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Sheila McLaughlin reports:

After at least three years of slashing expenses, layoffs and stagnant pay, Butler County’s budget woes seem to be easing up.

Commissioners are expected to approve a 2013 general fund budget of just more than $79 million, about the same as 2012.

They’ll vote Dec. 27.

A $1 million across-the-board cutback in county offices in September kept the county in the black for this year.

“I said a year ago that I thought we hit the bottom and were trending up. I think that’s true, although we have to keep a vigilant eye on expenditures,” Commissioner Don Dixon said Thursday after the budget proposal was presented.

Commissioner Cindy Carpenter credited the sacrifices of office holders and employees, many of whom are doing two to three jobs with no increase in pay.

Projected casino revenue for the 2013 budget stands at about $4 million. The county will maintain its 10 percent cash reserves, Budget Manager Tonyia Burnett said.

County commissioners have trimmed the budget from $94.7 million in 2008.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Butler County Commissioners, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

The former executive director of Butler County Children Services who got the boot in an immediate reorganization of the embattled agency will be paid through Jan. 18 as part of a settlement with county commissioners.

Jeff Centers. Photo provided.

According to an agreement obtained by The Enquirer, the county also will continue Jeff Center’s health insurance and will allow him to cash in any unused sick time.

In exchange, Centers has promised not to sue the county and will not file an age discrimination complaint against commissioners.

Centers, who made $86,000 a year and has headed the agency since 2009, was stripped of his title in September after commissioners called for reform in the wake of a case involving a 12-year-old girl who was locked in her parent’s Middletown basement on July 3.

The agency’s director of intake also was suspended for three days for ignoring an earlier complaint regarding the 12-year-old a month before caseworkers found her.

Centers has been on paid leave since Sept. 18 while commissioners appointed Jerome Kearns, executive director of the Butler County Department of Job and Family Services to lead both departments.

Centers was the agency’s third director in five years after commissioners called for improvements following the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel in foster care.

Posted in: News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Children Services, Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Juvenile Court, Ched Peck, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Centers, Joanna Blackston, Shawn Blackston

ENQUIRER INVESTIGATION: Baby Brittany not only area child who perished despite open case

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

Brittany Humphries died in her crib Jan. 14, six days shy of her first birthday.

At first, investigators believed the brown-eyed, dark-haired toddler had choked on a hotdog. But an autopsy revealed Brittany’s skull was fractured, the result of blunt force trauma days before her death.

The death of Brittany Humphries under Ohio children services agency care is not an isolated event, as other children around the region and state have also died. Photo provided.

A three-month Enquirer investigation revealed that caseworkers left Brittany and her siblings with their mother’s unemployed live-in boyfriend – a 23-year-old man with a history of contacts with police that included allegations of theft, criminal damaging and heroin use. He’s now a suspect in the baby’s death, police said.

The Enquirer further learned that Brittany’s 2-year-old sister also was found to have a healing skull fracture, according to juvenile court records.

Brittany’s death under the watch of an Ohio children services agency was not an isolated event. In 2010, the latest year for which state information is available, eight children died from child abuse or neglect while children services agencies had open cases on them.

“That’s a tragedy. I know our system has really worked very hard to develop the best tools possible (to determine) safety risk,” said Crystal Ward Allen, executive of Public Children Services Association of Ohio and also a member of the state Child Fatality Review Board. “Even though our science has gotten better, nothing is predictive of human behavior totally.”

Details of Brittany’s case were pieced together with limited information from children services records, juvenile court transcripts, a report by the children services agency ombudsman, Middletown online police records, and interviews with police officials and Brittany’s grandmother, who said she asked to keep Brittany and her siblings while their mother was in jail.

Minimal information from children services is available because officials are barred by state confidentiality laws from talking about or providing records about specific allegations of abuse and neglect.

The Enquirer’s investigation revealed that children services had an open case on the family for four months when Brittany died. It also showed that caseworkers by law were supposed to make twice-monthly visits with Brittany and her siblings, including one in the home. It is unknown, because of confidentiality rules, whether those checks occurred.

A report written by the agency ombudsman also suggested that agency staff mishandled complaints by not assigning them to an intake worker.

