NORWICH – About 40 percent of the cash assistance recipients in Chenango County who are employable have criminal backgrounds, and because the state welfare program requires a work component, they have sometimes been blindly placed in public and non-profit worksites.
The number of recent instances of a convicted sex offender or thief working in an inappropriate environment, such as in a library or supervising money, is unknown. The directors of the county’s social services and personnel departments indicated Tuesday that it could be as many as six.
Such individuals fall through the cracks because caseworkers who place them don’t have the legal authority to do criminal background checks on their clients. And, when recommended for a government position, the Chenango County Personnel Department does background checks only if the job is in the realm of public safety. It doesn’t have the funding to do background checks on everybody.
“We are hobbled here to know a person’s background,” Department of Social Services Director Bette Osborne told members of the Chenango County Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday. “But, even if we could, so many criminal offenses are pleaded down today anyway.”
At the same time, Osborne said the state has threatened to sanction Chenango County for having low participation rates at worksites. The county is mandated to employ 50 percent of its clients in order to keep the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families state block grant flowing. TANF funds cover benefits, administrative expenses, and services targeted to needy families.
Those receiving assistance need to be volunteering at a qualifying worksite, taking courses or actively looking for a job for a set number of hours. Osborne said DSS is having a difficult time placing recipients because a large number of them are disabled, illiterate or don’t stay on the job and, also, because there aren’t enough openings available.
Osborne said the regulations are “set up for us to fail.”
“Even though some clients have restrictions due to health or whatever, we are still being marked against for not having them placed somewhere,” she said.
The situation is not particular to Chenango County, however. The 20 to 21 percent rate here is in line with the 15 to 30 percent rates reported in several neighboring counties, according to Osborne.
During the meeting, Personnel Director Bonnie L. Carrier repeatedly placed the screening responsibility upon department directors or non-profit managers who welcome the extra help, but fail to conduct background checks or provide sufficient job supervision.
She said sometimes the individual stays at work long enough to become a candidate for the position full-time, and if it becomes available, winds up being hired without the proper interview, pre-placement physical and ethics checks.
“You can’t put someone at a worksite with certain types of criminal histories. We don’t want to put the county in a bad situation. For some of these crimes, there’s no rehabilitation,” said Carrier. “My biggest concern is that the department heads are not asking questions that they would normally ask people interviewing for a job.”
Committee Chairman Jeffrey Blanchard came to the defense of department directors who may not have the time, he said, to interview the extra workers. “They can fire them after a day if they don’t work out. That’s the same as interviewing them,” he said.
Osborne said clients usually stop going to the worksite before they are fired, which also counts against the participation rates. “The state says we aren’t properly training them,” she said.
Osborne said the majority of TANF clients come in with a disability that doesn’t allow them to work. Of the 171 non-exempt adults in program, 101 are non-offenders, leaving 70 with some type of criminal history. Osborne said a high percentage are illiterate.
Afton Supervisor Robert Briggs said unemployable people should not be charged against the county’s participation rates. “It’s a double-edged sword,” he said last month upon first learning about the state’s possible sanctions.
Osborne said some counties have hired a driver and leased a van to transport assistance recipients to authorized worksites and also supervise them, much like the Corrections Department does with inmates laboring in the community. (She said the two populations couldn’t be mixed.)
Town of Smyrna Supervisor James B. Bays suggested that Osborne gather input from the county’s law enforcement officials to increase participation rates.
“This is a huge source of aggravation, both internally and externally, for the county. These folks need to be held accountable. The public wouldn’t mind seeing some investment if people are fulfilling their responsibility to work,” Bays said.
Blanchard suggested finding a community volunteer to drive and supervise them.
Both Osborne and Carrier said there were some success stories, clients who were placed at a worksite, performed well, were subsequently hired and no longer required TANF. “It could be a good feeder program for the county,” Carrier said.
As of April 30, there were 379 individual TANF recipients in Chenango County supporting 700 individuals. Included in the number were clients who are actually working in paid jobs, but don’t make enough to bring them over the eligibility threshold, and “child” only cases where a family or non-family member is caring for a child because of extenuating circumstances.