County, state merger of family services nears

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

Putting all family services under the roof of one Clark County agency instead of splitting them between the county and state is proceeding with only minor technical and personnel obstacles, a county official said Tuesday.

The update on the process of joining local and state family agencies was offered at a meeting of the Legislative Committee on Children, Youth and Families.

The committee, like the process itself, was mandated by Assembly Bill 1, passed in the 2001 Legislature's special session. The law was needed, said Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, because "children and families were not being served well by the system."

Problems posed by having the two governments involved with families included moving foster children too often and losing information about those children, Buckley said.

Joining the two agencies will mean foster care, adoptions and related programs will be transferred from the state to the county by October. About 154 state workers will also move to the county, or be hired if needed, by that time.

Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the newly formed county Division of Family Services, said that changes already completed for the merger include bringing county workers onto the same computer program used by the state, a move also required for federal funding.

In addition, she said, 10 state workers moved to the county in October and a resolution on personnel issues such as salaries and time off for the new employees was approved by the Clark County Commission last month.

State and county workers have also been moved under one roof while the merger is under way at two Neighborhood Family Service Centers -- near Rancho Drive and U.S. 95 and West Charleston and Jones boulevards.

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said one bump in the road has been getting all state workers up to speed on the computer program, since some were not using it all of the time. Another obstacle, he said, has been responding to state workers who have chosen the option of early retirement instead of moving to the county.

Klein-Rothschild said she expected other state workers to seek other positions in state government rather than merge. Ultimately the county agency would have to hire new employees to replace them, she said.

"We'll lose some of the more knowledgeable people ... and it'll take longer to see the efficiency and benefits," Klein-Rothschild said.

Reilly said workers in the two agencies are eager to see the merger -- nearly four years in the making -- completed.

"If anything, they have anxiety about getting it over with," he said.