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  • Kansas might soon create more oversight of foster care and abuse cases with child advocate office

    Kansas might soon create more oversight of foster care and abuse cases with child advocate office

    Lawmakers sent a bill detailing the proposal to the governor. Previous attempts to create an independent child advocate office failed during chamber negotiations. (Sam Bailey/Kansas Reflector)

    TOPEKA — Following a years-long clash over who should oversee the state’s child welfare system — a battle that took on new urgency with the death of a Topeka 5-year-old in October — lawmakers sent a bill creating an independent office to the governor. 

    Senate Bill 115 would establish the Office of the Child Advocate as a independent state agency. Gov. Laura Kelly first created the Division of the Child Advocate under executive order as a stopgap measure for the overburdened foster care system in October 2021, after the House and Senate couldn’t agree on a proposed office. 

    The move led to friction with legislators who voiced concerns over independence and oversight issues related to having the office under the governor. By establishing the office in statute, future governors wouldn’t be able to eliminate the office through executive order. Legislative attempts to create the office in 2022 and 2023 failed during chamber negotiations. 

    “This bill has had a long history,” said Rep. Susan Concannon, R-Beloit and chairwoman of a legislative child welfare oversight committee, during an April 4 House discussion of the bill. “We started conferencing on this last year. Things kind of fell apart. So we resumed this year and had some good negotiations.” 

    Under the bill, which passed 117-3 in the House and 36-3 in the Senate, no governmental agency could exercise control or supervision over the office or the person selected to be the state’s child advocate. Kelly is likely to approve the measure. The child advocate would be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, and would be chosen “without regard to political affiliation and on the basis of integrity and capacity for effectively carrying out the duties of the OCA.”

    The office would receive, investigate and resolve child welfare system complaints and provide oversight of the system, with the overarching goal of improving the safety and well-being of Kansas children in the state’s flawed foster care system.

    In June of 2022, a federal watchdog agency found that Kansas had one of the highest rates of missing foster children from July 1, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2020. A 2022 study from the Center for the Study of Social Policy found that 53 foster children slept in offices 167 times in 2021, and that only 65% of foster children were able to get the mental health services they needed. In 2022, a second report found 85 foster children had spent 257 nights in offices in 2022.

    Between 2019 to 2021, 392 out of 1,074 child fatalities reviewed by the board had history with the Kansas Department for Children and Families’ child protective services, according to the annual death review report, with scenarios where children were held in state custody, had siblings removed from the home, or had open child protective services cases. 

    The oversight debate took on new life in October when the case of Zoey Felix, the Topeka 5-year-old girl who died of sexual assault, became widely publicized. The state’s child welfare agency received nine reports asking for someone to look into her case before her death.

    At the time, Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, said Felix’s death showed the need for an independent Office of Child Advocate. 

    “This young child’s tragic death could have been prevented had the agency and this administration done their jobs,” they said in a joint statement.  

    Since Felix was never in state custody, it is unclear if the state had the authority to become involved in her case in 2023. Provisions in the new bill, such as allowing the office to have access to written reports of child abuse and neglect when complaints over a child’s treatment come in, could potentially grant the office more jurisdiction. 

    Sen. Ethan Corson, D-Prairie Village, said the bill marked progress.  

    “This is an issue that people were talking to me about since well before I got elected, and I’ve been here for four years,” Corson said. “I just wanted to pause and say that I think this is a very significant piece of legislation. I think we should all be proud of it.” 

    The post Kansas might soon create more oversight of foster care and abuse cases with child advocate office appeared first on Kansas Reflector.

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  • We asked Utah Attorney General candidates how they would restore trust in the office. Here are their answers

    We asked Utah Attorney General candidates how they would restore trust in the office. Here are their answers

    For the last couple decades, the Utah Attorney General’s Office has been mired in controversy. As the state’s current Attorney General Sean Reyes is not running for reelection, Utahns face a choice: Who will the people choose next?

    Nine candidates have filed. There are four Republicans, two Democrats, one libertarian, one United Utah and one unaffiliated. The field will narrow as political parties select their official nominees at convention — only one candidate affiliated with a party indicated on the filing form that he would be collecting signatures and that’s Derek Brown.

    Ahead of the upcoming conventions, the Deseret News asked each candidate what their actionable plan was to return public trust to the office if they are elected. Here are their answers (candidates are listed alphabetically by last name).

    Rudy Bautista (Democratic)

    Bautista said he believes public oversight would restore trust to the attorney general’s office. He said similar to how the Salt Lake City Police Department has a citizen review board, the office could also has have a review board.

    In addition to public oversight, Bautista said he would make his calendar public, refrain from involvement in national politics, disclose income tax, have his bank accounts and investment accounts monitored by the internal affairs department and handle some of the cases in the courtroom.

    “I pride myself in being politically independent,” Bautista said. “I’m not tied to any ideology one way or the other.”

