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Show TheSalt Lake Tribune Director Of Child Welfare Feels the Burden Robin Arnold-W tive director of the state Depart ment of Human Servic: Ken was someone wehad tar. geted nation: to lead DCFS Hisstyle, his manne isms, his openness, his culturefit When your interestsarereally with the children, yourealizeey erything isn’t just about balancing well in Utah @ Continued from weight ti of everyone's expecta with, tore personne idget to work mitment from the atiny town tucked between Twin older sisterin theprofe All I wanted was enough mon ey to get a really goodcar,” he says, laughing DCFS still is comply ing with only But his father died suddenly at the endofPatterson's sophomore ing 316 specific improvements ) percent ofthose requirements. according to the fourth andit of the monitoring panel measuring the state's progress. The poor showinghas led the National Ce ter for Youth Law (NCYL), the SanFrancisco-basedgrouprepre senting group of childplaintiffs in the settlement, to view DCF and by extension, Patterson, as petulant children who refuseto follow the rules I'dlike to keep an open mind bout [Patterson].” says NCYL at torney Jeanne Finberg. “But his response to the audit causes me teadof whining about the agreement and theau. dit it’s timeto adimii the state has a problem. We won't see a real change until that's done.” The spoiled-child m apho Hearguesthe ency doe: realizeits responsi- amuses Patterson. to the more than 8,000 ted children in And he wants to moveon. I'dsay the uld has learned howto tie its shoes and should be allowed to moveon to coloring. t @ says. But the test has been Can the child tie its shoes in six seconds and make theloops nice too?’ The answer is ‘no. Patterson is silting in his office smiling broadly, looking much more boyish than his 47 years. He wears a sapphire-blue shirt and sports a spring suntan, B him, Patterson's wife of 27 years, Marla, and their four children smile down from framed photos shot on river-runningvacations He1s a true son of the West With the exception ofa few teach ing stints and a prestigious fellow ship with the Annie Casey Foundation, a Baltimore chil dren's advocacy group, Patterson has spent his life in Idaho, Utah Washington and Nevada. His background serves him well, says tend. 2 ald which Patterson now marvels ; We were babies doing this work, We were only a few years older than the kids we were su pervising terson worked at various youth and family services programs in Idaho. At the Idaho State Youth Services Center in St. Anthony, he worked with severely physically sexually abused Their averageage was children 12 In 1994, while heading the state's Division of Family and Community Services, ren, many of themsiblings. The lit up many families nean “orphanage, a complete children aren't adoptedout of orphanages. hey are adoptedout ia the community part of a com munity In Utah though, budget-slash. DC 'S is not an issue. Since ely under pressure ment So far, was named director of the Nevada Division of Child and Family Se vices in 1996 Patterson's résumé touts his rowess at budget cutting, a sore Pamela Atkinson, chair- fers a zen ofits own. And when Itis early in his tenure, but I'm your reputation hang: S on repairing a brokenstate agency anyat temptat introspection helps. seeing some things I feel good about. He is very responsive,” At kinson says When hefirst eame on the panel, we sat down with him and discussed 27 specific such as town me igs and har vest festivals, have all but disap. peared. Wenowli > in a discon nected, anonymous s where peoplelongfor person al relation ships, Dyreson says this Web posting by Nat alie of Kansas: “I LOVE JACQUE VAUGHN! I LOVE JACQUE I I LOVE LOVE with one another, J ACQUE J ACQUE » spends thre hours a day hooked up to the Internet like a patient to an IV. ies, and one that recent addition to KFNZ's morn ‘adio show ve start looking for more fe e look ahead. W ok back. We lookat rivalries. But no matter how we look at it. the beast must be fed,” says James. hesays. Andit is an ever-expand ng community, thanks in large part to the Internet. Now fans from as far away as Croatia can keeptabs onthete In addition to The Salt Lake Case in point: ‘This story Tribune and other newspapers Scholars are split on whether the Net offersa host of Jazz-relat ed Websites. Hear Karl Malone’s interview with David Letterman the news media feed the frenzy or create it. Dyreson, however, says blaming the media makes the on Brad's Diner, a Web pagecre- public an “unthinking creature. Thetruthis, the public wants ated by Brad Dayton of Columbia Mo. Watch footageof John Stock. to participate in this,” he ton in his rookie year courtesy of ‘That is why everydaypeoplec Laren ate Web sites, paint their faces Crissman. Andcheckout the pho: 1 Karl layup, Karl defense, Karl pass, Karl rebound Karl & Dennis, Karl & Jerry and carry on at the games. Whyelse wouldNicoletell the world about hersex life and why else would anyonelisten? es in DCFS that were of con: 1 to us. Within a week he had k to us on halfof them, In our questions on all therest Atkinson wants to give Patter- son ample support because, she says, she doubls hetruly compre