Recently in Social.Services Category

Source: Associated Press, May 05, 2012

State agencies providing mental-health and substance-abuse services in Ohio will be merged pending legislative approval into a single agency with a combined 2,500 employees and a budget in excess of $650 million. ...The merger will affect an array of local agencies, programs and services, including 50 county boards of alcohol and drug addiction and mental health, and about 300 addiction-treatment agencies and 400 mental-health agencies.
Related:
Kasich to merge service agencies
Source: Alan Johnson, Columbus Dispatch, May 5, 2012

Source: Matt Katz, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 29, 2012

....The next piece of New Jersey government that may hit the market could provide the biggest windfall - and the biggest controversy. The Treasury Department has sought information from vendors about privatizing the $2.6 billion state lottery....Other states are considering offering long-term leases on their lotteries. Such a move would bring an immediate infusion into New Jersey's coffers, expand gaming opportunities, and allow the state to tax profits....

...One of the world's biggest players in lottery, GTech, responded with information about its experience running the Illinois lottery in a consortium with another company, Scientific Games. GTech is a subsidiary of an Italian firm and operates in 26 states - including New Jersey, where it has a contract to operate electronic lottery terminals....A British firm, Camelot, also is interested....

...Companies that get state lottery contracts are notorious for their campaign contributions....

What's for Sale in N.J.? The lottery...Tolls...Highway maintenance...Vehicle maintenance...Child-support payment processing...Prison food services...Schools....Public TV...Racetracks....State parks....Housing for the developmentally disabled....NJ Transit parking....

Source: Erin Smith and Chris Cassidy, Boston Herald, April 19, 2012

State Auditor Suzanne Bump unleashed a warning broadside at nonprofits that abuse taxpayer funds, after the state yanked $1.7 million in taxpayer funded disabled-services contracts from an embattled Charlestown agency where auditors say executives ran up bills at restaurants, liquor stores and Disney World. ... The crackdown on Life Focus Center marks a tipping point in the state's dealings with private agencies that have been found to have top-heavy payrolls and questionable spending underwritten by taxpayers, sending the message that state regulators won't tolerate nonprofit bigwigs using public funds as their own personal piggy bank, said watchdog David Tuerck of the Beacon Hill Institute....

...Bump said that with as much as 70 percent of state spending on direct services in the hands of private vendors -- nonprofit and for-profit -- the Life Focus action places all of them on notice now...
See also:
- Press release
- Life Focus Center audit
- State Auditor: Non-profit's expenses questionable
Source: WHDH, March 8, 2012

Source: Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News, April 06, 2012

State spending on contractors has exploded over the past decade, doubling between fiscal years 2002 and 2012 and consuming more than 13 percent of all personnel costs, a GoLocalProv review of state budget records reveals. Contractor costs are currently estimated at $268 million, $32.5 million over what was budgeted in this fiscal year. Contracting costs for architectural and engineering services have shot up 78.4 percent between what was spent in 2002 and budgeted for 2012. Education contracts have skyrocketed by 154 percent while management and auditing services are up 29 percent....The top 30 contractors identified in a review of more than two thousand contracts account for more than half of that total, at $166.5 million. Nearly half of the top 30 contractors were hired through the Department of Transportation, followed by seven for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and six for the Department of Human Services.

Source: Government Technology, March 30, 2012

The California Department of Child Support Services has notified the public that storage devices containing the personal information of 800,000 persons has gone missing in the mail.

The state issued a press release Thursday, March 29, disclosing that California's Office of Technology Services notified the DCSS on March 12 that two contracted services -- IBM and Iron Mountain Inc. -- could not locate storage devices that were en route via FedEx from IBM's Colorado facility to California....
See also:
California officials: Department of Child Support Services data now missing
Source: Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, March 30, 2012

Source: Karen Francisco, Journal Gazette, February 26, 2012

The dirty little secret behind Indiana's budget surplus is exactly how it came to be. Not the bounty of a booming economy but the result of nicks, cuts and downright slashing of programs critical to the safety of vulnerable Hoosiers and to the economic future of all its residents....Recent investigations by the Indianapolis Star and the South Bend Tribune focused on egregious cases of failed oversight. ...

...DCS Director James Payne pushed for a centralized reporting system because, he argued, county-level reporting provided 92 different ways to screen out children. Consistency and efficiency were the goals. But since the program's implementation began in early 2010, concerns are growing that cases that previously would have resulted in an investigation are no longer prompting state intervention or that the intervention is inadequate....
See also:
'This boy is beat to death' / Caller pleads for immediate intervention by Child Services at Sturgis home
Source: Virginia Black, Mary Kate Malone, South Bend Tribune, March 12, 2012

Source: Martha Stoddard, World-Herald, February 21, 2012

Top Nebraska officials plan to change course on child welfare after the state's experiment in privatization suffered a major blow Tuesday. The Kansas-based KVC announced that the company will stop managing child welfare cases as of Feb. 29. The announcement leaves the state with only one private contractor, [Omaha-based Nebraska Families Collaborative] meaning that state workers will once again be responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of the majority of abused and neglected Nebraska children. But, in a key difference from past practice, State Department of Health and Human Services officials plan to hire enough workers to keep caseloads at manageable levels....

KVC had sought contract changes that would have increased the state's costs by well over the $19 million figure, HHS officials said....KVC officials previously said they had lost $14 million on their contract with Nebraska. The company threatened last fall to drop its contract at the end of December but agreed to continue after the state provided an additional $1.8 million and promised to negotiate on the case rates....
Updated:
- Child welfare changes a step closer
Source: Martha Stoddard, World-Herald, March 8, 2012
- NE turns to more traditional child welfare system
Source:: Grant Schulte, Associated Press, April 15, 2012

Source: Russ Buettner, New York Times, December 13, 2011

Every day across New York State, thousands of part-time workers visit the homes of developmentally disabled people to teach them simple tasks, like grooming or how to take a bus.

For their work, which requires no special credentials, the employees typically earn $10 to $15 an hour.

But when the nonprofit organizations that employ those workers bill the state, they collect three and four times that amount -- with some having received as much as $67 an hour.

Source: Tolu Olorunnipa, Miami Herald, Naked Politics Blog, January 23, 2012

Back in 1988, Florida legislators passed a law that would allow sports stadiums to collect about $2 million per year from the government to build new shiny stadiums that would increase economic investment and improve the quality of life.

Tucked into the statutes is an obscure homeless shelter provision...The law states that sports teams that accept taxpayer dollars to build facilities must house the homeless on off-nights, and lawmakers have brought it back from the dead in a pair of bills gaining steam this legislative session.

Senate Bill 816, which would make teams and stadium owners return millions of taxpayer dollars if they can't prove that they've been operating as a haven for the homeless on non-event nights, passed its first committee in the Senate on Monday with a unanimous vote...

Source: Darren A. Nichols, Detroit News, January 23, 2012

The city is managing federal funding so poorly that it's risking future dollars for social service programs intended to help disadvantaged residents, officials examining Detroit's finances say. .... If Gov. Rick Snyder determines the city requires the oversight of an emergency manager, that person could bar the city from administering federal funds and instead give the job to Wayne County or a private company.