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Social Services Office formed; department seeks to convert seven eligibility contractor roles to permanent positions
Summary
Oscar Mensah, the county Social Services Officer, described the new Social Services Office structure and requested conversion of seven long-term contractor positions into merit positions ($800,968 and 7 FTEs) to sustain Medicaid eligibility and constituent-response capacity; the committee asked for documentation on contractor hours used to clear the MCPS backlog.
Oscar Mensah, Social Services Officer, briefed the committee on the newly created Social Services Office formed in DHHS's internal reorganization. He explained the office's three direct-program areas (Office of Eligibility & Support Services with ~290 FTEs, Child Welfare Services with ~210 FTEs, and Constituent Services & Quality Assurance) and said the change centralizes benefit eligibility, child-welfare operations and escalated constituent responses.
Mensah said the Office has strong performance on state timeliness benchmarks but faces rising caseloads and asked to convert seven long-term contractor positions to merit positions for the Office of Eligibility & Support Services to maintain enrollment and redetermination capacity ($800,968 for FY27 and 7 FTEs). "Instead of using brokers, convert these 7 brokers into permanent positions so that we can maintain this standard," Mensah said, pointing to increased Medicaid and SNAP workloads.
Councilmember Friedson pressed for operational detail on a recent MCPS child-protective-services (CPS) clearance backlog; Lisa Merkin (Child Welfare Services) and council staff explained the county used additional contractors (three full-time contractors in the final staffing mix and earlier surge staffing totaling six additional contractors in September) to complete more than 13,000 paper clearances and address portal backlog. Merkin said the state allows 14 days for clearances but the county targeted 48'72-hour turnarounds and determined that two contractors plus existing staff would be sufficient to maintain throughput; the committee requested a breakdown of contractor hours, backlog volume and ongoing workload estimates for the April 27 follow-up.
Ending: The committee agreed to add the conversion request ($800,968 and 7 FTEs) to the reconciliation list for full-council review and asked staff to provide a detailed memo on MCPS clearance surge staffing and the expected baseline capacity moving forward.
