Indiana child services Manager resigns, says IT cuts ‘all ensure children will Perish’
Mary Beth Bonaventura composed in a letter criticizing the governor that she could serve the state in good conscience.
December 18, 2017
Colin WoodManaging Editor
Colin Wood is the editor of StateScoop. He was also a staff writer for Government Technology magazine. Before that, he taught Engl…
Mary Beth Bonaventura (Indiana Department of Child Services)
Citing concern that budget cuts and “antiquated” technology will “all but guarantee children will die,” the director for the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) has announced her resignation.
In a letter to Gov. Eric Holcomb made public on Friday, ” Mary Beth Bonaventura said she could no longer serve the nation in good conscience because she sees children “being sporadically put at risk, with no ability to help them.”
“I choose to measure, rather than be complicit in decreasing the safety, permanency and well-being of children who have nowhere else to turn,” Bonaventura wrote.
Bonaventura, that has led DCS for the previous five years and has worked in child welfare for 36 years, mentioned the Senate’s recent appointment of Eric Miller as DCS’s chief of staff as one of the precipitating factors behind her departure. Bonaventura was court judge in Lake County for 20 years prior to being appointed to her post at DCS by former Gov. Mike Pence in 2013.
Bonaventura asserts that Miller, who was appointed by Holcomb in July, engineered his own hires, even bullied staff, made a hostile work environmentthat was “brazenly insubordinate.” She said she discovered no help to stop him when his budget cuts were first set forward.
In an official statement issued Friday, the Holcomb’s office thanked Bonaventura for her “years of support and her devotion to maintaining Hoosier kids protected.”
“I share that commitment and that is why the state continues to make investments in the agency,” Holcomb’s statement reads. “We are providing record funding to DCS with almost half a billion dollars more in funding support during the subsequent two years. We’ll continue to do everything we can to safeguard children.”
Despite Holcomb’s defense against the section, Bonaventura informed the Indianapolis Star which DCS’s Child Support Bureau is “on the verge of collapse due to antiquated technology” Bonaventura said that the section was on the brink of building a new system, using spent years procuring federal approval and matching capital, but that her team was abruptly ordered to stop work on the undertaking.
The governor’s strategy will lower contract numbers by $15 million, leaving over 1,000 households without the court-ordered solutions to which they are entitled, Bonaventura said.
In an exchange with StateScoop, the governor’s office declined to respond to the maintains of Bonaventura. The office says it is currently looking for a replacement to lead the “critical” state agency.
Though no longer with DCS, Bonaventura composed in her resignation letter that she will continue to be “the biggest advocate fore children and the people that are serving them”
-During this Story-
States, Indiana, State & Local News, Budgets & Taxes, Careers & Elected Officials, Governor, Management & Workforce, Tech News, IT Infrastructure, Modernization, kid services, Mary Beth Bonaventura, Indiana Department of Child Services
source http://www.the-childrens-guide.com/indiana-kid-services-director-resigns-says-it-cuts-kids-will-perish/
No comments:
Post a Comment