hended the challenges ofhis job But Pam Rasmussen, easily the most yocal of the three-member monitoring panel, is unwilling to grant Pattersonthe samelearning cu An appointee ofplaintiffs’ attorneys NCYL, Rasmussensput ters that she has grown impatient with thestate's quibbling overthe agreement and the panel's methodology Refinance é with the foan that gives you | O77 oe Ce ae colt ela or more! detours a «as Prettdoo the valve EXIT CLOSED NEXT 4 YEARS i aoeae rope LO A Consolidate debt and lower your monthly payments All in oneloan [THE ULTIMATE 125] t“a 99” interest rate | 97% APR o Ra 1-800-288-2197 OPEN TOURN Lox Ww HSTMINSTER Ci 840 SOUTH 1300 EA increasingly difficult to sustain, says James, a six-year veteran of KUTV and a neighbors and strangers who oth. erwise would not communicate Jazz fan In post ame chat rooms, Hilerie picks art the plays and the players with Warwick Janetzki in Austral ia and anyone else ho cares te join the conversation if the Utah Jazz are the com. mon currency as Dyreson says. theplayoffs could be considereda spending spree. And there are plenty of places to shop It's a 24-hour fix for Jazz junk not the players. e Jazz's success creates a sense of pride andunity that, in turn, sparks conversations among Wilmington, Del., but not nearly enough for “I can’t really find any ‘ound here who follow as much 1 do,” she more days he had answered Minewasn't supposedto bea political job, but if you work in a state job long enough, you're going to endupin someone's camp he says. EchoHawk, who now at BYU’s law school, lost budget womian of the monitoring panel. likes what shesees n. Larry EchoHawk, the Demo. teaches the Legislaturehas more With a well-funded agency, Pat terson will not be able to blame aligned himself with Idaho Atty to RepublicanPhil Bat Patterson knewhis time as an appointee was short. He moved on to CarsonCity, Nev., where he the court settlement agree- than doubled the DCFS coordination between childre is dismal, with DCFS reaching nly 32 percent compli anceof an expected 98 percent When hekeepshisfoe s on the welfareofthe children, F atterson s, the challenges ahead seem less formidable And though he says with a grin I've had a lot of homework lately hefinds diver sions He likes getting awayfromhis mington hometo the Utah desert. His f avoritespot? Thedeep est, most solitary pocket he¢can findat Capitol Reef It isn't exactly the sameas bee. keeping. but the experienceof eam’s popularity has risen in Hilerie. DCFS audit caseworkers andfoster parents of ongoing medical treatment for of foster care, where they're out Can Fans Get? @ Continued from A-1 Noteto Natalie: Dyreson is re ferring to personal relationships stance, this place and they should hay been in foster homes,” Patterson The research shows that Jazz Fever: Page e latter is the brainchild of Hilerie Scott, an 18-year-old from Rigby, Idaho. She createdher on: line shrine in February 1997, the year the Jazz first advancedto the 1m A Finals. Since then, the Just HowCrazy VAUGHN! VAUGHN! VAUGHN! But wide gaps remain. For in says. AS are improving as evidenced by somehigherscores onthelatest utdated model” in foster care These kids wereisolated in Patterson cratic gubernatorial candidate. -attersonexpects to. Heis givingthe agency ake regional di rectors unprece dented autonomy to make decisions th directly af fect cases. Some medical services for abused and neglected hildren any inaction on budget restraints During the next few years, Pat and e done. Husted says. Patterson defends the move. which hadtheblessing of the Nevada Legislature, by calling the Brigham Young University. ingschool, Pattersonandhis wife closure o evadathat housed about 70 chil- time job as apsychiatric unit aide al in Blackfoot, his first exposu @ to social work Two years later, he entered University iin 1974 W fale whohas the guts and the stamina to stand up and do what needs to Husted’s main scrap with P. roup foster home in southeast at the state hos; worked as houseparents at the Ada County Youth Shelter in Boi But iis charming going to take car e of our kids? I’mlooking for someone die tersen centers onhis year in highschool, To help with he took a part He left BYU after his freshman year. “BYU id I didn’t really get along that well,” he says Hereturnedto Idaho, married atage 20 andeg ues a biehelos of is “charming andlikable atients isn't always tive, but you don't just let them Falls and Sun Valley, Patterson says he hadno interest in social work, even though he admiredan But afterfour years of operating under a legal Settlement requir. Legislatureto improve services get onwithit The new DCFS leader, she the books,” shesays. “Lookat an oncology ward. Treating cancer Growing up the youngest of four children in Richfield, Idaho. 1998 phe wants action I didn’t expect Ken Patte Tson or anyone elseto go in and cha ange the de; partment overnight Ras. mussensays But hedoeshaveto go alongwith a settlementagree. ment that the governor andall other parties eed to, Let's just Donna Husted, a Idren’s ad vocate in Las Vegas, says Patter son was hired to take an ax to child-protection costs and he did so with relish the agency that oversees DCF: UTAH Tuesday, May point with his Nevada ities. u |