No one has been arrested in the child’s death. (more…)

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Brittany Humphries, Butler County Children Services, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Commissioners, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Courtney Olson

Social workers accused of ignoring calls about girl locked in basement

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

Butler County Commissioners on Thursday appointed a new leader to manage the children services agency after social workers were accused of ignoring calls that a 12-year-old Middletown girl was being locked in a basement.

Jerome Kearns, who is director of the county’s department of job and family services, also will head the children services agency.

• Butler County Children Services director placed on paid leave

Children Services Director Jeff Centers has been on paid leave since Monday when commissioners said a reorganization of the agency was critical in the wake of the case involving the 12-year-old girl. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter indicated that Centers is expected to leave the county and a separation agreement is in the works.

Commissioners on Thursday also approved a three-day suspension of Julie Gilbert, an intake supervisor at children services, who ignored an earlier complaint regarding the 12 -year-old a month before an investigator found the girl in the basement following an anonymous tip on July 3.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Children Services, Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Juvenile Court, Ched Peck, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Centers, Joanna Blackston, Shawn Blackston

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

A Middletown couple accused of locking their 12-year-old daughter in the basement for weeks as punishment for being unruly pleaded not guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor charges of child endangering.

Joanna and Shawn Blackston appeared in Butler County Juvenile Court on the charge after a grand jury declined to indict them on felony charges of felony kidnapping.

The court hearing came a day after Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers was placed on paid leave from his $86,000 a year job in the wake of trouble in the agency. A more definitive decision on his job could happen as soon as Thursday, County Administrator Charlie Young said.

“We’ve taken a look at children services and we are making some decisions on changes that are necessary. I would not attribute it to the Blackston case particularly, but the Blackston case is one of many issues,” he said.

The Blackstons are scheduled to go on trial Nov. 12. The couple faces up to six months in jail if convicted or they could receive probation. They had faced up to 10 years in prison on the kidnapping charge.

The girl and five other children – ranging in age from 2 to 16 – were placed in foster care after a children services investigator, working on a tip, checked the home and found the girl locked in the basement on July 3.

A 15-year-old was removed from the home several months earlier after reporting that she was punished by having to stay in the basement and watching the other children open Christmas presents.

Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, who has called for changes in the county’s child welfare system, has said the children services agency failed to check on the other children or respond to complaints about treatment of the children after the 15-year-old was placed in foster care.

With the threat of felony charges gone, Joanna Blackston’s attorney, Ched Peck, said his client can focus on getting her children back.

“These allegations are very serious. But without the threat of prison being there any longer, the focus turns very quickly to the children – getting some or all of these children back home,” Peck said.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Children Services, Butler County Children Services Director Jeff Centers, Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Butler County Juvenile Court, Ched Peck, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Centers, Joanna Blackston, Shawn Blackston

Sheila McLaughlin reports

Charles Young, the former Hamilton deputy city manager, became Butler County’s new administrator on Thursday.

Without a hitch, and despite infighting over the appointment, commissioners unanimously gave Young the $125,000-a-year job.

Even Commissioner Chuck Furmon, who objected in Monday’s meeting against the way Young’s hiring occurred, voted in his favor.

“I’ve never been against him” Furmon said after Thursday’s meeting. “I didn’t approve of the way (Commissioners Don Dixon and Cindy Carpenter) did it. They had everything all laid out, the contract and everything and all this was done last Friday prior to the Monday meeting. I was not informed,” Furmon said after the meeting.

Young, 53, started the job immediately. According to his contract with commissioners, he has the job for two years but can be fired without cause because he serves at the whim of commissioners.

Besides his salary, the county will pay Young a $500-a-month car allowance but he has to provide his own car and insurance.

Young becomes Butler County’s fourth administrator since 2008, when former long-time administrator DerekConklin resigned amid a scandal involving a $209,000 early-retirement buyout deal for his county-employed wife.

Young was commissioner’s fourth choice for the hire in a process that took more than a year and involved a $23,000 contract with the search firm, Mercer Group.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Charles Young, Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon, Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young

Sheila McLaughlin reports

Picture three people who argue frequently.

