Polk County Commissioner Warren Strandell released another County Line Column yesterday. It can be found down below –
It was 25 years ago at about this time of year when Bill Green, then a Social Service supervisor, came to the County Board with an absolutely crazy idea: Hire five new people to become Family Based Service Providers.
These were totally new positions. There was absolutely no room in the budget for them or anything else. In all respects, the County was broke. Damage from the Flood of 1997 had wiped out millions and millions of dollars of property valuation, mostly in East Grand Forks. The county tax base had been severely decimated, and the General Fund — I have an old report to prove it — showed a balance of only $23,000.
That wasn’t enough money to support more than a day or two of operations, if that much. The County was surviving on money borrowed from the Social Services Department, which had received advance funding from the State of Minnesota. The County agreed to pay back the loan when the next round of tax collections came in. That only slowed the problem. The County made the first payback but was soon out of money again. The borrow/payback arrangement was repeated, I believe, three times before the County was finally able to get back on its own feet.
No money available
All of this came about a couple of years after the County Board — previous to me — had spent down reserves rather than increase the tax levy during a time of some really bad farming years. As a result, there were no reserve funds left to go on.
In his sales pitch, Green, who was one of those people who could sell stink to a skunk, said the five new people would work to correct issues with the kids who were in “out of home placement.” This problem was way beyond what regular social service workers had the time to address.
Some background: Troubled and/or abused juveniles are placed in out-of-home placement facilities when their behavior gets them into trouble or when their homes are deemed unsafe and/or lack appropriate parenting. Depending on the services prescribed, the daily per diem cost for these placements in facilities around the state ranges to more than several hundred dollars a day.
And most of that money comes from county property taxes. By 1996, the cost of out-of placements had about doubled in a three-year period to $2.26 million. In 1997, it was up to $2.4 million. Some were suggesting that a $3 million figure was looming.
Brainstorm sessions
Before he left the agency in 1997, then Social Services Director Bill Kurpius-Brock had involved people from the agencies that have a role in dealing with and determining out-of-home placements. These included the County Attorney’s Office, Court Administration, Tri-County Community Corrections, Public Health, Sheriff’s Office, Northwestern Mental Health, public defenders, county coordinator, and school administrators.
From those sessions came recommendations to provide assessments, referrals, screenings, interventions, and other practices… along with the staff needed to perform them. After receiving initial support from the County Board, that support was soon reconsidered and dropped because of cost.
Later, with Kent Johnson as social services director and with Green making the pitch, another plan was presented. It asked the authority to hire five “family-based service providers” (FBSP) who would work directly with the problem kids and their parents in home situations. These providers wouldn’t have to be trained social workers… just good people who had a strong interest in helping kids grow into productive citizens.
Uphill battle
When you go before the County Board with a proposal to hire five more county employees without any guarantee that there would be a return on investment, your chances aren’t very good. By nature, commissioners are tightwads. Their constituents — county taxpayers — demand it, and commissioners who have any hope of ever being re-elected have that message engrained in their minds.
In his presentation, Green rolled out the whole program. He not only claimed that it would work, but he also guaranteed that it would and offered to put his job on the line if it didn’t. In the true role of a social worker, the point was made that this would also go a long way toward getting kids — and their parents — on a better path.
In a leap of faith, the board voted 5-0 to allow the hiring of five FBSPs. I actually made the motion with the second by Don Bakken.
Passed the test
With the five FBSPs quickly selected, trained, and on the job, out-of-home placement costs quickly decreased. After a full year of the program, the cost was down to $1.6 million. By 2001, the cost was down to just a touch over $1 million, and it stayed at about that $1 million mark for the next 17 years before finally climbing to $1.39 million in 2015.
With some 25 years of inflation factored in, the cost has now inched up to $1.5 million in the last couple of years.
Beyond the cost, containment is the fact that many teens and their parents, too, have benefitted the most.
What brought this accounting about now is that the announcement was made last month that the last two of those original five hires — Beth Greenwood and Wendie Dobias-Osborn — were retiring. They were there from the start and, now, 25 years later, I’m sure they have many, many success stories that they could tell.
One of the conclusions that can be drawn from this trip through memory lane is that county government works best with a team approach in which staff can propose ways to do things better and at less cost while those in the governing body have the courage to believe in them… to take that leap of faith together.
Thoughts for the day:
- As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind… every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder. — John Glenn
- Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. — Ronald Reagan (1986)
