Blog note: this article references a 2013 grand jury report.
In a major shakeup of top leadership, Riverside County has parted ways with the director of the Department of Public Social Services and the chief of the Economic Development Agency.
Sarah Mack had served as the director of the long-embattled Riverside County Department of Public Social Services since April 2019 after several changes in leadership, starting with the resignations of former Director Susan Von Zabern in late 2018 and former Assistant Director Marie Brown-Mercadel in 2019.
Robert Field was the director of the Economic Development Agency, a department with nearly 1,000 employees that oversees major county projects like the ongoing construction of the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
Both Field and Mack had salaries of $283,427 in 2019.
County spokesperson Brooke Federico said Mack and Field are no longer employed by the county effective Tuesday, but said further details about the separations were not available.
"New directors for the Economic Development Agency and Department of Public Social Services will be named soon," Federico wrote in an email.
Lawsuits, turnover at DPSS
Mack's departure leaves the Department of Public Social Services with its third major change in leadership in less than two years.
With more than 4,000 employees, the Department of Public Social Services is one of the county's largest departments. From child abuse investigations to Medi-Cal assistance, homeless programs and in-home support services for the elderly, DPSS is responsible for some of the county's most critical public services.
Mack worked in the county's Executive Office before being selected to run DPSS in early 2019. At the time, the department was reeling from millions of dollars in lawsuit settlement payouts related to child abuse and neglect investigations.
From at least the time of a grand jury report in 2013, DPSS has faced allegations that staff failed to adequately investigate reportsof child abuse and have left children in dangerous situations.
Several cases in both the criminal and civil departments of the Riverside County Superior Court have outlined these failures in grim detail and resulted in more than $10 million in county payouts, including:
- On Nov. 4, 2016, a 13-year-old girl gave birth to a child that DNA tests later determined was fathered by her mother’s live-in boyfriend, a man whom the victim had first reported began sexually assaulting her three years earlier. Deon Welch, the convicted rapist, has since been sentenced to 230 years in prison. A civil case filed on the victim's behalf settled for $10 million in November 2018.
- In another case, a victim was awarded nearly $1.4 million after DPSS staff failed to remove her from abject living conditions in which law enforcement later found her hugging the remains of her deceased infant sibling. The corpse was discovered by police after a neighbor reported a foul smell coming from the home.
- According to records released by a juvenile judge, Riverside County social workers received at least 10 reports that a Corona boy, Noah McIntosh, was abused and neglected by his father long before the boy went missing in March 2019. Bryce McIntosh has since been charged with Noah's murder.
Amid these cases, Susan Von Zabern resigned asDPSSdirector on Sept. 10, 2018. And Marie Brown-Mercadel resigned as assistant director on March 27, 2019.
During Mack's short tenure as director, the county hired an outside attorney to complete a year-long investigation of the department, which cost the county $147,000 to produce. A seven-page public version of the report was released in October, while a longer version, containing confidential information, was made available to county officials.
It said the county was "enhancing and expanding safeguards to protect children from abuse and neglect," among other concerns. One attorney who has sued the department several times described the report as "awfully vague."
As civil cases alleging county failures continue to be filed, the county has taken steps to hold departments, like DPSS, more accountable for the cost of civil settlements and awards.
Federico, a spokesperson for the county, said in an interview last year that a new risk management protocol was approved to "create a more aggressive approach to handling claims." If a claim has a potential cost greater than $50,000, the new committee will notify the department of "corrective actions" to address the problem.
"Costs associated with the claim will now only be paid from an appropriate insurance fund once corrective actions are taken by the department," Federico said by email. "Without corrective actions, claim costs will impact the department’s operating budget."
Delays at the Indio jail
The Riverside County Economic Development Agency is tasked with developing business and major infrastructure in the county. The department manages long-running events like the Riverside County Fair and the National Date Festival, and critical infrastructure organizations like the Riverside Housing Authority.
But as the county continues to grow, projects like the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio have run into problems. The Indio jail, as it's popularly called, is one of five county jails that have been filled beyond capacity since a 2011 state law, AB 109, transferred custody of non-violent offenders that had not committed sex crimes from state prisons to county jails.
Soon after, John Benoit, supervisor for Riverside County's Fourth District, championed a proposal to build a new jail to replace the aging facility in Indio, the sole county correctional facility between Banning and Blythe.
A final design for the jail, named after Benoit following his death in 2017, was approved by the Board of Supervisors on June 16, 2015. The facility has run into repeated delays ever since.
Last year, for example, the project's general contractor had a subcontractor in receivership, questions about construction quality were raised and regular updates on the overall progress repeatedly came late. Meanwhile, 29 requests for changes to the project had been submitted, which could total $36.4 million in additional costs after mediation.
The project initially had a budget of $330.4 million. But as delays mounted, the Board of Supervisors approved an increase in February 2018 of $10.2 million, bringing the overall budget to $340.6 million.
In an interview last year, Field told The Desert Sun that the first phase of the project would be completed on Aug. 8, 2019, but the site remains under construction.
Field managed that project and many others like it in his two-decade tenure with the county. County officials would not comment on the reasons for Field's departure and whether it was related to continued delays on the Indio jail project.
February 5, 2020
Palm Springs Desert Sun
By Christopher Damien
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