Dec. 19—Nearly 150 employees have signed a letter of no confidence in Bobbi Johnson, director of Maine’s Office of Child and Family Services, dealing another setback for the state’s often criticized child protection system.
In a letter released Thursday by the state employees’ labor union, workers said Johnson has failed to acknowledge or address critical safety issues relating to using hotels to temporarily house children in state custody.
“Director Bobbi Johnson has actively demonstrated that she is unable to ensure the well-being and safety of children and OCFS staff by refusing to address the housing of children in hotels,” the workers wrote. “First and foremost, holding children in hotels or emergency rooms only increases the trauma for children. The director’s inaction in finding an alternate to the warehousing of children in hotels or emergency rooms lends to the perception by many frontline workers that those in Central Office are reinforcing the misconception that hotels and emergency rooms are the only options for housing children.”
Johnson took over as agency director in January, just months after former director Todd Landry resigned amid growing criticism. Johnson has been a Department of Health and Human Services employee for 28 years.
Concerns about using hotels to house children before they can be placed with extended family or in foster homes have long been raised among workers, but the problem has become more acute. There are more children in state custody now than any point over the last two decades — 2,507 as of September 2024, according to state data, up from 1,724 in July 2018.
In the letter, workers said staff members have been assaulted by aggressive children and have been forced to cover multiple long shifts back-to-back.
“All of the above concerns have been raised in meetings with Director Johnson and the significance of these concerns have been dismissed as a failure on the frontline staff to adapt to the demands of the work,” the letter states. “Director Johnson consistently demonstrates a blatant failure to listen to the concerns of the frontline OCFS staff prior to or even post-implementation of policies and procedures, jeopardizing Maine’s vulnerable citizens and the OCFS staff who serve them.”
In addition to signing a letter of no confidence, the Maine Service Employees Association union filed a workplace complaint with the Maine Department of Labor over requiring workers to stay overnight in hotels with minors in state custody.
This story will be updated.
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