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Child welfare merger with JFS could cut costs, retired CSB director says
YOUNGSTOWN
It makes sense for the Mahoning County commissioners to consider merging Children Services Board functions with the Department of Job and Family Services, now that two-thirds of CSB’s top management team will have resigned or retired within the first four months of this year, says the CSB’s former executive director.
Making that observation was Denise Stewart, who retired Jan. 1 as executive director of the county’s child welfare agency.
“Rather than trying to rebuild the agency, would it make sense to look at having the agency become part of a larger agency?” she asked.
Citing recent retirements in CSB leadership and the overlap in CSB and JFS clientele, Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the county commissioners, said last week that the commissioners are considering combining CSB with JFS to reduce administrative costs.
“There would be better collaboration because it would be one agency,” Stewart predicted, referring to coordination of child welfare with JFS’ child support enforcement and income maintenance functions.
Sixty-four of Ohio’s 88 counties now have their child welfare functions combined with their JFS departments, allowing them to pool resources, eliminate duplication and maximize funding opportunities, Stewart noted.
Combining the agencies could allow administrative cost savings by combining human resources, fiscal management, legal and clerical functions, and it may allow JFS to share federal social services and temporary assistance to needy families money with the child welfare office, she said.
Stewart made her remarks on the eve of today’s 11 a.m. meeting between the Mahoning County commissioners, CSB and state JFS officials in the county courthouse basement to discuss the feasibility of putting CSB under JFS administration here.
Dave Arnold, CSB interim director, said the joint model has “some financial flexibility,” but he said “that model tends to have more difficulty passing child welfare levies because it’s much more nonspecific.”
However, Stewart observed that Columbiana County, which has a combined child welfare and JFS agency, has passed a local children services levy.
Mahoning County’s CSB, which gets half its funding from local property-tax levies, passed a renewal levy by a 67 percent favorable vote last year, she noted.
Stewart said services to abused, neglected or dependent children and their families would not likely change under a JFS administration because much of what CSB does is state-mandated.
Whatever the commissioners do, Stewart said she hopes they’ll keep the child welfare offices at 222 W. Federal St., a newly constructed secure building they have occu- pied since 2005, which was designed to suit CSB’s needs. “Having them stay in that building is very important,” she added.