grueling, and frequently
unrewarding. She offered her belief that more workers would
allow a better opportunity for better work.
4:13:35 PM
CO-CHAIR HERRON asked to verify that 10-15 percent of the
Ombudsman's office workload was OCS related, and what were the
other high workload categories.
4:14:02 PM
MS. LORD-JENKINS agreed about the OCS workload. She responded
that the highest workloads were, in numerical order, Department
of Health and Social Services (DHSS), and the Department of
Corrections (DOC), although DOC did not require as much time.
She shared that the other high work loads were from the Office
of Children's Services, Department of Public Safety, Division of
Motor Vehicles, Public Defender Agency, and Office of Public
Advocacy. She said that Department of Natural Resources and
Permanent Fund Dividend Division cases had also increased
slightly.
4:15:20 PM
CO-CHAIR HERRON concurred with the earlier remarks, and he said
that the legislative office should be able to direct people to
the appropriate agency.
4:16:15 PM
TAMMY SANDOVAL, Director, Central Office, Office of Children's
Services (OCS), said that she appreciated the work of the
Ombudsman's office. She agreed that the numbers of complaints
had increased, although there were fewer direct complaints to
her office. She noted that she appreciated the work of the
Ombudsman's office, but that she wanted the opportunity to
resolve the issues within her division.
4:19:39 PM
MS. SANDOVAL said that she appreciated the completeness of the
investigative report from the Ombudsman's office. She said that
more than 30 percent of the staff was turning over. She offered
her belief that the more robust training curriculum, due to more
training money, would increase the retention rate. She said
that it was hard to ensure that a worker knew everything, but
that staff retention, which included an institutional knowledge,
would be a big help in attaining that.
4:21:56 PM
MS. SANDOVAL requested that the legislature hire more staff for
the Ombudsman's office to ensure a more timely response.
4:23:19 PM
MS. SANDOVAL referred to visitation and confirmed that more
frequent contact was necessary to reunify families. She
explained a new program that redefined the different levels for
supervised visits and could allow for more visitations. She
explained that by providing guidance and training to all the
staff who worked with the children's court, there would be
agreement on the protocols for visitations. She said that would
allow other partner agency staff to be there for the
visitations, not just OCS staff, and would now include
unsupervised visits. She also explained that the grant language
for private agencies regarding visitation support would now
better explain the service expectations.
4:26:46 PM
MS. SANDOVAL mentioned that OCS had begun to research the
policies and procedures of other states, and would revise the
Alaska manual. She said that this would include practice
guidelines for the staff.
4:28:08 PM
REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA asked what could be done for the problems
with job classifications which resulted in lower pay for more
qualified people.
4:31:19 PM
MS. SANDOVAL responded that the Department of Administration was
conducting a salary study. She opined that this would result in
changes to compensation.
4:33:04 PM
MS. SANDOVAL, in response to Representative Cissna, said that
agency culture affected a lot of things. She referred to the
"helping professional," someone who got into the work because
they wanted to help, which was the nature of Child Protective
Services.
4:37:04 PM
MS. SANDOVAL, in response to Representative Seaton, said that
the allocation for five positions would bring the OCS case loads
to a reasonable level, but that turnover and vacancies continued
to make the work load very difficult.
4:38:36 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked if the Bachelor of Social Worker
(BSW) or Master of Social Worker (MSW) programs at the
University of Alaska should include a full semester of family
law. He applauded the salary study, and he suggested that a
higher pay range with fewer PCNs might change the turnover rate.
4:40:10 PM
MS. SANDOVAL replied that the number of cases for each PCN would
still be significant to do the job correctly. She shared her
surprise at the pay scale comparison with other departments, and
she noted that a pay scale adjustment would also be a help in
staff retention. She agreed that supervision was also very
important to bring training and coaching to new staff.
4:41:31 PM
REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL explained that social workers used their
own car, and their own resources, and he asked if the workers
received the respect that they deserved.
4:41:54 PM
MS. SANDOVAL replied that things were okay but that there was
always room for improvement.
4:42:45 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if the electronic reporting system
was working.
MS. SANDOVAL said that the reporting system was not working
well. She relayed that the Online Resources for the Children of
Alaska (ORCA) system was working great, but that bandwidth and
connectivity were still an issue. She said that the new report
and the creation of the new case within ORCA were the most time
consuming. She discussed the creation of four regional in-take
hubs in areas with the better bandwidth. She offered that the
remote sites would send information to these hubs, and then the
cases would be assigned back out to the regional offices. She
said that this would especially help the very small rural
offices which did not have the personnel to enter all the data,
as well as handle the case loads.
4:45:12 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Health and Social Services Standing Committee meeting was
adjourned at 4:45 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| A2008-0581 Public Report Final.doc |
HHSS 3/17/2009 3:00:00 PM |
|
| HSS-M17.PDF |
HHSS 3/17/2009 3:00:00 PM |