In case you missed it: here's all you need to know about yesterday morning's federal court hearing on CFSA: In CFSA Case, Nickles Plays Defense; Judge Hogan Critical Of CFSA Director Selection Process.

Dee Does the District decides to not open up about getting terminated by DCPS. But this doesn't stop her from opening up about getting terminated by DCPS:

"I’ve decided to forego a big post in regards to my termination due to pending legal action and for my own personal privacy. Although I am deeply disappointed and incensed by the sweeping terminations, I feel relieved in a sense to be out of this broken system. I already have a number of upcoming interviews lined up at charters and in Northern Virginia and I’m looking forward to moving on to a school to values me and treats me like a human being."

The Heights Life raves about trivia night at Commonwealth: "You can expect the usual five rounds including a handout and an audio round - but to mix it up there are some rewards for speed and accuracy. And who knows - that might not be all he's got planned. This time those rounds seemed to go over particularly well, especially at my hyper-competitive table..."

And Now, Anacostia loves the Fenty Administration's crackdown on shady used car lots: "The slew of grimy / sketchy "used car lots" that weren't even legit businesses that lined many of the city's up-and-coming retail corridors. the administration heard the complaints that they weren't actually selling cars to the public, and in swoops the Fenty crackdown to get rid of them. Love it."

Runin DC pens not funny rap about Eastern Market. Is this now a trend---rapping about lame shit? Wait. This vid isn't supposed to be funny. I'm confused.

Greater Greater Washington has the most in-depth rundown of Metro's safety systems we've read. A must read not just for transportation nerds.

Pop Cesspool offers up a little MJ-related history lesson.

Young & Hungry gets Taylor Gourmet owner talking about picking a second location for his deli shop.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

The plaintiff's, Children's Rights, a New York-based advocacy law firm which specializes in exposing troubled child welfare agencies and turning them around, was in its element. The District's lawyers were no match for Children's Rights founder and executive director Marcia Lowry. While both sides disputed whether or not the agency met those benchmarks---with the city attorney lamely complaining that some of the benchmarks were too difficult to meet---Hogan seemed most annoyed with point No. 4 of his stipulated order. It stated that the city must consult with the assigned court monitor as well as Lowry's group during the selection of a new CFSA director.

Lowry had contended that Children's Rights was not consulted. Hogan stated from the bench that the city had "blatantly" failed to comply with this aspect of his court order.

This evening, Loose Lips (aka Mike DeBonis) reached AG Peter Nickles and asked him to comment on Hogan's statements. Let's just say Nickles argument was less than legalistic. His response was all about feelings.

Nickles: "I know that I personally consulted with both [Court Monitor] Judith Meltzer and plaintiff's counsel on the very same day. I asked, is this sufficient consultation?" Nickles says that Meltzer thought it was enough to meet the court order. Lowry disagreed.She said she was notified of Dr. Roque Gerald's selection the day before the official announcement was made.

"She said she was opposed, that [this] wasn't sufficient consultation," Nickles recalls. "There's no way of consulting in advance with the plaintiffs, because they don't agree with anything we're doing."

Hmm. Shouldn't you consult in advance with the plaintiffs because a federal judge ordered you to? How hard would it have been to notify Lowry a week prior to Gerald's appointment?

This morning in U.S. District Court, Judge Thomas F. Hogan took up the on-going legal battle over the District's Child and Family Services Agency. At issue was whether or not the agency could be held in contempt. Hogan devoted much of his consternation on the how the District went about picking Dr. Roque Gerald (pictured) to head up CFSA.

At the time of Dr. Gerald's selection, City Desk questioned whether the District violated Hogan's order. We wrote:

"Last fall, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan issued an order stipulating a series of directives. One of those stipulations involved the future selection of a permanent director at CFSA. On Tuesday, Fenty announced his selection of interim director Roque Gerald to take over in a permanent capacity. Hogan had stipulated that “the Court Monitor and Plaintiffs will be included in the selection process for the permanent Director.'...

