WA State Closing Down CPS...It Has Already Started

Sunday, December 13, 2009
WA State Closing Down CPS...It Has Already Started
There is legislation that is ready to pass but the rumor is that the state has not waited for the governor's signature. (Or, the governor has not waited for the legislation.)


It is a very bad idea to transfer CPS services over to a nonprofit agency because there will be no openness or accountability.

Right now a legislator can have a waiver signed by the complaining parties and then that legislator can make inquiries into the system. The citizen waives the right to privacy for the legislator. In making inquiries one learns how the process works. It allows the problems to surface and in that way new laws are proposed! It has been my experience that the current department takes no suggestions. Not one that I can see...yet. Nothing has changed. This move makes it worse.

If you don't know what is happening you do not know how to fix the problems.

I have been asking for transparency in government for years. And, CPS is the very agency that could benefit the most from openness. I said months ago that we need the public involved in solving the problems.

In a step that will bury, absolutely bury, the "how we handle" children in this state, CPS will be dissolved under the new regime and turned over to a nonprofit (Catholic Community Services, perhaps...was there an open bid process for this contract?)

This is definitely an area that should not be privatized. Will the way in which this transfer occurs guarantee openness? Will there be any legislative oversight? Will the press learn of the child deaths? Will the press learn of anything? Will legislators and the interested public know what is going on and will there be an ombudsman for an entity that is not a part of government?

Rumor has it that the governor has not waited for the legislation and is in the process of dismantling CPS in Yakima.

I will check it out in the morning. The legislation was being talked up last session. It is supported by the Senate Human Services and Corrections Chair and, I believe, the ranking member. Colleagues...DO NOT drive this agency underground and use the budget as the reason. It would only indicate to me that there will be more of the same and potentially worse. (Maybe I will get a call from CCS and get an explanation of how this will be better.)
Posted by State Senator Pam Roach at 7:36 PM
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/