The Johnston County sheriff and the director of county Department of Social Services came face to face Friday to settle their differences.
On Thursday, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell raised concerns about social workers in his county, saying they are failing on the job and neglecting needy children.
"For DSS on-call social workers to fail to respond and act on the needs of a 4-month-old child is disgusting. It's inexcusable, and I'm not going to tolerate it anymore," Bizzell said.
Bizzell’s comments follow a recent incident where he says deputies arrested an inebriated mother. She was going to jail on drug charges and had no one to help with her baby.
Bizzell says social workers refused to come to the home.
In a closed door meeting Friday, the sheriff, the social services Director Earl Merritt and two county commissioners came to an agreement.
Bizzell and Merritt both admitted fault and acknowledged that communication problems between the two departments exist.
“That's just the way it is in this economy with the number of people we have working,” Allen Mims, Johnston County Commission chairman, said.
“I leave here today with a burden lifted off of me that the children are going to be looked after between the two of us,” Bizzell said.
When asked if he stands by his previous statements of “laziness and neglect” on behalf of DSS employees, Bizzell said “the laziness and neglect might have been on us too.”
Merritt defended his staff and maintains the social workers acted appropriately and followed protocol.
Merritt says DSS and the Sheriff’s Office are working together to improve communication and will add two more permanent on-call social workers to the night shift to increase the resources available after hours.
In addition, Merritt and Bizzell pledged to create protocol, and ensure deputies and social workers understand the responsibilities of each department.
“Sometimes the other party thinks we just don't want to do anything, but we may not be legally able to,” Merritt explained. “People do have legal rights too, and the other side is people feel we get involved too much in people's lives.”
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