Seven months after that, a new deal was sealed.
The negotiations went sour that summer with a $1 million wage difference between what the workers wanted and the county said it could afford. .
“Being on strike was about respect and not just earning fair wages,” Union Chief Becky Palmer said about the conditions five years ago. “We had been through many changes under different leadership in the years before the strike. Our wages had been frozen for several years before despite having a levy and a steady budget.”
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Former Butler County Human Resources Director Jim Davis, who was the lead negotiator for the county, said he had never experienced a more contentious atmosphere.
“All my other dealings with management and labor relations were predicated on good relationships, and that just didn’t exist at Children Services,” he said. “It was very challenging to work in that kind of contentious environment that was unlike any that I’ve experienced.”
The union has ratified another contract since the post-strike deal, and both include merit-based raises like the rest of the departments under the commissioners’ direct control. Under the deal brokered last year, workers can receive a bump up to 3 percent on their base pay and another lump sum increase of up to 3 percent, both based on their performance.
Many changes in addition to the new pay plan have happened at the agency. A $4 million budget hole disappeared, several innovative programs were deployed and the entire agency was overhauled, officials said. The turnover rate was 24.2 percent at the time of the strike, but last year it had dropped to 15.7 percent.
“Is it better now than it was five years ago? And I think you have to say yes, 1,000 percent,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “Are the finances better than they were five years ago? Yes, 1,000 percent. Are jobs more secure than they were five years ago? Absolutely, 1,000 percent.”
Bill Morrison, the Children Services head at the time of the strike, is now the executive director over all of Job and Family Services. He said the biggest change is merit pay, which has elevated performance among the workers.
“The overriding thing in all of this is the pay-for-performance system,” he said. “We were the first part of county government to deploy it in a bargaining unit. We’re all big believers in pay-for-performance, we would not have been able to be as successful as we’ve been without it. There’s no question about it.”
The incentives have improve goal-setting and motivation, and workers also believe they have direct access to Morrison if they want to challenge their scores, he said.
Palmer disagreed. She said many supervisors are grading the staff, so there are inconsistencies, and the money isn’t divided fairly.
“I think it’s awful, it’s just really demeaning because it’s not your individual performance at all,” she said. “For example, we had a worker from last year (who) improved by 40 points and received less than he did last year. He worked really hard to meet all of his goals and he felt none of that work mattered.”
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Julie Gilbert, who was promoted to director of the agency last summer, said that“you do run into situations where you have everybody improving, so even when they may get a higher score, so may everybody else,” and the pool of money allocated for raises is finite.
Palmer said pay levels are leading to turnover, which strains resources and staff.
“When we are down so many workers, the ones there have to work harder and longer, impacting both the quality and the timeliness of their work, thus impacting their ability to increase their wages,” she said. “Not having our own (human resources department) to invest in what we need and not having hiring and pay be a priority has really impacted our stability of staff at the agency.”
Lori Woodrum, who is a non-union social worker, has been with the agency since 2016. She said she came from Hamilton County and there is a night-and-day difference, especially in the emphasis on safety of the workers who are often placed in volatile situations. As for wages, “I think it’s a fair wage because I think we’re somewhere in the middle,” she said.
Officials announced a major overhaul of the agency in early 2014 that involved a new case flow model. Now, social workers who investigate allegations of abuse and neglect will stay with the family for longer instead of handing the case off to an ongoing worker after allegations are proven.
The system had to be deployed earlier than anticipated, during the strike, because 46 of the ongoing case workers were walking the picket line. The plan was to speed up the process for getting help for families, take advantage of “wrap- around” services and reduce the time children are away from home.
“Interrupting that relationship at that early point in time was a mistake,” Morrison said. “The theory behind it has always been in doing the investigation, you harm your relationship with the family, in a way that it’s difficult to then be the rehab agent on the other side of it. I’ve always believed that being the person that saw the problem gives the worker the moral authority in prescribing the solution.”
Reducing funds spent on placements was another goal. BCCS spent $12 million in 2014 caring for an average 448 children in its custody. Last year, the placement budget dropped to $10 million for an average 397 kids in custody.
Morrison and Gilbert both said the new system is working well. Palmer once again disagreed.
“The changes in the way cases are managed is not embraced by the workers, but appears to be by the administration who makes the decisions. Those of us that were at the agency five years ago would prefer to have our in-house case aides to support workers, transport children, and supervise visits. We no longer have any of that.”
Another positive was resurrecting the Family Preservation Program that was dismantled in 2011 by budget cuts. Morrison was able to leverage Medicaid dollars to pay for most of the cost by hiring an outside contractor to run the four-year, $1.6 million contract in 2016.
Social workers meet with families one to five times per week for intensive counseling and advice so children can safely stay in their homes instead of in the county’s custody.
A woman named Tara and her family members were clients in FPP. She came in contact with Children Services because her daughter was a victim of a sexual crime. The agency investigates all crimes against children.
She said she, her husband and three children were also having some issues at the time so her case worker hooked them up with Family Preservation.
The Journal-News is not identifying Tara by her last name because her daughter was a sexual assault victim.
“I was one that welcomed the help because I really truly needed it,” she said. “I needed someone else in my corner. People think, ‘Oh when Children Services is called, oh, they’re going to take my kids, they’re going to do this, oh they’re going to do that.’
“I always knew that was possibility, I know they do that kind of thing. But sometimes you need to open your arms and let the help be given.”
Another goal of the overhaul was to increase the number of in-county foster homes. Those in-county placements have increased from 119 to 146 in five years, while out-of-county placements dropped from 318 to 198. In-county foster homes increased from 141 to 192 in that time.
Morrison said officials have worked to engage with foster families, offering group training and events so foster families can interact with each other. He also created a Foster Parent Advisory Group that meets monthly.
His secret weapon is Hope’s Closet. Lead by foster mom Sarah Coleman, it is run by foster parents who collect clothing and other items for foster kids. The group has also been collecting foster families for the county by recruiting volunteers who work at the boutique. He said the county’s own foster parents and kids are the best recruitment tool the agency has.
Palmer said relationships between the union and management have improved through the years. Morrison agreed.
“The strike five years ago will always be a part of the history of Butler County Children Services,” Morrison said. “The fact that we have come together since then, working really hard to improve our services to Butler County children and families demonstrates that our common goal of protecting children binds us together more than labor management issues pull us apart.”
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