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Children's advocates in limbo

The guardian ad litem program to aid children in court awaits its fate as Florida and its counties resolve funding issues.

They are used to looking out for someone else, but this year is different.

For more than 400 full-time staffers and 4,500 volunteers in the statewide guardian ad litem program, the future is uncertain. The program's fate is in the hands of state lawmakers and county governments as both sides sort through an overhaul of the state's court system and struggle with who should pay for what.

Some issues in the voter-mandated changeover to statewide control of court operations are simple, such as who should pay to run courtrooms. But the GAL program - designed to provide volunteer assistance to children tangled in family-issue cases - is less clear, the program's director said this week.

If a standoff between counties and legislators ensues, cuts could affect more than 22,000 children in the system at any one time across the state and could reach even further, state GAL Executive Director Angela Orkin said. Orkin said her priority this year was to expand coverage to children in need. If money is cut, the program will fall short of its mandate, she said.

Orkin said the Legislature appears willing to continue providing the $20-million it budgeted last year, satisfying most needs, such as payroll. But what is unclear is if counties will continue picking up the tab for about $7-million in additional expenses, including courthouse office space, additional employees, administrative expenses and access to court computer systems.

In the Pasco-Pinellas Circuit, it appears Pinellas County officials are committed to providing office space and other support, circuit director Donna Rasmussen said. But in Pasco, Citrus and Hernando counties, the issue is less clear.

In Pasco, where the county provides two offices for 11 paid staffers, Rasmussen wonders - but has yet to ask - if the county will continue to provide office space, even if new state rules don't require it, she said.

"We haven't forced the issue," Rasmussen said.

Orkin said GAL offices across the state are in similar uncomfortable positions of uncertainty.

"If we don't get funded, my job is going to be going county to county begging, "Please let us stay in the courthouse,' " Orkin said. "We are nervous. We are very nervous."

Karla Grimsley, program director for the judicial circuit that serves Hernando and Citrus, as well as Lake, Marion and Sumter counties, said she might have to close all offices except the main one in Marion and a small one in Sumter if no one steps up to help.

Without work space for volunteers and staff, children might not get the help they need, she said. And the alternative to volunteers is costly attorneys. Hernando and Citrus now have four staffers each and more than 50 volunteers in each county.

Karen Nicolai, clerk of the circuit court for Hernando, said commissioners there recently approved a resolution refusing to consider supporting court costs "piecemeal" until the state announces its plan.

"It really is the state's responsibility," Nicolai said. However, "I can't see the county kicking (the guardian ad litem program) out of the courthouse."

Guardians play a unique role in courthouses. They are beholden to no one but the children in their charge. They don't provide housing or foster care, they don't provide food or education or money.

What they do is speak for children caught in court entanglements, whether it be in a domestic abuse, neglect, or criminal situation.

"Our mandate is to act in the best interest of the children," Rasmussen said. "It's not like we're a litigant or have any other interest, it is merely to speak for the children."

To shape their recommendations, volunteer guardians visit children to whom they are assigned. They look into their situations, investigate, talk to friends and neighbors or review court files.

In the end, they tell the judges overseeing the cases what would be best for the children. Sometimes, Rasmussen said, those opinions are contrary to what other parties, including parents or state agencies, want to hear.

But Circuit Judge Linda Babb, who oversees family court in Dade City, said she depends on the guardians for guidance.

"Guardians speak for the silent people," she said. "They are the only people who do that as their only job. We couldn't function without them."

While Pasco's court system provides two offices for guardians - one in Dade City and one in New Port Richey - both are outside the courthouses. Babb and Orkin said they would like to see guardians in the courthouses, making them available on short notice when situations arise in court.

At any given time, Pasco volunteers work with about 730 children who rotate in and out of the system. A figure on how many children are served during a year is difficult to calculate because old cases rotate out and new cases are added almost daily, Rasmussen said.

Pasco County Commission Chairman Peter Altman said the county and the Legislature are locked in a fiscal standoff.

With the state taking financial responsibility for the court system beginning in July, there should be a duty to fund all programs, he said. But the uncertainty arises in the gray areas of the state's mandate, such as in providing law libraries or guardians.

Altman said he has always felt the GAL program should be better funded and provide for more paid professionals or help volunteers by rewarding them in some way.

If counties step forward and say they will continue paying for much of the GAL program while lawmakers in Tallahassee form the budget for the fiscal year that begins in July, then there will be no incentive for lawmakers to cover the full cost, Altman said.

And for their part, Altman said legislators believe no county is going to turn its back on children if some parts of the tab are left unfunded.

"It's almost ironic," Altman said. "Children are almost always used and become the victims of adults fighting with each other."

So until a state budget is signed, which may not be until June, the uncertainty remains.

"There's a struggle going on between the state and the counties," Rasmussen said. "We don't want to be an unfunded mandate, we just need to know that we will be, at the end of the day, safe, secure and whole. If the state doesn't step up to the plate, will the counties?"

The guardian ad litem program is always on the hunt for volunteers, who can donate as little or as much time as they have available. To help, volunteers must have a clean criminal record, be at least 19 years old and take a training course. The next course offered in Pasco County will run April 13-March 13, meeting from 6-9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A similar course will be offered in west Pasco in the fall. To volunteer or to learn more, call (352) 521-5178 in east Pasco or (727) 834-3943 in west Pasco.