Teens Happy Homes: The Not so Mighty are Falling:
By Joshua Allen
Big trouble for Teens Happy Homes. That’s the gist of the article by Times reporter Garett Therolf. You can find the article here Here:
We once again learn what we already knew. Teens, is not the sort of place best suited to helping abused and neglected children.
Sadly, the same cast of characters shows up time, and time again, at these places. Their names are no stranger to these pixels…
Truly, we have been writing, and shouting in the wind, about these and other miscreants for over 3 years. Nobody seemed to care.
And even those high up on the food chain – very high up – would just tell us, “There was nothing they could do.”
One source of ours used the words “…small potatoes,” when asked why the county officials did nothing to stop, or even discourage such unethical and apparently illegal practices.
We wrote about Beautina Robinson before. Her agency, Teens Happy Homes, is the same agency, where the head of DCFS Browning, is quoted as saying needs to be under a “heightened level of scrutiny.” After another Times story regarding the murder of the Chinese graduate students near USC.
Dr. Milani and Askari Moyenda, oh dear…. The latter recorded a board meeting, and played the recording for the Times reporter. Such intrigue! And why are we hearing these tapes now, three years later?
On tape. Beautina Robinson is heard:
“I’ve taken care of the board that needed it personally, myself, and I would prefer the board, keep it that way.”
Holy Jeepers, is this happening at any other agencies? Yikes!
And then this other stuff. It’s funny how lawsuits tend to air dirty laundry. Well a little funny I suppose, unless you are a foster child, in which case it’s not very funny at all, since everyone is busy fighting over, “…a dispute over control of the agency.” Which, as a distraction, couldn’t have been good for the abused and neglected children.
According to the Times:
“Under the agreement, Moyenda and Milani were called investors.” They were promised the ability to appoint three members of the seven-person board of directors.”
Yeah, um, okay… We detest this sort of thing.
The consultant mentioned here: Gutierrez? Does anyone remember the agency he ran? Who is his “good friend,” at the auditors office? What was he told? And, when was he told it? Maybe he can send a ‘cease and desist,’ to the LA Times…see how well that works.
There are others. Names joked about with contempt or disgust. They continue to bounce back into the Business of Child Abuse, either here in LA, or with a fresh start and path to riches in another county. As the old saying goes: Old corrupt foster agency people don’t fade away, they just end up in San Bernadino.
A question though, why is San Bernadino so desperate for our droppings?
Mr Browning, the head of DCFS is quoted by the times as saying:
“…that he was startled to learn of the depth of problems at Teens, and that he was enlisting the help of retired homicide detectives to examine allegations of child abuse and financial malfeasance at foster care contractors.”
We believe this, and would be happy to point the way to the more egregious examples, should anyone be interested. Oh wait…we have… “I’m shocked, shocked, that there is gambling in this casino.”
Our major premise here has always been this. Child welfare will always suffer when financial irregularities and unethical practices are overlooked as a matter of policy, because, such investigations are difficult, and too hard to prove.
And therefore, this is what you get. Unfortunately, children had to die, before there was even a chance that officials would take a hard look at the books.
Supervisor Molina’s frustration seems palpable. Holy gee…we can finally, at last, …end the contract with Teens Happy Homes.” Sort of, Maybe, Kind of…We’ll see….
After only 10 years of troubles too. And to think, it only took Wall Street half that long to bring down our economy!
There will now be a mad scramble, an unseemly exhibition actually; where some agencies will solicit, and probably offer some type of compensation, to either social workers or foster parents, in order to garner the revenue stream from the abused and neglected children, who will now be leaving Teens Happy Homes.
We have seen it before, many times.
Tagged: Corruption, DCFS, Foster Care
