Social Services Chief’s Future Under Review

With complaints mounting against the Public Social Services Agency director, Ventura County supervisors today will huddle privately with their top administrators to review the job performance of James E. Isom and consider whether he should be fired.

The impromptu evaluation of Isom, who has managed the welfare department for more than two decades, comes a week after child services counselors complained publicly that they are overworked and under-equipped, and two weeks after a child abuse prevention advocate called for Isom’s immediate termination.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Frank Schillo said neither of those public outcries prompted the review. Rather, Schillo said, it is Isom’s management style that needs to be reconsidered.

“There’s an awful lot going on in his department right now, and not too much of it good,” Schillo said Monday. “There’s a lot of discontent there that just now is coming to the surface.”

Schillo also criticized Isom for blaming the supervisors for imposing drastic budget cuts on the Public Social Services Agency in recent years.

“If a manager decides to cut social services rather than overhead, then I think the manager’s decisions need to be questioned,” Schillo said. “[Isom] is not paying attention to what he should be doing, which is reorganizing his department to better serve the public.”

Schillo said he already has looked into whether the county will be able to fire Isom without risking a lawsuit, and that it may not be easy.

“One of the problems is going to be our ability to remove him,,” the board chairman said. “We’re going to get more of a clarification on that [today].”

Isom, 57, will not attend the closed-door meeting.

But he said he continues to do the best job he can as director of a public agency that has seen dramatic budget cuts and spiraling caseloads in recent years.

“My performance will certainly be thoroughly reviewed, and I don’t have a problem with that,” said Isom, who oversees a $130-million annual budget.

As director of the huge Public Social Services Agency, Isom is responsible for welfare payments to poor mothers, food-stamp programs, child-protective services and general relief for unemployed residents.

Much of the criticism that has surfaced recently is centered around the child protective services division.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee declined to discuss the reason for the sudden employee review. “All I know is that it is scheduled for the closed session,” Kildee said.

Other board members were not available for comment Monday.

Nonetheless, the back-room review comes soon after child advocate Robert Woodson publicly demanded Isom’s firing.

Angry that county social workers failed to prevent the deaths of two young children within the past two years, Woodson told the Board of Supervisors on Nov. 12 that Isom should be terminated.

Woodson, who also called for the firing of Children’s Protective Services chief Jerome Blesener, could not be reached Monday for comment.

The board took no immediate action regarding Woodson’s complaints. But Supervisor Judy Mikels said there is no proof that social workers could have prevented the deaths.

“All of these issues have been around and have been investigated,” Mikels said of Woodson’s comments to the board two weeks ago. “It was not demonstrated to me that there was anything untold going on.”

The job review also comes less than a week after a group of Children’s Protective Services workers complained publicly that they are overworked, ill-equipped and have too few bilingual counselors.

Isom said Monday that he is not to blame for the deaths of 2-year-old Joselyn Hernandez or 2-month-old Rachel Rother, both of whom died after visits from county social workers.

“If I’m not doing good, sometimes a kick in the pants is needed,” he said. “But I don’t think my performance has caused additional problems or deaths of those children.”

The review came as a surprise to Isom. But he guessed that it was called in response to the complaints by Woodson as well as the publicized concerns of his staff.

“I have faults like anybody else, but I would hope those faults would be pointed out to me and that I would be given a chance to correct them,” said Isom, a 34-year county employee.

Isom said he looks forward to meeting with union leaders and social workers to review how to reduce individual caseloads and how to solve other problems. That meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, he said.

Joining supervisors at the closed session this morning will be Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester, Personnel Director Ronald Komers and attorneys from the county counsel’s office.

One social worker said Isom should be given time to address some of the problems detailed by counselors at a news conference last week.

“Mr. Isom wasn’t aware of the problems and he deserves a chance to correct those problems,” social worker Ellen Mastright said. “I’m looking forward to our meeting on Wednesday.”