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Resolution 2017-034 <br /> BOARD OF ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br /> RESOLUTION OPPOSING THE MANDATORY REGIONALIZATION <br /> OF SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENTS <br /> WHEREAS,Orange County is committed to protecting children from maltreatment and to working with the community to <br /> improve child wellbeing and strengthen families; and <br /> WHEREAS,Orange County commits significant local funds to support the programs and services to meet these needs by <br /> administering both mandated and County initiatives that are designed with the particular needs of the local community in mind; <br /> and <br /> WHEREAS, SB594/HB608,now provisions in the Senate budget bill,would require mandatory regionalization of all social <br /> services programs and require counties to continue to finance these services; and <br /> WHEREAS, most authority for services would be vested in regional authorities with little county input or control; and <br /> WHEREAS,Orange County continues to provide quality services to families and believes that mandatory regionalization will <br /> negatively impact the quality of services available to our families; and <br /> WHEREAS,local departments,in addition to their child welfare duties, provide a wide arrange of services to their <br /> communities,including Medicaid,Food and Nutrition,employment services,child care support, services to elderly and <br /> disabled adults,crisis assistance and disaster assistance; and <br /> WHEREAS,Orange County's data shows over the course of the last five years improved outcomes for children including the <br /> percentage of children achieving placement stability within the first year, the percentage of children remaining in their initial <br /> placement, and reduced court involvement due to effective social work intervention; and <br /> WHEREAS,the State of North Carolina already has better performance than the national average on six of seven national <br /> performance measures; and <br /> WHEREAS,there is no evidence that regionalization will provide improvements in the statewide child welfare system;there <br /> seems to be no national evidence of any correlation between performance and structure of services; and <br /> WHEREAS,fiscal and legal issues related to regionalization will be extremely complex, and will take considerable time to <br /> study, and may lead to unintended negative consequences; and <br /> WHEREAS,county employees are already raising questions about the impact of this bill on their ongoing work at social <br /> services potentially causing the system to lose well-trained social workers who choose to seek more stable employment; and <br /> WHEREAS,counties are working aggressively on program improvement plans and continuous improvement initiatives to <br /> improve practice and to have that reflected in the next federal child welfare review;disrupting services with studies or with <br /> staff concerns about their employment during this time will prevent state and county resources being committed to meeting <br /> these goals; <br /> NOW,THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of Commissioners declares its opposition to any <br /> mandatory regionalization of local departments of social services and requests that any study of this system be fact-based and <br /> include child welfare staff from the local departments, and urges the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners to <br /> do the same. <br /> This is the 25th day of May,2017 <br /> Mark Dorosin,Chair <br /> Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />