Fired CASA director threatens lawsuit

Fired CASA director threatens lawsuit

Statesman Journal file

The former director of Marion County CASA plans to file a federal lawsuit against her former employer, the county, and the state Commission on Children and Families.

In a tort claim notice filed last July, Pam Sornson claims a host of violations, including breach of her free speech rights, defamation, wrongful discharge, and violation of Oregon’s whistleblower law.

A tort claim notice lets a government entity know of potential claims.

Documents: Tort claim notice, letters referenced, fund allocations, tax forms

In an interview, Sornson said she plans to file her lawsuit this week. She said she hopes the lawsuit draws attention to what she says are problems plaguing CASA programs statewide.

“I’m as much interested in fixing the situation as anything else,” Sornson said.

Since 1987, the Oregon Legislature has appropriated money each biennium for the state’s Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, programs.

The Oregon Commission on Children and Families allocates that money, along with some federal funds, to each county’s Commission on Children and Families.

The counties in turn contract with about 30 nonprofit or government organizations — including Marion County CASA — to carry out the actual programs, which match volunteer advocates with children in foster care.

In her tort claim notice, Sornson says she discovered that the state commission was allocating funds unequally among counties.

Sornson says she was retaliated against for trying to achieve a more equitable allocation, and for advocating for improvements to what she says is a disorganized, ineffective statewide system of serving the state’s most needy children.

Sornson, a lawyer, joined the Marion County CASA board of directors in fall 2003 and became its chairwoman in June 2004.

In July 2005, she resigned from the board to become the agency’s executive director. She was fired on March 15, 2011.

In her tort claim, Sornson says that when she started, the agency had no policies or procedures to guide the volunteer advocates. She researched state and national laws and best practices, and developed an extensive reference manual and training program.

In doing that work, Sornson told the Statesman Journal, she discovered the following problems:

-Unequal allocation of state and federal funds to counties.

In the past two biennia, the state commission allocated $87,317 per year to Marion County for an average of 1,000 foster children, or $83 per child. It allocated $13,250 to Wheeler County to serve an average of three children, or $4,417 per child, Sornson’s data shows.

Four counties reported no volunteer advocates but received state funding for a CASA program, she said.

-A high turnover rate for directors of the nonprofit organizations that run the programs.

According to Sornson’s research, 22 of the state’s CASA programs had a total of 65 directors during the past five years. Columbia County CASA has had six directors since 2005, she said.

The high turnover means programs repeatedly pay for training and lack consistency. An additional problem, she said, is that there are no experience or training requirements for CASA directors.

-Inconsistencies among the county programs and a lack of training and support for volunteers in many of those programs.

In summer of 2010, Sornson became involved in a group working to reinstate the Oregon CASA Association, a lapsed nonprofit organization aiming to improve CASA programs across the state.

She joined the board of directors of the reconstituted group, along with Polk County CASA director Chris Olson; retired Circuit Court Judge Charles Luukinen; state Rep. Jim Thompson; lawyer Steven McCarthy; and Lee Effinger, a volunteer advocate for Marion County CASA.

According to Sornson’s tort claim notice, the group was concerned that the Oregon Commission on Children and Families had no relation to the courts or child welfare system and was not providing proper oversight of local programs.

In December 2010 and January 2011, Sornson, Polk County’s Olson and McCarthy began meeting with legislators to discuss equitable funding for CASA programs and the possibility of moving CASA administration from the Oregon Commission on Children and Families to the Oregon Judicial Department, Sornson said.

Sornson thinks the Oregon Commission on Children and Families retaliated against her for that advocacy, pressuring Marion County to force the Marion CASA Board to fire her.

She provided documents showing:

-On Feb. 7, 2011, the Oregon Commission on Children and Families sent letters to the county Commission on Children and Families in both Marion and Polk counties, saying their CASA directors’ advocacy with the legislature was a possible violation of state rules.

Polk County responded that it believed no violation had occurred, but the Marion County Commission on Children and Families launched an investigation, asking judges and the state Department of Human Services whether they had any problems with the local CASA organization and requesting documents and information from the group.

-On Feb. 28, Alison Kelley, head of the Marion County Commission on Children and Families, sent a letter to the Marion County CASA Board saying the program was in breach of its contract, for a variety of reasons, and was in danger of being terminated.

Sornson said that at the March 9, 2011, Marion County CASA Board meeting, the board pressured her to stop talking with legislators. In order to save her job, Sornson agreed, she said.