The Plaintiffs–Children’s Rights–say they were never consulted during the selection process. “We were not included in the process and I think given the problems the agency has had over the last several years the choice of the director was critically important,” says Children’s Rights Executive Director Marcia Robinson Lowry. She adds that this violated the court order."

While Gerald has gotten high praise from child advocates and has definitively saved the agency from the fallout over the Jacks case, Hogan suggested today that the city had indeed violated his order. Hogan dubbed the city's following of his order a "blatant" failure. Maybe he too doesn't like Fenty's secretive m.o.

The bulk of the nearly two hour proceedings over the contempt motion did not center on Gerald's selection. Instead, Children's Rights and the city's attorneys debated whether or not CFSA had made significant progress in helping kids in care. No kids testified. It was all lawyers debating the whether or not the agency had cleared various benchmarks.

Children's Rights' Lowry showed charts proving that the agency had failed to meet the majority of those benchmarks which covered everything from staff training to placing kids in foster homes. She told the court that the agency had "not yet reached a level where they are protecting children."

Lowry provided a staggering timeline of accepted benchmarks and the agency's slow and often negligent response dating back several years. She stated that CFSA had only met 15 out of the 68 benchmarks. This was just a mere snapshot of the agency's problems which were detailed in a recent court monitor's report.

Lowry's testimony touched on the court monitor's findings that fewer and fewer kids are leaving the system through adoption. The monitor also reported that a huge number of children and youth are living in unlicensed foster homes or facilities.

"As of January 31, 2009, there were 1575 children in foster home placements. Of the 1574 children, 74 (5 percent) children were placed in foster homes that exceeded their licensed capacity. Additionally, there were 178 children placed in group homes as of January 31, 2009. Of the 178 children, 39 (22%) children were placed in group homes that exceeded their licensed capacity of 8 children...."

The monitor also reported that of the 1007 foster homes where children were placed, 10 percent of those homes did not have current and valid licenses. Prior to the hearing, Children's Rights had flagged other aspects of the monitor's report---chief among them was the agency's alleged overuse of group homes and residential treatment facilities as housing options for children in care as well as how quick the agency investigated neglect/abuse allegations.

Again, this was a short hearing. City Attorney Ellen Efros kept her points short. She emphasized that the agency had made progress but that the benchmarks were too old and too tough to actually meet. She argued that the standards are lower in other cities---in other words, why can't we just lower our standards? Efros, though, could not cite any other jurisdiction's standards.

At one point early on in Efros' testimony, Hogan interrupted her and sounded an exasperated note: "We've been at this since 1989."

Hogan was referring to the agency's rollercoaster history---the inception of the class-action case, subsequent receivership and bumpy road since the city agency shedded court oversight in 2003. Hogan did not at all seemed pleased with Efros' attempts to jettison benchmarks that didn't fit her theory of a fit agency and denounce other benchmarks as too harsh.

"It seems...oversight by the judiciary is important," Hogan later stated.

Still, Hogan declined to rule on the contempt motion. He says he is keeping it under consideration. The next hearing is set for July 20.

As he left the courtroom, Gerald had no comment.

Prior to the hearing, Lowry talked about the problems with the city warehousing kids. "The placement process in the District is extremely hit or miss," she said. "There is not a real effort to develop the kinds of resources that the kids need and certainly there’s a very slipshod process about where the kids should go. There’s no question, there are too few appropriate foster homes and too few foster homes all together."

Lowry says the city needs to invest in a real plan. "I don't think there's anything approaching long-term planning," she explains. "One thing that's so alarming about the course that they are now on---they don't have any long term plans for the agency and certainly their aspirations for the agency are very insufficient."

In late August, Gerald moved to reduce the backlog. By the end of the year, the backlog had been all but finished as an on-going issue. At a recent conference, Gerald admitted that at least a few CFSA staffers celebrated with a small party. It had been a tough year. He also warmly cheered on his staff. This is a man who loves what he does and loves his people.

