September 6, 2019
Five Florida judges were recently reprimanded for favoring one child welfare agency over another in a $500 million state contract, which is now before the Supreme Court. Our Kids Miami-Dade Monroe Inc. was the agency of choice, who has held the contract with the state since former Governor Jeb Bush doubled funding for privatized foster care. This tight knit group of “child advocates” spearheaded the efforts to airlift hundreds of Haitian children to Florida in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
• The judge who penned the letter to DCF favoring Our Kids in a bid for a $500 million contract, also went to bat for them back in 2004.
• Foster children in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties have been moved as many as 10-20 times, and 25 children were moved to more than 80 foster homes.
• Just one week after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, then Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Family Services George Sheldon, initiated the plan to airlift nearly hundreds of Haitian children over to Florida, ‘Our Kids’ and the Miami Archdiocese simultaneously got on board, Janet Napolitano lifted visas, Joe Biden visited the Miami Archdiocese, and Sheldon landed himself the position of Acting Assistant Secretary for Children & Families with HHS.
In May 2019, five South Florida judges of the 11th Circuit Unified Children’s Court faced charges for favoring a company in a competitive bidding process for the Florida Department of Children and Families. The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission determined that they had violated Florida’s Code of Judicial Conduct and recommended a public reprimand by publication, but Florida Supreme Court has the final word of judicial discipline, which is still pending. They were favoring child welfare agency Our Kids Miami-Dade Monroe, Inc. over Citrus Health Network, Inc. in a 5-year $500 million contract with the Department of Child Services for foster care and adoption services. Our Kids had held the contract for over a decade.
Retired Judge Cindy Lederman had authored a letter addressed to the Florida Department of Children and Family Services (DCF), which four other judges signed. A fifth judge, Maria Sampedro-Iglesia had also signed it but was not part of the inquiry and has since retired. General Magistrate Steven Lieberman had also signed it, but was not part of the inquiry. A snippet from the letter clearly shows their bias.
This model must survive the ITN process ….. We have worked with Our Kids and we have complete faith only in the Our Kids model of leadership. When you select the agency please keep our voices in your mind.
Ultimately, in the end, Citrus Health received the contract. So why are these judges so invested in Our Kids? Let’s take a look at the history of the foster care system in Florida, Our Kids history and reputation, and several people connected to Our Kids, to glean what this favoritism may be all about. After reviewing the facts, perhaps this “hot mess” will become a bit clearer, as there are some very concerning connections dating back to the privatization, Haiti, and child tragedies.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush Doubled Down on Privatized Foster Care
Florida began an experiment with privatized child welfare services in 1996 when the State Department of Children and Families spent $27.5 million on five pilot programs between 1997-2000. Only one program in Sarasota Fla was successful. Despite this, and the lack of evidence to show that privatizing foster care would be beneficial for children, in 1998 the Florida legislature mandated that all foster care and related services be privatized between 2000 and 2002. This mandated that DCF contract with a single lead agency, referred to as Community-based Care (CBCs) that administer services in each area.
In 1999 Jeb Bush became governor of Florida and served two terms through 2007. By 2004, forty-two percent of Florida was operating under privatized foster care and adoption services, and Our Kid’s was in negotiations for managing the $500 million 5-year contract in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties – a contract that Judge Cindy Lederman was eager to see them get.
By 2011, reports came out indicating that privatized foster care and adoption services was costing millions more than it was when it was state run. The Sun Sentinel quoted former Gov. Jeb Bush, “We doubled the state funding, which was woefully underfunded, when I became governor,” Spending went up because much-needed services “weren’t being provided, and now they are,” Bush said.
As time went on, reports reflected that the foster care system got far worse, more tragedies occurred, and at one point they had no idea where 500 children were, under Jeb Bush’s watch. In 2018, the Tampa Bay Times did an investigation tracking the placement of over 280,000 foster children between 2000 and 2017 in Florida. They found that thousands of foster children were being moved numerous times with more than 7,500 moved an average of once a month. Others had been placed as many as six times in one month. One child was moved 50 times within one year, and another 43 times. Since 2013, there has been a 40 percent rise in the number of children in foster care homes or housed with relatives, in the state of Florida.
