County feeling left out by governor's child abuse task force

El Paso County is feeling left out by a gubernatorial task force that is winding up an 18-month investigation into ways to better protect kids who are potential victims of child abuse or neglect. 

The task force, formed by Gov. Bill Ritter in 2008 after 13 children died the previous year, is proposing sweeping reforms to the delivery and structure of human services, including a centralized call system. County Commissioner Sallie Clark, as well as officials from other counties, contend the task force has gone far beyond its mandate and is attempting to wrest control of activities that traditionally belong to local governments. 

In the next few weeks, the Child Welfare Action Committee will hold public forums in Sterling, Glenwood Springs, Pueblo and Denver.

The El Paso County Board of Commissioners voted this week to draft a letter to Ritter asking that one forum be held in Colorado Springs. “We’re the most populous county in Colorado and have a large number of providers here, so it would make sense to have a meeting here,” Clark said.

Liz McDonough, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Human Services, said the task force was merely trying to be geographically inclusive: “We couldn’t possibly include every community.”

The recommendations, McDonough added, are “starting points” for discussion. Neither the proposed call center nor the restructuring reforms will be subject of legislation in 2010, she added.

Under the restructuring proposal, the human services departments of Colorado’s 64 counties could be reconfigured as either State Regional Offices or County Regional Offices. The smaller counties could wind up with more state funds for their human services; larger counties, including El Paso, could find their share of the costs increasing by millions of dollars.

Clark admits there are flaws in the system, but doesn’t believe a centralized, state-run human services organization would function more effectively or actually reduce the number of fatalities resulting from abuse and neglect. “Can the system be better? Obviously yes. But we don’t believe we need to throw out the entire system and start over,” Clark said.

Clark and other county officials embrace 27 of the 29 task force recommendations. But they oppose the creation of a centralized call system. Local officials, Clark maintains, are in a much better position to deal with potential child abuse complaints. They know the families, the social workers, the law enforcement officers and the community. “We want to reduce the amount of child abuse instead of setting up a system that is more complex and bureaucratic in nature,” she said.

McDonough said the task force came up with the centralized call system proposal because of the tremendous inconsistencies in how calls are handled.

“The services provided to kids and families shouldn’t be an accident of geography,” she said. “It shouldn’t depend on what county the family resides in terms of what kind of help that family can get.”

Two of the 13 children who died of child abuse in 2007 were from El Paso County. They included Alizé Vick, 2, and Kayla Dutcher, who was 4 years old.

Vick’s family recently filed a federal lawsuit in Denver alleging officials with the county’s Human Services Department were so negligent that they created a “special zone of danger” which resulted in the toddler’s death.