County expected to privatize youth shelter
Nov, 24-2009 11:24 am
By MARY LINEHAN
Correspondent
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – A South Jersey-based nonprofit will be awarded the contract to run Cape May County's Youth Shelter for the next two years.
"I anticipate the vote will go forward, approving Center for Family Services as recommended by the task force," said County Administrator Stephen O'Connor. "This has been the timetable for this project all along."
The contract was the subject of a resolution at the Tuesday, Nov. 24 regular county freeholder meeting held too late for our deadlines. Sources said before the meeting that the resolution was expected to pass.
Center for Family Services holds accreditation by the Council on Accreditation, a national review board for social and health care services. It has six office locations and seven youth shelter facilities in South Jersey, providing services to 90,000 people annually, according to the agency's information.
Headquartered in Gloucester County, the agency connected more than 12,000 residents there with social services, medical, home and transportation services there through its telephone hotline services alone. The program also runs parenting programs, gives educational workshops about the affect of bullying on children and child abuse prevention, and counsels victims of sexual violence.
The center, whose programs have been focused in Camden and Gloucester counties, has reported that it provided more than 500 children shelter care in one year alone.
"All three task force members supported this bid. It was the only one of the bids that used the preferred option, which was to come in and operate out of our shelter," O'Connor.
If the vote went as planned on Tuesday, the center's contract is for $340,000 the first year and $320,000 in the second.
The two-year contract award follows the county's request for bids to the youth shelter on Oct. 21. The bid evaluation criteria included qualification and professional competence of the agency and its staff; cost; experience and references of similar contract performed; management plan and operating procedures.
The contract requires that the Center for Family Services provide five beds for county youth aged 10 to 17 and to provide all services necessary for the children placed in the program, including transportation, education, food service, recreation, and medical care. The medical care requirement includes psychological services, prescription drugs and dental care.
The County Youth Shelter accommodates 12 beds, so O'Connor said that the program would likely contract with New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) to use the remaining beds. "DYFS placements, any placements from out of county, cannot include violent offenders, sexual offenders or youth involved in (arson). Most of the types of charges like those use the detention option and not community placements," said O'Connor.
According to O’Connor, the DYFS per-diem rate it pays to non-profits running shelters is $157 per day, vice the $127 per day the agency paid for placements in government-run placements.
The shelter cost the county $1.1 million to run in 2008. DYFS placements in the shelter result in a per-diem reimbursement to the county, but that only amounted to less than $180,000 last year.
The Cape May County Youth Shelter provides out of home placement to young people “…experiencing family problems, (who) are victims of abuse or neglect or are charged with minor delinquency,” according to the program description. Placement at the shelter allows local social services providers to work with the juvenile and his family to plan for return to the home.
At present, juveniles are referred to the program by the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) and Cape May County’s Family Court, which includes children referred from juvenile delinquency proceedings and from litigation involving the DYFS. The referral sources will not change with the change of the guard at the shelter.
"CFS is a bona fide, experienced group with this type of facility," said O'Connor. "They come to use highly recommended by Camden and Gloucester counties. Our superintendent of schools, Terrence J. Crowley, was formerly superintendent in Gloucester County and recommended this group highly."
Crowley was one of the three members of the task force assigned to review the bids received on its request for proposals. Barbara Bakely-Marino, the county's personnel director, and Gary Schaffer, the county sheriff, are the remaining members of the group championing the center's bid to provide services. Bids closed on Nov. 13 and went to the task force for review.
The freeholders voted on Oct. 14 to approve a resolution seeking bids from private contractors, but the privatization process began much earlier than that.
"We've had some of the top talent in the county working on this for several months. The letter of intent to seek bids went out months ago. Every department was looked at (for privatization). The mechanics were moved a month ago, and, with this concluded, we will move on to review of the county home health services,” O’Connor said.
"We are looking at whether a private provider can fill those jobs in the future. Our goal with all of this is to provide superior services at a significantly reduced cost. It would be irresponsible to taxpayers to not enter these kinds of contracts," he added.
County motor pool services were privatized earlier this fall.
At present, there are 14 employees at the youth shelter. O'Connor said that CFS will begin interviewing county shelter employees as potential hires almost immediately.
"Employees not interviewed or hired will be considered for essential, vacant position within the county government," he said.
O'Connor said that the timetable for the move to private contracting has not been accelerated. "December and January are, traditionally, slow at the shelter. In January 2009 there were only three placements for the entire month: three from DYFS and zero from the court," he said. "We are trying to take advantage of the low population during those months to make this transition."
The private contractor is expected to have its program in place by Feb. 1.
Mary Linehan can be contacted at gazette@catamaranmedia.com or by calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