One has been accused of screaming obscenities at workers. One accuses the others of hiding important meetings from him. The third solicits signed statements from staff to prove the other wrong in the press.

Now imagine they’re all your bosses.

These are Butler County’s elected commissioners, and it took them a year to find a county administrator, the fourth in four years at a time of significant budget challenges. The search was marked by months of infighting that revealed itself in public earlier this week.

The discord past and present led one job candidate to call Butler County “a political environment that’s anything but stable.” Even one commissioner agrees there are, as he put it, “elements of dysfunction.”

Accusations are still flying about disagreements that slowed down the hiring process even though Charles Young, a former deputy city manager in Hamilton, is expected to be appointed today as the commissioner’s fourth choice for the administrator’s job.

Three candidates who earlier received offers from among more than 29 applicants walked away for one reason or another.

One of them, Michael Hinnenkamp, who is the administrator in Springfield Township, said commissioners couldn’t offer him enough money.

He said he asked “north of $150,000” a year. County officials said it was more like $175,000 and a car. Hinnenkamp makes $135,000 annually in his current job. Young will be paid $125,000.

“It never made sense financially to … leave for the same (money) and have to drive up there and deal with a political environment that’s anything but stable,” Hinnenkamp said this week. “They’ve got some difficult challenges and personalities. It’s a long, long culture (of infighting) there.”

Commissioner Chuck Furmon refused to vote on Young’s job offer earlier this week. He said the number of qualified applicants fell short of what he expected.

“They’re going to be smart enough to do their research. There’s been elements of dysfunction and just nitpicking and what have you,” Furmon said. “I’m sure it’s in the back of their minds.” (more…)

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Charles Young, Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon, Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young

Sheila McLaughlin reports

A special meeting on Monday to approve an offer for a new county administrator erupted into a squabble and accusations that lame duck Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon was intentionally snubbed from an executive session when his colleagues changed the usual meeting place without telling him.

Chuck Furmon. Photo taken during the Republican primary race for Butler County commissioner by Joseph Fuqua II. Furmon lost the primary in March.

At the end of the day, however, Commissioners Don Dixon and Cindy Carpenter decided to offer the administrator’s job to former Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young.

They also clarified the county’s pay scales to accommodate a $125,000-a-year salary for Young. That figure was $44,000 more than what commissioners approved when a consultant put together a pay study and recommended wage scales last year.

“You know as well as I do everything is all precast. It’s a dog and pony show,” Furmon charged at his fellow commissioners, adding that resolutions involving Young’s hire were drawn up before the meeting and he wasn’t privy to them.

The meeting was marked by interruptions from Dixon and Carpenter to go to a vote on the salary as Furmon tried to express his opinion about the job offer to Young.

Twenty-nine people applied for the administrator’s position and two applicants received job offers but turned them down. The job has been vacant for just more than a year.

“For someone who didn’t attend all the meetings for the interviews in the past, I find it kind of ironic that you want to have a discussion,” Dixon chastised Furmon.

“I’ve attended 99 percent of those meetings,” Furmon fired back.

“I disagree,” said Carpenter.

Furmon’s final words: “The whole thing’s a joke.”

Furmon voted against going into executive session, but lost out. (more…)

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County administrator, Butler County administrator Charles Young, Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Don Dixon, Hamilton deputy city manager Charles Young

Sheila McLaughlin reports

They might both be Republicans, but that doesn’t mean Butler County Commissioners Chuck Furmon and Cindy Carpenter agree on everything, especially when it comes to throwing F-bombs and yelling at staff.

Cindy Carpenter. Photo provided.

Furmon fired off a letter this week to Carpenter chastising her about swearing at interim County Administrator Mike Campbell and engaging in a “very loud and angry professional rant” that could even be heard in the public elevators.

It’s the second time that Carpenter has been accused of berating employees.

Pete Landrum, Director of the Management and Budget Office, hired an attorney last November to stop Carpenter from making further threats against him.

The latest tirade involved Carpenter telling Campbell that she was a “(expletive) commissioner,” said the letter The Enquirer obtained from the board of commissioners.

