Portune: Take authority from audited department

At today’s Hamilton County Board of Commission meeting, Commissioner Todd Portune blasted the county administration policy of delegating approval of contracts let by the Department of Job & Family Services, which often agrees to contracts worth millions of dollars.

For example, on today’s docket was notification that JFS had agreed to a $2.2 million contract for services to children – but commissioners never saw or knew of that contract before it appeared on the agenda in an item that listed actions already taken by JFS on behalf of the board.

Last week in a similar item, Portune added, commissioners saw that JFS had approved a $12 million transportation contract – again without the board ever seeing or knowing about it.

This authority that delegated to JFS the right to approve JFS contracts without prior commissioner approval began in the late 1990s, Portune said, before any of the three current commissioners were on the board.

That delegation of authority streamlined the process and lessened the bureaucracy and paperwork for then-County Administrator David Krings.

Now, Portune is calling for, “especially in light of the audit findings,” more oversight from the board of JFS and its $1.27 billion budget.

In the last month, both the Ohio Auditor and the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services released audits critical of the Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services.

One noted Hamilton County’s department had to pay back $224 million in federal money it misspent. County officials countered that both audits actually were accounting issues and that all of the money was spent for its intended purpose – to provide services for poor children and families.

Portune is calling for a change the process, asking County Administrator Patrick Thompson, on the job just nine months, to have all JFS contracts over $100,000 reviewed by commissioners before they are approved and signed.

Neither Commissioners Phil Heimlich not Pat DeWine commented on the issue.