The second shoe has begun to drop, and it now appears that Teens Happy Homes will soon be closed.  You can read about it here.

Garett Therolf continues to do stellar work on this story, and it is nice to see the media take an interest in the subject, and do the good investigative work necessary, to bring about a bit of improvement in the lives of the foster children, attached to this agency. This is important stuff.

However, as usual, at other suspect agencies, malfeasance alone, is not enough to warrant many words on the subject, or action by regulators.  Or for that matter, action by law enforcement.

Malfeasance, must be accompanied by child deaths or significant injuries, before any action is taken, to bring some culprits to moderate justice.  

An example of this can be seen with United Care, which was closed a few years ago.  In one of the below recordings given to the Times,  consultant Jorge Gutierrez, when speaking about Craig Woods and United Care, pointed out that it wasn’t the death of Viola Vanclief that caused United Care to be closed.

Rather it was Craig’s “stubbornness” in not paying back the bulk of the money, which the county said, had been illegally siphoned by a former employee.  (Almost $250,000).

At United Care, an innocent toddler was murdered, before malfeasance warranted a heavy hand by the county, which shut down the agency.

Similarly, another agency was shut, fairly recently, accompanied by similar financial wreckage, payments to felons, and encompassed a plethora of  creepy individuals, enough to turn one’s stomach.

However, in the case of this other agency, there wasn’t a lot of Child Welfare violations.  This circumstance warranted minimal media attention, despite missing funds amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Not sexy enough?

Things are different with Teens, but why did it take so long?

Part of the real story, is that Teens fiscal audit is not yet completed, after 3 years!  Much of the information should have been acted upon, much earlier.

Sincere kudos, to Ms. Watanabe, who admitted county auditors dropped the ball with Teens.  And yet, officials, and media, were warned, by this author and others, in 2010, regarding many similar allegations.

Malfeasance, as well as child welfare issues, at Teens, were continuously ignored.

But why?

Surely this garbage dump was an open secret.  Social workers, current and previous staff members, must have stiff necks from looking the other way all the time.

Obviously at Teens, and quite clearly, one dare says, at other agencies,  payment for minimal or nonexistent work, occurs with willful blindness, by staff, and regulaters.  In some places, it is blatant.

Ask away!  An arrow shall be pointed, (as continues to be done here), to obvious culprits. Yet, under these circumstances, how could child welfare not suffer?

There are good agencies.  There are hard working social workers, who do such work with nobel intentions.  There are wonderful foster parents, who save children’s lives.

All are tainted, by too many greedy, bad apples.

The warnings, are a broken record.  And the guilty, attack the sources, who are afraid for their jobs, and have learned the hard way, that nothing will be done.

There will be no justice.  Either for the cheated children, or the crooks. Nobody will face criminal charges, let alone be banned from working with abused and neglected children.

Are things different now?  Can they be?

Joshua Allen

Draft of allegations by auditor controller.

Tagged: Corruption, Foster Care, Teens Happy Homes