St. Lawrence County Social Services has completed 15 of 19 corrective actions, commissioner says

Mike Gagliardi, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

Oct. 26—CANTON — St. Lawrence County Social Services Commissioner Joseph L. Seeber updated the legislature Monday during the Services Committee meeting on the status of recommendations made by the Bonadio Group, noting that 15 of 19 have been completed.

"We have 19 points to our Corrective Action Plan, and when I came before (the legislature) last month we were at 42 percent, and as of today we have completed 15 of the 19 recommendations," Mr. Seeber said. "The other four are either close to being finished or are ongoing."

Last year, the board hired the independent firm to investigate allegations made 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.

Both the conflict of interest policy and the centralized policies have been dealt with, Mr. Seeber said.

"The Bonadio Group sent a template for a conflict of interest policy which was based on an amalgamation of policies from other departments, and as of a week ago its been implemented," he said.

Mr. Seeber said his department created a website as a repository for all the policies and procedures that are now accessible to the entire staff.

"There's no longer an issue with that," he said.

One of the ongoing recommendations is the need for a work-from-home policy for the department.

"There are some further discussions that need to be done as we decide on the best model for that, whether it's a hybrid model or something else, but that's ongoing, and I will be bringing that before this board again," Mr. Seeber said.

Another ongoing recommendation is the need to improve case tracking, so that each case is properly documented. He said the work on that is ongoing.

Just because a recommendation has been dealt with, Mr. Seeber said, doesn't mean they're out of sight and mind.

"We don't want to have this corrective conversation ever again," he said.