Our Kids Miami-Dade Monroe Inc. Red Flags
Our Kids is a non-profit that was founded in 2002, and manages foster care and adoption services for the entire southern tip of Florida, as well as the Keys. It’s neighbor ChildNet Inc. serves Broward and Palm Beach counties, and they’ve had their fair share of issues as well. In 2013 they paid $2.2 million to settle a case involving two young girls that were repeatedly sexually abused by their mother, after they had been warned by experts and judges.
By 2016, ChildNet had a major deficit, and the $67 million annual federal funding was no longer cutting it. A task force was created to review the situation, and found that there was a staggering increase in the number of at-risk children entering the system. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office Child Protective Investigators had removed nearly 1,400 children in 2015 alone, and were doing so at a rate of 7.8 per 100 children, compared to the statewide rate of 6.4. Why mention ChildNet when the focus is on Our Kids? Because there is a clear pattern of abuse and neglect happening in Florida and some of these individuals in this report cross into these boundaries as well.
Red Flags
On February 14, 2011 a tragedy occurred when a survivor and victim were found in a pest control truck along the side of I-95 in Palm Beach County. Their adoptive father, Jorge Barahona, owned the truck. The 11-year-old victim was dead and the survivor suffered severe injuries and was covered in chemicals. Sadly, these children had been terribly tortured and physically and sexually abused for years, likely since the Barahona’s gained custody in 2004.
The state had placed these children into the foster home of the Barahona’s, and later facilitated their adoption. The survivor and the victim’s estate sued DCF and two of its private contractors, Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe Inc., and the Center for Family and Child Enrichment, in parallel state and federal suits, and won a $500 million suit.
In 2012, children in a foster care group home that was a subcontractor of Our Kids, were being pimped out by child sex traffickers. Four South Florida men were arrested. One of the four charged was a 46-year-old DCF child abuse investigator.
In 2015, a criminal investigation ensued into the Family Resource Center, a subcontractor of Our Kids, for one of their employees raping a 17-year-old girl when tasked to transport her on an eight-hour drive to their center in Key West. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia said that the actions of a private social service agency were borderline “reckless.” That’s putting it mildly. Perhaps it was put “mildly” because this is one of the judges who signed the letter authored by Judge Cindy Lederman stating that “the court will work only with Our Kids, Inc.” AFTER what happened to this poor girl. She resigned on April 28, 2019.
Between June 2013 and May 2014 there had been an 11 percent increase in children requiring out-of-home care, which apparently created a financial challenge for “certain” CBCs. Coincidentally, ChildNet and Our Kids were the two CBCs that received addition funding totaling over $10.5 million between the two.
In 2016, a Florida judge fired at the Children’s Home Society of Florida for forcing children to perform “cockfights” and brawls at one of the Miami group homes, which Our Kids runs for CHS.
In 2017, two men and one woman were charged for alleged sex trafficking of a Miami-Dade 16-year-old foster teen, forcing her into prostitution. That beat her, drugged her, and forced her to have sex with them as well as others. The teen had run away from her foster home claiming that she had been kicked out.
Also in 2017, three top administrators of Our Kids resigned after two adolescent foster care girls hanged themselves at foster homes overseen by Our Kids. 16-year-old Lauryn Martin-Everett hung herself at the Florida Keys Youth Shelter after being moved between 9 foster homes in two years. Thirty-eight days later, 14-year-old Naika Venant hung herself in the bathroom of a Miami Garden foster home. She had live-streamed it on Facebook, where it remained for several weeks, and it made national headlines.
In 2018, Bernard Perlmutter, Robert Latham and Stewart Cooke joined with Children’s Rights and Baker McKenzie law firm to file a suit against Florida DCF, specifically in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, to stop the mistreatment of foster care children in a broken system. They felt that so much harm has been done to foster care children, only a lawsuit could begin to fix the problems. They stated that DCF reports reflect the following:
Records show that hundreds of children have had more than 10, or even 20 or more, moves. More than over 25 kids have been moved more than 80 times. DCF’s own reports stated that numerous foster children have not even received appropriate mental health.