    Derek Brown (Republican)

    Brown said if he was elected attorney general, he would make his calendar public, establish a constituents service office, study and look at implementing recommendations from the legislative audit of the office, and have an open line of communication with county sheriffs and county attorneys.

    Additionally, he wants to collaborate “with the legislature on policies that will help not only with transparency, but with issues that impact the office.”

    Brown believes that the office needs someone like him to come in from the outside to make changes. “I did the same thing when I was the state party chair. … I was able to come in with a fresh set of eyes and make a lot of the changes that were needed to redirect where the party went,” he said. “I think I can do the same as attorney general.”

    David Carlson (Democratic)

    Carlson said people in the attorney general’s office have “dedicated their lives to doing good, to serving others” and he thinks the role of the attorney general is to put them in a position where they are able to do their work.

    The day-to-day work of the attorney general’s office should be public knowledge including who the attorney general meets with.

    The last great Utah Attorney General who Carlson said he worked for was the late Jan Graham, who served in the position from 1993-2001. He said Graham was an example of leadership in this respect. “It starts with picking the right leaders for the office, involving them in managing the office and being hands-on knowing exactly who’s leading the office and what they’re doing.”

    Trent Christensen (Republican)

    Christensen said he would do an investigation into what happens on election day — “an electoral integrity audit.” He said, “I want to see the ballots, I want to see the mail-in ballots, I want to see the machines, I want to talk to the county clerks, I want to talk to their staff,” and he added that he believes people need to know if their vote counts.

    On day one, Christensen said he would make his calendar public. He also plans on “making sure that the AG’s office is doing the will of the people, not just the will of the bureaucracy” through prosecutorial reform and other measures.

    Christensen said he wants to make sure the office is working for the people and that the office enforces the law. “We’re going to be tough on crime. We’re going to work with local law enforcement,” Christensen said.

    Austin Hepworth (Unaffiliated)

    “The attorney general is supposed to enforce the law against all who break it, whether they be government officials, corporations or individuals,” Hepworth said. “But, there is a natural conflict or tension in a Republican enforcing the law against other Republicans, especially when politics can come into play.”

    Hepworth said he’s running “independent from and unaffiliated with any political party” to solve that issue.

    If elected, Hepworth said he would share his calendar and use the office to help everyday Utahns understand what the law is and how it impacts them. “The attorney general should actively communicate with Utahns and provide information related to the law that allows them to understand what is going on, why it is taking place and how it may impact them.”

    Andrew McCullough (Libertarian)

    McCullough said he wants to see the attorney general’s office transform. Drawing from what George Bush Sr. said years ago, McCullough said “I would like the attorney general’s office to be kinder in general. I would like them to remember that they are here to represent the people.”

    If McCullough is elected, he said he would tell everyone that he’s not seeking higher office, but he’s there to do the work the office requires. He wants to avoid self-aggrandizement and “stop the noise and stop the press releases.”

    In addition to implementing kindness in the office and avoiding “political manipulation,” McCullough said in general he would support the work of the office being known to public as long as there were reasonable exceptions.

    Frank Mylar (Republican)

    Mylar said honesty is part of his actionable plan if he’s elected. That starts during the campaign. He said as a candidate and an attorney general, he wouldn’t take money from corporations and lobbying groups. “I like what St. Thomas Moore said years ago. … He said he would never accept a gift from anyone if he thought he was going to hear their case.”

    In addition to not accepting gifts, Mylar said he would draw on his experience as an attorney to manage the office. He has litigated civil rights cases in the state and federal courts in addition to working throughout the attorney general’s office and starting his own law firm.

    Mylar said that he would make his work calendar public, adding that he would make an exception for investigative work that could compromise a case.

    Michelle Quist (United Utah)

    The work of the office, not politics, is what Quist said she’ll focus on if she’s elected. “Instead of changing the constitution to appoint an AG, thereby consolidating power in the (super-majority Republican) executive and taking the democratic power of choice away from the people of Utah, my solution is to elect a third-party candidate untainted by party politics and untethered from national bosses or purse strings.”

    Quist said she would get the best lawyers in the state and pay them competitive salaries, bring the office’s e-discovery system up to modern standards and “open the AG’s public calendars, finances, hiring, and other public activities appropriate for public officers, and communicate regularly about these efforts.”

    “Trust requires transparency and communication,” Quist said, adding that she’ll get the office focused on “lawyering, transparency and communication.”

    Rachel Terry (Republican)

    “At the heart of trust is transparency, accessibility and accountability,” Terry said. She said she would have a public calendar and have a constituents service office. This office would give the public an avenue for feedback and questions.

    “I will make sure that there are people in my office who will work with the public to answer their questions, and importantly, to connect them with them with resources,” Terry said. Additionally, Terry said she would hold town halls where members of the public can ask questions and give feedback.

    Terry said she also believes being clear about her credentials and the cases she has litigated is important for restoring trust.

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