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Kids Central appoints interim chief executive

The chief operating officer of Children's Home Society will take over for 90 days while a permanent CEO is chosen for the child welfare agency.

By MARY SPICUZZA
Published February 18, 2005

Kids Central Inc. named James Patrick as its interim chief executive officer on Wednesday during a special board of directors meeting.

Patrick, the chief operating officer of Children's Home Society, is available to begin his new role immediately, Russell Rasco of The Centers told the other board members.

Outgoing CEO Janice Johnson will continue working with Kids Central as a consultant for up to 90 days. Johnson, whose last day was scheduled to be Feb. 8, agreed to help the private child welfare agency work to meet the requirements of a "cure letter" from the Department of Children and Families.

The cure letter calls for improvements in various areas of child welfare, including completing adoptions, submitting required paperwork to DCF's Child Welfare Legal Services on time, submitting accurate financial documents on time and conducting monthly visits to the children in its care.

Johnson said she will be looking for other job opportunities while working as a consultant. She is the second top administrator to resign from Kids Central since District 13, which includes Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter counties, began making the transition to a privatized foster care system last year.

In June, then-executive director Jeff Rainey left Kids Central to work for Tampa Metro YMCA. The Kids Central search committee decided on Patrick after considering a variety of factors, including familiarity with DCF and Kids Central, knowledge of child welfare, experience working with a lead agency and experience with turning around a lead agency, Rasco said.

Patrick, who has worked for Children's Home Society since 1996, is responsible for operations of the statewide child welfare agency, which has 200 offices, 14 divisions, 2,200 staff members and a budget of $123-million, according to biographical information provided by Kids Central.

Children's Home Society is one of Kids Central's partner organizations.

Patrick recently acted as the interim leader of the community-based care agency in Volusia and Flagler counties after president Ray Smith resigned in December.

He was serving on the boards of five community-based care agencies, but stepped down from three to work with Kids Central, said Sara Roen Brady, the private consortium's spokeswoman.

Patrick has also worked for Gulf Coast Community Care in Clearwater, a nonprofit mental health center in Massachusetts and the Department for Children and Their Families in Rhode Island.

While serving as interim CEO of Kids Central, Patrick will scale back his responsibilities for Children's Home Society, Brady said.

A permanent CEO is expected to be named within the next 90 days.

The board of directors also named two new community board members during the meeting. Former Leesburg mayor Bob Lovell and Dr. Michael Jordan, a member of the Marion County Children's Alliance, were also added.

DCF wants Kids Central to have a 51 percent community-based board membership by March 18.

[Last modified February 18, 2005, 00:14:17]