National News
Audit: Some Californians cleared to work without background checks
March 16, 2017 posted by Steve Brownstein
State auditors found that California does a poor job of screening social services workers and sometimes allows people with previous arrests or convictions to work in facilities that care for children, adults and seniors.
The report was released Tuesday, three years after a KCRA investigation found that the Department of Social Services (DSS) was clearing people who were convicted of serious crimes to work without proper background checks.
In 2014, KCRA 3 Investigates found that DSS was sending letters clearing people who were convicted of violent offenses like sex with a minor, elder abuse, arson and other crimes without looking into their backgrounds. The department had said they would clear them and do the proper check later.
That report sparked a state law which requires the DSS perform proper background checks. Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, R-San Diego, authored the bill in 2014, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
State auditors said in the last two years, DSS still wasn't performing the proper background checks.
"You know, we worked really hard to get at this problem,” Maienschein said Tuesday. “This is a serious problem, and to see people just not complying with the law is incredibly frustrating."
The audit pinpoints several areas where the DSS falls short and allows people to work before they are cleared. The report found:
-DSS was not getting the proper information from the California Department of Justice (DOJ).
-DOJ stopped providing complete criminal histories and the information it did provide is often tardy.
-DSS does not always obtain or review all appropriate information before allowing individuals access to facilities.
-DSS granted exemptions allowing more than 40 people to get licenses between 2013 and last year, despite being convicted of identity theft, pimping, pandering or certain sex crimes.
-DSS and four other departments within the California Health and Human Services Agency do not share critical information.
As a result, "Social Services does not receive all of the information it needs to protect vulnerable clients," auditors said.
Auditors found that in 17 of the 18 cares they reviewed, DSS did not properly review background information on those seeking state licenses, sometimes ignoring convictions for relatively minor crimes.
All told, auditors found six times in 2014 and 2015 where justice officials did not notify the department of convictions, though department officials found out in other ways. Two of those convictions -- for child abuse and for inflicting pain on an elderly or dependent adult -- were enough to disqualify the applicant from getting a license.
Auditors found one case where the DOJ did not disclose that an applicant seeking a license had committed assault with intent to murder as a minor.
"We like to focus more on the felonies and the misdemeanor convictions and arrests because those are things we look at as being risks to individuals in facilities," DSS spokesperson Michael Weston said. "Whereas something that is an infraction, most likely on an appeal, somebody can have that overturned by a judge."
DSS said it welcomes the recommendations by the auditor. The agency claims it did not get proper information from the DOJ. The audit report said changes should be made to state law to require the DOJ to give full background information to the department.
A pending bill, SB420, by state Sen. William Monning, D-Carmel, would require justice officials to disclose more information.
Auditors said lawmakers should also add to the list of crimes that keep individuals from obtaining a state license.
Portions of the report "are somewhat disturbing," said Bob Alvarez, a spokesman for Sen. Kathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, who sought the audit. He said Galgiani may seek changes in state law as the auditors recommended.
The social services department "will continue to improve processes to ensure that individuals caring for adults and children are properly cleared," said spokesman Michael Weston, adding that "much of this work is already underway."
DOJ officials did not immediately comment Tuesday, but told auditors that state law must be changed before it can provide more information.