On March 15, Marion County CASA Board members Irene Trent-Valencia and Jim Lewis gave Sornson a letter asking for her resignation in lieu of termination. Sornson refused and was fired, she said. Trent-Valencia was appointed interim executive director.

“There’s really been not a glitch in the program,” Trent-Valencia said in March 2011, days after Sornson was fired. “Nothing is wrong. Our program is excellent.”

“This was orchestrated by the state commission and carried out by the local commission,” Sornson said in an interview.

Kelley declined to comment on the allegations and potential lawsuit, as did Trent-Valencia, Marion County Commissioner Janet Carlson, and Irene Bell, interim transition director of the Oregon Commission on Children and Families.

tloew@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6779 or follow at twitter.com/SJWatchdog


http://community.statesmanjournal.com/blogs/watch/2012/01/22/fired-casa-director-threatens-lawsuit/

Wait! So when someone notices that a program is wrong, and when a person tries to fix a problem it is obvious they must be wrong... CASA must be perfect, right? Otherwise that would mean that these "representatives" for our children could be screwing things up. Go figure.? Thank you Pam Sornson for trying to help, but it seems that the state prioritizes it's current reputation over what is truly just and correct. I wish you luck, and I truly hope that the CASA program can learn from this and truly fix it's internal issues.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month! So let us spread awareness, and help stop "Child Protective Services" from abusing our children and families. Let us stop the extortion, kidnap, racketing, blackmail, fraud, malpractice, health violations, intimidation, neglect, child abuse, secrecy and terrorism. Thank You.

10,000 visits! Thank you for your support!

WOW! 10,000! Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog. There are so many important things going on here, and if you are reading what we have to say, it may save you a lot of hassle. Vitamin D is so very important, and for those who still don't know much about it, definitely do as much research as you can. If you're pregnant take vitamin D supplements. Give your children Vitamin D supplements! Vitamin D is not only very important for bone health, but many studies are showing that it plays a role in many different things including SIDS, Depression, MS, Autism, and so much more!

We also have shared our story and the nightmare we're going through. If you haven't read it yet, visit Our Story. We've talked to so many doctors, and most agree that things have gone WAY too far! We've contacted politicians, we've contacted schools, we've even gone to the media now. If you know someone else who is suffering from false allegations of child abuse, have them e-mail me their story and I'll do my best to share it too. Thank You.

Oregon's $40 million child welfare computer upgrade has lots of glitches, some serious

Oregon's $40 million child welfare computer upgrade has lots of glitches, some serious

Oregon child welfare managers have not had access to statewide performance data showing how quickly local offices are responding to abuse reports and other information. Foster parents have waited for payments. And caseworkers say they are spending time putting information into a computer that should be spent with families.


http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/03/post_63.html 


Oregonlive.com


SALEM -- Oregon child welfare managers have not had access to statewide performance data showing how quickly local offices are responding to abuse reports and other information. Foster parents have waited for payments. And caseworkers say they are spending time putting information into a computer that should be spent with families. 

A $40 million computer upgrade that went live in August, after being delayed nearly a year, has suffered all kinds of problems, though top agency managers stress that none of them has put children in danger. 

Dangerous or not, the Department of Human Services' "OrKids" project provides yet another example of government's difficulties with large-scale technology projects. In 2009, a new $80 million state computer system that handled nearly 2 million Oregon Health Plan claims each month ran into serious technical difficulties. Last year, lawmakers decided to dial back on a statewide emergency communications system because the estimated costs were growing exponentially and without explanation. 

The new child welfare system is still on budget and the vendor, Canada-based CGI, is working with the state to correct the problems, says Carolyn Lawson, chief information officer for the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority. 

The upgrade, required by the federal government and partially paid for by federal dollars, consolidates seven computer systems of various vintage into one, web-based system. 

Despite serious glitches, Human Services Director Erinn Kelley-Siel says OrKids has already proven to be a useful safety tool. 

In the past, because of fragmented information, caseworkers may not have known about abuse reports involving a foster parent. Now, Kelley-Siel says, the computer sends an alert whenever there's an allegation of abuse so anyone who has a child placed in that home knows. 

Still, Kelley-Siel acknowledges that the new system and its problems come at a "really difficult time" for workers in field offices, where staff numbers are the lowest they've been in years. 

Karen Miller, a local union leader who provides computer support at Human Services offices in the Portland area, says she routinely talks to caseworkers "who are concerned that children are not being made safe because they aren't out in the field and are instead spending the bulk of their afternoons doing repetitive data entries." 

Rather than making information easier to get, Miller says caseworkers find it even more difficult to access a child's medical file and other critical information. 

