Tom Morton will become director of Clark County Family Services on July 15. Photo by Gary Thompson.

For three decades, Tom Morton has strived to improve child welfare from the outside in.

His work as a consultant has taken him troubleshooting across the nation, collaborating with family services leaders in Illinois, Alabama and California.

Until now, he's always been the one to observe, document and recommend changes that will improve an agency's response to children and families in crisis.

And until now, he's always been able to leave implementation of improvement proposals to those working in the field.

The incoming director for Clark County Family Services said, "I've spent 30 years consulting and studying child welfare. ... Whether that prepares me well or not remains to be seen."

On July 15, Morton will trade in his consultant's title and step into the ring of fire commonly known as daily social work. He succeeds former Family Services Director Susan Klein-Rothschild, who resigned suddenly on May 3.

Her decision to step down was made the same week that she learned Clark County Manager Thom Reilly was in talks with Morton. It also followed heavy public criticism of Clark County Family Services, which was fueled by an April report that detailed child fatalities and identified problems in how investigations were handled by local responders.

Reilly, who'd been courting Morton to play a role in reorganizing local family services since December, immediately offered him the job. Morton's appointment was announced in the same news release informing the public of Klein-Rothschild's departure.

"To get that much closer to where the work is actually done, I find that exciting," said Morton, 59. "I had 22 of the best years of my life and career at the Child Welfare Institute. I hope to have the next best years of my life in Clark County."

Morton, who earned his master's degree in social work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, was in Las Vegas last week to meet staff, speak with community leaders and get a feel for the scope of the job that he's accepted. Morton's hiring is subject to final approval from the Clark County Commission, which is expected to discuss his contract at a June meeting.

Morton's hiring has drawn fire from child advocates and members of the Blue Ribbon Panel assembled by the state to follow up on child death review findings. Several people, including Donna Coleman of the Washington, D.C.-based group Demanding Justice for America's Children, thought a national search should have been held.

Morton counters by observing that managers at both local and state levels are often hired without a national search process. At the time of Morton's hiring, Reilly also said he thought it was important to move quickly to fill the vacancy.

Morton has been touted as an out-of-the-box thinker with a track record of bringing about meaningful reform. But his earlier work in Clark County raised questions for child advocates like Coleman.

At the time of Morton's appointment, Coleman pointed out that Morton's Child Welfare Institute had conducted a review of 11 child fatalities related to open Child Protective Services cases. That review did not find the county to be negligent in any of the child deaths.

When questioned about the 2005 report, Morton said its focus was a narrow one. Nine cases were death by natural causes, two cases were fatalities resulting from actions by caregivers. There was nothing the county could have done to prevent the first nine deaths, Morton said.

"In the other cases, there were no actions or inactions by the county that caused the deaths of two children," Morton said. "That opinion was derived from a review of information that was made available to us at the time."

Morton said that the Institute report also reported a number of concerns and risk factors concerning staff practices in those cases.

Morton said he is gathering data now to formulate his approach to improving the department of family services. It may include changing the management structure, increasing public contacts and community input and improving relations with other agencies that work with family services. He also plans to show increased accountability from his department for how resources are used and what return has been realized as a result of those resources.

"I've observed a lot of child welfare reforms around the country " Morton said. "When criticized, people always say it takes a long time to turn a battleship. That's true, but while a battleship is turning, there is evidence that it's turning."

Morton and Clark County officials said that local child welfare is on the road to improvement. Problems cited in the child death review commissioned by the state, such as long wait times before calls to the local child abuse hot line are answered, are being addressed.

Nancy McLane, interim director of family services, said the hot line has been expanded from 24 lines to 48 lines. A total of 16 employees staff the hot line, which operates around the clock, seven days a week.

"We have already changed the main menu so that callers have two choices," McLane said. Regular calls are forwarded to a receptionist. Immediate reports of abuse or neglect go to the hot line.

Assistant County Manager Darryl Martin said it's important that people only call the hot line if there is an emergency to report. Those calling for nonemergencies might bump those calling in to report a real crisis.

Martin said the county has also moved to address one of the main areas of concern raised by the state's child death review report. Assistant District Attorney Vicki Monroe has been named coordinator in charge of organizing a multiagency task force to fix the disconnects that may lead to incomplete investigations of child deaths. Martin said both Sheriff Bill Young and District Attorney David Roger agreed this needed to be a priority.

"We decided to do this as soon as the report came out," Martin said. "I think we're heading in the right direction."