by Daniel Stefanski | Feb 24, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs has had a rocky start to her tenure as Arizona’s newest chief executive, and her personnel decisions and lack of transparency with legislators continue to backfire and frustrate her policy objectives.
Late Wednesday night, news broke that Governor Hobbs’ nomination for the Director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety, Matthew Stewart, was asked to resign. Stewart’s selection to this position was announced by then-Governor-elect Hobbs on December 27, in a press release. Hobbs issued a quote with Stewart’s (and others) introductions, saying, “These are some of the best minds Arizona has to offer, and I am proud that they have chosen to serve the people of Arizona by my side.”
As of this week, though, Stewart will no longer be serving by Hobbs’ side. In a press release, Senator Jake Hoffman, the Chairman of the Committee on Director Nominations, unveiled his understanding of the reasons behind Stewart’s dismissal, including that Stewart “received a letter of reprimand for ‘insubordination and unauthorized absence’ while serving as a DCS Training Operations Supervisor in 2020.”
Hoffman also revealed that Stewart “has also made some questionable moves on consulting contracts,” and had recently “fired non-appointed, openly-gay employees of DCS, who have now filed complaints against him.” This last assertion, Hoffman wrote, “prompted the forced resignation.”
The Director Nominations Chairman did not mince words about the sudden turn of events with Hobbs’ failed DCS nominee, writing, “It is disgraceful that Katie Hobbs either did not conduct a thorough review of Mr. Stewart prior to offering him the position as DCS Director, or she thought she could sweep his history under the rug.” He also touted the value of his committee, saying, “This unfortunate series of events proves precisely why the Senate Confirmation process is so vitally important for the people of Arizona….it seems clear that Hobbs is not conducting her own vetting process, so my colleagues and I will continue to serve as the necessary and constitutional check and balance on the Executive Branch that the citizens of our great state need and deserve.”
Several of Senator Hoffman’s colleagues agreed with his thoughts on this embarrassing episode for the Hobbs’ administration. Senator Anthony Kern tweeted, “Mirroring the disaster of the Biden Administration; Katie Hobbs isn’t nominating appointees because they are qualified to lead our state.”
Senator Justine Wadsack responded, “It’s a good thing the AZ Senate is vetting Hobbs’ Director nominees. Her choice for DCS Director was so bad, she forced him to resign! But she should never have appointed him in the first place! The AZ Senate is taking these Directors seriously, protecting the people of Arizona.”
Governor Hobbs addressed the Stewart news on Thursday, stating, “The Department of Child Safety has a critical mission protecting Arizona’s most vulnerable population, our children. As a social worker, I take the leadership of this agency very seriously, and while I thank Matthew Stewart for his work with the agency over the last month and a half, he will not be moving forward in the cabinet appointment process. Cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the Governor, and this is a decision that was made for the best interests of all parties involved.”
Legislative Democrats didn’t have much to say on this latest debacle for Governor Hobbs. The Arizona Senate Democrats Caucus quote-tweeted Senator Hoffman’s press release, saying, “REMINDER: It’s never too late to take us up on our suggestion of a longwinded email sent to the 9th floor…”
Since President Petersen commissioned the Committee on Director Nominations, it has held two meetings, considering four of Governor Hobbs’ nominees to lead state agencies. The panel has voted to recommend two of those individuals, opposed one (who was later rejected by the Senate), and held another one for future vetting. According to Senate sources, Hobbs’ office has only transmitted eleven of her nominees to the state legislature as is her constitutional obligation.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Corinne Murdock | Jan 14, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The newly appointed head of the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) wants to make child services interventions equitable.
Governor Katie Hobbs appointed Matthew Stewart last month following a ProPublica-NBC News report in December alleging that racial disparities plagued the DCS. The report featured Stewart as evidence of the alleged disparity issue.
According to the investigative report, DCS investigations increased for Black families while overall DCS investigations went down
Stewart worked at DCS for over a decade, first as a case manager then training supervisor. Stewart told reporters that he’d discovered the alleged racial disparity in 2018, but didn’t leave the agency for another two years. Afterwards, Stewart founded a nonprofit advocating for keeping families together, Our Sister Our Brother (OSOB). Their website ceased being public around the time of Stewart’s appointment. (An archive of the latest version of the website is available here). According to Stewart’s LinkedIn page, he no longer serves as the CEO of OSOB.
Just over a week before Hobbs appointed Stewart, his advocacy organization declared that the state needed to end interventions. In the hashtags, OSOB included references to “anti-racism education,” “anti-racism,” “racial justice,” “social justice advocacy,” “anti-racist,” and “diversity, equity, inclusion.”
“We need to move away from interventions. Communities need resources that are proactive rather than reactive,” stated OSOB.
The OSOB website, prior to being taken down, declared its “heightened focus” as undoing the “overrepresentation” of Black children in foster care. OSOB cited from nonprofit and DCS data that five percent of Arizona children are Black, yet they represent about 17 percent of the foster care population. Researchers estimated that approximately 63 percent of Black children will undergo a DCS investigation before they turn 18.
