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Mary Wilson’s first year as director of Mecklenburg County’s Department of Social Services has been an eye-opener.

Shortly after her appointment in July 2008, DSS ran head first into the human face of a global recession as the number of applications for assistance swelled while the department’s budget was slashed by $11 million. Wilson also ran into internal issues as critics blasted her decision to hire relatives of prominent Charlotte political and law-enforcement figures to agency positions.

There was more criticism following the revelation that more than $160,000  for a Christmas charity was unaccounted for and checks made out to employees – a violation of state rules. An audit checked into spending programs and financial practices from July 2007 to last March. Mecklenburg Commissioners openly questioned whether DSS lacked the controls to track funds.

In the meantime, Wilson, the fourth DSS director since 2004, has embarked on a campaign to streamline delivery of services as well as create partnerships in the public and non-profit sector.

The Post conducted an extensive interview with Wilson, touching on those subjects as well as an overview of her first year at one of Mecklenburg’s largest public agencies. Answers are edited for brevity.

Q: Has the job been everything you expected when you were appointed?

A: “I think coming into this job I was a little naïve and I really never envisioned how big this organization is in terms of its impact in the community. We are cradle to grave almost in terms of the people we touch and the lives we touch. That shows the magnitude of it and it’s much more challenging than I thought. From that perspective, I’ve learned a tremendous amount in a year.”

Q: How has Social Services changed in terms of operations?

A: “We have had a lot of silos within the department, so the division director may not have had full understanding or accountability for finance. They may not have had a responsibility for reaching across the aisle and finding out how is what I do in …providing a service impacting another division and providing their service. The business model change comes about (as) how do we start to consolidate some of those resources to really make them available to every person we serve as opposed to just one group.”

Q: Does that mean there’s been inflexibility?

A: “I don’t think the silos have been because people have been jealously guarding their turf. I think the complexity of funding and rules and regulations make it very, very challenging to just keep up with how you can be creative, how you can broaden your opportunity.”

Q: Is there a team of innovators who are responsible for changing the business model and do you manage them?

A: ”I am very hands-on. It is not where I prefer to be, but I can be in the weeds every day, all day. I would really prefer to be at a very high level doing strategic kind of global visioning, but I think you lead by example and I go into the weeds and say how can we do things differently? What’s another way to look at this?

Q: Is DSS leaner today than a year ago?

A: “We have increased our capacity without increasing our headcount, so we have really scrubbed every job, every unit, every section and we’re asking people if this really the most important thing we need to do for this delivery of service.  If you are seeing 10 clients a month, could you see more, how can we do this more efficiently and effectively? Even with an $11 million budget reduction and we defunded 56 positions, we’ve still been able to expand our intake and eligibility to the Freedom Mall location, the first time in the history of DSS we’ve taken intake and eligibility outside this building. …We’ve also expanded service hours to Saturday from 8 (a.m.) to 12 (p.m.), so we’ve gained a lot of capacity, and that’s made a significant difference.”

Q: How has the recession impacted Social Services?

A: “The recession has really hit us in two ways. One, most of our applications have gone up over 40 percent and that’s food stamps, Medicaid and our Work First program, which is a job training, transportation and child care assistance program, but in addition, we have found a lot of people that don’t meet the minimum qualifications. The sad part about that is they haven’t fallen low enough into poverty to be eligible for our programs but they are in need. …That population, it’s increasingly hard for us to find programs to serve them, but we’re partnering more in the community to look for new and innovative ways to use dollars that have come into the agency and that’s been a real plus.
“The economy has been a terrible blow. It’s increased the numbers coming through our door, but it’s forced us to be more creative once again.”

Q: There were criticisms that DSS lacked controls over finances when an audit was ordered. How has that impacted the agency?

A: I think the fact than an employee felt comfortable enough to come forward with something like the Giving Tree and saying I’ve got some concerns about this, I’m not sure we should be writing checks to employees,  I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s a good thing that we opened the door and said it’s OK to bring these things forward and there will be no retaliation. But as a result of all this, I think the audit was actually a good thing for us. It is a road map that says ‘this is the five things you’re not good at, these are the things you’re really not good at, these are the things you’re good at.’ It’s a road map for how we can improve how we do business.

