How The Florida DCF Wastes Taxpayers Money

by Ray Fernandez

The DCF Can Not/Should Not Allow itself to be used as a Weapon for Intimidation

Because we have chosen to speak out against incidents of neglect and abuse against our elders , our detractors continually call the Florida Department of Children and Families and use the agency in what has become a continual policy of harassment.

In a letter from Robert A. Butterworth as acting secretary for the Florida DCF dated July 16 2007 he states,"I assure you that any allegation reported to the Florida Abuse Hotline is thoroughly investigated and appropriate action is taken. However if an additional report is received regarding the same allegations, the duplicate report is not re-investigated." Robert A Butterworth, Secretary of Florida Division of Children and Families

Every few months the same people call in complaints against us and we have been investigated six (6) times and every time we have been exonorated and the complaints are deemed unfounded, according to Secretary Buttersworth the same complaint is not to be investigated twice . We have been investigated over and over 'ad naseum'.

The need to investigate the same complaint against the same people is a waste of tax payers funds, furthermore it leads people to believe that if the agency has to investigate the same complaint against the same people 6x that they are incompetent, yet the investigators that have investigated us, Scotty Blevins, Melanie Miller and others were quite competent and left no stone un turned.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind the DCF people behind what can only be construed as a campaign of harrasment that there are laws in the books against allowing DCF to be used as a weapon for personal benefit by a reporting person for personal reasons.

Florida Statutes 415.102 states :(9) "False report" means a report of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult to the central abuse hot line which is not true and is maliciously made for the purpose of:(a) Harassing, embarrassing, or harming another person;(b) Personal financial gain for the reporting person;(c) Acquiring custody of a vulnerable adult; or(d) Personal benefit for the reporting person in any other private dispute involving a vulnerable adult.