Sorry, we can't talk about that
Over the years in Enquirer editorial board meetings with county child-protection officials, it's been tough, if not impossible, to get straight answers out of them, even about horrific abuse cases like that of three-year-old Marcus Fiesel who died in August.
It used to be said that the initials of the super-secret federal spy agency NSA stood for No Such Agency. Secrecy at many child protection agencies runs a close second.
No child should get beaten up a second time in the news media by public disclosure. But child-protection agencies typically do their own investigations of possible internal screw-ups, and the results are seldom released to the public. Is that so they don't embarrass the child or don't embarrass their agency?
The Enquirer is publishing an editorial Tuesday arguing that the curtain of confidentiality doesn't need to be so iron-clad.
Butler County's irrepressible Commissioner Mike Fox has called for a flurry of reforms. One is a truly independent Inspector General for children's services. Accent on "independent."
Will the IG's job depend on pleasing his bosses? Will he have power to do his own investigating? Who picks the IG? Oversight here or in Washington often is a joke. It's super busy people at the mercy of information that agencies feed them.
Ohio isn't the only state with confidentiality conflicts when it comes to protecting kids. In January, a national child-advocacy group warned that in some Kentucky counties it's pure luck whether neglected or abused kids get placed in a safe, permanent home. The report also urged state officials to investigate if some counties were too quick on the draw in severing kids from birth parents.
Parents who've lost custody may go the most ballistic when secrecy-obsessed agencies say "Just trust us," but we all should hound agencies that shun transparency.
posted by Tony Lang at 11:27 AM
2 Comments:
at 6:02 PM, October 02, 2006 
Anonymous said...
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at 11:58 PM, October 03, 2006 
Anonymous said...
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Post a Comment*That great and all, but when is the Enquirer going to pay attention to the financial mismanagement that has occurred in Hamilton County Family Services? We taxpayers are already on the hook for $200 million-the cost of a new jail-and we might have to pay out $2 billion. Are you seriously contending that this isn't major news? Or are you afraid that the story will make Phil Heimlich look bad?
We all know what your position on the latter is.
sparky and all - there is so much more than what the Enquirer isallowing to betold.
1) the county secreted monies from the Children's Services Levy that should have gone to pay for more case workers ( with one of the highest case loads in the state)and to pay for the services and needs of families wanting to be reunited with the children taken away from them. (many, due to poverty issues in the firstjplace; nohome,no food, no water / electricity,)
2. The Tax Levy Review Committee in Hamilton County, headed by Heimlich's business partner and former campaign consultant, recently spent 6 months reviewing the expenditures of the children's services levy -- never amention of the misappropriations - though they went through the Drake monies with a fine tooth comb and found every dimespent on"questionable" costs
3. the county used the monies it skimmed off the children's services levy to meet federal matching dollars requirements -- which means more money into the program that the county chose not to pay in violation of federal and state law.
4. they played this shell game for years, audit after audit, gave themthe thumbs up in the public record but who knows what is inthe "working papers" of the companiesthat were paid to review the accounting of monies.
5. they used the money that should have helped these most vulnerable children - to pay for other programs - again , so they ( the county) wouldn't have to pay for other programs that all, primarily, benefit children.
for too long, these "conservatives" have only beenconcerned with their own personal bottom line and seem,really, to care less about children.
why the Enquirer refuses to write about these things -- i don't know. i really don't know.
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