AG 2007 01 22 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Cabarrus County Department of Social Services MEMORANDUM TO: John Day, County Manager FROM: Sandy Russell, Interim Director DATE: January 2, 2007 SUBJECT: Request for Attorney II position I am submitting a request to create a Managing Attorney (Attorney II) position in the Department of Social Services. The creation of this position requires BOC approval, and 1 am thus asking that this request be brought to the Board at the January work session. BACKGROUND The Department of Social Services requires legal representation in court for several program areas - child support, adult protective services and guardianship, and child protective services and foster care/adoptions. Currently we have two Attorney I positions to represent the agency on all these matters. The agency attorneys are in court every Monday for child support, every Tuesday morning, Thursday, and most Fridays for child welfare, and as needed for adult protective services and guardianship. In the past several months, we have experienced significant turnover in the attorney positions. One attorney who had been with the agency for fourteen years left in August 2006 and the other attorney who joined the agency in December 2005 left in November 2006. We filled the first position in October and the second position is currently under recruitment. We have received few applications for the current vacancy and the attorney hired in October, while an experienced attorney, did not have a significant amount of experience in the area of juvenile law. We believe that salary and workload were factors in the attorney turnover and in the agency's ability to attract attorneys who work in juvenile or domestic law. Support for Child Support -The agency is currently working with 4,826 child support cases (as of 10/31/06) which represents a 7% increase since January 1, 2006. Effective 1/1/07, the agency is responsible for delivery of services to the cases that were managed by the Clerk of Court's office. We believe that the increase experienced in 2006 is directly associated with the redirection of services from the Clerk's office to DSS and expect to see a similar increase in 2007. Child Support cases are heard one day a week (Monday) with an average of 110 to 120 cases handled each court date. We estimate that the attorney needs approximately an hour of preparation and disposition for each hour spent in court. Support for Adult Protective Services and Guardianship -the agency is responsible for the investigation of Adult Protective Service (APS) complaints and at times must request the Court to intervene to protect an adult. More frequently, the agency initiates incompetency petitions when it is believed that an adult is not capable of making informed decisions and needs a guardian to act in his behalf. The attorney is responsible to handle the petition and represent the agency at the hearing. During 2005, a total of 11 petitions were handled by the agency. For the first 10 months of 2006, 13 petitions have been initiated. Support for Child Welfare -Child Protective Services (CPS) and Foster Care comprise the majority of the legal work needed. At the end of November 2006, 239 children were in the agency's custody. For each child in custody, the agency has to return to court at a minimum of every 3-6 months to report on the progress of meeting Federal mandates which set a goal of obtaining permanency within 12 months of coming into the agency's custody. Many cases result in legal proceedings to terminate parental rights (TPR) where the attorney represents the agency in the TPR trial and in subsequent appellate action (98% of TPRs are appealed by the parents). To ensure the safety and protection of children it is imperative that the attorney be skilled in trial and appellate matters. The dynamics of the child welfare cases have changed with more parties (grandparents, other family, friends, and even foster parents) petitioning to ,e e. ~t