County cuts child-care center rating program, but helps public defender

Wednesday, April 16, 2003 | 10:02 a.m.

The Clark County Commission voted Tuesday to cut a program that rated child-care centers, instead directing those resources toward the understaffed public defender's office and the child-care licensing program.

The cut of about $300,000 would eliminate two positions in the rating program and give the public defender two new social workers, and would give Clark County Social Services another two employees for the licensing program.

Social Services Director Darryl Martin said the county would continue to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of child-care centers, but would include that evaluation within the licensing program.

The number of inspections of licensed care centers would increase from three times a year to four, County Manager Thom Reilly told the board.

A handful of child-care workers argued against the move. Christine Matiash, with the Southern Nevada Association for the Education of Young Children, argued that the ratings give parents important information when deciding where to send their children.

But Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said she always had doubts about the 2-year-old program, for which centers participated voluntarily. One of the main problems is that the rating system only applied to child-care centers in the unincorporated parts of the county, and not in the cities, where the state rates the centers.

"That was one of the flaws with the overall proposal," Atkinson Gates said. "It is disjointed. It is not cohesive. It is not countywide."

Commission Chairman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said the continued inspections for licensing will help ensure the centers are safe and effective.

Reilly said the state rates the centers in Las Vegas and the other cities of the region, but has not had the manpower to do so for the entire county. But both the state and the county have severe financial problems now, he added.

"It is interesting that they don't have the resources but they expect the county to fund the program," he said.

He noted that the industry, which usually operates as for-profit businesses, can still rate itself.

"It really is the parents' responsibility," Atkinson Gates said. "It is not local government's responsibility. Financially, we cannot just do it all. We cannot be everything to everyone."

But the county has a constitutional requirement to fund the public defender, and some fear that the county has been falling short of that requirement. A recent study showed that, among other problems, attorneys in the office representing juvenile cases had seven times the recommended workload.

The commission, which also authorized a third new social worker for the public defender, has helped ease the workload, Public Defender Marcus Cooper said.

"Social workers are increasingly a very important element of public defender programs," Cooper said. "They can do a lot to stem the recidivism that we are too familiar with."

Social workers can have an impact on some of the basic issues that can foster criminal behavior such as family, job status, mental health or drug abuse problems, he said.

Cooper's office is already in the process of hiring a previously authorized social worker, bringing the total to four in his office.

"We can put them to work immediately," Cooper said.

The move wasn't the only approach to helping the public defender. The commission also approved exploring a fee-based system, based on ability to pay, for defendants who are represented by the public defender's attorneys.

Defendants now pay nothing, a point made clear when a police officer reads the familiar Miranda warning to criminal suspects: If a suspect wants an attorney but cannot afford one, one will be appointed to represent the suspect.

But Reilly said nothing prohibits the county from trying to get at least some money from suspects with the ability to pay. He said it is not immediately clear how much a new policy would raise for the cash-strapped county and public defender. The extra funds would allow the county to hire more attorneys, Reilly said.

That is one issue highlighted by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association study presented earlier this month. The study revealed deep problems with the office's growing volume of cases.

The study said the office, with 69 attorneys, needs 50 more attorneys and dozens more social workers and paralegals to do the work.