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On Feb. 15, an arrest warrant was issued for a north Louisiana employee of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) following an investigation of more than two months by the Office of Inspector General.
Kimberly D. Lee, 49, of Calhoun in Ouachita Parish, subsequently surrendered to authorities and was subjected to the indignity of being booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Feb. 17 after being accused of filing false reports about mandatory monthly in-home visits with children in foster care.
As is often the case, however, there is much more to this story.
A month earlier, on Jan. 10, LouisianaVoice received a confidential email from a retired DCFS supervisor who revealed an alarming trend in her former agency:
“I served in most programs within the agency, foster care, investigations, and adoptions,” she wrote. “Over my career I witnessed the eight years of (Bobby) Jindal’s ‘improvements.’
“Those ‘improvements’ endanger children’s lives daily. The blight is spread from the Secretary to the lowliest clerical worker in the agency. People are overworked and underpaid but it’s not just that. People are so distraught from the unrelenting stress that children are in danger. Add to that the inexperience of most front line workers and their supervisors’ inability to properly train new staff.”
She then dropped a bombshell that should serve as a wake-up call to everyone who cares or pretends to care about the welfare of children—from Gov. John Bel Edwards down to the most obscure freshman legislator:
“In the Shreveport Region, the regional administrator (recently) told workers that they may make ‘drive-by’ visits to foster homes, which means talking to the foster parents in their driveway. Policy says that workers will see both the child and the foster parent in the home, interviewing each separately (emphasis added). A lot of abuse goes on in foster homes. Some foster families are truly doing the best they can but they need counseling and guidance from their workers. The regional administrator’s answer to that one? Have the foster parent call their home development worker—another person who can’t get her job done now.”
She wrote that she had heard of two separate incidents “where a child new to foster care was taken to a foster home and left without paperwork, without contact information for the person in charge of the case and without knowing even the child’s name.”
Moreover, she said, vehicles used in the Shreveport Region “are old, run-down, and repairs are not allowed. The last time new tires were bought was in 2014. When one (of the vehicles) breaks down, they just tow it away. No replacement is ordered.”
Could those factors have pushed Lee to fudge on her reports? Did the actions attributed to her constitute payroll fraud or did budgetary cuts force her into cutting corners in order to keep up with an ever-increasing caseload? Lee says yes to the latter, that she was told by supervisors to get things done, “no matter what.” Child welfare experts said her actions and arrest shone a needed light on problems at DCFS: low morale, high turnover, fewer workers handing greater numbers of caseloads, and increasing numbers of children entering foster care.
To find our own answers, LouisianaVoice turned to a document published on Jan. 5 of this year by the Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group of Montgomery, Alabama.
The 77-page report, entitled A Review of Child Welfare, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, points to:
- A growing turnover rate for DCFS over the past three years from 19.32 percent in calendar year 2012 to 24.26 percent in 2014;
- A 33 percent reduction in the number of agency employees to respond to abuse reports;
- A 27 percent cut in funding since fiscal 2009, Bobby Jindal’s first year in office;
- An increase in the number of foster homes of 5 percent;
- An increase of 120.5 percent in the number of valid substance exposed newborns, from 557 to 1,330;
- A trend beginning in 2011 that shows 4,077 children entered foster care but only 3,767 exited in 2015;
- A 19 percent decrease in the number of child welfare staff positions filled statewide from 1,389 in 2009 to 1,125 in 2015.
- Of the 764 caseworkers, 291, or 38 percent had two years’ experience or less and 444 (58 percent) had five years or less experience.
Moreover, figures provided by the Department of Civil Service showed that of the agency’s 3,400 employees, 44.5 percent made less than $40,000 a year and 19 percent earned less than $30,000.
In 2014 (the latest year for which figures are available), the median income for Louisiana for a single-person household was $42,406, fourth-lowest in the nation, as compared to the national single-person median income of $53,657.
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Household-Incomes-by-State.php
“The stresses within the system are at risk of causing poorer outcomes for some children and families,” the report says in its executive summary. “…Recent falling outcome trends in some of the areas that have been an agency strength in the past are early warnings of future challengers.”
Despite years of budgetary cuts under the Jindal administration, Louisiana has maintained “a high level of performance in achieving permanency for children in past years and currently is ranked first among states in adoption performance,” the report said.
The budget cuts, however, “have negatively affected the work force, service providers, organizational capacity and increasingly risk significantly affecting child and family outcomes” which has produced a front-line workforce environment “constrained by high caseload, much of which is caused by high turnover and increasing administrative duties and barriers that compromise time spent with children and families.”
