Jonetta Rose Barras, The Examiner
2008-01-17 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

What’s wrong with Geo T. Johnson?

The executive director of Council 20 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees intends to defend the indefensible: city employees at the Child and Family Services Agency fired by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. Those workers’ poor performance resulted in the deaths of Brittany Jacks, 16, and her sisters — Tatianna Jacks, 11, N’Kiah Fogle, 6, and Aja Fogle, 5.

What argument can Johnson possibly make to explain why desperate pleas to the CFSA and the Metropolitan Police Department from Booker T. Washington Public Charter School social worker Kathy Lopes were handled so callously?

Johnson says all the right things: The deaths were a “tragedy.” The city needs to get to “the bottom of this.” But he’s clear about the union’s position.

“Whatever resources are necessary to protect [workers’] rights, we are going to use,” he offers emphatically in a telephone interview. Five of the six fired employees are union members.

Though the children’s deaths occurred this year, CFSA workers’ failure began in July 2006. That was when a nurse called CFSA’s hot line, alerting the government that Banita Jacks’ husband checked himself out of the hospital — although he had leukemia. The nurse also noted that Jacks, who is accused of killing her daughters, appeared to have substance abuse and mental health problems, and the family was living in a van with four children — two under the age of 5.

“Those facts called out for help. There was no help,” Peter Nickles, acting attorney general, told the D.C. Council’s Committee on Human Services this week.

The government should have sprung into action, especially after the nurse and social worker mentioned during different telephone calls that Jacks seemed to suffer mental health problems. That information alone should have caused CFSA workers to demand to see the children. They should have interviewed the children away from their mother. Further, relatives, neighbors and friends also should have been interviewed, according to Sharlynn Bobo, CFSA’s director. That didn’t happen.

No one should be surprised by the deaths or the union’s response. This is David Rosenbaum all over again. He was the District resident who, after being robbed on the street, was mistreated by the city’s fire and emergency personnel; he subsequently died from his injuries.

Union officials rose to the defense of fire/emergency workers the mayor terminated after Rosebaum’s death. Now comes Johnson, promising to defend CFSA employees.

What value do union officials place on human life?

I’m not against organized labor. But unions are fast becoming major obstacles to changing the culture of callousness, mediocrity and outright incompetence that marks the District government. The mayor and council should seriously consider sweeping personnel reforms for the entire work force, categorizing all employees as “at will.”

Then, workers might go the extra step to ensure the vulnerable among us — particularly children — are safe.