HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93009_0553county. Currently there are 36 children in state foster care and
there's 66 AFDC foster children. Most of these children are out of
the county. Agencies used are Baptist Children's Home; Elon
Children's Home; Nazareth Home; etc. Children needing psychiatric
care go to Butner, and a facility in Hickory. One child currently
costs $125 per day. Its cheaper for the county to get children in
AFDC foster care, because the federal government pays 60% of the
cost, the state and county divide the remaining costs.
Commissioner Boone said he heard from people associated with Tri -
County Mental Health about how much it cost to treat the mentally
ill. He said he thought the public should be more aware of the
great expense of some of these programs.
Commissioner Boone asked about the requested Social Worker I
position in JOBS/FSA/DC. He wanted to know how much county money
was involved in this position.
Wall said the county would put in about 5.288. The requested Human
Resources Aid would drive the van that was recently approved. This
van is from the Department of Transportation.
Commissioner Boone asked how many people worked in the fraud
program.
Mr. Wall stated that currently they have two investigators.
Commissioner Hamby asked if the investigators were doing a good
job.
Wall stated he wished they were doing a little better; however,
they are taking people to court. They are getting referrals and
are investigating. Plus, they are winning the majority of the
cases taken to court. However, getting the order enforced is
difficult. Wall further explained that the only program that a
person can be taken off is food stamps. Usually when there's fraud
in AFDC, social services doesn't know about it until about six
months later. If the person was working, they are taken off the
rolls; however, if the person is not working at the time of
discovery, they are still eligible for the program. There's just
a percentage that DSS can recoup each month from a client if they
are working.
Commissioner Boone asked if a reward system could be devised to
encourage citizens to report people receiving undeserved welfare.
Commissioner Stewart said that many times they investigate
allegations of people driving new cars, etc., but normally the cars
turn out to belong to relatives.
Mr. Wall said that if the commissioners would like to contribute
some money for a reward system that he thought it was a good idea.
Commissioner Hamby asked how much money would be involved in the
requested positions.
Wall stated that the fraud position would be 50/50. The processing
assistant for foster care/CPS would be 100% county. The
Jobs Social Worker would be 5.28%. The human resource aid/JOBS
Program would be 7.5%. The SWSUPVIII; SWIII/Foster Care;
SWI/Adoption and the SWIII-Permanancy Planning would all be 100%
county funded. The county manager did not recommend the SWIII-
Adoption and the SWIII-Permanancy Planning positions. Mr. Wall
said the supervisors are being asked to do more and more. Their
work is very complex, and they need some relief.
Mrs. Stewart said that once DSS is fully automated this will aid
the department tremendously. This is not too far in the future.
The computerization will help in doing day sheets.
Commissioner Hamby asked about DSS reform in the near future.