I've heard that Gerald had done well in his acting post---boosting morale and reaching out to the area's advocates and non-profits. The agency had gone through a significant turnover and still faces huge issues in terms of providing consistent care (there's still the pending federal court case). But at least from what I've heard people are hopeful that Gerald is the right person for the job.

The speeches may constitute wishful thinking considering that these agencies are under the microscope either by Colbert King or the courts. The court monitor's report issued last week on CFSA was not pretty. Judging from the breakout sessions, social workers and advocates have a lot to learn from the children they are paid to protect and nurture.

The breakout session on getting parents involved promised testimony from a young girl in the system. She took a seat in the front of the room and smiled awkwardly as the two panelists talked about her. The two panelists---Gail Avent, the executive director of the Total Family Care Coalition, and Laurie Ellington, a DMH manager---could not have been more enthusiastic or engaging on the topic of this girl's story and the importance of pulling parents into I.E.P. meetings, etc.

Certainly, parent involvement is a good thing. Inevitably, a school worker lamented that some parents didn't show up for stuff---that they could be difficult. I could not help but raise the point that often a parent's first involvement with the system was either through the police or the infamous CFSA hotline. Last year, roughly 30 percent of juveniles with pending criminal cases had been the subject of a neglect/abuse case. The hotline has long been a problem--those calls have rarely resulted in immediate action. Even before the Banita Jacks case, the agency had more than 300 cases in its backlog.

A CFSA worker in the audience jumped in and said my comments were out of bounds. He was upset that his agency had been "singled out." In other words, the man's feelings were hurt. He refused to address the points I raised.

Instead, the young girl attempted to do so. Towards the end of the session, it came time to hear from her about her own first-hand experiences in the system.

The girl opened with two complaints: After a month in the system, she stated she had not heard from her lawyer-guardian or CFSA social worker. She also had been given no money for clothes.

The girl got two-three sentences into her story. Then bam. A DCPS worker in the audience interrupted her and started to challenge the girl's experience.

The girl fled the room. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Adults followed her outside and into the nearby ladies room. But it was too late. The girl did not finish her testimony.

It was an enlightening moment but for all the wrong reasons. You'd think DCPS and CFSA employees would be open to criticism without freaking out---without driving a girl to tears.

In the afternoon, child advocates and city employees were much more open at the youth panel expertly moderated by Jose DeArteaga, a DYRS progam manager. Six kids took turns relating their experiences. They talked about the need for more gay-lesbian-transgendered programs, credited the Peaceoholics with its outreach efforts (the group had a lot of street cred among the panelists), and praised individual mentors with getting them through tense periods in their lives. The audience responded with applause and empathetic questions.

The social workers and advocates looked at the panel for answers on how they could reach kids, how they could improve upon the work that they do. The exchanges were genuine. The kids said they just wanted respect without judgment from their social workers. They wanted them to be there, to show up in their communities if necessary.

The kids seemed particularly drawn to non-governmental groups for support. Positive Nature was praised as being like a big family. Peaceoholics saved another former criminal: "Without them I don't know where I'd be at right now."

When the kids were done, the audience gave them a standing ovation.

We're Not In New Hampshire Anymore questions these new neighborhood names popping up on Craigslist and elsewhere: "Scanning Craigslist for an apartment today, I ran into this listing.  SOFLO, for south of Florida Ave?  After NoMa and Tivoli Heights and the Atlas District and Borderstan and the whole shebang?  Please."

The 42 has pictures from last Saturday's farmer's market in Mount P---the first of the season. We hear that the market was oddly heavy on meats and potted plants/herbs and light on produce.

The New Teacher on the Block has a great rant titled "DCPS Bus Attendants Need To Get Their S**t Together."

And Now, Anacostia praises some demolition of a vacant apartment building on Galen Street.

Pop Cesspool says black Play-Doh will make you feel really alone. Picture is priceless.

