Free Declaration in Support - District Court of California - California

Case 3:07-cv-05086-WHA

Document 68-15

Filed 09/11/2008

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

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California State Foster Parent Association, California State Care Providers Association, and Legal Advocates for Permanent Parenting, Plaintiffs, vs.

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) No. C 07 5086 WHA
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JOHN A. WAGNER, Director of the California Department of Social Services, in his official capacity; MARY AULT, Deputy Director of the Children and Family Services Division of the California Department of Social Services, in her official capacity, Defendants.

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Videotaped deposition of WESLEY BEERS, at 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2600, Sacramento, California, commencing at 10:46 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2008, before Kevin C. Adams-Carter, CSR No. 8468. PAGES 1 - 138

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Case 3:07-cv-05086-WHA

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speculation.

You may answer. I don't recall any specific

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THE WITNESS: conversation. BY MR. KEANE: Q. A.

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How about foster family home rates? Correct. Does -- or should I say -- I should say did the

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Q.

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Operations and Evaluations Branch, when you were there, have any responsibilities related to training foster parents?

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A.
Q. A. Q. A. Q.

No. What about certification of foster parents? No. What about retention of foster parents? No. What branch would have dealt with those issues? MR. PRINCE: Objection; assumes facts. Calls for
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conjecture.

You may answer. It could have been either of the --

THE WITNESS:

the Protection of Family Support Branch or the Permanency Branch. BY MR. KEANE: Q. Was the Operations and Evaluations Branch

responsible for filing anything with the federal government when you were there?

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Case 3:07-cv-05086-WHA

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says effective on such and such a date, the basic rate will change by 12 percent. So potentially if I were in charge

of foster care policy at that time I would have generated a letter and a reg change to convey that information to the counties. Q. And how would that have -- how would that percent

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change have corne about? A. Q. State legislation. And would DSS have had any input to that

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legislation? A. DSS, through the administration, would prepare

analysis of proposed legislation or proposed budget actions and would, within the department, have the opportunity to provide that input to the legislature. Q. So DSS would have prepared analysis of proposed

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rate increase legislation? MR. PRINCE: conjecture. Objection; foundation, calls for

You may answer. The department regularly did

THE WITNESS:

analysis of proposed legislation. BY MR. KEANE: Q. Which -- which branch or division of DSS would

have been responsible for preparing analysis -- preparing analysis of proposed legislation as it related to increases in foster care rates?
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BY MR. KEANE: Q. Okay. So are you saying that if someone within

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the DSS had proposed to the state legislature legislation to increase foster care rates they would have lost their job? MR. PRINCE: Objection; hypothetical, calls for You may answer. Yeah, what I'm saying is officially

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conjecture, foundation. THE WITNESS:

there is no communication directly from the department to the legislature. BY MR. KEANE: Q. But who would have -- who would have come down on It goes through the administration.

an employee who made -- made a proposal to increase foster care rates to the legislature? MR. PRINCE: Objection; hypothetical, calls for

speculation, no foundation. THE WITNESS: It -- I -- I don't have a specific

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way of responding to that. BY MR. KEANE: Q. Well, what did you mean -- when you said not if

they value their job? A. What I meant is if someone went to the legislature

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and said we want to raise rates, put in a bill, that wasn't the administration's position and the administration didn't want to do that, then that would certainly jeopardize that

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Case 3:07-cv-05086-WHA

Document 68-15

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

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California State Foster Parent Association, California State Care Providers Association, and Legal Advocates for Permanent Parenting, Plaintiffs, vs.

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) No. C 07 5086 WHA
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JOHN A. WAGNER, Director of the California Department of Social Services, in his official capacity; MARY AULT, Deputy Director of the Children and Family Services Division of the California Department of Social Services, in her official capacity, Defendants.

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Videotaped deposition of WESLEY BEERS, at 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 2600, Sacramento, California, commencing at 10:46 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2008, before Kevin C. Adams-Carter, CSR No. 8468. PAGES 1 - 138

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person's career.

They have no authority.

The only one

that has authority to deal with the legislature officially is the governor's office. Q. Okay. But what about not going to the state

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legislature but proposing it within DSS to supervisors, for example? MR. PRINCE: BY MR. KEANE: Q. Is that something that was ever done, to your Objection; foundation.

