Ousted County Official Defends Department

Speaking publicly for the first time since being forced off the job, Behavioral Health Director Stephen G. Kaplan said Tuesday the department has been unfairly attacked in the wake of a failed attempt to merge with the county’s social services agency.

“We’ve been bashed and trashed and called the bad boy of the county. I don’t see it that way at all,” Kaplan said in an interview.

Kaplan, an 18-year county employee, and two of his top aides have left their jobs--at least temporarily--amid criticism the merger could cost the county $15 million in lost federal government reimbursements.

The dispute pits Kaplan, who favored the merger, against his boss, Health Care Agency Director Pierre Durand. Originally, a majority of the Board of Supervisors favored creation of the Human Services Agency. But when it became clear in December that the county could lose millions of dollars, the board rescinded its approval of the superagency.

Within a month, Kaplan was placed on a 30-day leave. His two top deputies, Kevin DeWitt and Judy Balcerzak, have recently left on stress leaves. Medical Director John Wong has been reassigned and children’s services manager Philip Malinas announced he is leaving the Behavioral Health Department.

Kaplan would not comment on his job status or whether he has the option of returning to work. His primary focus now is to stay upbeat about his future, he said.

“I’m not going to just sit at home and wither away,” he said.

Durand did not respond to repeated requests for comment Monday and Tuesday. Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester said he couldn’t comment on the agency’s personnel decisions.

“Those are issues that we can’t disclose,” Koester said.

But at least two supervisors said they will back whatever decision Durand and Koester make.

“You’ve got to give certain authority to administrative officers like Durand. These are his decisions and you’ve got to support them,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said.

Supervisor Frank Schillo said he isn’t worried about any absence of leadership within the 500-employee Behavioral Health Department. In a Jan. 29 memo announcing Kaplan’s leave, Durand asked managers to report to him.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Schillo said. “Certainly life goes on and people leave and we will find someone to take their places.”

During his nearly two decades in county government, Kaplan, 48, has been viewed as a rising talent. With a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan, he was hired as a therapist in the county’s mental health clinic in 1981. He rose steadily through the ranks, becoming supervisor of children’s services.

In the mid-80s, Kaplan was tapped by former mental health manager Randy Feltman to help launch Ventura County’s touted “Children’s System of Care” program. Their blueprint for coordinating the efforts of mental health officials, probation officers, foster care workers and educators to keep track of children in their care has been so successful it has been replicated in 36 other counties.

Kaplan was chosen to head alcohol and drug programs in 1989. Seven years later, when mental health services were merged with alcohol and drug programs, Kaplan was named director of the new Behavioral Health Department.

Personable, energetic and hard-working, Kaplan is well-liked by his staff, said Betsy Bachman, a private therapist who used to work in the county’s mental health agency.

Bachman said Behavioral Health employees want to speak out on Kaplan’s behalf but are afraid of retribution. She called Kaplan’s exile “payback” for defying Durand’s opposition to the merger.

“He went against the powers that be. And Steve had to go back and work for the powers that be,” she said.

Kaplan said he knew acting to separate Behavioral Health from the Health Care Agency would be opposed by Durand and make him (Kaplan) vulnerable. But he did it because “it was the right thing to do,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan and social services Director Barbara Fitzgerald supported creation of the Human Services Agency, approved in April, because they believed it would result in better services to clients, he said. People with mental health problems often are out of work, face domestic abuse or have other problems addressed by social service workers, he said.

It was another chance to use the team approach that had worked so well before, Kaplan said.

Concerns the merger might diminish the medical approach to mental health care were unfounded, he said.

“As the director of Behavioral Health, I would have to be an idiot to not want a strong medical, psychiatric component,” he said.

And while his critics cite the potential loss to the county of $15 million in mental health reimbursements, Kaplan says, “We haven’t lost a dime yet.”

When federal officials threatened to withhold health care reimbursements because of billing problems, it gave weight to internal squabbles on the appropriateness of the merger, Kaplan said.

“Psychologists fight with psychiatrists, and they fight with social workers. They all worry that if they don’t get their piece they are going to be irrelevant. The grass was dry and this just sort of sparked some flames,” he said.

What he questions, Kaplan said, is the wisdom of “decimating” a department that has worked well for years.

“Why would you be changing your administration and staff when you have set the standard for the state?” he said. “It’s really disappointing to spend your career building something you feel is highly effective and efficient and to see what is happening now.”