"There are many areas of practice where the District continues to fall far short of the standards required in the LaShawn Amended Implementation Plan (AIP). Additionally, as is documented
in this report, there are multiple examples of inconsistent performance over time, suggesting that long-term sustainability of progress has not been achieved. The Quality Service Reviews
(QSRs), which assess the quality of case practice, continue to show inconsistent results."

The problems that the report highlights are significant.

After giving the report a quick read, we provide a few of the problem areas. Here is what the report states:

*Investigations into allegations of child abuse and/or neglected must be initiated within 48 hours. This means seeing the child or making a good faith effort to see the child within that time frame. CFSA has only met that 48 hour threshold 75 percent of the time.

*Investigations into abuse and neglect must be completed within 30 days. CFSA was only meeting that time threshold in 17 percent of its cases. It has showed improvement. But still the agency is not in the clear here. They have met that threshold 73 percent of the time for investigations opened in January of this year.

*No case worker shall handle more than than 12 cases at any given time. Twelve percent of CFSA's social workers had more than 12 cases. Nine percent had more than 15. The highest caseload found: 21 cases with one worker.

*No cases shall go unassigned for more than five business days. The monitor's report states that there were 35 cases that had not been assigned after five days.

*The monitor found that the number of employees overseeing cases--making sure they are done correctly--is insufficient for proper quality assurance.

Why is this important? The monitor notes that there were 69 children who had been the subject of four or more abuse/neglect cases in the past year, there were 223 children who had been placed in four different homes in the last year, and 83 children placed in facilities more than 100 miles from D.C.

The next hearing in federal court over CFSA is this Thursday.

The IG's office provides a timeline of events. Here's what caught my eye:

• May 1, 2007: A CFSA "Investigations Worker" and a D.C. cop visit the Jacks house. No one answers the door. But old junk mail is observed---the same junk mail from a previous visit---in front of the door. Also still at the door: a letter previously left by the CFSA worker.
• May 2, 2007: The CFSA worker goes to the house. Again, no one answers the door.
• May 16, 2007: Investigations Worker erroneously believes that the family has relocated to Charles County, Maryland. This came from another government worker. "Therefore recommends to his supervisor that the investigation be closed," the report states. "CFSA closes the case, and the Investigations Worker then sends a fax to Charles County Child Protective Services..."

By Aug. 25, D.C. Water and Sewer Authority disconnects service to the Jacks house; Washington Gas disconnects service as well. On Sept. 5, Pepco disconnects service.

On Jan. 9, U.S. Marshals begin eviction at the house, where they discover the bodies of Jacks' children.

The IG's office rips the CFSA worker:

The CFSA Investigations Worker told the team that had he been given more time, he might have been able to make contact with the family. The CFSA Investigations Worker recommended to his supervisor close the case 20 days after receipt of the hotline call to CFSA even though he had 30 days to complete the investigation.

Also looks like the D.C. police failed big time as well:

On April 30 between 11:54-11:57 a.m., an officer arrived at the Jacks house and tells the "dispatcher that he is available for assignment because 'there's an adult on the scene.' After being reminded by the dispatcher that the mother has withdrawn the children from school and has 'mental problems,' and that he is there to check on their welfare, Officer #1 says, 'The kids seem fine to me, ma'am.'

But there's a catch: The officer never sees the kids. According to the report, a police memo dated Jan. 13, 2008, states that when the officers arrived on the scene, the person that answered the door--presumably Banita Jacks--refused to allow them to check on the children.

I asked her about my request.

Good replied that all calls must go through the mayor's press office. I asked why.

Good replied: "Mafara Hobson." Like a robot, she repeated the words "Mafara Hobson" a few more times.

"They do the speaking for this agency," she said of the mayor's office.

I replied: But aren't you the agency's press person. Good is listed as the agency's Public Information Officer. Then again the agency doesn't have much in the way of press releases.

"I am the director of communications," Good said.

