Delaware has changed a lot since 1974. The state’s had seven different governors, increased in population by a third and seen its yearly operating budget grow from the tens of millions to just over $3 billion.

    In those 35 years many of the First State’s governmental agencies have evolved into statewide networks able to provide services to the public using online forms, automated payment software and other products of the digital age.

    But one state agency has managed to buck most of the advancements gleaned from the past three decades.

    At the office of the Violent Crimes Compensation Board, staff still use a cumbersome collection of paper forms to document and facilitate the distribution of state money to victims of crime for things like medical treatment, lost wages and funeral expenses.

    The money comes from those convicted of violent crimes, who are made to pay a mandatory surcharge when they’re found guilty. The fund is capped at $6 million, which the board is responsible for distributing to victims according to laws, regulations and their own review of a victim’s case.

    In the past several years, victim’s rights advocates across the state have lobbied heavily for a full review of the board’s procedures. These advocates, along with the victims they represent, also have criticized the agency for its inefficiencies and blamed the board for “re-victimizing” those who have suffered as a result of a violent crime by neglecting their needs.

Process is unreasonable, unfair

    Last year, the Delaware General Assembly’s Joint Sunset Committee, a panel of lawmakers who conduct periodic reviews of state agencies and their operations, chose to turn its sights on the VCCB for 2009.

    Released this spring, the result of the committee’s work is a list of major reforms that address what victims advocates have been saying for years: the board is out of touch and the people it’s supposed to help are hurting.

    Diane Glenn, victims rights coordinator for the Dover Police Department, said lobbying for changes to the VCCB has become as big a part of her job as working on individual cases.

    “You’re not going to get a lot of people who are victims or survivors of crimes who are able or willing to speak. They are dealing with the aftermath of the situation,” she said. “We as advocates become their voice. We’ve seen the gaps in services and we’ve tried to rectify them.”

    Glenn said the board’s five members, who are appointed by the governor to staggered three-year terms, aren’t subject to regulation by another agency, nor are they equipped to handle victim claims in an efficient manner.

    “The process is not friendly, it’s not timely, it’s not efficient and at the highest level of that process there are no checks and balances,” she said.

    As it stands, a victim who is seeking money from the compensation fund must fill out an application, gather all the pertinent court and police documents related to the crime, submit any and all medical bills, pay stubs or other materials in support of the claim, then wait for the board to meet and discuss the application.

    The board, which meets weekly, will review the materials and approve or deny the claim. If approved, the VCCB staff can release the funds, but if the request is denied or the board wants more documentation from the applicant, the claim is put on hold.

    If all or part of an applicant’s claim is denied by the board, the applicant can ask the board for an appeal. If a claim is denied after that appeal, the only recourse is to sue the board in Superior Court.

    Glenn said the appeal process is unreasonable and unfair, since hiring a lawyer and initiating a lawsuit is not an option for most people.

    “At the highest level there exist no time limitations. I have personally worked with victims who have waited months for their appeals to be heard,” she said.

    Others say the drawn-out nature of the process is not helpful to those who need compensation immediately after they’ve been victimized.

    Debbie Reed works in the Delaware State Police victim services division and in the past helped administer a grant-based fund among state law-enforcement agencies that paid for victims’ expenses on short notice when the VCCB couldn’t.

    Money for that fund has run out, but Reed is hopeful the changes proposed by the Joint Sunset Committee will address the need for a quicker response from the board.

    “We were dealing with things within 24 hours or less, and I think with the proposed changes we’ll have something to do things more immediately,” she said. “Let’s say it’s a home invasion and your front door is kicked in, you need a front door for your safety.

    “Sometimes it may mean we have somebody’s lock changed, somebody who needs to be put up for a night in a safe place.”

AG’s office could streamline process

    The board’s chairman, Thomas W. Castaldi, would not respond to requests for comment on the way the VCCB is run, but the agency’s executive director said she recognizes the need for changes.

    Barbara Brown, who took over the director position last spring, said it was immediately apparent that the office was way behind its counterparts across the country.

    “The agency functioned as more of an old-fashioned, paper-heavy processing office,” she said. “When I started to look around at other states, I realized we were unusual because we were totally without a computerized claims tracking system that worked, we were very much heavy on the paperwork and we had board members with all the authority to make claims decisions. The staff didn’t have any of the authority to do that, and that’s different from a lot of the other states.”

    Brown, who helped draft the final report on the agency’s shortcomings for the sunset committee, advocates moving most of the agency’s authority to her and her staff. The board would serve only as an appeals body and would act only after an applicant worked with staff to resolve the issue.

    “In addition to having the staff make the decisions, and have the ability to do emergency awards, they would also allow a reconsideration,” she said, “Maybe you forgot to include one of the documents, maybe you forgot a Christiana Care bill. The staff could review that.”

    This process, Brown said, would spare victims from having to explain their traumatic experiences to yet another group of people.

    The biggest change to the VCCB presented by Brown and incorporated into the committee’s recommendations would place the entire agency under the umbrella of the state Department of Justice.

