Travis County Commissioners Court
April 28, 2009,
Item
5
>> number 5.
5.
receive update on status of office of child representation and office of parental representation.
we have both of our chief lawyers with us.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, I'm roger jeffreys, executive manager justice and public safety.
we wanted to come today and introduce to the Commissioners court our new managing attorneys for the office of child representation in the office of parent representation.
to my right is leslie hill the new managing attorney over at the office of child representation, to my left is stephanie ledesma, the new managing attorney for the office of parent representation.
as you recall back in October the county was awarded a grant from the Texas supreme court to create these two new public defender offices for parents and children in abuse and neglect cases.
what we wanted to do today is just give the Commissioners court an update on each office and give you a chance to get to know these folks a little bit.
who wants to go first?
>> I will be happy to go first.
>> go ahead.
>> good morning, your honor, Commissioners.
my name is stephanie ledesma, the managing attorney for the office of parental representation.
more than thrilled to be here.
more than excited about what we have planned.
we have announced we will take our first case on may the 29th.
in that stead we have hired the first attorney in addition to myself, the paralegal for that office, the legal secretary for that office.
we have also hired the social worker for that office.
we have extended an offer of employment for the administrative associate.
so we will soon be staffed.
both persons will start on may 4th and may the 11th and we will be ready to go on may the 29th.
we are excited about it.
>> very good.
>> can you tell them a little bit about yourself.
>> [laughter]
>> how long do I have?
i was in private practice for 12 years.
the majority of my practice was representing parties in child protective services cases.
so I've had the opportunity to represent parents in c.p.s.
cases, children in c.p.s.
cases, symbolic relatives, whether that be grandparents or aunts and uncles in c.p.s.
cases.
my passion has always been one of providing a voice for those who are unheard.
and I honestly believe that until parents are heard in child welfare cases, then the child welfare system isn't going to get any better.
parents have a tremendous voice, parents need to be heard in that.
in doing that, I took on the opportunity to -- to manage the office of parental representation because I believe that, number one, that change can be done and that change can be positive.
i believe, number two, that involving the parents from the beginning is necessary.
and in that involvement, those parents need to have consistent, zealous, legal representation.
the office of parental representation will not only be able to provide that representation, but will also, because we will have a social worker, be able to provide case management services.
so not only now do we look at glaring gaps and the things that need to happen, we will actually be in a position to help bridge those gaps.
we will be able to focus on -- our office has identified initiatives that we think are important.
as important as providing that legal representation because what I have learned over the last 12 years is you have to advocate beyond the courtroom.
as attorneys there's only so much that we can do within the four walls of that courtroom.
if we're really going to benefit these families and really make the system better, we have to go beyond the courtroom.
so one of the things that we want to do is increase the visitation time for the parents.
the other thing that we want to do is to establish a mentoring program for these parents.
the other thing that we would like to do is to help these parents not only become engaged in the system, but be a -- an integral part of their children's education and their own education because a lot of these parents really just need the resources and need a helping hand and we absolutely intend to be that helping hand.
>> okay.
thank you.
>> leslie?
>> good morning, Commissioners, it's great to be here.
i'm thrilled to be the managing attorney for the children's office.
our program is set up not unlike the parents' office, so you have heard a little bit about that.
i will tell you where we are in our situation and also just a little bit about myself.
i was a d.a.
here at the Travis County d.a.'s office.
before that I was with safe place and worked with victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
i have been a county attorney.
i did domestic violence work there.
so I have gotten to work with community groups, I have worked in government.
i am thrilled to be able to bring all of that together to work for the children.
i represented c.p.s.
when I was with the d.a.'s office.
i know a lot about the system.
i have been able to make connections within the system and I'm really excited about drawing on all of that to bring this together.
we are -- we are the top priority of this office is effective comprehensive legal services for the children who are our clients.
we also want to be a community resource and available to other people who are doing this work as a -- as a place that people can get information about best practices, we're in contact with people who are doing this work in other parts of the country so that we can stay ahead of the curve on those sorts of things and bring the best practices to Travis County.
at this point we are in the hiring process, I am interviewing attorneys, I am starting with my attorneys, some of my postings went up a little bit later so I do not have interviews done yet on the support staff, but I'm very hopeful that we have a great applicant pool and will very quickly have people hired and in place.
we are also planning to take our first case on may 29th.
so I'm thrilled to -- to be part of this and -- and look forward to working with all of you.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> we would like to add their service suites or over in some space at 9th and lavaca, very nice.
they have gotten these offices off the ground from scratch it's a lot of work.
they have done a great job.
i would like to thank bob Moore, christie vargas, pierce, leslie strickland who have been so helpful.
>> how do we measure the success or failure of these offices?
a year, two years after may 29th, 2009?
