When Real Solutions Can Be No Solutions

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Five years ago, Russell and her daughter lived together. Since then, she’s been fighting a losing battle to regain custody, and she blames Real Solutions, in part, for her no-contact order. Her frustration with the system caused her to establish familylawcourts.com, a Web site that contains messages from parents across the country. Russell’s charges against Real Solutions echo those of other parents, who complain that they lost visitation rights or custody because of the agency’s actions and incompetence.

Parents fighting for custody don’t always come off as the most credible sources. Some have violated court orders for the chance to hug or speak to their children. Occasionally they wind up spending a night in jail. It’s debatable whether it’s the courts that make some people act rash or irrational, or whether they come to court with those characteristics. Regardless, these parents still have the right to just treatment.

Russell says she complained loudly about Real Solutions long before her plea for help at the county supervisors meeting was answered. But John Weil, Supervisor Pam Slater’s chief of staff, says the county was working on “contract problems” with the agency months before that meeting.

In August, the county’s Health & Human Services Department began an investigation of Real Solutions. Three weeks later, Susan Griffin terminated her contracts with the county—three contracts that provided for a maximum of $87,500 each in cost reimbursements for county-approved expenses. Because Griffin cancelled the contracts, she effectively ended the county’s investigation.

The brief final report from HHS criticizes the agency’s bookkeeping methods. In January, HHS asked Real Solutions to return $69,779 of the $174,992 it received last year, because of improper documentation.

The HHS report also said Real Solutions’ playground area isn’t fenced and is located next to a parking lot, near hazardous materials (like exposed metals and rusty nails). The office has a petting zoo with birds and reptiles to help keep children entertained, and HHS observed animal droppings on the upholstered lobby furniture and reported that Real Solutions “only loosely enforces commonly accepted good sanitation practices for the children who come into contact with the animals.”

About a month and a half after his visitations at Real Solutions began, Charles Zaremba’s youngest daughter was brought to him bleeding. She had been waiting in the zoo room. One of the animals had bitten her.

“Whoever was supposed to be watching the children left them alone in the room with the animals and cages,” says Zaremba. “I was told that it sometimes happens, and they blamed the children for trying to touch the animals. They refused to take responsibility.”

There is nothing HHS can do about this. Bob Borntrager, manager of standard and special reviews for HHS, says his agency’s hands are tied by the law. “There are simply no health laws or statutes that apply to family visitation centers and no state regulations that govern them,” he says. “We can ask for corrective fiscal actions, but we can’t ask for anything else.”

Judge Wesley Mason acknowledges the court “can’t send kids there if the place is filthy.” He had not seen the HHS report and had no plans to visit the site himself.

Patti Chavez-Fallon, director of Family Court Services for San Diego Superior Court, says her office will make unannounced visits to Real Solutions to ensure the place is clean and safe. Fallon says she is working with the Real Solutions board to come up with a plan to get the facility in “tip-top shape. They’ve already started doing the work needed to clean up the place,” she says.

But Fallon, who had not been to Real Solutions to witness the changes she talks about, couldn’t say who, specifically, from her office would be visiting to verify that conditions were acceptable. “It’ll be one of our employees,” she says, “and that changes periodically.”

Fallon is reported by ex–Real Solutions staffers to be a close friend of Griffin’s, although Fallon refused to comment on their relationship, saying only that her dealings with Griffin were in a professional capacity. She says Real Solutions isn’t tied to San Diego Family Court in any way, and as a result the court has no control over Real Solutions—although Family Court refers clients there.

Regardless of her relationship with Griffin, Fallon is a fierce defender of Real Solutions. “Susan has been willing to slide back fees to such a degree that we can get almost anyone in there,” she says. “Some private providers can’t afford to do that.”

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