By D. L. Norris
Ah…bureaucracy, can’t live with it and can’t live without it. Be they public or private, bureaucracies are a necessary part of civilized government. According to T. R. Fehrenbach, “conservatives accept government and/or regimentation in the cause of law and order, and in fact, without organization people would not get anything done while the liberal view is that the need for government to do good outweighs its potentiality to cause harm.”
So if bureaucracy is a necessary “evil” of civilized society, and conservatives accept it with limitations, then how does a conservative society go about sizing up how big to make their bureaucracy? Conservative radio talk show host Phil Valentine recommends (paraphrased) the following litmus test: start with an empty bureaucracy bowl, then only place in it those functions that the private sector can’t do, shouldn’t do, or won’t do. Any function passing those three requirements would go into the bureaucracy bowl. Everything else stays in the private sector to execute. Applying this test to every necessary function of society would keep the bureaucracy from ballooning out of control.
At the April 20, 2021 Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) regular meeting, the BOCC was presented with a request to increase the size of our bureaucracy. The Deputy County Administrator presented a request to pursue an Okaloosa County Foster Care and Adoption Program. According to the agenda packet, “the Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) through a variety of subcontractor agencies provides Foster Care and Adoption Service throughout the State. The quality and effectiveness of those service providers varies drastically. The service provider for Region 1, which includes Okaloosa County, is the non-profit Families First Network, which is a subsidiary of umbrella organization called ‘Lakeview Center, Inc.’…Most families may never use these services, but our local foster and adoption families understand its importance and how it can be improved upon. Based on their feedback and research to date regarding another Florida county provider of these services, it is believed Okaloosa County could provide our residents a better service, with better outcomes for children in Okaloosa County. The information provided is for the Board’s consideration of whether or not to take actions to begin pursuing becoming the local DCF agency that handles foster care and adoptions for Okaloosa County’s children and families. Of all the providers, there is one County provider, St. John’s County. Their program is successful and according to DCF one of the best in the State. If pursued, this is the model we would aspire to emulate and would be a major source of information in putting together a quality proposal. They have been welcoming and gracious in sharing information and have offered to assist us where they can in this process…This service is fully funded by the State and seems to provide sufficient resources to provide the service at a high level. Providing the service will require the County to hire experienced staff and a quality leader. According to the St. Johns County Director, they have little staff turnover and when a vacancy occurs they get applications far and wide from other agencies because of benefits, retirement, and pay compared to many of the non-profits. To manage this service, the County has many mature organizational systems this new service could easily tie into. For example, we have administration, budgeting, payroll, audit, HR systems, maintenance, and similar type systems that all would likely be more robust than your typical non-profit organization. Physically, we would have to find office space, such as the water and sewer building and from a process standpoint we will likely be able to adapt forms, policies and procedures, and similar service details can all be borrowed from the State, St. Johns County and/or other providers…The other major consideration is why should the County pursue providing this service? Can the County provide the service differently, more affordably, more efficiently or more effectively, perhaps with better outcomes, or in a more transparent or ethical way or with different motivations? Looking at the St. Johns program and our current provider the answer may be yes to the majority, if not all of those questions.”
Several citizens spoke in favor of looking into Okaloosa County taking over the Foster Care and Adoption Program. One speaker was a local attorney who deals with many foster care and adoption cases. Another speaker was a local county foster parent and guardian ad litem who also encouraged looking into the county taking over this program. A key public speaker in this discussion was the regional director of the Families First Non-profit that currently runs the county program as part of the Circuit/Region 1 DCF program which encompasses Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties. Even a representative from the Florida DCF attended the meeting and spoke briefly about the administrative process for submitting an ITN proposal for a new contract. It was a very thorough initial discussion with many pros and cons pointed out by several county commissioners and public speakers of Okaloosa County becoming the DCF service provider of Foster Care and Adoption.
District 1 Commissioner Paul Mixon spoke first in support of this proposal both as a commissioner and as a current foster parent. His main concern under the current system was that Okaloosa County foster children aren’t necessarily fostered in Okaloosa County homes. “They’re sent to wherever an available house is within the four-county system that we have or sometimes broader, depending on availability. I think the child, every time they’re moved, their lives are interrupted and, if we can do something as a county to see this system play out better, then I would definitely be for it.” Secondarily, Commissioner Mixon was concerned with the care of employees. He believes Okaloosa County can care for their employees differently, “You can keep morale high. You can keep the turnover rate low. I say we can do that because I see us doing that in other departments and I know we can do it effectively if we were to take this on.” (Note: The Okaloosa County EMTs unionized this year because they didn’t believe they were being well taken care of) Finally, Commissioner Mixon brought up the impact to the general fund if Okaloosa County took on this program. He recalled discussions with St John’s County, the only county run State program in Florida, and stated “they were funded well enough with the state award for the bid and that it did not have an impact upon their general funds.”
