Article by Erik Smith. Published on Thursday, December 10, 2010 EST.
Zy’Nyia Nobles. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer photo)
By William W. Larson
Special to Washington State Wire
Editor’s Note: In this op-ed piece, William Larson, a former social worker for the Department of Social and Health Services, relates the complaints of front-line DSHS workers to one of the most hearbreaking episodes in the agency’s history, and a case in which he was personally involved — the death of young Zy’Nyia Nobles.
OLYMPIA, Dec. 9.–Do you wonder why Washington state employees waited until now to talk about widespread mismanagement and fraud within the programs of DSHS? There’s a simple answer: they were never asked by anyone in authority who was willing to give them a voice.
At least not until Senators Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield and Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle decided to solicit their opinions on how to resolve the projected $5.7 billion dollar shortfall. Within 24 hours they had over 3,000 responses and the numbers of replies from concerned state workers just kept growing.
Some of those responses have recently been released to the public. Collectively they paint a picture of a state agency malfeasant in its duties to the people of Washington, with financial assistance programs that are replete with waste, and fraud. Situations like this can only happen in an atmosphere of absolute mismanagement where there is no consideration for cost, neither monetary nor human. On occasion even children must pay the price for negligence on this scale.
The Ongoing Problems with DSHS
DSHS is the largest state agency in Washington. It consumes 1/3 of the state budget and has an operating budget of more than $20 billion a year.
For years, the Washington Legislature has been aware of the ongoing problems with DSHS, and fixing those problems is always on the agenda. But because of the enormity of the task not much has ever been accomplished.
Legislators have even considered the idea of functionally breaking-up the mega agency in order to make it more transparent and accountable. But for some reason, action is always delayed.
But now, thanks to senators Zarelli and Prentice, the burning cries of state workers demanding reform may soon resonate through the state’s legislative chambers and result in meaningful reform. Because of the input of frontline workers, perhaps the restructuring of DSHS will be given priority in the next legislative session.
State workers contend that DSHS, through mismanagement, has allowed waste and fraud to fester and grow within many of its programs, and the fiscal result is likely to be catastrophic.
These frontline workers, whose voices were ignored by DSHS management for years, have given the citizens of Washington a glimpse of unrefined reality that exists within DSHS. Finally the agency that had become a citadel impervious to the demands and criticisms of those elected to oversee its operations is exposed to public view.
One of the blessings that come from periods of austerity is that government agencies that are sated in mismanagement are identified and for fiscal reasons are forced to undergo change. Washington’s projected $4.5 billion dollar shortfall should be sufficient motivation to make the needed changes within DSHS.
The Human Cost of an Unresponsive DSHS
But the high cost of mismanagement within DSHS cannot be calculated in dollars alone. Because DSHS is a human service agency, the human cost involved must also be considered.
Reading the comments by frontline state workers reminded me of the frustrations I experienced with DSHS during my tenure as a social worker and social work supervisor. Having held similar positions in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, I was outraged by Washington’s DSHS where neither financial nor human cost seemed important to those in authority.
But those costs are always very real nevertheless, and like all costs they need to be paid by someone.
Taxpayers always end up paying the cost of fiscal mismanagement. But who pays the human costs involved in an unresponsive social service agency?
Let me introduce you to a very special little girl who ended up paying that price.
Meet Zy’Nyia Nobles, a 3 ½ year old child whose father was incarcerated for murder and whose violent mother was a chronic drug addict.
Zy’Nyia and her older half-brother were taken from their mother, Aretha Sconiers, 29, when Zy’Nyia tested positive for illicit drugs when she was born in 1996. Following the child’s birth, Sconiers was imprisoned for processing crack cocaine and the child’s dependency case was assigned to the child welfare unit I supervised at the time.
In August of 1997, because of the age of the child, the length time she had already been in foster care, the lack of progress by her mother and the 97 year murder sentence being served by her father, we filed a petition for termination of parental rights. I reasoned that the child’s entire life had already been lived in foster care, and that it was unreasonable to expect her to continue living without a permanent home.
The court agreed and after the initial hearing ordered that termination proceedings move forward and that the department begin seeking an adoptive home for Zy’Nyia and her brother. But the initial hearing was followed by a series of postponements because of the busy schedule of the court and the various attorneys involved.
After more than a year of postponements I went to court myself demanding that Zy’Nyia’s right to a permanent home be honored and that no further postponements be allowed. The judge agreed and ordered that a scheduled termination trial go forward.
Then the unthinkable happened. For reasons never made clear to me my unit was suddenly disbanded and our cases were distributed to social workers in other child welfare units. I suddenly found myself in the position of regional contracts manager.
Not only was this a violation of my civil service rights as a permanent social work supervisor, it was clearly unfair to the children and families with whom my social workers had been working.
But my concerns and objections to management went unanswered. Even the secretary of DSHS was unresponsive to my pleas for intervention.
Zy’Nyia’s case was arbitrarily assigned to a newly hired social worker who disagreed with the decision to terminate parental rights. With the help of her supervisor the new social worker changed direction of the case and returned Zy’Nyiah to the care of her mother in spite of the mother’s refusal to engage in services. What’s even more concerning, periodic drug tests showed that Zy’Nyiah’s mother was continuing to use illicit drugs when her children were returned to her.
Four months later, in a fit of rage, Zy’Nyiah’s mother kicked her in the abdomen so violently that some of the child’s internal organs burst.
Zy’Nyia died before paramedics arrived.
The medical examiner’s report later noted that in addition to the internal injuries the child had bruises all over her body, skin missing from her backside, and vaginal tearing.
Several years later, DSHS finally agreed to conduct an internal investigation of my removal as supervisor and the dismantling of my unit. The investigation concluded that my rights had been violated by DSHS management and that the entire situation should never have occurred. DSHS was ordered to pay me back pay and benefits.
But that was too little, too late. Zy’Nyia had already paid the ultimate price for DSHS’s mismanagement and unresponsiveness. And that was a price that a 3 ½ year old child should never have to pay.
I think of Zy’Nyia every day of my life and remember her especially on those nights when sleep won’t come. Her story even now haunts my dreams and intrusively tugs at my heart during the workday.
Zy’Nyia was a victim of a government agency out-of-control – more interested in building fiefdoms and management silos than helping the vulnerable, and too preoccupied with increasing budget allocations to be good stewards of the resources already entrusted to its care by Washington taxpayers.
Sadder still is that Zy’Nyia’s story is just one among countless others.
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