"Why don't you get to do that?" I asked. You know communicate for the agency.

Good then hung up. Great press strategy CFSA!

Last night, Joseph Randolph Mays--Peters' live-in boyfriend--was arrested for the murders.

City Desk will update when we get the statement from the Mayor's office.

Update 6:18 p.m. Attorney General Peter Nickles released this statement:

"After receiving a hotline tip [in] 2006, the Department of Child and Family Services took appropriate steps to resolve issues. In 2007, after the necessary measures were taken, the case was closed, with no subsequent reports."

The teacher's lounge has turned into a showroom. Everything wears a Post-It with a price in blue ink. The conference table is selling for $150. The fridge is going for $50. The microwave is a steal at $5. Today is the last day for the City Lights Public Charter School.

Everything must go. Including that microwave.

"This stuff needs a home," explains operations manager Nick Battle. "Everything is at a good deal."

In late January, City Lights, a school for at-risk youth, announced it was closing. There were problems with enrollment and with funding. Now, all the kids have moved on to other schools. All that's left are a few teachers, Battle, the school's principal, and the beloved cook to sort through what's trash, what should be donated to other schools, and what can be sold.

In the hallway by the entrance, there is a box of locks. In the main office, there are more boxes. One box contains extension cords and a modem. In a nearby classroom, empty binders are stacked in threes. Principal Brenda Richards arrived at 9:30 a.m.

There were donuts.

"There's no money for a goodbye party," Richards says, sitting in the main office (she doesn't seem to have an office anymore). It's close to 11 a.m. "That was it---donuts."

On a wall in the health clinic, there are tags from Barry Farm and Condon Terrace. In a classroom, the lesson plan for January 21 is still on the dry-erase board "DC Gov Beginning." In the music room, two huge cymbals and two keyboards are left. In the library, there are still plenty of books including Lolita and Ragtime. Someone needs to take those books before close of business.

Richards became principal at City Lights in March of 2007. She didn't intend to stay long; she'd finish the year and that would be it. But she says one day a female student stopped her in the hall. This student had come to the school refusing to speak to anyone, but had blossomed. She begged Richards to stay. Richards asked her why she wanted her to remain principal.

"Because nobody stays with us," Richards recalls the girl explaining. "People always leave us."

"You fall in love with these kids," Richards explains. "So many people have left them."

Richards says she's not coming back to the school after today. She's leaving a lot of goals still unfinished. She says the school needed to get a curriculum or finalize one, that they were working toward getting its teachers certified in special education. None of the schools 12 teachers had yet achieved that certification. But Richards still wants to talk about the girl from the hallway, the one who never spoke. She says that eventually the girl began speaking and got a job working at a movie theater. It was a small triumph.

The school was made for those small triumphs. "Our successes are different from people who are looking at SATs," Richards explains. "The whole idea is we would improve the students behaviorally, eomtionally, and socially and at the same time working with their academics." The kids enrolled at the school came from group homes, sometimes missed school because they were incarcerated, had mental-health issues like ADHD or bi-polar disorder. Successes that counted: a Black History Month presentation that went off without a hitch.

Battle says that several students were expected to graduate this year. One had gotten into Trinity. Several others were preparing for the SAT. At least one college recruiter had visited the school.

In its four years of existence, City Lights gave students one thing they needed most---stability. One student, Richards recalls, hadn't attended the same school for two-straight years until City Lights. Every year for 10 years he had a different school. Both Richards and Battle joke that students tended to camp out in their offices, sharing their personal problems. The students could keep them until late in the evening. "I knew my kids," Richards says.

But the school's downfall hinged on knowing its kids. The school expected more students than it actually received for the school year. Instead of 75, they hit close to 60. And some of those students were not special-education students which meant drops in city funding. They also had difficulty establishing that their kids were District residents---even the 10-to-12 kids who were wards of the city, Richards explains, adding that they got the runaround from social workers on getting that paperwork.

