DFAC ex-Chairman Running for Senate

Voters Beware!
After seeing the results of the last eight years we must start recognizing when to rid ourselves of the potential/want to be representatives before they get started. This is an important year and the candidates are lining up to fill the seats of the either non productive or corrupt politicians that have destroyed our most worshipped promise “Serve the people”.

First we continue to keep an accused rapist on the ballot, Vernon Jones as if it never happened. My how we forget! Now there is another potential candidate looking for support that has a very checkered past. This is directly in line with the governmental entity that is in charge of taking care/watching over of our children and families of our metro area.

The Potential Candidate
Have you heard the news the so called "insiders" of the Democratic Party are about to settle on a candidate to take on Saxby Shameless? (AJC political insider March 2nd 2008)
Word is former DHR Commissioner Jim Martin is taking their bait, and busy trying to drum up support with his former colleagues at the Gold Dome. Now let’s be grow ups and analyze this. The Martin brothers are back in full affect.

Before anybody gets too excited, they ought to remember why Jim Martin resigned as Commissioner of Human Resources. (AJC Sept 19th 2003).
Upon his forced resignation, the paper wrote "The agencies headed by Blount-Clark and Martin have attracted intense criticism since the deaths this summer of two metro Atlanta toddlers who had been in state care. In August, DFCS fired two caseworkers after the death of 2-year-old Kyshawn Punter of DeKalb County.

Our children Died
The child had been returned to his home twice although his stepfather had been accused of beating him. The child died Aug. 14. The stepfather, Shaun Stewart, 25, has been charged with murder. A month earlier, 2-year-old Caleb Woods of Douglas County died July 13 after being severely beaten, during a two-week period authorities said.

Daniel Brian Appleby, 23, the boyfriend of the child's mother, has been charged with murder. DFCS workers previously had received seven complaints about the boy's welfare. A DFCS case manager resigned over the handling of that case).111Martin's leadership at DHR, if you can call it that, was dismal. Among his obvious failures, was the inability to turn the tide on child abuse. When Martin resigned, the AJC and other media wrote that "The percentage of abused children who get abused again has been rising since 1999 in Georgia. Four years ago, the rate of repeat abuse was 4.2 percent, and this year it's up to 5.7 percent..." Is this the kind of representation we want? This is what we already have.

Those were the obvious failures.

It didn't take too much digging to find something less obvious, but just as egregious.
In August of 2003, just before Martin's resignation, news media investigated and broadcast allegations that DHR and DFACS, under Martin's direction, was allowing a computer system that helped the state's most at-risk families apply for Medicaid, to remain off-line or broken down. The WSB report, (which coincidentally was delivered by former reporter and current Senate Candidate Dale Cardwell) had this to say "

"It's a story Georgia leaders say they'd rather not discuss. Thousands of state workers twiddling their thumbs, because the computers you pay for, often don't run."
See link to story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH0zQUlw6zM

Jim Martin said: "There are some inconveniences to some of our employees when our computers down. I understand that, but that's not the story."

Reporter: "Workers who called us disagree. They say Georgia's "Success" computer program, which compiles eligibility data for Medicaid and food stamps, is often off-line. Leaving state workers idle for hours."

Martin maintained the computer problem was not serious, and that they were "going to deal with them," but WSB documented that the computers had been down a whopping 66.3 hours in July, and 12 business hours during the first week of August. In effect, it prevented tens of thousands of Georgia's families from signing their children up for Medicaid, or putting food on their table through the food stamp program when the state was suffering from a significant recession.

Sound familiar? Wasn't it Republican Saxby Chambliss who voted against expanding the S-Chip program which provides Medicaid funded health care to thousands of Georgia families?

WSB's Report documented that Martin's department was in effect, helping Georgia's new Republican Governor cut costs behind the scenes, hidden from the public, by keeping their computer system off-line. Haven’t we had enough of the secret deals being made?

How many families and single mothers sat in DFACS lobbies that summer and fall waiting for Martin's computer system to return to service?

The media again dropped the ball and here we go agan.

So the question is this: Why should Georgia's Democratic Party recruit an "insider" to take on Saxby Chambliss when they already have a Senator who will deny health care to Georgia's children?
Come on' Democrats, not again!

Comments

[frustrated too]

First I want to add a few important facts. CPS and the benefits (Medicaid food stamps, etc.)are 2 seperate parts of DFCS. Medicaid computers being down have nothing to do with child abuse directly.(although financial stressors do lead to rising abuse rates.)
That being said, it is hard for everyone who works for DHR to do their jobs when the society and its government do not support or fully fund it's mission.
Now as far as abuse stats are concerned, it must also be understood that just because we know about more cases of abuse, doesn't mean there are more. If this were true we would believe that no one abused their kids in the 1950's!
Also, I must add that although DFCS/CPS has a very important job to do, and needs to have well trained and educated (and Paid)staff; CPS cannot prevent all ,or even most abuse that happens in this state. Most of it never becomes known by CPS. Also, CPS and judges are lied to by parents who do not agree with CPS interventions. There is only so much that can be done in those situations.

A perfectly functional CPS, which no state has, can't protect all kids. We can do better though. But it must be understood that CPS can only work within current laws and with current resources. I know of several cases where a worker would like to remove a child from the home but there is no where to place the child. There are other cases where current laws do not give workers the permission to protect children as fully as they might like: CPS goals focus on family reunification.
Ultimately no govt. agency can truly replace good parents.

So I ask all who may read this: What are you doing to make the system better?
Are you a foster parent? Do you know the laws? Do you police your own family? I personally believe that if readers truly care about this,
They have to know that just complaining about what others do or not do is not enough.