RELEASE: December 5, 2003

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JOINT STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSIONER GWENDOLYN L. HARRIS

STATEMENT FROM COMMISSIONER HARRIS

It is with mixed feelings that I have resigned, effective February 15, 2004, from my position as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services.

Serving as Commissioner has been an incredible challenge and a great opportunity. Every day there was an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, and we did that. But it had been my goal and dream for some time to work in the academic realm, and that opportunity has became available.

In March 2004, I will begin working as Director of the New Jersey Urban Development Project at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, where I will help shape state and local urban development policy.

Managing a department the size and complexity Human Services has been both extraordinarily challenging and rewarding. Through it all, I have considered myself blessed to work for a Governor who places the interest of the state's most vulnerable citizens at the top of his agenda. I am also blessed to have worked with many dedicated and talented human services advocates, members of the legislature, employees of my fellow state departments and a good number of the 19,000 dedicated and talented employees of this department.

During these excruciatingly difficult fiscal times, when other state department budgets were slashed, Governor McGreevey increased my department's budget and maintained vital services to the most needy among us. Rather than requiring quick fixes to the state's ailing child welfare system, Governor McGreevey gave his full support to real and lasting changes that will benefit New Jersey's children for years to come. And instead of putting off reforms in the systems that serve people with disabilities, this administration bolstered staffing in our state psychiatric hospitals and developmental centers and set in motion historic innovations in our community care system.

This Governor has always shown tremendous support for this department. That is why, when I sought to leave the department for the academic realm several months ago, and Governor McGreevey asked me to stay, I agreed. And it is why I have agreed stay until February, to ensure that a complete and comprehensive blueprint for reform of the child welfare system is forwarded to a federal judge early next year. This report is required as a result of the settlement of the Children’s Rights lawsuit against the state’s child welfare system.

With Governor McGreevey’s support, we have accomplished much during the last nearly two years. I am particularly proud of the fact that the department has:

• regained and maintained federal certification for all of the state’s large institutions for people with disabilities and received favorable feedback about the state’s community services system following a recent sweeping federal review
• advanced the plan to build a state-of-the-art hospital to replace the Greystone Psychiatric Hospital;
• improved the accuracy and efficiency of the child support and food stamp programs; the accuracy of the state’s food stamp program went from the bottom nationally to the third best in the U.S. – attracting a $14 million federal bonus
• increased the number of DYFS adoptions by more than 30 percent, attracting a $1.9 million federal bonus;
• began to reform the department’s massive contracting system
• began implementation a massive child welfare information system that was long overdue;
• implemented an internal program integrity unit at the department to ensure quality of care in all DHS programs and facilities; and
• implemented an innovative new program called, Real Life Choices, that makes it possible for more people with developmental disabilities to stay at home with their families and receive appropriate services.

Again, I thank the Governor and the residents of New Jersey from the bottom of my heart for entrusting me with this most important job and for giving me the opportunity to serve.

STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR JAMES E. MCGREEVEY

“With deepest regrets, I have accepted the resignation of Gwendolyn L. Harris, who has been commissioner of the Department of Human Services since February 2002.

Commissioner Harris first approached me this summer and told me she had a chance to pursue a job in academia, which I know is her ultimate goal. I convinced her to remain in her post because I felt the Department needed her stewardship through trying times, particularly the transformation of our damaged child welfare system.

She approached me again recently, suggesting that she would resign effective December 31, and I requested that she stay until February 2004. By then, the Department of Human Services will have submitted a sweeping child welfare reform plan to the federal judge overseeing the settlement in the Children’s Rights Inc. lawsuit.

Commissioner Harris performed admirably in, what is arguably, the toughest job in state government. She took over a massive agency with many problems, particularly the failure of its Division of Youth and Family Services to fulfill its basic mission of protecting our most vulnerable children.

She never shied away from those challenges. She conceded the system’s inadequacies and then went about fixing them. I firmly believe that her actions to date, and the plan that is being drafted for the courts, will set DYFS on a corrective course of action.

Professionally, I regret her departure, yet this, at long last, fulfills her personal goals. She has an excellent opportunity at Rutgers University. Her many years of exemplary public service will serve her well.

Her accomplishments are clear in just two short years as commissioner.

We have seen dramatic improvements at the state institutions for people with disabilities, some of which were in danger of losing federal certification and funding just a few years ago.

She launched a major new effort, called Real Life Choices, to attract additional federal money to provide more in-home and community-based services for people with developmental disabilities living with their families.

She advocated for expansion of community services for people with mental illness and construction of a new state-of-the-art psychiatric hospital in Morris County, which will allow this state to provide the best service possible to people with mental illnesses.

She also pushed forward dramatic improvements in the efficiency of the state’s food stamp program, reducing the error rate from one of the worst in the country to the third best in the nation, and drawing in a $14 million federal performance bonus.

Perhaps most importantly, she began implementation of a child welfare information and tracking system that was many years past due and hired hundreds of front-line DYFS caseworkers to protect children who are at risk of abuse or neglect. Today, DYFS has more than 1,500 caseworkers – the most ever in its history.

These accomplishments will be watershed moments in our efforts to rebuild this child welfare system and ensure that children are safe under our supervision.

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