"There are challenges," Richards says. Mike DeBonis reported in City Desk a detailed accounting of the school's problems in January:

"Nona Richardson, a spokesperson for the Public Charter School Board, which oversees City Lights, says the school’s financial difficulties are 'related to enrollment.' LL is told According to PCSB statistics [PDF], City Lights enrolled 62 kids in fall 2007; only one senior graduated the following spring.

A recent PCSB review of the school was critical in a number of areas. City Lights, the board found, had 'no overarching curricular framework reflecting [its] academic and nonacademic goals.' It also found problems with staff turnover and an 'urgent need…for certified special education teachers. Currently, there are none on staff.' In addition, the school was found not to have 'sufficient systems to collect, record and analyze student academic data and gauge success in the academic and nonacademic goals' and that 'very little in terms of academic and behavioral curriculum policies and procedures are written down.'"

Richards says that despite the school's problems, it did provide a safety net for her students. "Without this kind of support, some of them will go back to the street," she says. "Sometimes, sir, it wasn't about the test, it was about staying alive, not being abused by your boyfriend, not doing illegal substances, it was about being cared for."

Last fall, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan issued an order stipulating a series of directives. One of those stipulations involved the future selection of a permanent director at CFSA. On Tuesday, Fenty announced his selection of interim director Roque Gerald to take over in a permanent capacity. Hogan had stipulated that "the Court Monitor and Plaintiffs will be included in the selection process for the permanent Director."

It is that order that is now being seriously questioned. When appointing top posts, Fenty isn't known as a big outreach guy. His appointment of Chief Cathy Lanier is exhibit A. Now his selection of Gerald is coming under scrutiny.

The Plaintiffs--Children's Rights--say they were never consulted during the selection process. "We were not included in the process and I think given the problems the agency has had over the last several years the choice of the director was critically important," says Children's Rights Executive Director Marcia Robinson Lowry. She adds that this violated the court order.

This point may be brought up in the next round at U.S. District Court, Lowry says. "We have an open contempt motion that is going to be briefed to the court...This is another violation," Lowry adds.

Attorney General Peter Nickles has a different take.

Nickles says Fenty and Co. did an exhaustive search for the CFSA director slot. "I'm not going to get into numbers," he says. "We both interviewed and called people...Dr. Gerald put his name in the hat and he was interviewed."

Yesterday, we reported that Councilmember Tommy Wells, who chairs the Committee on Human Services which covers CFSA, was left out of the loop. Charles Allen, Wells' chief of staff, was not aware of anyone being interviewed for the position.

Lowry says Nickles only notified her on Monday that Gerald had been selected. Nickles says there was a reason why Children's Rights wasn't consulted during the vetting process.

"It didn't seem at least to us to have them interview people who weren't going to be seriously considered," Nickles says. "It's tough to get people to come in if they think they are going to be answerable to the mayor but also to the court monitors and advocates."

Nickles goes on to sharpen his point. "We have a terrible problem in getting people interested in being considered because of the buzz saw they see themselves getting into," Nickles explains i.e. heading an agency with a court monitor. "As far as I know the plaintiffs haven't liked any of our directors."

I asked Nickles if there was any reason to have liked the previous directors? He stated that the previous directors at least tried to make the agency better. And that, well, they now have a great director in Gerald.

Lowry is skeptical with the Gerald selection. "Leadership is absolutely critical," she says. "The previous director was from inside the agency. The person they just appointed was from inside the agency."

]]> http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/02/12/did-cfsa-director-search-violate-court-order/feed/ 1 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/02/11/the-one-and-only-roque-gerald/ http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/02/11/the-one-and-only-roque-gerald/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:38:48 +0000 Jason Cherkis http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/?p=15789 Yesterday, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced his nomination of Roque Gerald to become the permanent director of Child and Family Services at a press conference. Gerald had served as the agency's interim director since this past July. Fenty called his nomination a "shot in the arm" and touted Gerald as an old-hand within the troubled agency which apparently is a net plus.

