Grand Jury Finds Fault With Casa Pacifica, Suggests Improvements

CAMARILLO — Calling Casa Pacifica’s operations a “recipe for disaster,” the Ventura County Grand Jury on Wednesday issued a sweeping list of recommendations for the children’s shelter, from hiring a uniformed security guard to closing the site’s public school.

Casa Pacifica makes “a valiant effort,” the report said, but the facility is hindered by problems in funding, design and regulations.

Some of the report’s recommendations dismayed Casa Pacifica’s executive director and the acting director of the Ventura County Public Social Services Agency.

“These are children who have suffered abuse and neglect--they are not prisoners and they are not inmates,” said Barbara Fitzgerald, who was appointed acting director of the agency when James Isom resigned earlier this month. “We need to treat them as damaged children and make sure they get the services that are appropriate for them.”

Casa Pacifica, which opened in 1994, has two programs. The shelter component houses children removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, and the residential treatment portion takes in youths diagnosed with severe emotional disorders.

The grand jury began looking into Casa Pacifica in January after shelter officials asked the district attorney and the presiding judge of the Juvenile Court to conduct an investigation, said Steve Elson, Casa Pacifica’s executive director.

These requests came after the State Department of Social Services launched its own investigation in October, prompted by a 9-year-old boy’s sexual assault upon a toddler.

The grand jury’s recommendations, formulated after extensive interviews with child-welfare professionals, include:

* “A large, uniformed, male security guard” to reduce attempted runaways and surveillance cameras to alert staff more quickly to potential problems.

* Adding another building to separate children by program, gender, age and behavioral problem.

* Placing infants and preschool children in foster homes within 48 hours, and other children under 10 within two weeks.

* Hiring older staff members, who have more life experience and mature judgment.

* Trying to raise more funds from the private sector to balance its budget.

* Busing shelter children to local schools.

Elson said he had already initiated discussion about some of the recommendations, such as an additional cottage and more foster homes.

Other recommendations, such as moving children into foster homes more quickly, are infeasible because some dependency court proceedings take longer than two weeks, he said.

He agreed with the grand jury’s statement that none of the issues is unique to Casa Pacifica.

“In some ways, the document is addressed to the larger child welfare system in Ventura County and not exclusively to Casa Pacifica,” Elson said. “It points out that how we as a society deal with abused and neglected children is very complex. There aren’t easy answers. Casa Pacifica’s mission has really been to try to help the county address those issues.”

There are two schools at Casa Pacifica: a public school, operated by the county superintendent of schools and attended by the shelter children, and a non-public school operated by Casa Pacifica and attended by children in the residential treatment program.

“Coordination problems exist since public school personnel are not supervised by Casa Pacifica staff,” the report states, adding that procedures are not consistent between the two schools.

But Elson said closing the public school would create other problems.

“The original purpose of Casa Pacifica was to have all the services in one spot to prevent or avoid movement and shuffling around of the children,” he said, referring to the educational, psychological and medical services provided for all children on the campus.

An eight-member review team, assembled by the State Department of Social Services, reported earlier this month that it found no evidence that children are in danger at either the shelter or residential treatment program, but it recommended that staff members receive improved training.

However, the state department could still take action against the facility, including placing the facility on probation, temporarily suspending its license or instituting a mutually agreed-upon plan of correction, said Myron Taylor of the state’s community care licensing division.

No date has been released for the final decision, he said.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors, which allocates about 15% of the funding for the shelter portion of Casa Pacifica, is also studying problems at the shelter.

Supervisors have appointed a task force, made up of county officials and Casa Pacifica representatives, to develop a plan to improve operating conditions at the shelter and improve communications between the county and the shelter. A report is expected by late next month.