A child naps in February at the Child Haven facility for abused and neglected children in Las Vegas. One of the goals of the county is to reduce crowding at Child Haven. Photos by Isaac Brekken/Review-Journal. Department of Family Services Director Tom Morton lays out a plan Tuesday to the Clark County Commission to address the problems of the county's child welfare agency.

Clark County's government Tuesday unveiled the first phase of a plan for overhauling its troubled child welfare agency, hoping to mend a system that faces the loss of federal funding for inadequately protecting endangered children.

The plan designed by new Department of Family Services Director Tom Morton calls for 150 more social workers, graveyard shifts for Child Protective Services workers, reduction of population at the crowded Child Haven facility and expanded recruitment of foster care families.

Full implementation of Morton's plan would cost at least $25 million, officials said, plus funding for hiring the new social workers to expand the agency's staff to about 650.

County commissioners lavished praise on Morton's ideas but said talk is cheap when it comes to fixing a broken system linked to four child deaths last month.

"We're failing kids, and we've got to do something about it now," Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said after Morton's presentation, drawing applause from dozens of off-duty social workers employed at the understaffed agency.

"We can have all the recommendations. The problem I have is that it's all talk," she said. "It's up to this commission to put our money where their mouth is." Atkinson Gates said the board should move quickly to implement Morton's plan and schedule a discussion at its next meeting in two weeks to explore how to find the money to hire more Family Services staff.

County Manager Virginia Valentine told commissioners that staff would return in two weeks with a funding analysis, but she warned them that the county budget is not unlimited and that an expansion of one agency will come with costs.

"It will involve taking money from other programs," she said.

Morton's plan, called "Safe Futures," was presented to commissioners Tuesday in an overview of strategies he suggests to improve child welfare, without detailed information of how many staff members will go where or a breakdown of the expected $25 million to $30 million price tag.

But he is expected to return in two weeks with some specific proposals of staff additions, county spokesman Gina Olivares said.

Parts of the plan indicate the first place Morton wants to focus on is expanding staff at Child Protective Services. Plans are to add a graveyard shift so that all social workers' caseloads can be reduced from an average 39 cases to 22 cases, ensuring that they spend more time overseeing each child.

Morton told commissioners well-trained CPS workers, not police officers, should be making the decision whether a possibly abused or neglected child should be removed from a home.

But because CPS employees work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., police on the graveyard shift are left with two choices when they think children could be in danger: leave them in the home, or take them to the already crowded Child Haven, the county's temporary shelter for maltreated children.

Now, when a child comes in after 5 p.m., it means an "automatic admission to Child Haven," he said.

Instead, there should be adequate CPS staff for workers to respond 24 hours a day. And, after determining a child is possibly endangered, after-hours CPS workers should be evaluating whether a way exists to keep the child in the home, find placement with a relative or determine whether a county-licensed foster family can take them in temporarily.

Morton recommended increasing foster family recruitment staff. He aims to increase the number of available homes where abused children can stay briefly before being reunited with a parent by 450, a tripling of what is available.

The other goals he outlined Tuesday included the following:

• Eliminating placement of children under 6 at Child Haven.

• Strengthening training for all staff members.

• Starting a tiered response plan for the Child Abuse Hotline that prioritizes abuse reports.

• Revising all child welfare policies to ensure they reflect best practices in abuse and neglect investigation.

Commissioners hope the plan will improve child safety quickly and stanch criticism of the agency from state legislators, community activists and the federal government.

Four children who have had contact with the system or have been in county custody died in the first two weeks of August, including a 15-month-old boy who stopped breathing at Child Haven.

The agency is the defendant in an August lawsuit filed by the Oakland, Calif.-based National Center for Youth Law. The lawsuit seeks improvements in a system the group called "a catastrophe" that "destroys" endangered children rather than nurturing them.

Though the county oversees daily administration of the child welfare system in Southern Nevada, the state is charged with distributing federal money and making sure counties' practices mesh with federal guidelines.

Recently, the state received a letter from U.S. child welfare officials that said Clark County's problems should be of "grave concern" to them.

Morton and state officials are scheduled this morning to discuss with a legislative child welfare subcommittee how the agency is implementing a federal corrective action plan in Clark County.

"The feds are not happy," Nevada state Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden told commissioners. "They are threatening pulling federal funds."

After Morton's presentation, much of the rest of hearing saw commissioners assuring audience members and viewers of the televised meeting that they, too, are concerned about an issue that has outraged the public.

Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald agreed with Atkinson Gates' call for quick action and said that with the seriousness of the problem, Morton's proposals should not stay proposals very long.

"We don't want analysis paralysis," she said, calling for more staff immediately to reduce social worker caseloads that are double to triple the national average. Fixing agency-wide problems "starts at the staffing level."

Commission Chairman Rory Reid said the county was committed to more than lip service when it comes to keeping children safe.

"We're at the talk stage. We're getting to the money stage where it's going to be a little harder," he said. "There is no priority more important today for this government than these children."