Meanwhile foster parents, group homes and others have had problems getting paid. 

The upgrade has "gone poorly and created its own extraordinary impact," says Janet Arenz, executive director of the Oregon Alliance of Children's Programs, which includes volunteer and mentoring nonprofits, psychiatric treatment providers and other family service groups. 

Arenz says alliance members, who work with 95,000 of the state's most vulnerable kids each year, "have been struggling to receive payments for services they have performed under DHS contracts."

"Some outstanding payments go back as far as May 2011," she says. 

In response to such complaints, Human Services officials have scrambled to make sure providers get paid, even if it's by a hand-processed check. 

Inside the agency, problems with the new OrKids system mean data managers have been unable to pull together reports showing how well the child welfare system is functioning. 

Since 2008, the agency has issued monthly "dashboard reports" measuring everything from how quickly local district staff investigate abuse reports to how often caseworkers see children in foster care to how long it takes for children to be either returned to their parents or adopted into a new home. The numbers have not been updated since August. 

Local managers are keeping track of what's happening with their kids, says Jerry Waybrant, chief operations officer for state child welfare and self-sufficiency programs. 

Yet Waybrant says the dashboard reports are valuable. 

"They inform us where we need resources and training. It's not pleasant for me not having those available." 

Oregon isn't alone. Washington, which used the same vendor, also encountered problems updating the state's child welfare technology, says Lawson, the Oregon technology officer.

"I've done a variety of these large systems and it never goes smoothly," she says. "It almost doesn't matter how much you test it, there are always going to be issues."

--Michelle Cole 

LK: http://legallykidnapped.blogspot.com/2012/03/oregons-40-million-child-welfare.html#ixzz1piww53IJ

CPS Corruption Game Exposed

CPS Corruption Game Exposed

January 30th, 2012 · 3 Comments · DV Family, DV Industry, DV News

CPS Corruption Game Exposed

September 3rd, 2010 · 15 Comments

Confessions of a Child Protective Service Headhunter 

These dirty games have been suspected for a long, long time. False domestic violence claims are prevalent. These confessions explain how it works, … all over the country. This is not for the children, but for the government money afforded to these agencies, which will do anything to justify their existence. Thanks should be in order to those coming clean, as their lives are now in danger for speaking out. 

The following is a transcription of an audio tape from a former Child Protective Service Headhunter.  Exclusive interview provided to journalist Georgie Hampton…..part 3 of 3.(where marked (x-x), signifies the recording was unclear to transcribe)

   

My name is Black Michael and I granted way of Canada and Australia and the world my exclusive story as a retired headhunter who is trying to make amends for the over 25,000 children removed over a twenty-two year period. 

 CPS and other agencies paid me to falsify information to make these children wards of the court.  As I said last week my job was to locate families on welfare, low income, low I.Q. or the least likely to be able to afford counsel that could get them their children returned to their custody.  I was paid $1,800 per child I brought into care, with a $500.00 bonus if a child was in someway handicapped and a $10,000 bonus if a child was adopted out without parental consent. I am not proud of what I did and I am now trying to see that as many children as I can will be returned to their loving families.  This is why I am stepping forward to give testimony to what we headhunters do.  First, we located a family that fit the criteria.  Then watched that family for a circumstance that really happened, that was not really dangerous.  But, when which likely made it look likely abuse, neglect or some other endangerment was going on.  We then made written, sworn statements to the agencies we worked for and a warrant would then be issued for the child or children in that family to be removed from the family home.  

As headhunters, we often testified in court as to our allegations under oath and then to the false identity so that our names would not show as in a stream of cases before the court.  It has come to my attention that CPS and other agencies in the last month have doubled the  2010 – 11 children can be brought into care quota.  Instead of the approximately 240,000 children, the headhunter quota has risen from 80,000 souls and innocents 155 during this physical term. 

It sickens me that this is happening to innocent families, and I am determined to see that  those for whom I was responsible for falsifying records are returned home where possible.   I am at great risk doing this interview and would not have consented had Georgie had not agreed to keep my true identity hidden and my voice altered.  If she had not agreed to these terms I would not be granting this exclusive interview.  

With the economy as it is and the expected depression through by 2012, CPS and like organizations are doubling their quotas to stay in business and have no doubt for them this business is slowly monetary and has nothing to do with the safety of children in legitimate terms.  More children die in the hands of their foster parents than in the hands of their true parents for which I know I am responsible for the loss of life to these 11 of these children by falsifying records and statements. 

I am not proud of the work I did, nor of the money I earned.  All my efforts are now being put into bringing as many of these children home as possible.  I have been instrumental in having 22 children now returned to their rightful families and I continue to work on bringing more home.  To (x-x) I have to step forward slowly and cautiously because should it become known that I am the one known who is contacting judges and prosecutors and recanting my testimony I would be dead within weeks, if not days. 

As headhunters, we took a full week long course on how to spot vulnerable families,  how to falsify allegations, how to testify to CPS benefit.  This course also taught us that when children were taken into care the immediate program of separation of child from family would begin.  The child would be rewarded for compliance and punished for defiance.  A type of mind control would be used by foster parents even though these foster parents did not know they were being taught these skills during their training of two weeks. 

Foster parents only have criminal checks.  They are not interviewed by psychologists or trained personnel.  They merely have to express their want to be foster parents and follow the instructions of care and reward and punishment to keep the children in their care under their control.  The foster parent school is to separate the child from his or her parents as widely as possible.  

The child, when the prearranged telephone call or visit has not produced, the child is told your mother and father hate you, they don’t want you, that is why they never showed up.  We love you, we want you, you are safe with us as long as you follow our simple rules and expectations.  Very quickly most contact with birth parents and families is brought to very limited contact.  

Every session and visit is monitored and if the parent probes into the well being of their child, the foster parent is taught how to reprogram the child’s responses to such questions.  In essence, they are taught to forget their former families and accept foster homes or adoption as their only recourse to being truly loved. 

I have agreed to keep these interviews going with Georgie as I can to expose the system for the deceitful, despicable corporations that they are.  While I am not beyond being called those same names, I do hope parents realize the great danger I am currently putting myself in exposing CPS and other like agencies and their reprogramming of children’s lives.  As headhunters, we were aware that approximately 50% of children in foster homes are abused, sexually assaulted and mind controlled.  We worked for pay and put those statistics to the back of our minds, shoved that knowledge away, knowing we were not the perpetrators of these atrocities.  But the truth is, we put those children in harms way and are just as guilty as the foster parents who abuse these children on an ongoing and daily basis.  

While child protection agencies are aware of these atrocities, they also ignore them for the greater part as conditioning of children and separation (x-x) from real families plays a real part of reprogramming of these innocent minds.  I will continue this interview at later date.  Again my most humble apologies for the pain I have caused both parents and children for whom I was responsible in separating. 

May God have mercy on my soul……..Black Michael

Sometimes, secrecy isn't best for children

I’m a long-term supporter of child protective services, but the culture of total secrecy in that area of state government can be dangerous

MAR 3, 2012

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By Jeb Bladine
Of the News-Register

All WhatchamaColumns

I’m a long-term supporter of child protective services, but the culture of total secrecy in that area of state government can be dangerous to children and families.

I formed my opinions during 10-plus years on the state’s (formerly named) Children’s Services Division advisory committee, 20-plus years on the board of a residential youth care center and 40-plus years of newspaper reporting on child abuse cases. That’s a lot of secondhand experience with unspeakable human depravity that demands state intervention on behalf of children.

Still, mistakes by the state that occur within a cocoon of confidentiality can serve to protect the government at the expense of children and family. Such mistakes span the gamut from over- to under-zealousness.

Confidentiality is understandable as part of the protection for abused children. There are times, however, when that shroud of secrecy protects the wrong people.

Twenty-five years ago, the late Father Pascal Phillips of the Trappist Abbey led a statewide group that challenged CSD’s total power to take children from their families. Then, and today, media generally avoids reporting on alleged abuses of power by child protective workers because the state stonewalls any effort to get the agency’s side of the story.

When state workers are under-zealous, the results can be dramatic and very public. For example, this week the state agreed to pay $1.5 million to the biological father of a 15-year-old girl murdered by abuse after the state caseworkers allegedly failed to respond “with reasonable care” to her family situation.

Back to the other side of things, there’s a case drawing local exposure to a family’s claim that Child Protective Services has taken their baby away without just cause. The bare basics of that case appear in a letter and accompanying note in today’s Readers Forum, and more coverage could follow after an upcoming court hearing.

I’m not willing to take sides in this kind of case in the absence of any information from one of the sides, but I can criticize the absolute secrecy that exists in the face of such claims. I’ve long thought that families in this situation should have the right to request disclosure of the public record surrounding their exposure to this part of our justice system.

Protecting children is an essential state role. Sometimes, though, parents should have the right to a public airing of the process.

Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.

http://newsregister.com/article?articleTitle=sometimes%2c+secrecy+isn%27t+best+for+children--1330726709--2846--bladine