CYS deputy who resigned offered new contract
A lack of people with adequate fiscal expertise in the Children and Youth Services agency has caused Washington County to call upon a deputy administrator who resigned in May after her handling of a case while she was employed in another county eventually came to light.
On Wednesday morning, Tim Kimmel, Washington County director of human services, proposed the county enter into a $2,237 contract with Dee Dee Blosnich-Gooden from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31 to aid her former supervisor, Kimberly Rogers, in writing CYS needs-based budget plans for 2017-18 and 2018-19 as required by the state’s Office of Children, Youth and Families.
Kimmel said Blosnich-Gooden performed this task the entire time she was deputy administrator. The commissioners expect to vote on the matter at their 10 a.m. meeting today.
Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan said there has been turnover in a CYS fiscal position, which has been vacant for at least several months. That employee, if the post had been filled, also would have assisted Rogers in preparing the needs-based budget.
“The contract that we’re entering into has absolutely nothing to do with her supervising anything related to child safety,” Irey Vaughan said of Blosnich-Gooden.
An affidavit in a rape case earlier this year mentioned Blosnich-Gooden’s name, saying while she was in charge of Greene County CYS in 2012, she quashed a call for an investigation into the foster parenting of Joelle Barozzini, who was rumored to be involved in a sexual relationship with a teenage boy from Greene County while he was in her care. Barozzini demanded the caseworker who made the allegations retract them, and Blosnich-Gooden had the caseworker participate in a class on ethics, authorities said.
Blosnich-Gooden left her position as CYS director in Greene County in March 2013 to take the job as deputy director of Washington County CYS, where she remained until late May, when Greensburg police filed a host of charges, including rape, against Barozzini.
Shortly thereafter, Blosnich-Gooden resigned from her Washington County CYS position.
A district judge in July found the case against Barozzini met evidentiary standards, and the former foster mother remains free on bond while she faces trial in Westmoreland County Court.