Highland County voters: It's time to renew the Children Services levy

By Rory Ryan
Publisher and Owner
The Highland County Press

As loyal readers of this publication know, it is not often that I encourage anyone to vote for more taxes on your hard-earned dollars.

One of the few times I did was for construction of new Hillsboro City Schools. During a pre-election rally for that levy, my friend, the late Robert Hodson, read that editorial in the Daniels Auditorium at Southern State Community College. Bob had not forewarned me. 

Halfway into his address, he simply pulled out the editorial and read it, word for word. I was there. I may have wondered how I was going to make a safe retreat to the parking lot, but I stuck around.

Bob was always so wonderful about speaking to the greater good of the community. He certainly did that more recently for the Highland County Historical Society.

Yes, the school levy passed.

My first meeting this week was with Highland County Job & Family Services (and Children Services) Director Jeremy Ratcliff. I shared the story about Bob and the HCS levy from many years ago. I also told Jeremy there aren't any Bob Hodsons around now.

Last July, as Highland County faced the same decision we have today on how to proceed with levy funding for Children Services, commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades met with Highland County Juvenile Court Judge Kevin Greer and Jeremy Ratcliff to discuss information and statistics about the agency.

Judge Greer met with commissioners at their request, but with a caveat that he was neither endorsing nor opposing anything to do with the levy, just sharing information.

“Judges in Ohio cannot – ethically, we're not allowed to publicly endorse or oppose any issue,” Judge Greer said. “I'll be happy to give you stats of what I’m seeing.”

At that time, Jeremy was working to make a final decision on whether to seek a renewal or replacement levy during the November 2023 election. He did. It failed.

The current Children Services tax levy was first approved in November 2013 and renewed by voters in November 2018. It is a five-year, .9-mill levy for placement costs and expires Dec. 31, 2023. The levy generates approximately $700,000 per year for the agency – which is approximately 17 percent of the needed revenue.

“The way it stands now [at 0.9 mill], per $100,000 of valuation, the average taxpayer is around $23 a year,” Jeremy said. “One-hundred percent of those levy dollars currently go to child placement costs.” 

When the original levy was passed, during that calendar year, Children Services had 253 children in care at any point. By 2018, that had jumped to 297 at any point during the year. In 2023, it was 497 children in care.

"Those children could be in foster care, they could be in residential group homes, or they could be potentially in kinship," Jeremy said. 

"Those are children from custody of the agency, or the county, and those are court-involved cases. We cannot get custody unless the judge approves that."

According to Jeremy, “If we have available family members, or we have available friends or whatever, who are appropriate to take these kids during that time that the [parents] are working through their issues, we utilize that as well, but sometimes – often – we do have to go to become court-involved.”

In July 2023, Judge Greer said he has seen a “drastic” jump in Children Services cases going through Juvenile Court, particularly in the past seven years.

“The caseload on Children Services cases has drastically increased,” the judge said. “We’ve been averaging close to 200 cases a year, and back when I started, a long time ago, it was in the 20s and 30s. I can say, without hesitation, the drug issues and illegal use of drugs is the primary driver of that. Whenever you read in the paper, there’s been another drug roundup and the grand jury’s indicted 20, as an example – most of them are drug-related, and almost every one of those families has children, and we end up seeing them.”

The judge added he doesn’t “see the caseload dropping much” anytime soon.

It hasn't.

“I’ve been in child welfare either as a prosecutor or on the bench full time since 1980, and it just takes a lot of resources to protect these kids,” Judge Greer said. “I appreciate all the commissioners, including you three, supporting the cause to protect these kids. Just like families, some businesses have to sometimes look at cutting their budget, but we're talking about protecting kids, and I think it's been top priority for you all. I’ve never been told, with what we're doing in court, ‘we can't do that, the money is just not there.’”

Judge Greer added that the public is often not aware of “what's going on in this county with kids and how they're abused and neglected and some of the home conditions they have to live in.

“It’s important to let the public know just what a horrible problem it is, but that there is something being done, hopefully, to do the best we can to protect them,” Judge Greer said. “Obviously, that is the primary job of Director Ratliff and his office.”

I rarely disagree with Judge Greer, and I am not about to on this issue. With that said, there may be some willful ignorance on this issue. Believe me, we've done our best to report on this – to the extent that we can, with respect to the rights of families with minor children. It's tough. We cannot get into certain details of what happens to children in some very sad "family" situations.

I put family in quotations for a reason. Yes, there are many of us who say this issue is a "family" issue and not a public concern. I get it. But reality paints a far darker picture. The reality is this: Today there were more than 150 children in foster care in Highland County. Local Children Services is on pace to pay $4.1 million in 2024, up from $3.8 million last year. The agency has dealt with 260 cases of sexual abuse in the last five years. That is a case every week for five years. Last year, Children Services received 1,100 calls for assistance; no, not assistance, HELP. Immediate help. That equals three calls per day for 365 days.

Many years ago, I recall being in one of our editorial excellence board meetings with former Congressman Clarence J. "Bud" Brown. Bud was the chairman of the board of his newspapers at the time. We often met in October prior to the November elections. Bud shared this with his publishers. He said he understood if we did not endorse certain candidates or issues on the state or federal levels, but we should always give serious consideration to local issues, where our tax dollars really mean something. I've not forgotten that. (Bud also rejected any ideas of charging for obituaries. The HCP has not for my 15 years of ownership.) 

In a recent letter to the Highland County commissioners – who earlier endorsed Issue 10 – Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins wrote: "I have been handling cases in Juvenile Court on a regular basis. These cases are primarily cases involving Children Services. It has been a pleasure to work with Children Services, starting with Jeremy and continuing with every supervisor and case worker. 

"These case workers again have genuine dedication to their jobs and to the children they are sworn to protect. They are working all hours, doing everything in their power to make children safe. With good leadership, anything is possible, and Jeremy has proven to be great leadership. He trusts the case workers to do what is right, and they have earned the trust of everyone in the Prosecutor’s Office; they continue to impress me daily.”

The Children Services levy will appear on the ballot as Issue 10, a proposed 0.9-mill, five-year levy renewal “providing funds for the support of children services and the care and placement of children.”

As The Highland County Press reported, the five-year, 0.9-mill renewal levy on the ballot for the Nov. 5 general election amounts to $24 for each $100,000 of the county auditor’s appraised value and is not based on the new 2024 valuations, but rather the lower valuations at the time the levy was first enacted.

A proposed five-year, one-mill replacement levy for the agency failed in the Nov. 7, 2023 general election. A subsequent attempt to return to the previous 0.9 millage, through a levy issue on the March 19 primary ballot, was also voted down.

It's time to pass this much-needed levy. If there is sufficient charity in Highland County – and I know from experience there is – this levy will pass on Nov. 5.

Early voting for the Tuesday, Nov. 5 general election begins Tuesday, Oct. 8. Tomorrow. Please vote.

As always, thanks for reading.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.

Below, Highland County Juvenile Court Judge Kevin Greer, left, and Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff met with commissioners July 26, 2023. (HCP photo by Caitlin Forsha.)