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knowledge? A. We would go through budget drills every year in

terms of what are needs in the program. - And so, they were always be conversations within the department. Q. Did any of those conversations involve the

adequacy of foster care maintenance payments? MR. PRINCE: THE WITNESS: Objection; vague. I I don't recall any direct That's not to

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meetings, conversations, on that subject.

say they didn't occur or that I didn't participate in discussions, but I don't have a direct recollection of any conversation on -- on rates. now, so -BY MR. KEANE: Q. Okay. If you could take a look at Exhibit 6 Do you see at the end of the We're going back 20 years

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again, paragraph (a).

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with the legal service that we get these statutes from. And if you look at section (a) of the statute, at the end of the paragraph it says "Click here to view image." The image is a table that appears in the statute.

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And so, the table you have to printout as a separate document which is 6-A. MR. PRINCE: So 6-A is part of this statute. Can you indicate as to what date this

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is current and/or when it was printed and whether this is again from your Deering's code? MR. KEANE: Sure. This is directly from the same If you were to enter

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code that's represented in Exhibit 6.

that citation in Lexis you would retrieve this very document that's Exhibit 6. You would not see the table

unless you click where it says "Click here to view image," which I did this morning, and it gives you the image that shows up as what I've introduced as Exhibit 6-A. BY MR. KEANE: Q. So my question is, you see at the end of paragraph

(a) in Exhibit 6, the per child month rates in the following schedule shall be in effect for the period July 1st, 1989 through December 31st, 1989. correct? A.
Q.

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You see that,

Yes. Okay. And what follows that in the statute is So take a look at

Exhibit 6-A, the table in Exhibit 6-A.

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6-A for a second just to look at the two columns. A. Q.
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Okay. Do you know where these numbers carne from? No. Have you ever seen these numbers before? I'm sure I have. Do you know whether any part of DSS had any role

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Q. A. Q.

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in proposing these numbers? A. Q. I do not. To the best of your recollection, what was your

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position at DSS in the 1988 time frame? A. I think I was either in Foster Care Rates or

Foster Care Policy Bureaus, one of those two.

Q.

So do you think either of those bureaus would have

had input in setting these initial rates? MR. PRINCE: speculation. Objection; foundation, calls for
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You may answer. Not -- not in setting the rates. We

THE WITNESS:

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would have a role in implementing the rates through statute. BY MR. KEANE: Q. Would it surprise you if you found out that these

rates had been set by the legislature without any involvement from DSS whatsoever? MR. PRINCE: Objection; argumentative, foundation,

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(Deposition Exhibit 13 was marked for identification.) BY MR. KEANE: Q. A. Are you familiar with this document? I'm familiar with the format and the type of

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document, not this one specifically. Q. A. How would you characterize what this document is? It's an all county letter issued by the Department

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of Social Services, related to the subject matter of foster care and kinship assistant payments.

Q.

And do you see the table at the bottom with the

rates for family homes? A. Q. Yes. Does that refresh your recollection of the foster

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ballpark rates that were paid to family horne family homes? A.

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Yeah, I accept that that's what the rates were

during that period of time. Q. Okay. Are you aware that between 2001 and 2008

these rates did not increase? A. Q.
A.

No. You're not aware of that? No. Was your -- was it your understanding that the

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Q.

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rates did increase?

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person's career.

They have no authority.

The only one

that has authority to deal with the legislature officially is the governor's office. Q. Okay. But what about not going to the state

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legislature but proposing it within DSS to supervisors, for example? MR. PRINCE: BY MR. KEANE: Q. Is that something that was ever done, to your Objection; foundation.

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knowledge? A. We would go through budget drills every year in

terms of what are needs in the program. - And so, they were always be conversations within the department. Q. Did any of those conversations involve the

adequacy of foster care maintenance payments? MR. PRINCE: THE WITNESS: Objection; vague. I I don't recall any direct That's not to

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meetings, conversations, on that subject.

say they didn't occur or that I didn't participate in discussions, but I don't have a direct recollection of any conversation on -- on rates. now, so -BY MR. KEANE: Q. Okay. If you could take a look at Exhibit 6 Do you see at the end of the We're going back 20 years

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again, paragraph (a).

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