Marsha Simms, president of the Foster Care and Adoption Association of Nevada, hands out information at a gathering of the group at UNLV's Boyd School of Law on Saturday. Political candidates were invited to address the group that acts as a support network for 1,200 adoptive and foster parents. Photo by John Locher.

The crisis affecting Clark County's foster parents isn't necessarily the same one that public officials cite.

While new leadership in Clark County Family Services emphasizes the critical need to expand its foster parent pool by up to 500 people, individuals who already are licensed wonder why they have empty beds.

One couple, who asked that their names not be printed, has room for five children. But no one from the county agency has responded to their calls volunteering to help ease the overflow at Child Haven, the county's emergency shelter for abused and neglected children.

"We're licensed shelter care," said the Las Vegas husband and wife, who have been foster parents for more than 20 years.

In the past, Clark County spokeswoman Gina Olivares has said that part of the problem is having a shortage of foster parents licensed in high-need areas -- medically fragile children, special-needs children and large sibling groups are hard to place.

Foster parent Cecelia Dorsey said that she's not convinced that's the only issue. Earlier this summer, Dorsey was so troubled that infants were housed at area hospitals because Family Services had no place for them that she called Family Services and asked whether there was a way to fast-track a shelter-care license for her. Since she's a licensed foster parent in good standing, Dorsey thought it wouldn't be too complicated to obtain a second license.

Apparently, it is.

"They say they need foster homes, but we have foster homes that are not being used," Dorsey said. "There's just all this red tape. If you're in the middle of a crisis, don't you think you'd want to cut through the red tape?"

Those were just a few of the stories that poured out of foster parents on Saturday, during a legislative advocacy conference organized by the nonprofit Foster Care and Adoption Association of Nevada. More than 50 people came together at UNLV's Boyd School of Law to question the handful of political candidates and incumbents who responded to the group's invitation to take a stand on the local, state and federal issues surrounding foster care.

The turnout disappointed Marsha Simms, president of the group that acts as a support network for 1,200 adoptive and foster parents.

"We did invite all the legislative candidates who are running for office," Simms said. About 10 candidates called with regrets. The rest didn't respond.

"I think they aren't concerned enough to talk to us," Simms said.

Among the candidates who attended were Undersheriff Doug Gillespie, who's running for sheriff, and Robert Beers, a Republican candidate for Assembly District 21. Four judicial candidates also participated: Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker, District judge candidate Elizabeth Halverson, Family Court judge candidate William Potter, and North Las Vegas justice of the peace candidate Chris Lee.

"This is an important issue," Beers said. "Child Haven is a disgrace. ... They're running the foster-care system the same way an HMO runs its medical benefits program."

The forum was moderated by political pundit Jon Ralston.

Gillespie told the group that Child Haven and the juvenile justice system are afflicted by the same problem that swamps all valley services: growth. "This is one aspect where the community has to change its priorities on the way tax dollars are spent and utilized," Gillespie said.

Tom Morton, the new Family Services director, is working to fix long-standing departmental problems, ranging from the under-reporting of abuse-related child deaths to a chilly agency culture that many foster parents said is intended to intimidate them.

Throughout the forum, individuals spoke of their fear of reprisals should they disagree with a caseworker, make too many demands or publicly complain about flaws in the system.

Pauline Kennedy, who has been a foster parent for 35 years, said one of her concerns is the lack of medical information given to foster parents. Last year, she cared for an infant that died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Before that, Kennedy said she was given no medical background on the child except that he was born exposed to drugs.

That's not unusual, Kennedy said.

There has to be a way to make sure medical files follow a child, so that a complete history is available to caregivers, she said, but those kinds of discussions are difficult to have when foster parents are shut out of the system.

"We don't want to punish the county," Kennedy said. "If we can't help them, who can?"

Morton has agreed to meet with representatives of the Foster Care and Adoption Association of Nevada later this week.