AB-1250 (Jones-Sawyer) Counties: contracts for personal services. - OPPOSE
It is with deep regret that I must formally register an OPPOSE position to AB 1250. As currently in print, AB 1250 would restrict California’s 58 counties from contracting out with nonprofits for the delivery of social services including child care desperately needed by struggling families to secure and maintain employment. In addition to opposing AB 1250 based on the policy noted above, it also must be opposed due to the lack of transparency provided to the nonprofit community and families that will be devastated by the outcome of such a shift in delivery of service. With the legislative session set to adjourn on September 15, 2017 it is very concerning that amendments are being rumored to be in process of drafting for inclusion and pushed through in the last week of session without input from the families and individuals that have the potential to be harmed. For over 40 years, fragile and working families have been supported by a network of community based public and private non-profit Alternative Payment Programs (APPs) dedicated to keeping families working and breaking the cycle of poverty. These APPs provide a host of supports including but not limited to: subsidized child care services, food programs, immigration services, legal aide, respite care, and referrals to address the entire needs of a family in a holistic way. Currently, 36 of California’s 58 counties contract out their California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) Stage 1 child care to their community based APPs. This contracting out represents 93- 94% of the total child care caseload for CalWORKs Stage 1. AB 1250 would reject the process by which these 36 counties have determined to be the best way to serve these families via a partnership with an APP. Furthermore, it is these public and private community partnerships that have demonstrated outcomes in not only delivery of quality support for working families, but also are instrumental is ameliorating poverty stressors that hinder families from becoming self-sufficient. In California, services earmarked for our most fragile families are limited and do not even begin to address the need. Every state and federal dollar is stretched. APPs have demonstrated an ability to maximize every penny through a long history of addressing service delivery challenges with creativity, self-reliance and innovation. Unique challenges and limited budgets continue to fuel innovative efforts to obtain expertise and provide high quality services. Many of these agencies are already hindered by inadequate funding, significant workloads, and limited resources. AB 1250 would place even more burdens, unnecessarily, on these agencies by adding onerous, over prescriptive and unnecessary requirements that impede on local control and have significant impacts on local governance. Finally, AB 1250 places unnecessary cost and a significant burden on the provision of human services, a burden that would be felt by our most vulnerable populations— low-income children and families; medically fragile, and those facing a host of poverty stressors. Please OPPOSE AB 1250. Respectfully,
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