"The downside is we’ve lost some of the public trust.  It’s been damaged, and so this year we probably won’t see people donating a lot of money or toys to the Department of Social Services, and that’s really a sad thing. I think it’s a negative reflection upon a group of employees who really work hard every day to improve the life of someone they’re serving. But we’ll recover from it. We’ll do some training, we’ll do some education, we’ll put some controls in place, we’ll dot the I’s and cross the T’s because we’ve got to rebuild that public trust.”

Q: Are controls in place now, and are you satisfied they’ll do the job?

A: “We’re going to do a department wide training on fraud and the importance of internal controls. Controls may sound more formal than they really are, it’s good practice and good process, just like with any business that would want its employees to turn in all receipts and explain why you spent the money for what programs. That’s exactly what we’re going to put in place to make sure it is supervised and the documentation is accurate, current and updated. That’s the accountability.”

Q: Has the audit damaged public perception of DSS’s ability to manage finances?

A: “I think it’s accurate that someone should have known, but I think we also have to put it in perspective. A billion dollars flows through this agency on an annual basis. We put $11 million per month into the local economy through food stamps alone. We’re talking about less than 1 percent of the annual budget of this agency. The annual budget is $180 million and so the funds in question is about $160,000 – less than 1 percent, so it’s really small. That’s not to say it’s not important, but for anyone that understands a budget understands when you’re doing audits and you’re doing reviews, you’re typically looking at your high-risk areas. Where are those areas that we’re going to lose $5 million, $2 million, $1 million? Those are the ones you’re really going to zero in on. This is something that had just not come to the forefront and because there was not an open communication within this agency and an opportunity to express yourself openly, I think that kind of dampened down bringing that issue to the forefront.”

You’ve also faced charges of cronyism for hiring relatives of high-profile individuals, including an instance where one position was posted for a day. Was that a mistake?

“I have apologized to the county manager, the board of county commissioners, and my staff, but most importantly, I have apologized to the people that I hired, because I would never want anyone to think that the people that I hired were not qualified, head and shoulders above anyone else for this job. And I think that’s the most important thing – whether that job had been posted a day, a week, a month, the person hired was qualified. There were other resumes that were reviewed and considered, but the person hired was qualified and I think that’s just a very ugly statement to say about anyone. The absolute definition of cronyism is hiring people who are not qualified, so I think we’re looking a little bit at the form over the substance. The form is, yes, we should’ve had a longer posting period. The substance is the person is very qualified for the job.”

Q: Where is DSS going to be six months or a year from now as it tries to serve people?

A: There are a lot of things in the works for DSS going forward. For example, we have received $274,000 in stimulus money, which has allowed us to hire 24 people and so that’s a great thing, and that’s money that we have to spend by Sept. 30. We’re anticipating we may get $500,000 to $750,000 the next federal fiscal year, so the good news is we’re going to be able to hire more people to meet the numbers that are coming in the door. The state has said it’s very likely we’ll be taking over child support enforcement in Mecklenburg County. It is something the county is reviewing now to determine what’s the right decision for that and so that could change what DSS does, how we intersect again with the court system, how we intersect with folks who are coming into our Works First program who also have to cooperate with child support enforcement, so that could be another nuance that’s going to be new and different for us.

Q: There’s a perception that DSS is for the chronically poor black and brown, or welfare moms. Is there a way to more accurately portray it?

A: “There’s a negative connotation out there in certain areas of the community and I’d like to see us re-brand DSS as more collaborative with our community partners, more approachable by our citizens, more responsive to the seniors in our community. I want to make sure we are able to touch the vulnerable people in our community. We take 30 to 40 kids into custody every month. I’d like to see us decrease that number and increase family interventions and family reunification. I think helping families grow and be healthy is a better approach to keeping kids safe.”

Q: Should you be aggressive in taking a higher profile?

A: “Personally, I am probably a very private person. Professionally, I think you are absolutely right, and I am looking forward to taking on that responsibility. I really needed to spend the first year – and I hope it’s only the first year – getting what I consider my house in order and my senior executive team focused and moving in the right direction. Now there is an opportunity for me to get our and spread that message.  Somebody’s got to be the face and the voice and the message of DSS. I came in looking to be a change agent internally and it’s becoming more and more clear that I’ve got to be a change agent externally.”

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