Human Services Director Fires Two Top Oregon Child Welfare Officials

“Answering a foster care abuse scandal that’s rocked the Department of Human Services for months, Gov. Kate Brown’s newly appointed human services director, Clyde Saiki, has fired two of the agency’s most senior child welfare officials.

Ousted are Jerry Waybrant, the agency’s chief operating officer over child welfare programs, and Lois Day, the agency’s current child welfare director.

Saiki announced the dismissals Friday, days after Brown made his position atop the agency permanent.

“When the governor asked me to serve as the director of DHS,” Saiki said in a statement, “she made it very clear that one of my top priorities was the safety of children entrusted to our care. She had serious concerns about some of the incidents that came to light over the past year, and I share those concerns, too.

“I need to have leaders who can help DHS move in the direction we need to go. I am making changes today, and in the coming months I will make additional personnel changes, as needed,” he continued.

The decision also came as the agency learned of a $60 million lawsuit that accuses officials of allowing two small children under its watch ito endure severe starvation.

In a note to lawmakers Thursday morning, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Saiki said he acted “after reviewing the case and based on my assessment of our child welfare program.”

Waybrant briefly served as the agency’s acting director last year, until he was replaced by Saiki. Brown demoted him amid reports he was among a group of senior officials, including former director Erinn Kelley-Siel, who’d continued placing children with a Northeast Portland provider despite repeated red flags over abuse complaints and financial problems.

Day was also among that group. She had retained her job atop the child welfare program, even as lawmakers led by Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, held a series of hearings on foster care lapses and released hundreds of pages of documents showing concerns and indifference had stretched back years.

Those hearings led to legislation, Senate Bill 1515, that requires quarterly reports on abuse, tightens licensing rules for providers and makes it a crime for officials to knowingly ignore neglect.

Day, repeatedly called to testify in front of lawmakers, had called Gelser’s proposals “very good.” Earlier, in September, she had promised an internal review of the agency.

“I feel responsible for helping see this through,” she said in November, “to ensure this doesn’t occur again.”

The records released by Gelser show officials had known about problems at provider Give Us This Day for more than a decade, adding to revelations that included allegations of $2 million in misspent money and children forced to deal with mold, hunger, inappropriate force and a lack of bedding.

And a complaint log released among the documents raised serious questions about the way human services officials handle complaints of abuse and neglect. Many serious complaints against Give Us This Day and its employees never went beyond an initial screening.

The words “no investigation” appeared next to reports on allegations including anal rape, sexual fondling, children accused of having sex after being found in the same bed, a lack of supervision from foster parents, bruises and death threats.

Oregon’s foster care system, in charge of thousands of kids on any given day, has long faced troubles — paying millions of dollars to settle abuse claims and struggling under budget cuts that sapped caseworker staffing and sent caseloads skyrocketing.

In June, The Oregonian/OregonLive found the Human Services Department had struggled to report a basic means of keeping children safe: monthly visits from caseworkers. Federal audits have repeatedly dinged the department for falling behind benchmarks.

Saiki has presided over a steady shakeup since being given interim control of the department in November.

Under Saiki, department administrators now meet regularly to discuss abuse claims and licensing infractions. And Saiki has talked about opening his door directly to employees and others who worry mid-level managers aren’t heeding their concerns.

Earlier, some foster care programs, despite racking up complaint after complaint, had continued receiving children despite lingering on a department watch list for years.

Twice since November, the department has moved against the licenses of programs  who’d been on that list. One of those providers, Youth Villages in Lake Oswego, closed one of its programs as part of a settlement with the state.

Saiki has also been asked to shepherd an outside review of the department’s child welfare system, another effort launched by Brown.

“Our mission is to assist Oregonians in achieving safety, health and independence – and in some areas we have lost that focus,” Saiki said in a statement Friday. “It is my job to make the decisions and changes, sometimes difficult ones, to restore that focus on safety. The governor expects it, and Oregonians deserve it.”

Foster care scandal: Human services director fires top child welfare officials [Oregon Live 3/18/16 by Denis C. Theriault]

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