Recently in Social Services Category

Source: AFSCME Council 25 News Release, September 19, 2007

Albert Garrett, President of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, issued the following statement regarding the proposal to privatize Wayne County Friend of the Court operations:

"AFSCME Locals 409, 1905 and 3309, all representing court employees, and all affiliated with Michigan AFSCME Council 25 will conduct informational picketing at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, Woodward and Jefferson in Detroit, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Wednesday, September 19, 2007," stated Garrett.

"We are protesting the planned privatization of the Wayne County Friend of the Court," continued Garrett. "Despite public opposition to the idea, Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP), and has posted the RFP on the court's website at https://www.3rdcc.org/rfp/rfp.pdf. The RFP actually calls for staffing at 133 percent of current levels. This is a clear indication that the plan will slash the wages and benefits of the workers involved, and will produce a spurious, apples-and-oranges comparison of the work accomplished by the public workers now staffing Friend of the Court, and the performance of the contractor."

Source: By SCOTT WILLIAMS, Journal Sentinel (WI), Sept. 18, 2007

Seeking to trim the size of government, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas is proposing to privatize part of the county's child-support collection program.

Vrakas said his 2008 county budget proposal will include a plan for hiring an outside contractor to handle all incoming calls from parents, employers and other program users.

....... As an experiment, the county tried outsourcing the telephone call center this summer to Affiliated Computer Services Inc., the same firm that handles the state's child-support calls.

County staffers now handle up to 2,000 calls a month, or about 100 a day.

Source: By Louis Porter, Rutland Herald (VT), September 13, 2007

MONTPELIER -- State officials and advocates are worried a provision in this year's national farm bill could, if it becomes law, make it more difficult for some Vermonters to get the food stamps they need and are qualified for. A provision in the U.S. House-passed version of the bill was apparently included to limit the ability of states to privatize the administration of food stamp programs that provide grocery assistance to the poor.

...... Nationally, unions of government workers have pushed for the provision, partly in response to problems in states that have privatized their food stamp programs, in some cases with poor results, according to officials and news reports.

Source BizJournals, September 12, 2007

The Hawaii Department of Human Services has extended its contract with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. to provide information technology and claims-management services for the state's Medicaid program.

The six-month contract extension is worth $6.4 million.

Source: Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY, September 10, 2007

In December, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels sidestepped opposition from unions and Democrats when he signed a deal outsourcing the administration of his state's welfare and food stamp programs to a consortium led by IBM. For organized labor, the fight didn't end there.

In December, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels sidestepped opposition from unions and Democrats when he signed a deal outsourcing the administration of his state's welfare and food stamp programs to a consortium led by IBM. For organized labor, the fight didn't end there.

........... Daniels, a Republican who was President Bush's budget director, argued the privatization would improve services and save state taxpayers up to $1 billion over a decade. The union and other groups said it would hurt beneficiaries.

In June, at the urging of AFSCME and other groups, Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee voted to place a provision in the farm bill barring states from outsourcing the administration of food stamp programs.

Source: InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report, September 7, 2007

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) has issued a direct response to a mass e-mail sent to employees' work e-mail addresses, saying any response would violate state guidelines. The mass e-mail was sent September 4 by advocate and former state employee Beryl Cohen, asking workers to report on the transition to privately-run state eligibility services.

Cohen said the reports could be made anonymously at http://www.concerned citizens.org. [Ed note - that website it invalid, they may mean: http://www.concernedhoosiers.org/] In her response, FSSA General Counsel Jessaca Turner-Stults says any response would be an inappropriate use of state resources.

Source: BY JACK KRESNAK, Detroit FREE PRESS (MI), September 7, 2007

Wayne County's chief circuit judge today will announce a plan to privatize most of the county's Friend of the Court system, which handles more than 20% of Michigan's child-support payments and has been criticized as inefficient, overburdened and mistake-prone.

Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly said the company that wins the bid to run the $28-million-a-year operation would be required to hire the 169 Friend of the Court employees affected by the change as well as to increase staffing by 33% in the first year.

....... The plan is certain to face stiff opposition from Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents the 169 Friend of the Court workers. AFSCME's contract with the county expired Sept. 1.

Source: JONATHAN WALTERS, Governing, September 20007

The current state penchant for contracting out social services -- a subject I discuss at length elsewhere in this issue -- is part of a larger privatization question that may turn out to have a profound impact on federal-state relations in a variety of significant program and policy areas. Sometimes known as the "yellow pages" approach to government, the privatization push at the state level operates on the premise that if the public sector is providing some service that's offered in the phone book by a private company, then that service is a potential candidate for contracting out.

......... Language in the recently passed House farm bill, for example, specifically delegates to public employees the job of determining eligibility for food stamps, language clearly designed to preempt any state's inclination to turn that job over to the private sector.

By JONATHAN WALTERS, Governing, September 20007

....... While Texas has made a name for itself as a ringing example of how NOT to go about the job of streamlining access to social and health services, the state is hardly alone in its attempts to make progress toward that goal. In fact, during the past few years, dozens of states have been working on a variety of ways to do social and health services intake and screening more efficiently -- and, it should be said, more humanely.

....... The Indiana experiment is being piloted now and is due to roll out completely next year. The state expects to save in the neighborhood of $500 million over the life of the 10-year contract. But an interesting milestone will come much sooner, when the IBM commitment to state-based pay and benefits runs out, notes Celia Hagert, senior policy analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, who was invited to Indianapolis to debrief state officials on the Texas mess. If IBM cuts pay and benefits after two years, seasoned staff may decide to quit and go elsewhere.

Source: By ROBERT T. GARRETT, The Dallas Morning News (TX), Thursday, August 30, 2007

The state has suspended placements of foster children with most foster parents recruited by Lutheran Social Services of the South Inc. in North Texas and Central Texas, citing "serious incidents" in four homes last spring.

...... State spokesman Darrell Azar said the state this summer has closely scrutinized Lutheran - an Austin-based child-placing agency managing 660 foster homes, more than any other contractor in Texas - because of insights gained from difficulties with another private agency, now-defunct Mesa Family Services of Harker Heights.