And it is that threat to “compromise time spent with children and families” that brings us back to the case of Kimberly Lee and to the email LouisianaVoice received from the retired DCFS supervisor who cited the directive for caseworkers to make “drive-by” visits to foster homes, leaving children with foster homes with no paperwork, contact information or without even knowing the children’s names, and of the state vehicles in disrepair.
It’s small wonder then, in a story about how Jindal wrecked the Louisiana economy, reporter Alan Pyke quoted DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner-Walters as telling the Washington Post if lawmakers can’t resolve the current budget crisis, many Louisiana state agencies will see budget cuts of 60 percent. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/03/07/3757416/jindal-louisiana-budget-crisis/
As ample illustration of Bobby Jindal’s commitment to social programs for the poor and sick, remember he yanked $4.5 million from the developmentally disadvantaged in 2014 and gave it to a Indy-type racetrack in Jefferson Parish run by a member of the Chouest family, one of the richest families in Louisiana—but a generous donor to Jindal’s gubernatorial campaigns and a $1 million contributor to his super PAC for his silly presidential run.
Well, thanks to the havoc wreaked by Jindal and his Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, the legislature did find it necessary to pass the Nichols’ penny tax (not original with us but the contribution of one of our readers who requested anonymity) to help offset the $900 million-plus deficit facing the state just through the end of the current fiscal year which ends on June 30.
Were legislators successful? Not if you listen to Tyler Bridges, one of the more knowledgeable reporters on the Baton Rouge Advocate staff. “Legislators were neither willing to cut spending enough, nor raise taxes enough nor eliminate the long list of tax breaks that favor one politically connected business or industry over another,” he wrote in Sunday’s Advocate (emphasis added). http://theadvocate.com/news/15167974-77/a-louisiana-legislature-that-ducked-tough-budget-decisions-during-its-special-meeting-convenes-again
As is all too typical, most of the real “legislation” was done in the flurry of activity leading up the final hectic minutes of the special session, leaving even legislators to question what they had accomplished. In military parlance, it would be called a cluster—.
But that should be understandable. After all, 43, or fully 30 percent of the current crop of legislators, had to work their legislative duties around their busy schedules that called upon them to attend no fewer than 50 campaign fundraisers (that’s right, some like Neil Riser, Katrina Jackson, and Patrick Connick had more than one), courtesy of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, the Beer Industry League, CenturyLink and a few well-placed lobbyists. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/louisiana_special_session_fund.html
It is, after all, what many of them are best at. (Seven of those were held at the once-exclusive Camelot Club on the top floor of the Chase Bank South Tower. We say “once-exclusive” because last week the Camelot announced that it was closing its doors after 49 years. Restrictions on lobbyists’ expenditures on lunches for legislators was given as one cause for the drop in club membership from 900 to 400. Not mentioned was the fact that Ruth’s Chris and Sullivan’s steak restaurants in Baton Rouge have become favorite hangouts for legislators and lobbyists during legislative sessions. One waiter told LouisianaVoice during the 2015 session that one could almost find a quorum of either chamber on any given night during the session—accompanied, of course, by lobbyists who only wanted good government.) https://www.businessreport.com/article/camelot-club-closing-afternoon-can-no-longer-viable-club-owner-says
Bridges accurately called the new taxes that will expire in 2018 “the type of short-term fix” favored by Jindal and the previous legislature “that they had vowed not to repeat.”
Can we get an Amen?
In the meantime, he observed that Gov. John Bel Edwards and Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, because the legislature still left a $50 million hole in the current budget, will have to decide which state programs will be cut—again.
Emphasizing the risks to children, Garner-Walters told legislators in a committee hearing during the just-completed special session that state DCFS staff numbers 3,400, down a third from the 5,100 it had in 2008. “You can’t just not investigate child abuse,” she said.
Former Baton Rouge Juvenile Court Judge Kathleen Richey, now heading up Louisiana CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), a child advocacy non-profit, has expressed her concern over the budgetary cuts that make DCFS caseworkers’ jobs so much more difficult.
“Our political leaders need to understand that while infrastructure represents a physical investment in our future, our children represent an intellectual investment in our future,” she said. “We have to protect innocent children who have no one else to stand up for them.”
Louisiana Voice 
I just have one question. Since the budget is in such dire distress and Department budgets being cut, have legislators decreased their per denim to help alleviate the shortfall?
That’s a very good question and one that I started to raise myself. Since they were called in to address serious budget deficits, and since every last one of them professed to want to “serve” their fellow citizens, this would have been a golden opportunity for them to truly serve by forfeiting their salaries and per diem.