    Supporters say the Attorney General’s office has the resources to streamline the board’s work, save money on the administrative costs of the program and serve more victims more effectively.

    Patricia Dailey Lewis, director of the department’s Family Division, said having the board under its control just makes sense.

    “It’s better in an agency that has the tentacles in the criminal justice system that the proper administration of the fund require,” she said. “We already have the police reports, we already have the witness statements, we already have social workers who are working with these victims and we work very closely with all the police agencies.”

    The VCCB has only one office, located in Newport in New Castle County. But the justice department maintains offices in all three counties where it could place VCCB staff.

    Moving the board’s staff out of the Newport office and into existing space also would save the agency money. The VCCB spends $54,000 a year on rent, plus bills for telephone, office supplies and other essentials, Brown said. That money is budgeted directly from the state’s general fund.

    Dailey Lewis is especially supportive of saving money by diminishing the role of the board members themselves, and cutting their pay.

    Currently, three board members receive a yearly stipend of $10,000, while the chairman and vice-chairman receive $12,000 and $11,000, respectively. The board members also are allowed to claim expenses like meals and travel, and, since they are considered state employees, are eligible for retirement benefits.

    The Sunset Committee proposal would shrink the board by one member, to include representatives from each county plus the city of Wilmington, and structure the members’ compensation so it resembles that of other state-level volunteer boards.

    Every member would be paid $100 for each scheduled meeting of the board. Members who have already been appointed would serve out their terms under the existing rules.

    “I’m not saying these people are bad people or they’re doing anything bad, but these are tough economic times and the people that are suffering the most are people of moderate means who fall on terrible misfortune like being victimized,” Dailey Lewis said. “They can’t whip out a credit card and go get a hotel, they don’t have six months salary saved up in the bank if they can’t go to work because somebody bashed their face in,” she said.

    Brown said the efficiencies the agency stands to gain by using technology, restructuring the claims process and moving into the Department of Justice mean that the $6 million fund will be used more effectively.

    “I know there are many more people out there who could use this service the more sophisticated our technology gets,” she said. “And it’s a logical time in the evolution of this program to be within a part of state government that has a similar mission and has some oversight too.”

    Dailey Lewis said the changes can’t come soon enough.

    “It’s 2009, this hasn’t been reviewed in 35 years. Changes need to be made, it’s an insult to the public,” she said.

    Sen. David Sokola, D-Newark, who chairs the Joint Sunset Committee, said he’s been convinced by the deluge of critical commentary and constructive suggestions offered by people like Reed, Glenn and Dailey Lewis.

    “There were so many issues, and people felt like this is not functioning in a way that an entity like this should be functioning in the 21st century,” he said. “The purpose of every board, every commission in the state is to serve some aspect of public health, safety or welfare, and this is something that really needs to be responsive to the public need.

    “The victims of crimes should not be re-victimized by a process that’s put together for the purpose of compensating them for their loss.”

    Sokola presented his committee’s recommendations in the form of a bill earlier in June, but it was delegated to a committee that is not likely to act on it before the session ends June 30.

    The bill’s assignment to the Senate Executive Committee, which is controlled by the chamber’s eldest and most established senators, was seen by some as a political move to protect the board members and their benefits.

    However, fellow sunset committee member Rep. John A. Kowalko Jr., D-Newark South, has introduced a duplicate bill in his chamber and plans to have it heard this week in the House Sunset Committee, which he chairs.

    Though the bill is more likely to be released from Kowalko’s committee, it may never make it to the floor if the House is busy debating bills related to the state budget. Even if it did clear the House, the bill would probably be assigned to the same Senate Executive Committee as Sokola’s version.

    The sweeping changes outlined in the bills likely will have to wait until the legislature reconvenes in January 2010.

    Still, Sokola said he is optimistic that Brown and the board will be able to begin working to make the agency more efficient and lay the groundwork for rolling it into the Department of Justice.

    “I remain cautiously optimistic. I don’t know that we’re going to get the whole pie, but I think we’re going to get a piece of it,” he said.

Email Doug Denison at doug.denison@doverpost.com

Proposed changes to the Delaware Violent Crimes
Compensation Board

Recommendations made by the General
Assembly’s Joint Sunset Committee include:

• Change the name of the board to the Victims’ Compensation Assistance Program.

• Transfer the duties, responsibilities and employees of the board to the Department of Justice.

• Streamline the decision making process for claims by allowing the executive director and staff to award compensation.

• Allow staff to reconsider new information for a claim without the need for the victim to appear before the board.

• Make the board an appeals body only. Current board members would serve out their existing terms and continue to be paid as much as $12,000 per year. Compensation for new or reappointed members would be $100 per meeting.

• Reduce the size of the board from five to four, to include members from all three counties and the City of Wilmington.

Source: Senate Bill 253, sponsored by Sen. David Sokola,
D-Newark, and Rep. John A. Kowalko Jr., D-Newark South.