Florida’s community-based care agencies are pursuing a legislative solution to their contract dispute with Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins.
The agencies have been resisting Wilkins’ efforts to add terms to their contracts that would give him more control over their delivery of child-welfare services — including the right to name their chief executive officers and other top staff.
Since the state directs $769 million a year to the agencies via Wilkins’ agency, that gives the secretary plenty of leverage.
The agencies are fighting back by recruiting lawmakers to help them rewrite part of state law that created the community-based care system, which was designed to shift many child-welfare duties from the state to local nonprofit organizations.
“There’s legislative incentive now, and momentum to get this changed,” said Stephen Spivey, a retired judge who chairs the board of Kids Central Inc., the community-based care organization in Ocala. “The Legislature is just not going to allow Wilkins by administrative fiat to defeat the CBC model.”
Wilkins also wants the right to unilaterally change the agencies’ performance measures after their contracts are signed. In a recent interview with The News Service of Florida, Wilkins said he is trying to use a measurement-based system to improve the groups.
Wilkins said his agency in the past had to replace 20 percent of the agencies for inadequate performance on their contracts. He also said his use of a monthly scorecard to measure performance had improved their scores by 25 percent. Wilkins didn’t respond Thursday to requests for comment.
Spivey, who spoke as an individual and not for his board of directors, said many allies of the system have been angered by what they consider to be overreach by the secretary.
“The CBCs and their boards are a ready-made political action committee,” Spivey said. “There are a lot of powerful people lining up against Wilkins.”
One is former Sen. Ron Silver (D-North Miami Beach) now a member of the board of Our Kids, the community-based care organization in Miami-Dade County. Silver confirmed he’s among those approaching lawmakers about rewriting the CBC statute. “I’ve agreed to help on the Senate side with as many people as I can,” he said.
Former state Rep. Kurt Kelly, CEO of the Florida Coalition for Children, which represents the community-based care agencies, said he’s been talking to lawmakers as well. “To a person, they’re excited about the CBC model and concerned about overreach,” Kelly said. “I haven’t talked to one who doesn’t support us.”
Silver, who chaired the Senate subcommittee on health and human services appropriations when the law was passed, said Wilkins’ efforts to control the CBCs violate the Legislature’s intent.
Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach) agrees.
Last month Bean vowed to make helping the agencies one of his legislative priorities. He became involved when Wilkins delayed renewing the state’s contract with the agency that serves Duval County, which Bean represents.
Like Silver, Bean sees efforts to centralize child welfare as reverting to an old system that didn’t work.
“Do we want to go backward?” he asked. “Once we frame the case, lawmakers are going to jump on board.”
Silver also confirmed that Wilkins had lobbied the Our Kids board to fire its CEO, Fran Allegra. Silver said board members took a dim view of the gambit, and he threatened to resign if it succeeded. It didn’t.
Department Communications Director Alexis Lambert said in an email that her agency had doubts about the actions of Our Kids leading up to the 2011 murder of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona by her adoptive parents. Our Kids had placed Nubia and her twin, Victor, with Jorge and Carmen Barahona, who now face charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect. Both Our Kids and the department were criticized for their roles in the case.
“We have had concerns with the management and performance of Our Kids since the Barahona case and the relationship has been strained,” Lambert wrote. “DCF is in the process of renewing the contract with Our Kids.”
Lambert added that “the responsibility to hire and fire the CEO is the board’s.”
The agencies haven’t drafted a bill yet, but Kelly said some of the language now in statute is outdated and should be clarified.
Silver said they’ll ramp up their efforts when the Legislature returns to Tallahassee for committee meetings in September.
“We’re going to control our own destiny,” he said.