About 150 county social workers marched into the Department of Children's Services Thursday, demanding a reduction in paperwork they contend is taking away from their time with endangered, abused and neglected children.
The members of Service Employees International Union, Local 535, left their notebooks outlining the paperwork in the Mid-Wilshire office of department Director Peter Digre, who was not in.
Digre's top lieutenant, Carlos Sosa, told reporters that he sympathized with the social workers' complaints and said the department is attempting to reduce the paperwork while at the same time complying with state requirements. "We're the first to admit we don't have the slickest system," said Sosa. The department, he said, is in the process of trying to modify the state's so-called "corrective action plan" that calls for an overhaul of the department.
