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Gov. Kate Brown made an unscheduled appearance in front of the Senate Interim Committee on Human Services and Early Childhood this morning.
Lawmakers are in Salem this week for three days of interim committee hearings.
State Sen. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis), the chair of the Human Services Committee, had scheduled a second hearing on fallout from the troubled Portland foster care provider Give Us This Day, following a similar hearing in September.
As WW reported earlier, Give Us This Day had long failed to pay taxes and some employees. Former workers told WW that the organization's financial problems impacted child safety because staff were poorly trained and insufficient in number to provide appropriate supervision. An Oregon Department of Justice investigation found that executive director Mary Holden and her board had wasted or diverted for personal use $2 million over the past five years and forced Give Us This Day to cease operations.
On Nov. 6, Brown abruptly removed acting DHS director Jerry Waybrant from his position after WW reported that he and former DHS director Erinn Kelley-Siel had long known about Give Us This Day's failings and not acted to fix them.
Although Brown was not on the agenda for the Senate Human Services Committee hearing, she was the first speaker when the hearing kicked off at 8 am.
Brown, a lawyer who specialized in representing juveniles, told lawmakers today that DHS' initial plan to conduct an internal investigation of what went wrong with Give Us This Day was not sufficient.
Brown will later this week name an advisory committee of lawmakers and foster care experts to oversee the work of the independent investigator.
Gelser's committee will also propose new legislation for the February 2016 session aimed at addressing the lack of transparency and accountability at DHS.
Willamette Week