>> your honor, and Commissioners, I believe that the best way to measure the success is going to be able to look at the families, look at how early our offices were involved, look at the outcome.
was the outcome an outcome that -- that really benefited that family, what services were we able to provide during the time that we were appointed to that case, your -- it's going to be -- it's going to be on a case-by-case basis, if you are looking long-term, I think the best way to determine whether or not you are successful to look at the type of services, type of case management services, legal representation and the results.
>> we will collect this data as we progress?
>> absolutely, sir.
yes, sir.
>> I guess there are grant requirements that the state imposes that we have to meet.
>> that is correct, your honor.
>> any other questions?
I'm real excited about getting started with this as well.
so -- so great.
thrilled.
thrilled about it.
and thrilled about the prospect of developing both the -- both the quantity take it active and qualitative because so much is going to be based on qualitative which are more difficult to measure, but we're up to the challenge.
>> when we discussed the malpractice insurance, it was these two lawyers that we had in mind.
>> some of the legal secretaries under one criterion, and parent, representation.
you have one legal secretary on one end, on the other you have two legal secretaries.
i was wondering what was the difference in needing two legal secretaries in one instance and only requiring one in the other instance?
>> well, Commissioner, in looking at the way that the offices are set up, I believe that the parents' office has an office specialist and a legal secretary.
my office has a legal secretary and a legal secretary senior.
we kind of broke it down in different ways we are trying to I think accomplish the same thing which is having comprehensive secretarial services.
and so they are listed differently, but they should be accomplishing the same goals.
we each have two support staff of that general level.
>>
>> [indiscernible] switch off administrative person.
again in one instance.
i was trying to make a comparison comparing both services, comparing -- as far as the staffing.
situation, that's what I was trying to make a comparison on.
i'm sorry?
i didn't mean to cut you off, go ahead.
>> Commissioner Davis, if I may respond to that, we are very mindful of the budgetary impact that the offices have on the citizens of the county.
and for the office of parental representation, where we looked at the support services that were necessary, we felt that we could accomplish that with the -- actually the office specialist has been amended on administrative associate, but we felt that we could accomplish the necessary goal without making it more difficult from a budgetary position and that's why we don't have two legal secretaries in that office.
>> next question, thank you.
my next question, what criterion will be set forth to determine -- in other words if a taxpayer would ask me, hey, you guys end up coming up with this, I mean, where and how often do we benefit according to the money that's being invested?
so I would like to answer them a certain way, but right now -- I'm posing a question to you, how would -- how would we tell the taxpayer on this end the success of what's being measured to determine success.
>> well, I -- I know the -- we are developing some performance measures.
with the program.
there are targets around a number of cases that -- that we're going to be providing.
i think these types of cases also provide -- provide -- leslie both talked about it, case management services, to achieve some -- some different types of outcomes.
>> okay.
so -- so those haven't been developed but they have been worked on?
>> yes.
>> as far as performance measures are concerned.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
it will be good to see what those performance measures are, just in case one of us on this court get a call say hey I see -- what's the deal going on, how will it benefit us?
so I would like to say this is how it will benefit you because -- because here are some performance measures that we have in place that we can share with them at that time.
so I would like to see what those performance measures are.
>> we can come back and provide you with those when those are developed.
>> I think it would be very wise to do that, thank you.
>> I guess so far, though, 100% of the funding has come from the state, right if.
>> exactly.
>> that is correct, your honor.
>> but our goal is to -- to pilot the program long enough to determine whether -- whether it should become a permanent part of our justice system and that state funding will probably drop to 0 at some point and at that time it's anticipated that the Travis County would picket up.
>> right.
>> we ought to pick it up if it's successful.
if it's not, we ought not.
>> right.
>> but our goal is to put effort into it and achieve success, basically.
>> the family who needed in you on community, these are not going to be the easiest cases to deal with.
but we certainly want them to listen to options that are available or other steps to take in order to make their children's lives and futures more successful.
but we want to give you every chance to develop those -- those -- those measures because let's keep in mind these are not the easiest cases to turn around and yet I'm really hopeful and very happy that this is available to our families.
thank you all so much for your dedication.
eagerness to get started, thank you so much.
>> we realize that it was a lot of effort put fort in trying to get this money from the state.
the competition in Texas for such awarding of funds.
however, it's still taxpayers money.
that's -- regardless of where it come from, it's nothing free.
so since that's the case, as the money comes from somewhere, just didn't fall from the sky.
it comes from taxpayers.
regardless of what source, state, federal, county, city, still taxpayers money, regardless.
thank you.
>> thank you, Commissioner.
>> we look forward to working with you.
>> thank you, your honor.
forecast
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:10 PM