Columnist Sandy Thompson: Child welfare workers’ issues unresolved

Sandy Thompson

Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001 | 10:19 a.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com

STATE AND county workers who would form a new integrated child welfare system, if approved by the Legislature, aren't seeing eye to eye.

How that could affect the smooth transfer of foster care and adoption services from the state to Clark County remains to be seen.

The county maintains that state workers would benefit greatly by the transfer because it pays significantly more than the state. Its longevity benefits also are more generous. State workers would automatically receive a pay increase when transferred to the county.

Kirby Burgess, director of Clark County Family and Youth Services, which would oversee the new system, and Tom Beatty, executive director of the Nevada Service Employees Union, which represents county workers, see no major stumbling blocks to transferring 141 state workers to the county.

"It all should be worked out," Beatty says. "It's a mutually beneficial situation."

Not so, says Bob Gagnier, executive director of the State of Nevada Employees Association, which represents the state child welfare workers.

"There are a lot of hitches," he says, citing the loss of seniority and "respect." Because of that, SNEA is not supporting a bill to be introduced shortly in the Legislature that would transfer foster care and adoption functions to Clark and Washoe counties.

A salary comparison provided by Clark County shows how a state worker would benefit by the transfer:

The state's salary range for a social worker III at Grade 34/01 is $31,550 to $42,762. The range for the equivalent county position, a Child Protective Services specialist II, is $37,771-$58,546.

If the same worker remained with the state for five years, he would be earning $48,942, including benefits and insurance. His county counterpart would earn $60,956 after five years.

So what's not to like?

Plenty, according to Gagnier.

Clark County, he says, does not want to recognize the worker's time with the state. Hence, a 20-year state employee could earn less money than a 5-year county employee. The state worker would be considered a "new employee" and would be starting over.

Rumor has it that some state employees have hired an attorney to represent their interests in ensuring they keep their benefits.

Gagnier has professional concerns for social workers who now handle foster care and adoption services.

"It's a matter of recognition and respect," Gagnier says. "The county has demonstrated no respect for social workers."

Since the county has no licensed social workers, state social workers could be supervised by nonlicensed county staff, he says.

There are philosophical concerns as well. Because the county performs Child Protective Services functions, its workers have a cop mentality, Gagnier says.

"People who run the county program don't understand what the state does. There is a difference between social work and CPS," he says.

Although foster care and adoption services would be a new function for the county, they are similar to services now provided by the county, says Adrienne Cox, assistant director of Family and Youth Services.

As for Gagnier's other concerns, Cox says the Child Welfare League of America recommended that the county not require licensure of its staff because, nationally, it creates a dearth of people applying for the positions.

Cox dismisses the notion that the county does not respect state workers. "We need their skills. We want them as partners."

Since the new child welfare model was proposed last year, SNEA has disagreed with transferring functions to Clark County. The state, Gagnier says, is better equipped to run the system.

However, the proposal makes sense and has the backing of just about every other entity, including the legislative subcommittee that approved the model after several hearings.

It's too bad there is no union to represent foster kids who are harmed by being bounced around the system for years. They need someone (attention legislators) in their corner, too.

Let's hope the county and state workers can work out their differences and keep focused on the overall goal: meeting the needs of children.