What may be troubling is the possibility that Fenty's people did not interview anyone else for the position. Even before the Banita Jacks case, the agency faced serious questions about its case management and the thoroughness of its investigative work. The agency is currently in the midst of a huge court battle. And its problems are vast.

Charles Allen, Councilmember Tommy Wells' chief of staff, says his office is not aware of any other candidates being vetted for CFSA's top job. I asked him if anyone else was interviewed. "We're not aware of one," Allen says. Calls to the mayor's office have not yet been returned.

Allen says this may be a concern that there were no other candidates. "We expect that to come out in the confirmation hearing," Allen says.

Allen does add that the agency has made some improvements. In particular, the agency's notorious backlog has been cut. "[Gerald] certainly has the ability to tout some accomplishments and hear if there are any concerns," Allen says. "We'd be looking to hold a confirmation hearing in the near future. Budget hearings start next week. It will probably take a month or two before we get to a confirmation hearing."

Allen adds: "There are still several concerns about the agency. There's clearly more work that has to get done. The folks who feel that they are not happy with the progress can come to the confirmation hearing."

Gerald certainly came into the job with some controversy. There was the news that he had sex with a female patient years ago. We chronicled one messy CFSA case.

One CFSA staffer says that Gerald may have trouble touting the closing of the backlog as a major accomplishment. The staffer points to a relaxation of standards in getting it closed:

Gerald's appointment was not unexpected by people here....It's true that more needs to be accomplished, and it would not be correct to give him the credit for the end of the backlog.  That credit is more due to the independent advisers and what actually happened was the severe relaxation of the original standards for case investigations.

When that happened in early November, then the number of case closings rose dramatically.  From what I can gather, the court monitors did not have Gerald as their choice and this led to conflict with the mayor.  Probably his appointment, therefore, is a result of a negotiated settlement that will be reflected in the upcoming court hearings on the show cause and motion to be removed from federal control by the respective parties.

So far calls to the court monitor have not been returned. I have been told that the monitor has been traveling and is not in D.C.

CFSA has been without a permanent director since Sharlynn Bobo resigned in July. She was replaced on an interim basis by deputy Roque Gerald, who appeared alongside Nickles in Judge Thomas F. Hogan's courtroom this afternoon.

In remarks to the judge, Nickles cited hopes that the agency, thrown into great turmoil after the Banita Jacks tragedy a year ago, could emerge from 20 years of court intervention within a year. The District filed a motion this morning essentially proposing such an outcome.

Needless to say, the other side in the longstanding litigation were intensely skeptical of that outcome. "Based on our assessment of where we are, I think that is a highly unrealistic expectation," said Judith Meltzer, the agency's court-appointed monitor---particularly so, she points out, because there is no permanent director yet and several senior positions are unfilled.

Marcia Robinson Lowry, who argued against Nickles today on behalf of nonprofit Children's Rights says very little in the District's performance has shown it's ready to assume full responsibility for the agency again. "I can't believe some of the arguments they make," she told LL after the hearing. "Hopefully a contempt order will put them more in touch with reality."

UPDATE, 5:35 P.M.: The hearing today was supposed to be on a contempt motion filed last month over the operations of the Child and Family Services Agency. Hogan, however, declined to hear arguments on that motion, and instead sought to have the parties "speak in somewhat broader terms about the issues."

The events that leading to the hearing can be traced back to last summer, when Children's Rights filed a motion for contempt citing CFSA's massive backlog and continuing poor performance. What came out of that was an October agreement that the District would follow certain guidelines to avoid a finding of contempt; those included allowing Meltzer to approve the agency plan for 2009 and to have a role in choosing a new agency head.

Last month, the District submitted their plan without Meltzer's approval, in what appeared to be a calculated escalation tactic, and today made an initial petition to be released from court supervision.

