Public Funds Urged for Social Workers

Alarmed by spiraling caseloads and a high turnover among Ventura County children’s social workers, a union leader Friday called for using public safety money to help hire more counselors and ease workloads.

Barry Hammitt, executive director of the Service Employees International Union, Local No. 998, which represents about 4,000 county employees, said officials should use a portion of Proposition 172 money to hire more social workers.

“The county needs to step up and view children’s services in the same light that they view the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office,” Hammitt said.

Children’s Protective Services “is the first line of defense that children have,” he said.

The comments came Friday morning, after a group of social workers complained that their caseloads and turnover rates are too high.

Jerome Blesener, director of the Children’s Protective Services division of the Public Social Services Agency, conceded that social workers are responsible for an increasing numbers of clients.

“Caseloads have gone up over the past few years,” he said. “That’s been a trend for the past several years, but it’s happening all over the state.”

But there are restrictions on how the Proposition 172 funds can be spent, Blesener said. About $30 million collected locally each year from the half-cent sales tax measure goes to the Sheriff’s Department and four other designated public safety agencies.

The social services division has five vacancies among its 83-member staff, leaving fewer caseworkers to monitor an increasing number of families, Blesener said. The department is in the midst of recruiting more people, he said.