LITTLE ROCK — An angry group of legislators confronted Department of Human Services officials at a Friday meeting of the Joint Legislative Council.
Some of the lawmakers have publicly criticized the department's Youth Services Division in the wake of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports of abuse of children in state custody. And a few of the legislators participated in a surprise late-night inspection Thursday of a division center in North Little Rock.
Human Services Department officials told the council that a plan to create an inspector general's position by reshuffling employees is on hold. Youth Services Division Director Paul Doramus also told the council that Gov. Mike Huckabee had scheduled a news conference for later in the morning to make an announcement about problems within the agency.
But, just after pledging that the agency would cooperate with the Legislature to solve those problems, Doramus balked at revealing what the administration planned to do.
Several lawmakers were angry that Huckabee decided to make the announcement at a news conference rather than to them during Friday's Legislative Council meeting.
"This body ought to have been totally informed and not asked to conclude our meeting and go to some other location to hear along with the world or read it in the paper tomorrow," said state Sen. Cliff Hoofman, D-North Little Rock, co-chairman of the council.
Rep. Dennis Young, D-Texarkana, twice asked Doramus if the division's Observation and Assessment Center in North Little Rock would remain open. Doramus said he couldn't answer Young's question.
"How do we find out?" Young asked.
"Listen to the radio, I guess," said Rep. James Luker, D-Wynne.
Luker told Doramus that his unwillingness to answer Young's questions seemed inconsistent with a pledge of cooperation and nonpartisanship.
"There are a number of members of this body who stand ready to assist and participate in that process, and I think we feel we've been frozen out or shut out," Luker said.
Doramus finally announced that the center would be closed, but not until he conferred privately with Human Services Department Director Lee Frazier. Frazier said Doramus answered the question only after Frazier found out that news media had been told of the news conference.
"I think we're all under orders to basically to let this be the governor's press conference," he said.
Hoofman said after the meeting that if the problems within the Youth Services Division weren't resolved by the Huckabee administration, there would be "some significant changes in the whole Department of Human Services in the next session" of the Legislature.
Meanwhile, Human Services Department officials said their own plans to make some changes in the agency were on hold.
Earlier this month, Frazier told lawmakers that he wanted to create a larger in-house investigation team to deal with such things as the recent allegations of abuse of youths in state custody.
The office would be in charge of auditing the performance of agencies with which the department contracts for services; performing investigations, both internal and of outside agencies that have contracts or grants; and giving technical training to employees.
The department already has investigators and auditors charged with looking into problems within the state's largest agency, which has 12 divisions, 7,725 employees and a budget of $2.2 billion.
The new office would take 17 employee slots that are unfilled from other divisions within the department and move 13 other employees that are already conducting investigations and audits for other divisions, Frazier said.
Among other changes proposed by Frazier were the establishment of a chief information officer to work with the state's Department of Information Services on the agency's computers and technology planning, and the hiring of a chief fiscal officer as a central money manager for the department.
Department spokesman Joe Quinn said he couldn't explain why the plan to create a new inspector general's position was pulled from the council's agenda.
"I wasn't in the room. I didn't even see it unfold," he said.
Jonann Coniglio, the department's chief counsel whose office has investigative authority, said she also was unsure of why the idea was on hold.
"The decision was made on a level above mine," she said.
Sen. Mike Beebe, D-Searcy, told the council that the plan, which had undergone two smaller committee reviews this month, was withdrawn for now at the request of Huckabee's office.
"Apparently they want more time to study it first," he said.
Rep. Pat Flanagin, D-Forrest City, co-chairman of the House and Senate Interim Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee, asked why his committee needed to spend hours discussing the issue if it was going to be pulled from the council at the last minute.
Beebe said those committee hearings were "the catalyst to slow down and think things through."
Flanagin said, "It would have been nice if the administration and DHS would have advised us." .
Beebe retorted, to the laughter of virtually everyone in the committee room, "The last time I checked, Gov. Huckabee wasn't calling you on every decision."
Flanagin joked, "I'm not sure what he's calling me."
The inspector general's position has come to the forefront within the department since allegations surfaced of abuse of juveniles within the Youth Services Division.
The council referred the issue back to Flanagin's committee.
The council also referred to the joint Children and Youth committees a study proposal by Rep. Dennis Young, D-Texarkana, on transferring the functions of the Youth Services Division to the Department of Correction, creating a separate state Department of Youth Services or other state agency.
Young said that the Human Services Department's "inability to adequately protect the children in its care" means that the state needs to study other ways to treat juvenile offenders.
"This is something that needs to be taken out of DHS," he said. "That division has no business under the auspices of DHS."
Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Correction Department, said her agency would do whatever the Legislature required. But dealing with delinquent youths isn't what the Correction Department is set up to do, she said.
"We don't have people skilled in dealing with juveniles," she said. "Our educational system is geared for adult learners. Our programs are geared for adults.
"Without additional resources, our plate is full," she said.
Young said he didn't favor turning the juvenile justice system over to the Correction Department, but he said the state should study the idea.