Thank you for a most provocative suggestion.
Meme, I worked for the circus(legislature) for almost 30 years, believe me they are not going to give that up. At least they voted during the special session to reduce their FY 2015-2016 budget by $1.5 million. However, I bet you that reduction will not affect their per diem. Also, I can’t remember if there is money specifically placed in the budget for special sessions. The costs of the first one came out of the FY 2015-2016 appropriation and so will the costs of the anticipated second special session.
I bet they will willingly give up those lucrative perks….. Right after they surrender those Tulane Legislative Scholarships!!!
DCFS has been stressed since Jindal took office. As a mandated reporter, I have filed two reports that were superficially investigated. Seems that they are operating in crisis mode.
I endorse the forfeiture of salaries and per diem! It’s the right thing to do, don’t you think?
No need to worry. Our Legislators have the most vulnerable among us, foster children, mentally ill, poor families unable to obtain medical care, etc. in “Their Thoughts and Prayers.” These same Legislators will provide no resources (money) to address the problems. They will continue to convince themselves that whatever is needed will somehow magically TRICKLE DOWN from those wealthy individuals and corporations to which they have provided so well.
Not surprising, that’s the way its done, it doesn’t matter who is at risk, the idea is to slash budgets of these agencies, then accuse them of being inefficient, wasteful, blah, blah, and put the private sector in charge, and the looting begins.
I have a great deal of empathy for those who are trying to do these kids justice,but I have none for Jindal, and those who continue to do his business in the legislature.
As an LCSW social worker with forty years of experience, I ask plainly how will we protect the children of this state? Kids will die if protections are not put in place and services are not provided. We need to ask the federal government to step in and those few legislators who are waving the no-new-taxes flag need to have a discussion and prayerful moments with God because this is not how Christianity works. As for the former governor, he needs to be indicted for malfeasance while in office as do several of his appointees.
I did not know if you were aware of this, 85% of those children and parents are represented by indigent defenders in each parish. Most of these offices will go into restriction of services this week. They will no longer take child in need of care cases or juvenile delinquents. Also, they will no longer take misdemeanor or felony cases unless they are in jail. The big picture is this they will have to let most of them back into society. Crime will go up. Do not worry the Capital Assistance Project will be able to spend tons of money like they did on the Brian Horn capital murder case. If you need better answers on this, ask the Louisiana Public Defenders Office located in Baton Rouge.
What about that Malfeasance Issue?? Is our new Attorney General going to investigate the former Governor…or is he untouchable???
The attorney general’s office does not investigate or prosecute criminal wrongdoing. It defends the state when necessary and issues opinions on legal matters. Public corruption cases are handled by the local district attorney’s office; in the case of malfeasance committed within East Baton Rouge Parish, the EBR DA would investigate and prosecute.
2011 Louisiana Laws – Revised Statutes
TITLE 14 — Criminal law
RS 14:134 — Malfeasance in office
Universal Citation: LA Rev Stat § 14:134
SUBPART F. OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT AND CORRUPT PRACTICES
§134. Malfeasance in office
A. Malfeasance in office is committed when any public officer or public employee shall:
(1) Intentionally refuse or fail to perform any duty lawfully required of him, as such officer or employee; or
(2) Intentionally perform any such duty in an unlawful manner; or
(3) Knowingly permit any other public officer or public employee, under his authority, to intentionally refuse or fail to perform any duty lawfully required of him, or to perform any such duty in an unlawful manner.
B. Any duty lawfully required of a public officer or public employee when delegated by him to a public officer or public employee shall be deemed to be a lawful duty of such public officer or employee. The delegation of such lawful duty shall not relieve the public officer or employee of his lawful duty.
C.(1) Whoever commits the crime of malfeasance in office shall be imprisoned for not more than five years with or without hard labor or shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or both.
(2) In addition to the penalty provided for in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection, a person convicted of the provisions of this Section may be ordered to pay restitution to the state if the state suffered a loss as a result of the offense. Restitution shall include the payment of legal interest at the rate provided in R.S. 13:4202.
Thanks, that spells it out. My parents were right, I should have gone to law school.
This is another sad state of affairs and we cannot blame Edwards or the legislators for all of this. I believe they were too overwhelmed and in shock at the condition this state was left in. And all the while Jindal continues to have that big fake grin saying what a wonderful job he has done for this state. I don’t know how Jindal can sleep at night. I don’t know how his family can even look at him in the face knowing what he has done to the people of this state. If what they say is true about KARMA, he’s in for a hell of a ride and his fake smile will quickly vanish.
