St. Lawrence County DSS 42% complete with recommendations made by Bonadio Group
Sep. 21—CANTON — St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services Commissioner Joseph L. Seeber updated the legislature Monday on the status of recommendations made by the Bonadio Group, noting that 42% of them have been completed.
Last year, the board hired the independent firm to investigate allegations against the county department and its Child Protective Services unit. The investigation was a response to public outcry over DSS employees fostering children, setting different rates of compensation for doing so, and allegations of employees retaliating against families, among other concerns raised by residents during several past board meetings.
The firm completed the audit in June, and the two main takeaways were the lack of a documented conflict of interest policy for employees and the lack of centralized policies and procedures.
The conflict of interest policy has already been dealt with, Mr. Seeber said, and the centralized policies will be soon.
"We're 42% complete with the corrective action plan as a whole," he said. "One of the recommendations had to do with DSS employees fostering youth. That one is completed. One of the first things I did was put a moratorium on any DSS employees being certified to foster youth."
As for centralizing policies and procedures, he said the framework for that has been created, and should be done "fairly soon."
"We have to make sure everything is in one policy repository with all county and state regulations our employees have to abide by, and that is in process," Mr. Seeber said.
Mr. Seeber separated the recommendations into three categories: ones that could be completed in 30, 60 or 90 days.
"Of the 19 recommendations made by the Bonadio Group, four of them were to be completed within 30 days, and so far we've completed three of those four," he said.
The last one has to do with allowing remote work for employees. Mr. Seeber is working on a recommendation to the board of legislators who will have to approve a plan for that in the near future.
As for the 60-day recommendations, DSS has completed three of 10. "We're ahead of schedule there," Mr. Seeber said.
Of the 90-day recommendations, three are ongoing.
"We're confident we'll meet the 90-day deadlines at or ahead of schedule," he said.
Some of the recommendations still left to accomplish have to do with the hiring process, and "ensuring we're maintaining our staffing levels so our employees don't get overworked."
He said the deadlines his department set for meeting the recommendations are "aggressive," but that "my staff is rising to the challenge to meet the deadlines I put in place."
"I want the public to know that we're not sacrificing quality in our drive to get this done," he said. "We're making sure we're not only in compliance with all recommendations now, but will remain so in the future."
"We're going above and beyond," he added, "in order to make sure we're providing the best service to the citizens of this county."
