ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Kansas 26th Judicial District’s Juvenile Corrections and Prevention Services (JCAPS) office has been the source of concern in the past year, and Tuesday, Sept. 8, the concern focused on one of the positions in the office, particularly the job description and qualifications for that position.
During the Citizen Comments portion of last week’s Seward County Commission meeting, Liberal resident Carolyn Huddleston discussed an item on the agenda from JCAPS Director Chelsea Droste concerning the position of juvenile intake and assessment officer position.
“There are more components to their initial training than what I knew, and the agency requires 40 hours of staff development each year, but there’s something else going on here,” Huddleston said. “The title of the job is intake and assessment office, but Chelsea has the person doing things the supervision officers typically do such as facilitating programs, doing case management and supervision itself.”
Huddleston said according to the Kansas Department of Corrections standards for such a position, supervision officers are required to have four years of college, but Droste merely requires them to have a high school diploma or equivalent and complete a structured interview.
“That’s no biggie,” Huddleston said. “That is doing the intakes. I can accept KDOC might say you don’t have to have that much education for this job, but what about the intake officer providing supervision services? How can that be okay?”
Huddleston said she called Finney County Department of Corrections and Regional Detention Center Director Beth Beavers, who told her the position is not one that only requires a high school diploma.
“The person is supposed to have two years of college or two years of experience working with youth and families,” Huddleston said. “She helped me find the KDOC standard that says that. That requirement isn’t included in Chelsea’s job description.”
Huddleston said the KDOC standard does include the possibility of asking for an exemption to the two years of college requirement, but there is a process to be followed for that.
“Chelsea’s job description doesn’t seem to be in compliance with the KDOC standard, and I wonder whether the person she hired has the education or experienced required by KDOC,” she said.
Huddleston said the standards relating to the intake assessment officer position read as though the person in the position can do things beyond intakes and assessment, but approval is supposed to be obtained for that.
“Those additional job duties are called extended operations and services, facilitating cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) groups, doing case management, and this staff person’s supervision activities all fall under expanded operations and services with a subheading of supervision services,” she said. “JCAPS is supposed to have what KDOC calls a written policy, procedure and practice concerning each of these and get them approved by the agency’s advisory board. I think it’s assumed all this should be done before the person begins performing that function. Can Chelsea show the proper written policies and those approvals? I don’t think she’s brought any such papers to the commission.”
Huddleston said the job description Droste brought to commissioners in May said the staff person would be facilitating CBT groups, but KDOC’s standards have clauses about written agency documents that go beyond this.
“Case management and supervision duties aren’t mentioned at all in that job description,” Huddleston said.
Later, Droste clarified the job duties and requirements of the position, saying she created the position due to a lack of applicants for juvenile supervision office, a position that requires a bachelor’s degree.
“I needed to create this position to offset some of that workload because I’m down to two juvenile supervision officers,” she said. “What it is saying is what it entails – what assessment they have to do, what they have to be certified in, onboarding and initial training, as well as the annual training.”
Droste said she did include the KDOC standard that states the person must have a high school diploma, two years of college or two years experience working with youth and families.
“The certifications of my staff are confidential as is everybody’s who works for the county, but they do meet those requirements,” she said. “I also have the standard Dr. Huddleston was referring to as far as expanded services. We have that policy as well in our office that I can get to you.”
Droste said intake and assessment officers do not supervise cases.
“They do the intake and assessment,” she said. “All supervision of cases is handled with our juvenile supervision officers who are placed on diversion or probation. They are able to supervise cases that are considered alternative to detention, predisposition, supervision or release with conditions. Currently, they’re not supervising those cases. I have my juvenile supervision officers supervising those cases because they’re also paid under intake and assessment.”
Droste said the only additional requirement she asks of the officers is facilitating the programs she has.
“I have reached out to KDOC,” she said. “His name’s James Johnson. He supervises juvenile intake and assessment at KDOC, and he responded to me in e-mail that they do have the authority to facilitate those programs, and it does not require a four-year degree.”
Furthermore, Droste said she needed to clarify the job description because of opinions about whether the position is overpaid or underpaid.
“They are entitled to their opinion, and I respect it,” she said. “I have no issue with that. The thing is if there is going to be an opinion, The only reason why I did this is because there was information presented last week that didn’t entail the entirety of the position.”
Droste said the juvenile supervision officer position does require a four-year degree.
“It’s been vacant since February, and I’ve had zero applicants who have a bachelor’s degree,” she said. “I’ve had applicants, they just do not have the bachelor’s degree.”
Droste was aware her department is one of the highest paid in the county.
“If I’m having this much difficulty filling a position with the requirements, I can’t imagine what the other departments are having that do not have the same salary I have,” she said. “It’s difficult, so we had to adjust in order to remain efficient.”
Commission Vice Chair Todd Stanton asked Droste what colleges are available in Western Kansas offering the course work for the degree required for the position.
“They just need a social work degree, psychology degree or criminal justice,” Droste said. “None are in the western half of Kansas. The closest one is Fort Hays State.”
“So there’s no local pool, so to speak?” Stanton said.
“There’s really not a local pool,” Droste said.
As part of her comments, Huddleston also addressed the lack of a submitted budget to the county from Southwest Medical Center, which, according to a recent attorney general opinion, is supposed to be done by June 1.
“This is more than three months overdue,” she said. “The commission is being disrespected, and I hope you can get a budget out of them soon.”
Lastly, Huddleston addressed the recent debate over the initial approval and rescinding of raises given to employees in the Seward County Treasurer’s office.
Huddleston said Treasurer Mary Rose’s budget is actually $400,000 and not the $274,000 reported in the county’s budget, meaning Rose would have to use $126,000 of the money from the special treasurer’s fund to make for the difference.
“If these raises really aren’t going to be costing the county, Mary would have to keep doing what she has been doing and cover the raises too,” Huddleston said.
Huddleston said the bottom line is if Rose gets an $80,000 increase in her state money at the end of the year as she expects and she does not fill the position opened after the recent retirement of former Deputy Treasurer Anabel Clinesmith, Rose should have more than enough money to cover the raises she wants and all the related costs.
“However, if she adds a clerk or any other new employee, I would expect her to be a little short,” Huddleston said. “If Mary can do this without costing the county, I don’t see how you can refuse to allow it since other departments with access to state money have done the same thing.”
