{"id":112135,"date":"2015-05-28T23:07:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T05:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-defends-states-child-welfare-system\/"},"modified":"2015-05-28T23:07:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T05:07:56","slug":"hickenlooper-defends-states-child-welfare-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hickenlooper-defends-states-child-welfare-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Hickenlooper defends state\u2019s child-welfare system"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, hands Reggie Bicha, director of the Colorado Department of Human Services, an award Hickenlooper received on Tuesday at the Colorado Capitol for the state\u2019s foster-care program. Hickenlooper and Bicha defended the department in the wake of a public outcry.<\/span>Peter Marcus\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hickenlooper spoke publicly with Executive Director Reggie Bicha for the first time since Colorado lawmakers issued a bipartisan no-confidence letter on May 4.<\/p>\n

Eighty-four lawmakers signed the letter, leaving all but 16 legislators calling for a change in department leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cReggie\u2019s team \u2026 has clearly objectively demonstrated that they are among the best in the United States,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re perfect. \u2026 Running Human Services is the single most difficult job in state government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter stated that over the last 18 months, there have been \u201cnumerous accounts of disturbing issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

One bullet point includes allegations of physical, verbal and sexual abuse at the Pueblo Regional Center.<\/p>\n

But the letter also goes on to point to a lack of oversight by the state over county-delivered human services, which is \u201cencroaching on the safety of children,\u201d according to lawmakers. The letter references incidents with Denver Human Services in which children died without the state taking action against the county, highlighting more systemic issues.<\/p>\n

Earlier state audits also pointed to deficiencies with investigations conducted by the state, with many of those concerns playing out during hearings this year in the Colorado Legislature.<\/p>\n

One lawmaker who signed the letter said the purpose of it was to put the department on record for deep-rooted problems that they feel are plaguing the entire system.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year there\u2019s a new set of issues, and I think it is systematic of an overall larger problem \u2026\u201d said Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, who supported the letter and investigated many of the issues as chairman of the Joint Budget Committee. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not making progress on some of these specific issues, that\u2019s an example of the fact that this is systemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re saying, \u2018Well, the Legislature doesn\u2019t understand,\u2019 that sounds pretty patronizing to me,\u2019\u201d Lambert continued.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers who drafted the letter described the department as being a \u201cpervasive hostile work environment; being a driven-from-the-top culture of fear, retaliation, secrecy and self-protectionism.\u201d<\/p>\n

A letter issued just days earlier from mental-health clinics in Colorado also raised concerns over a lack of transparency and responsiveness by the department.<\/p>\n

Bicha and Hickenlooper spoke of the controversy on Tuesday just after accepting a national award at the Colorado Capitol for \u201cinspiring leadership on behalf of children in Colorado foster care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely confident \u2026\u201d Bicha said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a hiccup in the relationship with the Legislature, a pretty significant hiccup, but what we\u2019re going to do is sit down with them, hear from them, and put a plan together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper and Bicha pointed to programs already underway within the department, including a statewide abuse hotline and efforts to add caseworkers to reduce burdens. Funding for the department \u2013 including additional caseworkers \u2013 must be approved by the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t aware that the discomfort, or the frustration, was that deep that the legislators, so many, would join in writing a letter,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cBut it just magnifies that we\u2019ve got to work harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, a former caseworker in Boulder County who signed the letter, said he wants to apply pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this letter sparks that conversation in a way that will change the way this administration and previous administrations have looked at that issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, hands Reggie Bicha, director of the Colorado Department of Human Services, an award Hickenlooper received on Tuesday at the Colorado Capitol for the state\u2019s foster-care program. Hickenlooper and Bicha defended the department in the wake of a public outcry.Peter Marcus\/Durango Herald Hickenlooper spoke publicly with Executive Director Reggie Bicha for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[747,94,13,481],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-112135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-children","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112135"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=112135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}