In an effort to do more with less money, state officials have been discussing "call centers" in
metropolitan areas for Ohio residents needing public assistance services – those services formerly known
as welfare.
As proposed, calls for services will be automatically routed to a call center – not necessarily to the
county where the caller resides. The traditional face-to-face appointments with clients will be a thing
of the past for the vast majority of clients.
The call centers are intended to cut back on Job and Family Services employees and thus save money.
But some rural county officials worried that metro call centers would swallow up smaller county control
over their programs. So some of those officials planned their own "insurrection" of sorts.
They proposed a pilot project, which would set up a call center among eight primarily rural counties,
including Wood.
"We felt we could do it faster and cheaper," Paulette Stephens, director of the Wood County
Department of Job and Family Services, said last week as she presented the pilot proposal to the county
commissioners and State Sen. Mark Wagoner, R-Toledo. "We recognize where the state is trying to go
and we think we could do it better."
The pilot project would keep the call center from being consolidated elsewhere.
"We didn’t think it was good for Wood County," Dave Wigent, assistant director of the Wood
County Department of Job and Family Services, said of the possibility of the center being housed as far
away as Columbus. The pilot project will still allow clients to see Job and Family Services employees
face-to-face if they prefer that to phone contact.
"We’re keeping the local presence for those who can’t navigate the system," Stephens said.
"If they consolidated in Columbus, you wouldn’t have that option," Wigent said.
"It will keep a local presence so people have a place to go," Stephens said.
By locating the pilot project locally, the county office may also be able to avoid mass layoffs of Job
and Family Services employees, she said.
"The cold reality is, you really don’t get savings in the Job and Family Services system unless you
reduce labor," Wigent said.
Stephens noted that the local office has been conducting phone interviews with clients for about five
months now, and has found them to be beneficial.
"It’s better for the families," who don’t need to arrange transportation or child care, she
said. "It’s meeting the customer, where they are."
Wigent estimated the phone time with clients takes about half as long as face-to-face interviews.
Stephens credited the local Job and Family Services staff for being creative and receptive to the
changes.
"They have come up with ideas. They have been very flexible," she said.