ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050037
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LESLIE HAGER-SMITH STAFF WRITER
"Personnel first," said Lori Brody as she passed her director's report to board members of Radford's Department of Social Services.
The table she headed filled the airless room, with barely enough space for chairs and briefcases.
The meeting last month was the first time Brody faced the Radford Board of Social Services since she joined the agency Sept. 23. Brody takes over a troubled, cash- and resource-strapped department that saw its 24-year director, Suzanne Glass, fired in February. Glass filed a $250,000 federal lawsuit against the city last month seeking reinstatement.
Brody's six inquisitors - a retired arsenal supervisor, two directors of community service agencies, a Virginia Tech employee and a member of City Council - smiled politely as she pressed on.
"Caseload standards from the state indicate we need four additional eligibility workers and one additional supervisor, for a total of five. With an eligibility staff of 3.5 employees, we are only 40 percent staffed."
The agency also needs three additional clerical workers, she reported. With a clerical staff of one, they are 300 percent short. What's more, said Brody, administering state-mandated programs leaves them no recourse but to perform the work, staff or no staff.
"We see an immediate need to request from the state an additional $90,255."
Dense silence.
"She's cashing all her chips in real quick," someone chuckled nervously.
"And I want to make you aware," she continued without skipping a beat, "that if they say yes, we will be dealing with a space issue." Laughter erupted from all sides.
The moment seemed a mixture of relief as well as sheer delight at Brody's chutzpah.
Board Chairman Dennis Cropper would not comment on the pending lawsuit, but he was outspoken in his support of the agency's new director, Brody. "I've heard nothing but positive comments from the community and staff about her interactions and about how she's handling the department. I'm extremely pleased with the work she's doing," he said.
Brody moved to the area in March from Wisconsin, where she was director of an employee assistance program. The grant-funded agency offered training, counseling and management consulting to a consortium of small rural businesses. Most of her career has been spent south of the Mason-Dixon Line, however.
She was director of the Virginia chapter of the American Lung Association in Norfolk for three years. She's also served stints as area director of five weight-loss clinics in the Raleigh area and as director of a paint therapy center.
Her master's degree in counseling is from The Citadel. Her soft-spoken lilt is thoroughly Southern, as well.
Was it seen as a strength that her professional experience comes primarily from outside government? "I think it was certainly a consideration," Cropper said. "Her breadth of experience - managerial, supervisory and program administration - all added up to make her well qualified."
Brody acknowledges that government work "is a hugely different culture." Her office receives not only funds but strict guidelines from all levels of government. "DSS is one of the most highly regulated agencies," she said. "There is some room for local interpretation but not a great deal." Nonetheless, Brody has already brought considerable creativity to bear on the challenges faced by her office.
Brody's first management crisis was discovering she had no computer. Now she arrives in the office at 7 a.m. to get an hour and a half of work time on the office manager's 486 before client traffic begins. With no funds to buy a computer, she scoured the region until she located another DSS office that promised to loan her one.
The office's 12 employees rely on an '89 Chevy Corsica and an '87 Ford Tempo to visit local clients and to attend out-of-district meetings. On a recent trip to Abingdon for training, the Corsica stalled four times in a five-mile stretch. Staff members no longer rely on either for long-distance travel; they use their personal cars instead.
To maximize the use of space and equipment, Brody has introduced flexible scheduling between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. After polling clients, employees and other agencies, she also reduced the hours that the office is open to the public to the standard eight. This will allow each worker at least 45 minutes in a day for lunch, for personal time, or for uninterrupted work - a "sanity saving" device, in Brody's words.
Not surprisingly, Brody marshals as much gusto for her personal life as her professional one. She and husband Patrick, a physical therapist at Richfield Retirement Community, picked Roanoke from a short list of five cities in which they were interested. The competition was stiff: Knoxville, Asheville, Charlottesville and State College, Pa.
Their new home had to be in the Appalachians, since both are avid outdoors people. Moreover, they wanted the culture of an urban setting but with a minimum of crime and traffic. They found it in Roanoke.
The couple is rehabbing a 1928 duplex in Southwest Roanoke. They plan to return it to its original single-family design, relying heavily on Patrick's carpentry skills. His love of woodworking lends itself to another joint undertaking. The two are building a wooden canoe and hope to soon be using it on hiking and camping get-aways.
Brody may be thankful to paddle and paint her weekends away in the months ahead.
Since 1989, the department has experienced 250 percent greater staff turnover than other agencies of similar size in the area. In its termination letter to Brody's predecessor, the board cited concerns from staff members, complaints from regional and state offices regarding adherence to policies and procedures, and the agency's poor image in the human services community.
Food Stamp Corrective Action sanctions were imposed by the federal government starting Oct. 1, for past violations of policy and procedure. Brody's own estimate is that returning the office to compliance will require months of effort. (Radford isn't alone in this problem; 43 other Virginia localities had high rates of food-stamp program errors, making Virginia No. 1 in the mid-Atlantic region for such violations, according to the state.)
But in the judgment of Councilman Dave Worrell, also a Board of Social Services member, "She's extremely capable and I think she's up to the job."
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Lori Brody takes over a troubled, cash-by CNBand resource-strapped social services department that saw its
24-year director, Suzanne Glass, fired in February. color.