Perhaps some of our readers do not fully understand the connection(s), so allow us to explain. In our last post, the late Senator Schaefer, in her documentation was very clear about one thing: "The egregious acts and abhorrent behavior of officials who are supposed to protect children can no longer be tolerated".
We The People believe the same is true in every government department dealing with Human Services, where human lives are affected.
The Senator goes on to say: "I believe Child Protective Services nationwide has become corrupt and that the entire system is broken almost beyond repair".
To understand the scope of the problem, and how it affects the various departments in Human Services, one must understand the core problem, which in our opinion is...Leadership.
We elect leaders like County Executive John Stoffa to handle the business of the County in the best interest of We The People because we trust that they are qualified, and can do so. Unfortunately...there are times that We The People get it wrong - we're duped by deceitful politicians. Case in point - Mr. Stoffa was very much aware of the problems which existed at Gracedale, specifically dealing with social worker Ilisa Sacknoff. How do we know? Because We The People informed him. Unfortunately, he failed us again. Instead of properly terminating the services of a less than desirable employee, who clearly was not interested in serving the needs of those under her authority, he chose to simply moved her to another government department where evidently she has continued her unethical practices.
Please understand that the complaints against Ms. Sacknoff were many, over a long term of time. At one point, a meeting was scheduled by Mr. McShane to deal with issues, including those against the unsocial social worker, where better than thirty five resident family members attended to voice their concerns - many of which are still involved with COAF today.Mr. Stoffa was also very much aware of the problems relating to unethical practices by such employees in Lehigh County when he was the Director of Human Services in Lehigh County going back to November of 2002, when Paul Carpenter of the Morning Call wrote an article in which he quoted John Stoffa: "When children were taken away from parents, it was like the Gestapo," He was speaking about how some of the caseworkers operated. "We did find that some of our people were working at these [private service providers]. It was double dipping." Mr. Carpenter went on to state to Mr. Stoffa that: "It's worst than double-dipping, it can involve a financial motive for referrals." and Stoffa replied..."Yes, that's why we had to do something about it [in Lehigh County].
In our opinion, Ilisa Sacknoff while employed at Gracedale, operated very much in the same "Gestapo" style Mr. Stoffa mentions in Carpenter's article...so we have to ask Mr. Stoffa, why would he allow such behavior in Northampton County, after he publicly denounced it as wrong in Lehigh County?
By the way, note that Mr. Stoffa also served as Northampton County Director of Human Services before he was elected in 2005 to the position of County Executive, he has had plenty of time to correct this issue, so why hasn't he?
Stoffa is a career bureaucrat. He doesn't solve problems, he has meetings. He is no friend of Human Services. His record here and in Lehigh County is pretty clear about that.
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