MAYVILLE – A proposal to create a special committee to address concerns of Child Protective Service employees has been rejected.

During the July Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, lawmakers voted down a resolution to create the formation of the special committee, with the three Democrats at the meeting voting in favor and the 13 Republicans voting against it.

The resolution was sponsored by Legislator Susan Parker, D-Fredonia. She first proposed the idea back in June.

Parker noted that for the past seven months, CPS workers, mostly from the Jamestown office, have been attending legislature meetings, voicing various complaints including staffing levels, hours permitted to work and caseload management.

Parker, who is on the Human Services Committee, wanted a special committee made up of three members of that committee to review county programs, and make policy and funding recommendations to the legislature.

“The legislature has a responsibility of oversight,” she said.

The proposal was discussed at the Human Services Committee the week prior, where only Parker voted in favor of the resolution.

During that Human Services Committee meeting, Laurie Dolce, the director of certification for Child Protective Services for the county told the committee that staffing has increased. At that time they only had one caseworker vacancy and had viable candidates for the position.

Marty Proctor, R-Mina, is the chairman of the Human Services Committee. He said during the full legislature meeting that because Dolce said the staffing level is much better, he didn’t feel the need for the special committee.

Legislator Dan Pavlock, R-Ellington, said that since Proctor doesn’t feel the need for the special committee, he said he would be voting against the resolution.

“As a committee chair (of another committee), I wouldn’t want the full legislature to circumvent my decision not to form a special committee,” he said.

Legislator Jamie Gustafson, R-Lakewood, is also a member of the Human Services Committee. She said CPS will be providing monthly updates at their meetings.

“I feel we need to honor that commitment with the department and I do not think at this time that we should be creating a subcommittee,” she said.

Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, expressed concern that the opposition seems to be political

“I have a feeling that if this resolution was sponsored by any one of the 14 Republicans in this legislature it would have sailed through,” he said.

Legislator Bob Bankoski, D-Dunkirk, said the legislature has been known to form special committees, even when there isn’t a problem. He noted that in 2022 a landfill committee was formed after the director had announced he was retiring and his replacement was already an employee of the department.

“We thought garbage was very important and now we’re saying our children aren’t important,” he said.

Gustafson disagreed with his statement.

“Children, of course, are very important, as is CPS and they are dealing with the problem by having them report to us regularly. We’re creating accountability and we are overseeing from a committee level, instead of a special committee,” she said.

Before the vote took place, one employee of the county’s CPS office in Jamestown asked the legislature to make sure the Human Services Committee is focusing on child protection specifically. She said that when county lawmakers hear about other facets, including child welfare, child protection preventative service workers, community service workers and foster care workers, “the subsequent data provided from that collective body has been very misleading.”