One has to ask, is the moving of 25 kids to 80 different foster homes a method of human trafficking that has been overlooked? Is it possible that some of these abusive homes are setup to “share” the children while collecting their stipend from the government? Or is this another means for shuffling funds?
It is well documented that the United States has a big human trafficking issue, and that human traffickers prey upon children in the foster care system. And, it is no secret that Florida is ranked No. 3 in the nation for the number of human trafficking cases reported.
The Contract, The Judge, and The Wages
In June, 2004 Our Kids was in negotiations with the state for a huge contract to service Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. They had been debating over the budget for months, and apparently got hung up over $1 million dollars of the $92 million they had already agreed upon. Berta Blecke, who was involved with the negotiations stated, “This is 1 percent of our budget that we’re arguing over. We should have ended it in May. Now we’re in June.”
Coincidentally, Miami-Dade Chief Juvenile Court Judge Cindy Lederman was also involved in helping them get this contract, stating, “we’re $1 million between disaster and excellence.” Lederman was part of the Miami-Dade Community Based Care Alliance, and in their Thursday meeting had referred to DCF as being ridiculous for bickering over a relatively small sum with Our Kids. This Alliance called for a special meeting to include former Gov. Jeb Bush and DCF Secretary Jerry Regier so as to push this along.
Lederman went so far as to tell representatives of Our Kids, “If we don’t resolve this by June 15, why would you even want to continue working under those circumstances?”
Of course, Our Kids locked in the contract, and proceeded to service those counties all the way up until this year, when the heated battle with Citrus Health broke out and the five judges were reprimanded.
During Our Kids service, questions were raised regarding the steep wages being paid to the executives, some of whom were making as much as six figures, which is twice as much as state employees were paid. Whereas, eyes were on several agencies, 2011 tax returns revealed that Our Kids was the highest-paid. CEO Frances Allegra was taking in a cool $200,000. That was well above was both the Governor and the secretary of DCF were being paid. In addition to Allegra, seven other executives also made six figures and the CIO made $221,000.
Their neighbor, ChildNet Inc. over in Broward County was also paying six figure salaries to four executives and their CEO Emilio Benitez earned $182,000. Benitez seemed to be under the illusion that it was justified due to “outperforming their predecessors, and they are doing so with virtually the same, or even less, money.” Even Jeb Bush admitted to doubling the amount paid to private agencies, which equated to the state paying out more on privatization than they had when foster care was run by the state.
After serving as the largest provider of child welfare services in the state of Florida for over a decade in southern Florida, Our Kids lost the intense battle with Citrus Health Network Inc. for another $500 million, five-year contract. Their contract ended June 30, 2019 followed by a massive layoff of more than 160 employees.
George Sheldon, Former Secretary of FL and IL Dept. of Children and Family Services, Former Assistant Secretary to Administration for Children & Families HHS, and Former CEO of Our Kids
Photo credit: Wikipedia
George Sheldon had an extensive background in both politics and in child advocacy positions prior to his passing at age 71 last year, due to an accident on his home gym. Sheldon and Bob Butterworth had a very close friendship and working relationship. In 1999, Sheldon served as Deputy AG for Central Florida under AG Bob Butterworth. Then in 2008, he became the Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Family Services just after his friend Butterworth had served in that position.
Butterworth and Sheldon oversaw an experiment in child welfare financing that former Gov. Jeb Bush had initiated after securing a statewide waiver of Florida’s Title IV-E funds. This expanded funding beyond foster care and adoption placements, to include other family related services. Whereas they praised the state reducing its foster care rolls by 32 percent, they note that they moved more quickly to finalize adoptions for children whose parents had their rights terminated. Moving quickly on adoptions is disconcerting when considering the number of parents who have illegally had their parental rights removed.
Many charts and pics on link, below:
