AG 2004 01 26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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NltgH CASfl/IHA MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: John Day, County Manager Jim Cook, DSS Director 12-1-03 Request the BOC Authorize a Second DSS Staff Attorney I am requesting that the Board of Commissioners, at its December meeting, authorize a second staff attorney position at the Department of Social Services. This position would be funded utilizing resources currently budgeted to purchase of service contracts through which the Department has secured some of its legal representation. At the beginning of this budget year, you requested that I assess the costs and benefits of continuing with our purchase of service contracts as compared to employing an additional staff attorney. The assessment we completed is reflected in the attached materials dated 8-26-03. At that time, our state Children's Services Consultant had previously indicated that our caseload of children in Protective Services and Foster Care warranted an additional full-time attorney. The caseload of children in care has since then increased 20%. A study of cases we currently have before the court reflects that we are not able to accomplish compliance with federal and state requirements for timely completion of cases in almost 50% of our cases. Resolution of protective services matters is taking longer, and the time children are remaining in our care is increased, as a result. Availability both of attorney resources at the Department, and of court resources, are constraints. We are working with the court on issues relating to court time and other resources. However, the addition of a second staff attorney in the Children's Services Program is clearly warranted. We have $80,251 budgeted to purchase of service contracts for legal representation. Predominately, this funding is utilized for representation in the Child Support Enforcement Program, with $15,000 of the total supporting Children's Services and Adult Services, and $5,000 providing representation in administrative areas. As the enclosed chart shows, throughout FY03, we purchased an average of 46 hours per month, a bit more than a week of service time a month, under these contracts. The total cost was about $56,350. The salary and benefit cost of a second full-time staff attorney would be at most $72,754. A full-time staff attorney could provide representation to the Child Support Program, which represents one court day per week, and still allocate about 75 % of his/her time to representation of the Children's Services Program. To double the hours of representation by contract attorneys (e.g., to only the equivalent of 2.3 weeks per Department of Social Services 1303 South Cannon Blvd Kannapohs, NC 28083 (704)920-1400