DENVER—County commissioners in Colorado vowed to turn over control of their welfare programs to the state if Gov. Bill Ritter goes ahead with a threat to take over county programs that refuse to pay more for services.
Weld County commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer told a legislative hearing on child welfare Friday that county officials were blindsided by a proposal from Ritter to take over county programs that fail to pay 20 percent more for programs. Kirkmeyer said counties can’t afford it and they’ll be forced to give up programs that are working.
“We will turn them over. There will be increased costs to the state, more barriers to citizens getting services and the loss of local control,” Kirkmeyer told lawmakers.
“We don’t have the funding to cover that match, which means the state will take over larger counties,” said Arapahoe County Commissioner Susan Beckman.
The joint legislative committee is looking into lapses at the Department of Human Services after the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper reported officials charged with reviewing the deaths of children involved with the system failed to complete reports for 10 of 11 cases since 2008.
State welfare officials blamed the lapses on lack of communication with counties that administer the programs.
Under the current system, social services are administered by counties and supervised by the state.
Colorado counties were upset after a report from the department last year recommended the state take over social services in rural areas following the deaths of several children.
Ritter later backed off the recommendation and said his administration would study the proposal for a year.
Ritter created a task force that made the recommendation following a state investigation into the deaths of 13 children whose families had previous contact with social workers.
The investigation found that training of social workers was inadequate and communications problems occur between county social workers and the state human services department.
The report recommended that the state move to a hybrid organizational model, allowing for regionalization of 53 of the state’s 64 counties to streamline and improve services. Larger counties could opt out, but they would also have to pay a penalty.