But Hogan, for the most part, didn't seem to buy Nickles' power move. "I don't see the point of coming in here today and throwing down the gauntlet," he told Nickles.

Things did not start out well for the attorney general; he tried to raise what he thought was a "more fundamental issue" with Hogan----a jurisdictional matter, which Hogan swiftly announced he wouldn't hear at the moment. "If you want to raise such an issue," he told Nickles, "you can file a motion."

Nickles tried to convince Hogan that the agency has made remarkable progress since the initial contempt filing, and that the plaintiff are "never satisified" with its progress. He told Hogan that the District had committed massive resources to overhauling the agency.

"You've certainly committed a lot of legal resources," Hogan quipped.

Nickles pressed forward: "We want to turn the ship around," Nickles said as part of his conclusion, asking Hogan to "try to accept the proposition that if we prove our credibility again in the next six to eight months ...to consider the prospect of terminating this case by the end of the year."

Lowry, in her remarks before the judge, expressed concern bordering on disbelief that the District would petition for a termination of court oversight--noting that CFSA has been unable to meet expectations, even with "a pattern of lowering and lowering and lowering the standards the District's been expected to meet."

CFSA has cut its backlog, she stipulated, but that improvement alone is not enough to justify any further loosening of court oversight, she argued.

Nickles did score a point when he countered Lowry's pint that having a court monitor in place helps the process of recruiting management for the agency. Lowry argued that the court involvement offers assurances to potential leaders of CFSA that their agency will receive the proper budgetary support. Said Nickles, "If you had a great reputation...would you want to get involved in this mess?"

With regard to the hiring of a new director, Hogan asked Nickles what the hiring process should involved. "That means a cnadidate acceptable to the mayor," he said. "That's an executive function."

That, Hogan told Nickles, is "not a common sense reading of the order. The order requires consultation, and that doesn't mean after the fact."

At one point Hogan asked Lowry, "Where can this eventually end?"

Said Lowry, "I don't believe that the standard for dismissal is that the District can be trusted. It's demonstrable compliance."

Hogan set a hearing on the contempt motion and other pleadings for March 23.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan did what no one else in the city seemed to be able to do: He ordered CFSA to come up with a plan to fix itself. He gave the troubled child welfare agency a two-week deadline.

Hogan's directive spells certain trouble for the already troubled agency! CFSA has definitely heard the words "plan" and "deadline" before Wednesday. It's understanding those words that's given the agency fits, according to Marcia Robinson Lowry, the executive director of Children's Rights, the national advocacy group that has watchdogged the agency for decades. Children's Rights spurred this latest round in U.S. District Court after filing a contempt order in late July.

It is the concept of deadlines and plans that caused Children's Rights to take action in U.S. District Court.

“We had certainly been concerned for at least the last four or five months," Lowry told me in early August. "CFSA was supposed to have agreed to an acceptable 12-month plan in January. It became clear they were not going to be able to do that…They couldn’t come up with a satisfactory plan. Finally, we withdraw our objections to [a] six month [stabilization] plan. It was March already and they did not have a plan that we thought was adequate. Since the period was half over, we decided to do a 12-month plan starting on July 1. We expected to have an adequate plan by the end of June. We did not get an acceptable plan by the end of June.”

Lowry's group met CFSA officials several times to express its dissatisfaction. Those meetings, Lowry says, were disappointing and failed to address the agency's lack of progress on righting the agency. The meetings sometimes included D.C.'s top lawyer Peter Nickles.

Nickles did confirm to City Desk that Children's Rights' main beef with CFSA concerned the agency's failure to address its issues in a systematic way. The agency just never could get specific enough to satisfy Children's Rights, Nickles says.

[Nickles told the Post in July: "I had looked to Marcia and the plaintiffs as partners to improve the agency," Nickles said. "This has sort of taken my invitation and said we'll hold you in contempt."]

Lowry says that given the agency's bad marks in a November '07 review and the handling of the Banita Jacks case, the agency should have been more aggressive.