“Your tirades and tantrums are becoming the norm rather than the exception. You seem to be driven to continually create a hostile work environment,” Furmon wrote in his letter to Carpenter.

“Our staff does not deserve your hostile behavior. Day after day they live with the threat of your outbursts.”

• Letter: Exchange between Furmon and Carpenter
• Story: Butler Co. official may sue Commissioner Cindy Carpenter

Chuck Furmon. Photo taken during the Republican primary race for Butler County commissioner by Joseph Fuqua II. Furmon lost the primary in March.

Reached Wednesday for comment, Furmon said, “I’m just disappointed in what she does. If it was an employee, we have zero tolerance for that. She should understand that.”

He was referring to the county’s personnel policy on threatening behavior and workplace violence. The policy does not apply to Carpenter because she is an elected official.

Carpenter did not return a call for comment, but sent a copy of her e-mail response to Furmon.

She said she considers Furmon’s letter “a political attack in light of the fact that you distributed the letter to the press prior to giving it to me.”

Carpenter also said she expressed her “frustration” to Campbell over an unfinished report that she wanted on establishing a Land Bank project in Butler County.

In Landrum’s case, Carpenter was accused of defaming him in public meetings, verbally abusing him and threatening his job security. His attorney warned Carpenter against further attacks.

Landrum was among a handful of employees Carpenter and Commissioner Don Dixon were jockeying to fire and replace as Carpenter was taking office in January 2011. Dixon backed out of the plan at the last minute.

Carpenter’s subsequent threats about firing certain employees in the commissioner’s office and shooting them prompted Landrum to file a formal complaint that Furmon, who was then commission president, forwarded to Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser for advice.

Nothing was done.

At the time, Carpenter told The Enquirer that she was dissatisfied with Landrum’s performance.

“He doesn’t understand he is not a county commissioner,” she said.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Commission President Chuck Furmon, Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Butler County Director of the Office of Budget and Finance, Butler County Director of the Office of Budget and Finance Pete Landrum, Chuck Furmon, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Chuck Furmon, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Elizabeth Loring, Elizabeth S. Loring, Pete Landrum

The head of Butler County’s finance department has threatened to sue the county, saying he’s been repeatedly threatened and berated by Commissioner Cindy Carpenter (photo – below right) and has been denied a promised pay raise, according to a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Below is a portion of that report:

Pete Landrum, who is director of the Office of Budget and Finance as well as assistant county administrator, has hired the same lawyer who recently won settlements for female county managers involving pay inequity.

In a letter obtained by The Enquirer, attorney Elizabeth S. Loring called Landrum a whistleblower and said that he would take “appropriate legal steps” if commissioners “take further adverse action against him.”

Loring alluded to alleged harassment by Carpenter, including statements she made to Landrum earlier this year that she would like to fire everyone in the office, including Landrum and “line them up and shoot them.”

Loring also said Landrum’s complaints and remarks to the press regarding the county’s budget shortfall have been the focus of hostility from Carpenter.

“Her actions against him range from unreasonable and arbitrary requests for information and defaming him in public meetings to verbal abuse and threatening his job security. Ms. Carpenter does not subject Mr. Landrum’s peers to this level of scrutiny and mistreatment,” Loring said in the letter.

“The latest of these attacks followed Mr. Landrum’s expressed concerns that health care costs owed in 2012 would not be reflected in the actual budget at Ms. Carpenter’s request.”

Carpenter said she remains dissatisfied with Landrum’s performance. She gave him a written reprimand on a number of alleged issues.

In a two-page, single-spaced e-mail statement that Carpenter sent to The Enquirer, she said she does not think Landrum is responsive enough to her requests for information, has talked to the press about budget matters before he tells commissioners and has made some budgeting decisions on his own and beyond the scope of his authority.

“He doesn’t understand he is not a county commissioner,” Carpenter said.

For the entire story, visit Cincinnati.com’s post “Butler Co. official may sue commissioner.”

Posted in: News |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Director of the Office of Budget and Finance, Butler County Director of the Office of Budget and Finance Pete Landrum, Cindy Carpenter, Commissioner Cindy Carpenter, Elizabeth Loring, Elizabeth S. Loring, Pete Landrum