District 3 Commissioner Nathan Boyles spoke next. He asked for clarification that the dollar amount requested to allocate was $25,000 dollars to cover the cost of developing the proposal. He stated he has “encountered friends, acquaintances, that have had children involved in the system, who have fostered within the system, who have expressed frustration to me in the past few years. I have had folks who have expressed frustration about the incumbent provider…I think we probably owe the families, the children, that are wrapped up in that process the opportunity for us to see if there is a better way…I’m always hesitant to start snatching things up from the private sector and say that the government can do it better but, let’s be honest, local governments exist for a reason. Because, there are certain things the government is best equipped to handle whether it’s maintaining roads or parks where there’s not a profit to be made…and I think, when it comes to the safety and security of children, that’s probably one of those that would qualify.” He then stated he would offer his support to “working through the process and at the end of the day, if it comes out that Okaloosa is not the best provider then all the better if, by no means other than by injecting some competition, we make the process better, then I think we can say we did our job and made the thing better. The only caveat I will add is that, I will ask as we move through this, if we get to a spot where there is a reasonable likelihood that Okaloosa County’s gonna end up on-boarding this responsibility, we’re going to need to consider a restructure at a department level…create a health and human services department.”
District 4 Commissioner Trey Goodwin stated “I’d rather set up a program where we become an advocate but not necessarily the DCF contractor.” He asked about the capital expenditures start up costs and if those would be paid by the contract or something the county has to take out of the general fund. Staff did not have an answer at the time.
District 2 Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel stated “So earlier I heard Mr. Jones say that, I think he said for four counties, they had something like 400 or almost 400 employees. So, in that case…we’d have to have 100 employees, new employees 75-100, under our new health and human services department in order to do case work, and go into homes and who would do the investigation? Would we hire the Sheriff’s Department to investigate then? If we take them in, I’d want the Sheriff to be a part of that. How many children do we have in foster care? (Mr. Jones answered 300-350) This would be a huge expanse of government if we took this on as a county.” Commissioner Ketchel pointed out several county programs for the elderly, assisted living and meals on wheels, and said “I don’t think we do a very good job…we can do a lot better.” Then she said “So this ask is to take on children at difficult families who are having children removed because they have problems within the family home. And, don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent my life as a social worker. I love my profession. But, my concern is that, if we take this on, I want to do this right. I want to make sure that we take care of these families or these children and reunify them or place them…but I’m really concerned that we might not be able to do this right. I say that as a professional social worker who has spent 40 years in social work…I’m not sure that we can do it any better and that’s my concern and it makes me shake to think about it.”
District 5 Commissioner Mel Ponder spoke last. He said he was introduced to Fostering in Faith some months back and a discussion ensued about faith based advocacy to help improve the current system. Commissioner Ponder stated there were 10 things identified for improvement in the current system through previous meetings of various agencies and faith based organizations.
Commissioner Mixon made a motion to task the staff to research and draft a proposal to competitively bid Okaloosa County to be the DCF provider of Foster Care and Adoption Services for Okaloosa County, to research and draft a proposal for what a partner/advocacy role would look like, and to present a proposal for what the investment capital would look like, and to bring the proposals before the board within 60 days for a binding vote. Commissioner Ponder seconded the motion. The vote was 4 yes and 1 no with Commissioner Ketchel voting no, stating she would support advocacy but would not support a new department.
Every child within Okaloosa County is worth the expenditure of $25,000 dollars to thoroughly explore the best way to ensure their health, safety and security. In sixty days we’ll find out, on the issue of fostered and adoptive children, whether the private sector can best provide the service, should best provide the service, or will best provide the service; otherwise, Okaloosa County will become the provider. And, that is how to properly size the bureaucracy bowl.
Post Script: At the 20 July 2021 BOCC meeting, a motion was made by District 1 Commissioner Paul Mixon to task the staff to return in 30 days with an outline of what an advocacy role would look like for Okaloosa County. Since only $5,000 dollars of the allocated $25,000 dollars was spent on the presented material for that meeting, funds were still available to continue to research the advocacy role option. The motion was seconded and unanimously voted on to approve.
You can contact the author at dlnorris@theparadisepatriot.com