Cold Attitude About Job Freeze

If you set out to write a movie scene that would cynically confirm the worst stereotypes many people have about public employees, it would be tough to top what has actually been playing out in Ventura County’s child welfare department.

At least three people who called to report cases of suspected child abuse were told, essentially, “Buzz off--we’ve got a hiring freeze here so we’re not accepting any new cases.�

When this apparently unofficial policy came to light, Human Services Agency Director Barbara Fitzgerald vowed to put an immediate halt to this perverse attempt to hold imperiled kids hostage amid the county’s reorganization and budget streamlining.

That’s the right move, obviously. But what sort of departmental culture would foster such an appalling attitude in the first place? And why is the Human Services Agency working to sabotage the county’s much-needed effort to tighten up its fiscal practices and chain of command?

In January the Board of Supervisors brought in interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry L. Hufford to guide the county out of a financial mess that left it with a predicted $5-million budget shortfall and to fix organizational problems that contributed to overspending. Hufford instituted a hiring freeze and made it clear that behind-the-scenes deal-cutting between supervisors and department heads had to stop. All five supervisors agreed.

Yet Fitzgerald soon went to Hufford with a request to waive the freeze and let her hire more workers. After Hufford said no, four of Fitzgerald’s staff took it to Supervisor Kathy Long.

This is exactly the sort of end run that necessitated bringing in Hufford in the first place. Previous administrators have been run ragged trying to address the special requests of five separate bosses--and Ventura County taxpayers have paid the price.

Long says she told the employees she wouldn’t promise them anything until Hufford presented her with his recommendations. By week’s end, Hufford had relented and given Fitzgerald permission to hire two new employees. She, in turn, agreed to shift five of her existing staff from specialized posts to fill in as caseworkers.

In December Supervisor Long pledged to help end the inefficient, politicized habit of allowing employees to bypass the chief administrator and plead their cases directly to individual board members. She should stick to that and help Hufford do what he was hired to do.

Fitzgerald should get used to reporting to the chief administrative officer. If department employees are not properly deployed to give top priority to critical duties such as investigating reports of child abuse, then it is Fitzgerald’s duty to rearrange them more effectively. Private-sector managers understand the concept of limited resources, and apparently the rest of the county’s department heads do too.

Even pretending to let abused kids be the losers in this sort of political gamesmanship is out of line.