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Pinellas, Pasco To Change Foster Services Provider

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2007

Previous Coverage: Sarasota YMCA's Child Welfare Contract In Limbo

TAMPA - The Sarasota Family YMCA will not compete for a $150 million, three-year state contract next summer to run child welfare services in Pinellas and Pasco counties.

In exchange for stepping away from those counties, the YMCA will receive a one-year extension of its $22 million contract to provide similar services in DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties. That contract was set to expire in June.

"The YMCA will concentrate its efforts in an area it knows best," Department of Children & Families Secretary Bob Butterworth said Tuesday in Tampa.

The announcement put to rest weeks of rumors that DCF's former flagship of community-based care, the first agency to undertake privatization of child welfare services in Florida, would lose its contract after a dismal performance review.

"We don't think of it as losing," said the YMCA's board chairman, Ronald Gelbman, who brought the offer to Butterworth on Friday in Fort Myers. "We want to make sure we have a much better system down south."

Expansion And Mistakes

DCF asked the YMCA in 2004 to expand its duties to Pinellas and Pasco after another private agency failed. That led to problems within the agency, culminating this summer with a toddler missing for nine months.

Courtney Clark's disappearance made national headlines after her mother, Candice Clark, absconded with the 2 1/2 -year-old girl placed by the state with a family friend. Authorities found Courtney unharmed in Wisconsin in a house where another woman was buried in the backyard and her son tortured with scalding water.

Butterworth said that case, more than any one thing, exposed failures by the YMCA, DCF and law enforcement agencies.

There were so many mistakes made, he said, "I'm surprised this has not been a made-for-TV movie."

The case led to a review recommending DCF not renew the YMCA's contract in Pinellas and Pasco. The review also found an agency in crisis: workers in Pinellas County with up to 40 cases each, high turnover that left children languishing in foster care for years and foster parents traveling to other counties to get help.

Giving up the right to bid on the contract means focusing more on the communities the YMCA has always served, Gelbman said.

"We look forward to being able to turn our full attention to the south," he said.

The YMCA will work on improving relationships with child care providers and community advocates, Gelbman said, including revamping an alliance that fell by the wayside in recent years.

"We're going to get back in touch with our stakeholders," he said. "They used to be very involved, but, you know, when things are going great ... somehow they became unengaged."

Butterworth said the goal of the YMCA will be to once again become a leader in community-based care. The agency has a year to prove it can still do the job, he said.

"It was the best performer in the state three years ago," he said. "I'm confident the Y can be back on top."

Contract To Be Bid Now

The Pinellas/Pasco contract will go out for bid immediately, Butterworth said. He did not identify any interested parties. A community alliance met last week for the first time in two years and may open the door to identifying lead agencies in the area.

The YMCA will oversee the transition process along with South Florida DCF Circuit Administrator Alan Abramowitz. Abramowitz arrived in Pinellas on Monday with five workers from across the state to tackle a backlog of licensing and home studies needed to place children in safe homes.

Abramowitz, who presided over the reorganization of another community-based care agency in Palm Beach County in July, tapped Mark Jones of Neighbor to Family in Daytona Beach for help. Neighbor to Family promotes keeping sibling groups together and making foster care more professionalized.

Glen Casel, chairman of the Florida Coalition for Children, which represents community-based care providers, also is fielding calls from others who want to assist. Casel called the situation a perfect example of why community-based care is working.

"If one of our peers needs help, the attitude is, 'Let's get down there and get it done,'" he said. "This wasn't possible 10 years ago."

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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