Cuts Jeopardize Children, Supervisor Warns : Crisis: Steiner says proposal dramatically scales down or eliminates several abuse prevention programs, leaving out positions of 116 social workers who counsel children and families.

For weeks, social workers, child advocates and Social Services Agency officials predicted that the county’s plan to balance its budget would rely largely on decimating services aimed at preventing and dealing with child abuse.

Details of Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy’s proposed budget for the Social Services Agency--based on recommendations from the agency’s managers--show they were right. In trying to slash the county’s budget from $463 million to $275 million, the CEO proposed cuts last Wednesday that could result in a $54-million reduction for the Social Services Agency.

According to Supervisor William G. Steiner, who reviewed details of the projected cuts Monday, the proposed budget either dramatically scales down or completely eliminates several abuse prevention programs.

“I don’t see how we can do this, how we can jeopardize children and have more abuse, more crime, poverty, violence, welfare and more dead children,” Steiner said.

Cut in half under the proposed budget, the voluntary Family Maintenance Program, which served 6,200 children last year and kept them from having to go to foster homes by counseling their families, would be able to serve only 3,000 children next year.

Completely eliminated in the proposed budget are programs that station social workers at various schools, and Parents and Children Together (PACT), which offers 10-week parenting courses for people in danger of having their children taken away.

Also cut would be the staff at the Child Abuse Registry, which handles initial reports of abuse, as would positions for another 116 senior social workers, 13 supervisors and 59 lower-level social workers. Senior social workers have individual caseloads, counseling children and their families. Lower-level social workers prepare cases and court papers, but do not do counseling. It is unclear how many of the social worker positions being eliminated were currently filled.

The Social Services Agency would no longer provide support services for relatives serving as foster parents for children, nor would it inspect and evaluate group homes, which house 600 children countywide, Steiner said. Social workers would, however, continue to monitor the children at the group homes.

Some social workers in programs targeted for cuts vow a fight to keep the programs alive.

“We had heard that this would happen, but we’re doing everything we can . . . to put some of these positions back,” said Gary Govett, a senior social worker.

In past weeks, Govett and a small group of other social workers have taken part in demonstrations, held news conferences and met individually with several supervisors in an effort to drum up support for the abuse prevention programs.

A side issue worrying staff, management and the Board of Supervisors is whether and how severely the state will punish the county if it does not comply with mandates for investigating and reporting abuse.

Emergency intervention programs mandated by state and federal laws cannot be eliminated, but social workers in those areas will see their caseloads rise 150%--an increase that realistically cannot be met, agency officials say.

Senior Social Worker Christine Ford said social workers in the PACT program now are weighing how much personal liability they are willing to risk by leaving children in potentially abusive situations.

“There’s an awful lot of people saying that, if these cuts are approved, rather than face the liability they would go somewhere else,” Ford said.

State law and regulations require social workers to investigate every report of child abuse where a child is in physical danger. Requirements for how quickly an investigation must be done range from within two hours, for the most serious cases involving very young children, to up to 10 days, for cases of general neglect.

“This would clearly open the county to sanctions from the state and federal governments,” Steiner said.

State Department of Social Services officials did not answer questions Monday about what consequences Orange County faced if it does not comply with state mandates, and county Social Services officials have said they too are awaiting such answers.

“The question becomes: What if the county says ‘Sorry, we’re not able to do it, and we’re not going to do it?’ ” said county Social Services Director Larry Leaman in an interview last week.

“We already know what can happen,” Leaman said. “We’re looking at a possible loss of child welfare money and a real legal liability if a child is killed or injured and we should’ve responded to a case and didn’t.

“There will be consequences and at some point, personal liability to everyone, to me and to the board for failing to comply,” Leaman said.