In his interview with ProPublica-NBC News, Stewart said that DCS should focus more on solving “generational poverty and the resulting trauma” that was “centuries in the making.” Stewart expressed doubt that DCS could have a positive effect on lower-income Black families.
“I simply don’t think DCS is the agency to do this,” he stated.
Stewart said that DCS was part of a negative cultural fixation on Black families.
“We have a culture that says Black families need to be watched and if we don’t agree with the things that are going on with them, we are the saviors of these children and are charged with punishing their parents,” stated Stewart.
Stewart’s father, Warren Stewart, founded the oldest Black Baptist church in the Valley and instigated the state’s approval of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official state holiday.
The state created DCS in 2014 following systemic failures within Child Protective Services (CPS). In 2013, Hobbs, at the time a state senator and social worker, signaled support for prioritizing preventative measures rather than interventions. She said that CPS lacked employee support and infrastructure: namely, more funding to assist families that would prevent them from entering the system. Hobbs portrayed it as a cost-saving measure.
“We need to do so much more on the front end to help families on the front end who are struggling to stay out of the CPS system. What we could invest on that end is so much less than we would spend on the back end once people are in the system,” said Hobbs.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | May 13, 2022 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
The State of Arizona has paid roughly $6 million in the last three years to private law firms to defend the Arizona Department of Child Safety against multiple allegations of staff malfeasance and misfeasance leading to the neglect, even death, of children placed into the state’s foster care system.
In the meantime, concerns brought forth by the Arizona Auditor General’s Office in 2019 about foster home recruitment, licensure, use, and retention have not been fully implemented by DCS, and there won’t be another status report to the Arizona Legislature until later this year, according to public records.
A nearly 60 page special report to Gov. Doug Ducey and lawmakers in September 2019 outlined six recommendations for improvements within DCS for Arizona’s foster care system. One key area of concern was foster parents who reported feeling excluded from decisions about the children in their care as well as difficulty accessing needed support and pressure to accept foster placements.
There were also several instances in which foster parents complained of being provided “incomplete or inadequate” information about the children placed in their care, something auditors confirmed when reviewing placement packets as part of the audit.
In May 2020, the Auditor General’s Office provided lawmakers with an initial follow-up, at which time it was revealed DCS was still in the process of implementing five of the six recommendations. Steps to implement the sixth recommendation had not been started, according to the audit report, despite the fact it addressed one of the main complaints – the lack of customer service to improve foster parent recruitment and ensure retention.
Instead, DCS was concentrating on developing and launching of Guardian, its much needed new agency-wide database. But when Guardian went live in February 2021, state employees closed off some features of the system to other state agencies, including the State Foster Care Review board and the Arizona Ombudsman’s Office.
In addition, there were numerous complaints from foster parents, adoptive parents, and foster children transitioning out of foster care about late payments for several weeks after Guardian went live.
A November 2021 “second follow-up” report by the Arizona Auditor General at the 24-month period did not get into those problems. Instead, the report to the chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee remained focused on the six recommendations from 2019, of which DCS had fully implemented only 50 percent.
And there was still had no start date in sight for implementing an improved customer service model, according to that report.
Despite the lack of performance by DCS, there will not be another audit report to the Legislature on the foster home concerns until this fall, according to August General Lindsay Perry’s office. That will mark three years after the initial special report.
The six recommendations and findings as noted in the November 2021 report were:
1. DCS should develop and implement a customer service model to improve foster parent recruitment and retention, and engage in continuous quality improvement via feedback to ensure the model’s successful implementation.
But according to the Perry’s staff, DCS reported “it has yet to begin implementing a customer service model because of competing priorities within the Department, such as implementing its new case management system (Guardian). The Department has not identified a start date for implementing this recommendation.”
2. DCS should, as required by Arizona law, provide foster parents “with complete, updated written placement packet information upon placement of children with foster parents.”
The placement packets began being issued by DCS in September 2021 through an online portal for new and renewed placements. However, obtaining feedback on whether the packets were worthwhile was to be included as part of the improved customer service outlined in Recommendation 1. As a result, the Auditor General cannot make any assessments until the 3-year report on whether the placement packets have resolved concerns expressed by foster parents.
3. The Auditor General also recommended DCS undertake an effort to find out why a foster parent closes his or her license. The pre-Guardian database only allows one reason to be entered, even though foster parents fill out a form which allows for marking multiple reasons. According to DCS, this problem will be resolved at some point via Guardian.
4. Already implemented is the Auditor General’s recommendation that DCS develop and implement procedures to ensure contractors and staff adequately handle intake in English and Spanish, including answering or returning phone calls in a timely manner and meeting Department expectations for call quality.
5. Also implemented was the recommendation that DCS implement procedures to ensure contractors maintain websites with information about how to become a foster parent in Spanish.
6. DCS also improved its monitoring of foster home recruitment and support contracts to ensure core contract requirements are being met, such as providing access to respite care and other requirements DCS deems critical to the contracts’ success.
