SAN JOSE – Santa Clara County Councilwoman Sylvia Arenas had enough.
During Tuesday's board meeting, she listened quietly as county child welfare officials presented a slideshow detailing progress in reforming the agency since three-month-old baby Phoenix Castro died of a fentanyl overdose last yr they usually refused to separate him from his drug-addicted father.
She waited for Damion Wright, the top of the Department of Family and Children Services, to say a scathing latest report from the California Department of Human Services — a follow-up to a similarly scathing report from last yr — that outlined how the state still was “concerned about the risks to child safety.”
Wright never mentioned it. So Arenas, who spent her profession in child support court before joining the board in 2023, delivered a blistering 20-minute critique, demanding accountability from Wright, his boss Dan Little – who now heads the county’s social services department – and be Chief, County Executive James Williams. Their leadership and policies were leaving children in dangerous homes, Arenas said, and she or he demanded to know what they were doing to alter that.
“I want an answer. Damion? Dan? What are you doing? James, what are you doing?” she asked from the rostrum, looking down at Wright and Little, who were slouching of their seats. “How do we mitigate the impact of this extreme 'family preservation' concept that is endangering our children? That has caused a death in our community? That continues to impact brown and black children? What are you doing?”
When Little tried to answer that he would answer the identical query as he had at a board meeting nine months ago, Arenas interrupted him.
“I would really appreciate it if you said something different than you did in December,” she said. “It was really disappointing.”
The tense exchange between an elected official and salaried staff during a public meeting was extraordinary. Arena's voice almost trembled with anger at times and her three counterparts remained in awkward silence. Board meetings are often sober affairs that always seem interminable to members of the general public who may come to listen. If there are disagreements, they are often couched in polite platitudes that end with a thanks.
But Arenas turned those norms on their head on Tuesday.
The meeting got here nearly a yr after the Mercury News revealed that the county's family preservation policy – pushed by Dan Little in 2021 – gave the impression to be more vital than child safety within the case of baby Phoenix's death, whilst social staff had raised alarms. That news organization also uncovered the unique February 2023 state report that found the district attorney's office often overruled social staff' decisions to remove children from unsafe families. Little had kept that state report secret from the Board of Supervisors until the night before this newspaper published it.
After neither Little nor Wright mentioned the second state report in July of their presentation, Arenas made it clear Tuesday that she had little confidence within the agency's leadership, its transparency or its commitment to child safety as its most significant element.
That July state report criticized the county for failing to trace whether families who were capable of keep their children after reports of abuse or neglect actually accomplished the county's voluntary programs to enhance their parenting. From July 2022 to March 2024, state investigators found that in 55 percent of cases where there have been safety concerns in the house, safety plans weren’t developed or monitored. There were no formal protocols for social staff to follow when families didn’t complete their parenting programs, and there have been no formal processes to evaluate whether a short lived caregiver was appropriate.
After Little Arenas said, “We want to make sure that every decision we make for each child is the right decision for that child,” she interrupted again.
“But it wasn't, Dan. So I ask you: What are you doing to correct your leadership to ensure that the systems don't go back to where they were and put the well-being of our children at risk?”
When Little tried to reply, saying they were following “policies and practices,” she interrupted him.
“I ask you to take responsibility,” she said.
“You had a responsibility, Dan. How about we admit that to our community? How about we admit that we made a mistake in our system? Are you going to apologize to every single child you put in danger because there was no safety plan?”
The board meeting was live streamed and recordedAlex Lesniak, a social employee and union representative for the county, viewed it twice on Wednesday.
“I literally cried, in a good way, because it's like someone is finally getting it and seeing what we've all been trying to point out since before Phoenix died,” Lesniak said. “Someone is actually asking the people who made these decisions and implemented these policies to be accountable for what they're going to do differently so that this never happens again.”
The board has the facility to fireside Williams. The remainder of the five-member board, nonetheless, appears to have little interest in doing so. Only Williams has the facility to fireside Little or Wright – another choice that appears to have little traction.
Nevertheless, Arenas – with the support of the board – required in a motion that Wright and Little write a “personal reflection” on their leadership, outlining the way it has failed vulnerable children and what they’re doing to enhance it.
“I really want this to be your personal reflection on your own role in this fiasco we are in right now,” she said.
She became particularly animated when she brought up the state's July report and asked why neither Little nor Wright mentioned it. For ten deadly seconds, there was no response. Finally, Williams spoke up and agreed that it “would make sense” to include the state's findings and suggestions into the agency's future work plan.
Arenas shot back.
“The system works as well as the people who run it,” Arenas said. “And sometimes we have to ask ourselves if we have the right people on the team to actually do the work.”
image credit : www.mercurynews.com