BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008
At a critical time for the state’s foster care system, the independent state agency that watches over out-of-home care is at odds on leadership issues.
A report issued Wednesday by a legislative committee criticized the director of Nebraska’s Foster Care Review Board, including an allegation that Carol Stitt may have violated the law in 2006.
Foster Care Review Board Chair Georgie Scurfield said the board will meet Jan. 9 to look into concerns raised by the Legislature’s Performance Audit Committee.
The committee investigated high staff turnover and complaints about Stitt’s management style.
It also investigated but found no potential conflicts of interest by board members who also provide care for children in the welfare system.
Stitt and others had questioned those board members’ ability to provide oversight when they receive funding through the Department of Health and Human Services.
The board had requested the performance audit, looking for an independent examination of the organization’s operations, communication and management.
The board has been divided on some of those issues, but was “substantially in agreement with the findings,” Scurfield said.
“The board is very committed to the quality of care of children in out-of-home care,” she said.
Board members want to handle the issues in the report in a united way, she said.
On leadership issues, the committee’s report showed:
* Almost half of staff members believed Stitt treated employees unfairly and were afraid of retaliation if they disagreed with her. Three of the five people Stitt supervised directly felt that way.
Employees who were out-of-favor with Stitt were targeted, badmouthed to other staff members or intimidated by her, some staffers said.
“We believe that having 11 people (almost half of the agency’s employees) report that they believe staff have been treated unfairly is cause for serious concern,” the report said.
* The agency has a high staff turnover compared with other agencies, and the majority of staff members said it has affected their jobs. A fourth of the staff — seven members — have been with the agency more than 10 years.
* Dissatisfaction with Stitt played a role in the recent resignations of two of the agency’s five supervisors. Also, two other supervisors had taken concerns regarding Stitt to the board’s executive committee.
* Five staff members reported Stitt made disparaging remarks about state board members to them, telling them some board members should not be trusted.
* Stitt has a disability that limits her ability to drive, and the board allows staff members to drive for her on official business. But the report said it is inappropriate for Stitt to regularly request rides to and from work because staff members may fear professional ramifications if they were to stop doing it.
Stitt fired back at the report, saying the audit staff and committee did not follow parameters laid out for it, defined conflict of interest too narrowly and shared confidential information. She said the report had a negative bias, ignoring the agency’s accomplishments and productivity.
Stitt said at least five of her concerns with the report draft were so serious the committee should not have issued a final report.
Auditors found her concerns unfounded and said there was no reason not to issue a final report.
One of Stitt’s primary concerns was the audit staff reopening a state ombudsman’s 2007 investigation that cleared her of criminal wrongdoing regarding a campaign event.
But the report released Wednesday said some of Stitt’s actions relating to the 2006 Tom Osborne campaign fundraiser — including using staff to mail invitations to the fundraiser, posting an invitation in two of the agency’s offices and encouraging staff to invite foster families to attend — may have violated the law.
The federal Hatch Act prohibits state employees from using their authority to try to influence an election.
At the very least, the report said, Stitt’s actions were inappropriate because employees could have felt pressure to participate, and some, in fact, did feel that pressure.
In her response to the draft report, Stitt said she did not intend to campaign for a candidate or use her position to influence an election.
Stitt said the majority of questions asked about her by audit staff were negatively structured and the report emphasized negative comments, with few positive comments presented.
She said auditors did not consider a certain employee’s performance problems and the context of that person’s comments, even though that information was supplied.
On the conflict-of-interest question, Board Chair Scurfield was pleased with the audit results.
In a letter to Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek, who chairs the Performance Audit Committee, Scurfield said untruthful attacks on board members have been divisive and acrimonious. They affected the reputations and work of board members, both in board matters and outside.
“The subject was raised on the floor of the Legislature during confirmation hearings and is not an issue that the board takes lightly,” Scurfield said.
Attacks on individual board members could discourage other potential board members from serving, she said.
The committee recommended the state board should work with Stitt to resolve the leadership issues, possibly hiring a neutral third party to help the effort.
Schimek on Wednesday would not address the question of whether she thought there should be a change in the agency’s leadership.
“That’s a question for the board,” she said.
“Knowing that Carol Stitt has passion for the Foster Care Review Board, I think that would be hard to replace. But it’s important to work on solving some of the management problems.”
If conflict-of-interest questions continue to plague the agency, it’s possible those could be put to rest by procedures the board could institute, Schimek said. That could include requiring board members to disclose their financial relationships to child welfare agencies, or other potential conflicts.
“It’s a very tricky dilemma that’s true of any elected body or appointed body, like this,” Schimek said.
