In the recent past, Mayor of DC, Adrian Fenty has been all too willing to throw workers under the bus in his obsessed mantra of "Accountability". But for once, Adrian isn't calling for the head (yet) of any case workers in this horrific case of abuse and death from the Washington Post:

Early Saturday, Calvert authorities made a gruesome discovery: the bodies of two children encased in ice in a freezer in the home of Renee D. Bowman, 43. Bowman has been receiving a monthly government subsidy of $2,400 to care for her three adopted children: the 7-year-old girl on the street and two others who are now officially missing.

"You think you've seen it all," Sheriff Mike Evans said yesterday in announcing the discovery, "but you haven't."

With Bowman in jail, charged with child abuse, and investigators working to piece together what happened, the case again shined a spotlight on the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which recommended Bowman to a D.C. Superior Court judge as a suitable adoptive parent in 2001 and 2004. The girls had been wards of the D.C. government.

Adrian came out to say that there will be an invesigation, but, uncharacteristically, he did not mention firing, yet.

What I've noticed about Mayor Fenty is his willingness to hold workers accountable for things that they may not have the ability to control. In the recent past, The Department of Child and Family Services has been inundated with cases yet they have not been inundated with new social workers nor have they been able to reduce the overwhelming case load most social workers now carry in the District. The case load issue falls directly in Fenty's lap. It is his poor choices in terms of the all encompassing "accountability" mantra that has caused the increase in case load and his firings which have also caused a decrease in staffing. And all of this leads to poor morale.

A few months back I had a chance to speak to a middle manager within family services and she noted that she'd read my posts on these issues (available here), and that yeah, the case load is more than excessive and yep, it sucks coming into the job never knowing if you'll have your job the next day or if you've missed one child too many who needed your help. She noted that as much as all of this sucked, that the worst part was knowing that she didn't become a social worker for money. She did it because she wanted to make a difference in the lives of families. She wanted to protect children and help moms and dads find their way. But she no longer felt that she could do this and was really just waiting to leave.

Besides being an interesting discussion about staffing, cases and families, it was more interesting to hear a perspective of "All I want to do is help, but I no longer can in my current job." There was frustration at missing kids and parents who'd fallen through the cracks. There was this sound in her voice that made me think she'd given up. This is what is saddest of all. Someone who'd only went to school to get a degree so she could help families was no so unhappy that she really just didn't seem to think anything could be done any longer.

See, this is one aspect of the Adrianisms that I have been writing about, the idea that accountability should be about real accountability. And accountability doesn't start with overworked, over stretched and stressed out workers, it begins at the highest levels first. It begins with Adrian Fenty.

I'm hopeful that Council will hold hearings (if they haven't already) on the staffing issues within all of DC government. Children shouldn't suffer the way these three children have suffered. It's time for DC City Council to address service staffing and they need to do it now before any more children die.

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From the Washington Post:

A second baby who was the subject of a neglect case by the District's Child and Family Services Agency died yesterday -- the same day that the long-troubled agency tried to explain a 2,000-case backlog at a D.C. Council hearing called to address the recent death of a 6-month-old boy.

2000 case backlog. In the last installment of the Adrianism of the “buck stops at front line workers” we learned that the Mayor is not shy about firing people who he forces into having workloads that aren’t even manageable. Today we learn that not only are those case loads not manageable and that social workers can’t get to the investigational parts of their jobs, but that there are 2000 cases sitting.

Now, when I say “case” I mean children at risk. These are people, human beings and it just doesn’t seem as if the Mayor takes these people seriously. If he did, there’d be more social workers, more investigation, more case workers and there wouldn’t be a backlog of 2000 people. If he really took it seriously, we wouldn’t have to read about 15 year old mothers rolling on top of their babies, smothering:

Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the Committee on Human Services, said it was his understanding that the child's 15-year-old mother "rolled over and slept on him." No official cause of death had been released.
Wells also said that the 4-month-old's case was part of the "backlog," the catchall term for cases in which investigations have not been completed within 30 days.

But 2000 cases? That’s beyond belief and as the mayor continues to fire social workers, he isn’t replacing them quick enough to staunch the tied of cases being reported.

The unnamed social worker in Isiah's case went from carrying four cases in January to juggling 50 and hadn't seen children in 17 of those cases at the time of Isiah's death.

So, she’s fired, her supervisor suspended and two children dead. There is no such thing as a back log, these are people and they need help, and I’m not talking about the children in crisis, I’m talking about the front line workers who want to be effective in their jobs. I can’t imagine any of them want to think about the lives they weren’t able to save because of resources they didn’t have in the office. So, Mr. Mayor, how many more children need to die before resources are allocated to social workers? How many more kids will die before they get the staff and case loads that can save lives? How much are these kids lives worth to you Mr. Mayor?

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From the WashingtonPost:

Fenty fired six workers in that case. A hearing officer recommended three for reinstatement.

It was the kind of swift action Fenty has become known for, although he is sometimes reversed. Fenty said he has instituted the approach of quickly terminating those he finds accountable, because that is what constituents demand. In the past, employees got "a slap on the wrist," he said. "People are tired of that."

I don't know. I think I'm more tired of promises that aren't followed through with, like funding that is never provided or staffing that is never increased, or potholes never filled...

The brisk style, coupled with the increase in reported cases, has created an atmosphere of fear and has lowered morale at CFSA, Courtney said. "With our new mayor, it's a fix-it. Get it done or lose your job," she said. Although the drive is there, union leaders said, the resources are not, and more social workers are needed.

The death of a child is a tragedy, but having worked in child support enforcement, Iremember working with social workers and seeing how stressed and overworked they all were. It's one of those jobs where you have to love what you're doing, even when what you're doing is taking children from the only homes they've ever known and placing them in overcrowded foster homes (there are good ones out there, but there are a number of not so good ones, too).

You have to advocate, advocate and advocate and kiss your weekends, evenings and personal life goodbye.

The national standard for a social worker's caseload is 12, but after the Jacks case, District social workers were dealing with 20 on average, and some had more than 30.

Sam Smith on his blog DC City Desk (Free DC) really broke it down well:

Said Fenty, "If someone is saying the District of Columbia human services agency is somewhat overburdened . . . I'm the first to say that," he said. However, Fenty added, "There can be no excuses."

But, if that is true, shouldn't the guy who suddenly increased the social worker's job load be fired as well? It wasn't the social worker's fault that the agency was "somewhat overburdened." At the very least, Fenty should stop treating these incidents as political campaign events.

Fenty has proved a grand disappointment to me and an awful lot of working men and women of this city. I'm sure Cropp would have been worse, but this isn't the guy I thought I was getting. It really sucks to fire an employee for not doing their job, despite not giving the worker the tools to do their job or even a workload that is actually doable. Wonder how many other children are at risk right now because of the choices you've made Mr. Mayor. What other police officer or social worker are you going to hold accountable for your lack of resources?

If there really are no excuses Mr. Mayor, perhaps a little more house cleaning closer to your office is in line, perhaps, even in your office. I suppose this is just another attempt by you to make sure that accountability is about how the buck stops with all front line workers. I think this is just an example of what I'll be calling an Adrianism.

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