'Like kids being caught in a custody battle': Union pushes back on $4.6M DCYF funding cut

Cutting $4.6 million from the budget of the embattled Department of Children, Youth & Families won't help with the agency's longstanding problems, union leaders and state lawmakers said at a news conference on Thursday.

"We need to set the bar higher, not lower," said Matthew Gunnip, president of Service Employees International Union Local 580.

The $4.6 million in question was included in last year's budget and supposed to go towards staff salaries and benefits, Gunnip said. But DCYF has struggled to recruit enough workers to fill all the vacant positions at the agency, so that money didn't get spent. Now, it's on the chopping block.

Why DCYF can't hire enough workers

To address the workforce crisis, DCYF and union leadership worked together last year to pass legislation that streamlined hiring. But it's hard to recruit and retain workers when DCYF can't compete with the wages being offered in neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts, Gunnip said.

As a result, the division of Child Protective Services is facing a "quiet crisis," Gunnip said. Investigators have less experience than in the past, and caseloads that are more than twice the standard.

Meanwhile, DCYF faces major challenges, such as an increase in child fatalities and the threat of a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Rep. Julie Casimiro, D-North Kingstown, says she and other lawmakers have been "sounding the alarm for years."

DCYF has a new director with a vision for solving the problems that have plagued the agency, she noted, but "you can’t change the situation if you’re taking resources away."

'Caught in a custody battle'

Meanwhile, Gunnip said, "we're kind of like kids being caught in a custody battle."

He summed up the message from Gov. Dan McKee's administration as, "I would like to raise wages for the workers, but where's the money?"

Meanwhile, he said, General Assembly leaders say that any wage increases have to go through the executive branch, since DCYF workers are covered by a collective-bargaining agreement.

“Addressing the funding needs at DCYF is on the list under consideration of the many priorities that have been requested as we put together the final budget," House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said in a joint statement. "There is a long list of pressing demands that were not included in the governor’s original budget proposal to the legislature.”

Olivia DaRocha, a spokeswoman for McKee, wrote in an email: "Any wage increases would need to be negotiated through the collective-bargaining process."

The governor's budget proposal includes more than $20 million in additional funding "to support enhanced service" at DCYF, she noted.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: DCYF faces $4.6-million budget cut due to worker shortage, union says