County budget takes toll on juvenile justice staff

Whitman County’s juvenile justice department is struggling to meet an increased workload after the county’s budget crunch has kept the agency from employing a full-time case worker to speak for youths in court cases.

In 2009, the department lost its full-time Court-Appointed Special Advocate, or CASA, agent. To hold down expenses, remaining staff patched that hole. Unfortunately, where the CASA agent had time to properly train volunteers, the staff found it more time-efficient to handle cases themselves.

Handling those cases, in addition to monitoring juvenile probation and mediating family court cases, is creating a mounting work load for juvenile justice staff members.

Across-the-board cuts in the county’s 2011 budget only worsened the situation, according to Kim Kopf, director of the juvenile department.

To keep up with cases, Kopf asked county commissioners in a workshop session last Tuesday, Jan. 18, for the authority to hire a new employee.

“We’re in a dilemma here. This isn’t working, and we’re drowning,” said Kopf.

Kopf said the new hire would cost her department $42,215 in annual wages and benefits for a full-time case worker. An alternative would be to contract case workers off a roster of private agents approved by the court..

Agents from the department not only act as independent researchers for troubled youth, but also for adults who are alleged incapacitated. The agents review psychological reports, needs of guardianship and investigate the suitability of potential guardians.

“We’ve had a lot of cases, and they’ve only been increasing in number and intensity,” said Kopf.

The cost of contracting outside agents can easily mount to $10,000 per case, said Kopf. Based on prior years’ case loads, those outside fees could easily mount to $100,000 or above.

Kopf said a full-time CASA employee would free up her department’s staff to work those cases.

“Either I hire a person to cover the CASA program, or we deal with these cases by pulling agents off the registry,” Kopf told commissioners.

Kopf has the authority to hire that employee, but the budget cuts left her department without the spending authority to add another salary.

Kopf noted she cut $30,000 from the juvenile department’s 2011 budget, only to have the spending replaced by a $35,000 increase in the county’s annual Martin Hall payment.

Her original 2011 proposed budget would not have covered the expense of a new employee, and her finances were further drained by the 2.61 percent cuts commissioners ordered for every department to balance the bottom line. For juvenile justice, that cut amounts to $17,230.

“Because of the way we did budgeting for 2011.... we just made across-the-board cuts,” said Partch. “We didn’t have the time to look at your needs or your potential problems.”

Commissioners noted Kopf would need an official amendment to her budget to get the additional funds. She said she wanted to get commissioners approval before she made a hire to assure it wouldn’t bankrupt her department.

“I don’t want to spend it and then not have that money at the end of the year,” she said.