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ICABARIlU, CI]UHIYI <br />N~ RI'II I~ARDLINA <br /> <br />MEMORANDUM <br /> <br />TO: Pam Dubois <br />FROM: Jim Cook <br />DATE: August 26, 2003 <br />RE: DSS Legal Services <br /> <br />We are responding to the recent questions that have arisen regarding continuing to <br />contract for legal services or adding another staff attorney to provide these. <br /> <br />Based on our current needs, there appears to be sufficient need for legal support to <br />warrant an additional attorney. Our Children Services Representative has advised us that <br />the attorney's caseload for children in custody is higher than the state would recommend. <br />The state suggested a caseload of 75-90 children in custody for an attorney (see attached <br />letter). We currently have 174 children in foster care. In addition to the needs in Child <br />Welfare services, we are contracting legal services to assist with Child Support cases. In <br />reviewing billing over the past year (July 2002 through June 2003), we have secured an <br />average of 43 hours per month in this area. We also contract legal services in the <br />administrative area, related to personnel issues. For the entire year, we paid a total of 23 <br />hours in this area. <br /> <br />Our agency currently has a total of $80,251 budgeted for contracted legal services in the <br />area of child support ($61,251), child welfare and adult services ($15,000), and <br />administration support ($5,000). The salary and fringe for an additional attorney (pay <br />grade 76) would range from $63,522.01 to $72,754.42. <br /> <br />It appears that hiring an additional DSS attorney would be a more efficient use of our <br />resources. We would suggest that having the attorney physically located in our agency <br />would be more effective as the attorney is expected to have close involvement with social <br />workers and child support agents in preparing for court. The attorney would be expected <br />to specialize in the legal areas related to DSS, which again would suggest that locating <br />the attorney in our agency would result in more efficiency. <br /> <br />We want to begin the process to add another staff attorney position to provide these legal <br />services. However, we need to continue to contract with Hartsell and Williams until the <br />attorney can be brought on board and at that time cancel the contracts. <br /> <br /> Department of Social Services <br />1303 South Cannon Blvd. Kannapohs, NC 28083 (704) 920-1400 <br /> <br /> <br />