Editor’s Note: Cleveland County is in dire straits and the head screw-up cover-ups are the Cleveland County Commissioners. Everything from biting dogs to wasted taxdollars. And the Commissioners never seem to be able to do anything right. The June 20, 2023 Commissioner’s meeting was no exception. So, we will start with probably the longest running rogue agency in Cleveland County. The CC Department of Social Services.
The CCDSS item was at the tail end of this June 20, 2023 Commissioner’s meeting Regular Agenda, but we will start there because it was so very telling in regard to the actual condition of so many people in Cleveland County. This last business item on the Regular Agenda started out to what appeared to be just a routine periodic update of what the CCDSS was up to. But this routine stuff turned out NOT to be so routine. The Item was titled Medicaid Expansion Update and was delivered by CCDSS Director Katie Swanson.
To get straight to the point, Ms. Swanson relayed to the Commissioners that the new Medicaid Expansion would include an increase of Medicaid recipients by several thousand to a total of 44,400 or so of Cleveland County residents and would require 13 additional DSS Caseworkers.
Robert A quickly realized that 44,400 Medicaid recipients in a county population of about 100,000 residents resulted in 44.4% or the residents of Cleveland County were very poor and economically distressed. Even Ms. Swanson noted to the Commissioners that this percentage of poor people in Cleveland County was much higher than surrounding counties. Ms. Swanson also noted that Medicaid was Federal Money so the Commissioners didn’t seem to mind.
No, they thought it was great. More money to the hospitals, mental health and other healthcare services. That is on top of the fact that 20,000+ county families are on Foodstamps and 39% of working age people are not working. So much for economic development in Cleveland County. Under this slate of County Commissioners, almost half the total population of Cleveland County is well below the poverty line and the Commissioners apparently don’t give a hoot.
Then, the commissioners make some Questionable Board Appointments (A Story for another article.) and went into a Closed Session to discuss a personnel matter.
Little did Robert A know at that time that the personnel matter was the CC DSS Director Katie Swanson submitting her resignation effective this coming Monday and the Commissioners deciding to appoint Rebecca Johnson as the INTERIM CC DSS Director. Making this THE STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD FIRST!!! (Although there are other stories to be told, that will be told in separate articles.)
The Cleveland County Department of Social Services has a long history (spanning over two centuries) of being rotten to the core, a snake pit and totally held unaccountable for such serious things as falsifying records, assisting a child murderer being found “Not Guilty” when charged with Second Degree Murder in the death of 2 ½ year old Jodice Peeler (Robert A court-watched that Murder Trial, which produced Robert A’s very first Citizens For Good Government article that was published in 1994), taking children away from parents using illegal documents and without a judges order. Robert A has also just learned that the CCDSS and perhaps the County Commissioners may have recent lawsuits against them for that. (Another article when checked out). This list goes on and on.
Anyway, just a few years ago the CC DSS Director’s job became open and the DSS Board made one of the old-time child murderer cover-up DSS Snakes the interim DSS Director. And the Commissioners were about to finalize that deal until Robert A republished that 1994 article. In the end, the Commissioners did NOT promote the interim snake and ended up bringing in Katie Swanson from Asheville as the new DSS Director.
Katie Swanson was likely surely doomed from the start. She was likely told by the Cleveland County Human Resources people that the CC DSS was a wonderful and efficient place to work when most of the old timer snakes were still in place. Ms. Swanson was likely told by everybody at DSS and the Commissioners too that she shouldn’t believe a word that Robert A had to say. “He’s a lying, no-good Trouble Maker” would have probably been the words that the snakes used. However, in the relatively short time that Katie Swanson has been on the job as the Cleveland County DSS Director she has likely determined for herself what a “snake-pit” the CC DSS actually is. And made her decision to find greener pastures as soon as possible. Ms. Swanson also probably didn’t do herself any favors when she slammed her door in the face of that WBT Channel 3 reporter not that long ago regarding the baby stealing that the CC DSS had going on. So, Katie Swanson, good luck to you with whatever and wherever you will be next Tuesday.
Now, for the Commissioners judgement in the appointment of Rebecca Johnson as the new Interim CCDSS Director, Robert A doesn’t have a clue. If Ms. Johnson was recommended by the CC DSS Advisory Board, Ms. Johnson is likely to be an old-time snake as that appears to be the Advisory Board’s habit.
Robert A’s advice to the Cleveland County Commissioners is to immediately disband that old CC DSS Advisory Board and bring the CC DSS directly under the NEW County Manager. And give this new County Manager strict orders to straighten out the CCDSS from top to bottom and side to side. That is what Robert A would do if HE became a Cleveland County Commissioner. Maybe not the very first thing, but the second for sure.