Sutton at odds with DSS; director, board chair defend efforts

The final straw? DSS Director Susan Osborne's comments about turnover and staffing shortages at a recent DSS board meeting, said Sutton, who served on the board for almost three years.

At that June 26 meeting, Osborne said six employees had resigned over the previous 10 days. That coupled with the county's hiring freeze and other vacancies meant  her department was short 14 employees, she said.

Such comments are an example of how DSS leaders "poor-mouth" and "overstate" their needs, Sutton said. "There's a constant drone out of there that they're understaffed, overworked and underpaid," he said. "I just can't tolerate the atmosphere there any longer."

Sutton said his quarrel is with the DSS administrators, not rank-and-file employees.

DSS leaders need to take a more "can-do" and "hard-nosed" management style and "put their heads down and go to work," Sutton said.

"I think new leadership is needed," he added.

At some board meetings, Sutton said presentations were "slanted" to "low-ball the Hispanic impact on local social services."

Sutton also doesn't like that Osborne has taken a number of trips for training and professional conferences. Some of the trips were unnecessary, Sutton said.

Earlier this year, County Manager David Smith required his approval of all travel requests outside the county. Sutton said the move came after he questioned a trip Osborne took to Las Vegas.

In addition, Sutton said he has tired of "snide comments and snide looks" and less-than-complete answers to his questions at board meetings.

Osborne took issue with Sutton's assessment of her leadership and the tenor of the board meetings.

"I think our agency is one of the best in North Carolina in social services. That's from the front-line receptionist all the way to the director."

Some of her employees are working at "200-percent capacity," Osborne said. "Their can-do attitude in covering the 14 vacancies is very strong."

Food stamp requests alone have doubled over the past six years, said Osborne, citing what she said was but one example of increasing demands.

The ability to get higher-paying social service jobs with a lighter work load is causing some employees to seek greener pastures at agencies in Orange County and elsewhere, Osborne said.

About six months ago, Osborne said she pressed her staff to be more efficient because "more staff is not an option."

Part of the response, she said, included implementing a different way to process Work First cash assistance requests that is based on a more efficient program in Randolph County.

Department staffers and the five-member DSS board welcome questions and do their best to give full answers, Osborne added.

The department's staffing needs are no overstatement, Osborne said. Her comments about the vacancies came, she said, as part of a monthly briefing and responses to questions from board member David Carter.

The staffing shortages have caused the department to fail eight of 12 monthly assessments from the federal Division of Medical Services for the timely processing of Medicaid claims.

"We don't ask for anything we don't need," Osborne said. "We're staffed very lean because we do have a conservative county."

When it comes to the question of leadership, board Chairwoman Edna Parker sides with Osborne.

"That's really surprising," she of Sutton's comments. "This leadership is some of the best we've had in years. Look at the grants they've brought in."

The largesse includes a recent $2-million grant to improve the lives of children in welfare programs through comprehensive family assessments.

Osborne has "come up with some really innovative ways to use the staff," Parker said.

Parker is concerned that under-staffing might eventually lead to fines from the federal government because of the DSS's "failure to provide (Medicaid) services in a timely fashion."

Among other things, the DSS board is responsible for hiring and firing the DSS director.

Osborne has done nothing to warrant dismissal, Parker said.

The board, Parker added, doesn't suppress any opinion, nor has it sloughed-off any of Sutton's questions.

Sutton's dissatisfaction with the responses to his queries might be "because he didn't get the answers he wanted," Parker said.