RIDGWAY – To the relief of the Ouray and San Miguel County Commissioners, it appears (for now) that a possible state-supervised, regionally directed Social Services delivery system will not transpire before Gov. Bill Ritter’s tenure ends.

It was last November when Colorado Department of Human Services Executive Director and Chair of the Governor’s Child Welfare Action Committee Karen Beye recommended that the state adopt a more centralized, regionally directed system for the delivery of social services. Under this recommendation, which was vehemently opposed by both Ouray and San Miguel counties, regional social services offices would have been established by the department to implement a regional social services structure. Under the plan, county social services offices would have been established only for those who are identified as eligible. If the offices were deemed ineligible, the department adopt a regional social services structure administered by state employees rather than local social services directors.

When the recommendation first surfaced, several counties and Colorado Counties Inc., the lobbying organization, opposed the restructuring because of fears that the centralization would take away from already well-run social services offices now serving those in need, at the local level.

That recommendation – to go to a state-administered Social Services program – had stemmed from the notion that the Colorado Child Welfare System in Colorado needed improvement.

On Monday, fears of a state takeover were put to rest when the Allan Gerstle, the social services director for Ouray and San Miguel counties, told the Ouray Board of County Commissioners that for now, there will be no recommendation from Child Welfare Action Committee to Ritter proposing the regionalization of social services.

“After hours of discussion, the committee decided to put it on the back burner,” said Gerstle, just back from a June 17 committee meeting in Fort Logan, Colo. “There is not enough time to do the state child welfare program, and clearly there was not any intent spoken of brining anything forward to the governor as an actual recommendation.”

Earlier in the meeting, the Ouray commissioners unanimously approved a resolution reaffirming the county’s commitment to excellence in delivering social services and its support for a locally administered system.

“This is a control issue for counties,” Ouray County Commissioner Lynn Padgett said. “I think it is important that we did the resolution anyway.”

San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes, a Green Party member who spoke at a recent CCI conference against the centralization of social services, said on Wednesday that regionalization often takes away local control.

“In general, I don’t like centralization,” Goodtimes said. “Grassroots democracy is one of the Green ten key values, and I strongly believe in localizing as many decisions as possible to keep government responsive more directly to the people. Regionalization that took away local control would mean state rules, instead of local cooperative arrangements, like the food bank the county helps run with a local nonprofit.”

Gerstle said that with the regionalization of social services offices off the table for now, the committee will be putting all its energy into a recommendation to structure a centralized call center for social services.

“It might be a benefit, or it might not,” Gerstle said. “They are looking for data and there are dollars attached to it. I don’t know what will happen.”

Gerstle at the meeting thanked Padgett for her help at the CCI level in providing the rural county’s viewpoint on the matter, but cautioned that it is off the table for now and could be reevaluated at a later time.

“The immediate crisis is over,” Gerstle said. “When [the Colorado State Legislature] goes back into session in January, we all have to be aware that certain legislators might bring this forward and we will be right back into it again.”