DENVER – Colorado lawmakers are frustrated with the response from human services officials after the majority of the Legislature sent a letter of no-confidence earlier this month.
Several lawmakers who organized the letter to Gov. John Hickenlooper, and who were early supporters of the communication, worry that the Department of Human Services is missing the point. That point, they say, was to highlight systemic failures in the hopes of spurring a change in leadership and direction.
The department’s embattled leader, Reggie Bicha, said on Tuesday that he believes he is capable of continuing to oversee the massive and complicated department, and he has the support of his boss, Hickenlooper.
Only a day after their first public remarks on the subject since the letter was drafted May 4, a report by The Denver Post highlighted ongoing problems within the department, this time focused on possibly having to repay the federal government nearly $1 million after the department spent money on a food-assistance program without receiving federal approval. The state is appealing the order and negotiating the total amount.
Eighty-four of the Legislature’s 100 lawmakers signed the rare bipartisan letter of no-confidence, pointing to “numerous accounts of disturbing issues” over the last 18 months.
Alicia Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said the letter highlighted only isolated incidents, including allegations of “physical abuse, verbal abuse and unwanted sexual contact” at the Pueblo Regional Center, not within the entire child-welfare, mental-health, youth-incarceration and developmental-disabilities systems.
“It raises concerns about physical, verbal and sexual abuse within the Pueblo Regional Center – one facility – not four major systems run by CDHS,” Caldwell said.
But the letter also references lack of oversight by the state over county-delivered human services, which is “encroaching on the safety of children,” according to lawmakers. Children in the Denver Human Services system died without the state taking action against the county, according to the letter. Critics of the department say this highlights more systemic issues.
Earlier state audits – including one from October 2014 – pointed to deficiencies with investigations conducted by the department, with many of those concerns playing out during hearings this year in the Legislature. Lawmakers raised questions concerning oversight of screening and assessing child abuse and neglect allegations.
“Those were specific examples, but they were examples. They were not intended to minimize the scope of some of these problems that we’ve already identified,” Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, who signed the letter and investigated many of the issues as chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said of the intent of the scathing dispatch. “The problems go back years.”
The department’s response worries Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, an early signer of the letter.
“I realize it was a litany of isolated events, but the point wasn’t to look at them in isolation,” Steadman said. “I’m watching ... something needs to be done, to draw a line here and say, ‘Enough is enough, let’s get this under control.’ I’d like to see evidence that that’s happening.”
Sen. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, an early signer of the letter, was stern, adding: “All the communications in the world with the Legislature isn’t going to solve the challenges going on within the department right now. This is exactly the concern I have with the department – they are failing to recognize the importance of real problems coming forward.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com