I imagine CASA will have to step in but this is on a volunteer basis. I cannot imagine doing “driveway” interviews on foster children. This is ridiculous! I know these social workers, etc. need their jobs but they need to get together and buck the system that puts such a burden on them to carry. If a child is hurt, the state will not worry about the worker who could not do his/her job and they will never take the blame for their part in creating a toxic environment that would enable a child to be abused and go unprotected under the laws of this state.
If we do not get our priorities right, we will not survive much longer. If we do not unite to solve these problems, we will experience a life that we certainly do not want for our children and grandchildren.
It won’t be long before we are like a third-world country. Nobody cares about anything anymore except for own self-satisfaction. We have become greedy and self-serving. We no longer live by good morals and integrity, and as a result do not have the ability to put our priorities in the right order as they should be.
I wish, I could go back in time and live in the 50s. Everything was much better back then.
Well said, Carmen!!!!
Reading these posts, I have to wonder what kind of Christianity our churches are preaching? It seems that we don’t have a higher voice calling us to care about others and sacrifice for the common good. Back in the 50s where I lived, this was taught in church and home and school explained the sacrifice principle of democracy. Maybe we should demand better from our spiritual leaders?
Carmen – if it was not for the tremendous amount of federal funds that come with rules and regs on how the money is to be allocated, and who is to be determined eligible for those benefits, we WOULD look like a Third World country. If Louisiana people had to depend on just what the legislature allocates, many would be starving and dying in the streets. We do mission work in a Third World country ever year, God willing, and the similarities between Louisiana and our mission country are startling. A large part of it is attitude – the haves often care nothing about the have-nots as long as they stay out of sight, and provide cheap labor and household help. With the loss of so many social services and poor educational opportunities, we are getting perilously close to third world status.
The difference is that people, especially our young people, can move from state to state easily, with no issues about “papers” and illegal status. And they are doing that, in large numbers, seeking better opportunities and quality of life. That brain drain also carries the economic counterpoint – those good salaries are not being paid here so the money does not turn over in the local economy and there is less sales, income and property tax paid into state and local coffers. Which means as other states’ economies grow, we continue to stagnate. But those at the top will continue to prosper, holding wages down by claiming that better skills and education command better wages but the workforce lacks needed skills because educational opportunities are limited, and people in poor health and who have poor nutrition have poor outcomes….and the cycle continues unabated. Pretty soon Colorado churches may be sending mission teams to Louisiana.
Put the money with the workers and not in administrative positions. the so-called supervisors are working on their Masters Degrees and God Bless them their life is so hard.The children have not been considered in child protection for a long time so they (the bureaucracy)take their unearned checks and fire the lowly case worker who was just following directions from a supervisor who has her Masters from the state and not one lick of sense. Poor workers and poor children. No one cares except the old retired workers who come from another era.
When Jindal used to go on Sunday morning TV shows to brag he cut the size of state government, the truth was that Jindal was making Louisiana into more of a third world country. The truth is that Jindal is an evil man, a religious hypocrite, a narcissist and a con-man. Now that he has no chance of ever getting an appointment by a President Rubio, I wonder what he’s cooking up now.
Caddo DCFS is so poor. It placed a child back in the home with the abusers prior to any unsupervised visits. The child was terrified and screamed her way out the door, begging not to be returned. However, the caseworker was so unconcerned, she failed to protect this child after being in a great foster/kinship care for 5 months. Explain to me how this abuser was able to adopt this child? This is headed to to press real soon and everyone involved is going to be exposed. The abusive mother and step father has removed this child from school to new schools 2 times in past 5 months. What does that tell you? Are they trying to cover up what they’re doing? I don’t care what cuts are made. These are children’s lives these people are playing with. A grown woman gets more protection than these kids. An animal gets more protection. DCFS is a JOKE!!!! CASA needs to take over. A lot is about to come out and there will be more workers and a supervisor exposed and all of the dirty things they did to protect the abusers but not the child.
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There are many problems within DCFS in Monroe La. I have reported to Baton Rouge horrible misconduct abuse of power and inadequate investigation by CPS Investigators. They totally ignore any report they receive. They are corrupt and they do not tell the truth about anything. They tear families apart and hurt children more than they help them. They may remove a child from my home but they will also place the child in our buyers home. No drug screens are done upon placement in some cases and they should be. I know of one case that they don’t I’ve been nowhere the children are living or what conditions they were living in because they never have been to do a walk-through of the home. They chose not to play some with family but someone else, simply because that was not the person they truly liked. They are so corrupt it’s unreal Something needs to be done.