SCRANTON, Pa. — (Editor's note: The above video is from January 12.)
Beverly Mackereth, a consultant hired to turn around Lackawanna County's struggling Office of Youth and Family Services, has no illusions about the task ahead.
"There's not a quick fix," Mackereth said at Wednesday's meeting of the county commissioners. "And so everybody needs to understand that, your community needs to understand that, there's no quick fix because we don't have a workforce."
"We're talking about how to move forward, what that should look like...it's amazing, we're really on the same page," She continued. "But without a workforce, you can't implement."
The county commissioners on Wednesday ratified an agreement with Mackereth's York County consulting firm to rebuild a child services agency strained by resignations and scandalized by criminal charges.
Mackereth's task is to help rehabilitate the agency's state license from provisional status back to full. The state Department of Human Services downgraded the agency's license last summer, just as law enforcement arrested five current and former staffers, and issued a second provisional license in November.
In its written response to the November report, OYFS said they are dealing with a severe staffing crisis and have just 12 caseworkers for an agency that should have more than 50. The average caseload of each worker is up to five times higher than the regulatory maximum.
"The cases, many heart-wrenching, very complex situations continue to pile up, which suffocates those caseworkers who are already overstretched, and who are doing the very, very best they can to help these children and these families," Commissioner Bill Gaughan said Wednesday. "So, in the face of this and many other issues, we decided that we needed to act immediately. And we recognize the need to bring in someone with experience in the field, someone who's independent, and who could give us a fresh look at the entire operation."
Mackereth, a former state representative and secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, will be paid $10,000 each month for six months, according to her service agreement. She will meet weekly with staff to review casework practices, and she will make regular reports to the board of commissioners.
Once her six months are up, she and the county have an option to extend her service by another six months.
Mackereth said she's been in contact with the state Civil Service Commission to help with recruiting, and Gaughan said they recently hired a caseworker.
Mackereth's hiring comes two weeks after the county fired its former director of health and human services, William Browning. Barb Durkin, the director of drug and alcohol services, also now serves as Browning's interim replacement.
It also comes as the future of a criminal case brought by Scranton police and the Lackawanna County district attorney's office is pending appeal of a county judge's decision to dismiss the charges against five staffers on grounds they have legal immunity.
Police alleged that five current and former caseworkers put children in danger by leaving them in horrid conditions. Last month, Judge James Gibbons found that state law shields them from prosecution.
The district attorney's office filed notice Feb. 1 it will appeal Gibbons' decision to the state Superior Court.
"This ruling gives permission to every child protective services worker in the Commonwealth to ignore their responsibilities without fear of any legal consequences," District Attorney Mark Powell said after Gibbons ruled. "It's wrong and it cannot stand. Our children deserve better."