Board Rehires Social Worker Fired for Falsifying Records

The Santa Clara County Personnel Board agreed Friday to rehire a social worker placed on paid administrative leave for two years and fired last December for falsifying records of visiting foster care families, according to the county counsel’s office.

The board adopted findings reinstating Viviana Venegas as a social worker after she was terminated by the Department of Family and Children’s Services last Dec. 27, county litigation fellow Marlene Dehlinger said.

The board unanimously determined that Venegas, while a case worker for foster parents and children, had violated more than a dozen state and county rules and policies, according to the county counsel’s office. But while acknowledging her actions were “a serious violation” of the rules, the board voted 3-2 to allow her back at a Social Worker I classification, down from her previous level of Social Worker III, with no back pay since she was fired by children’s services last December.

Venegas was placed on paid administrative leave on Dec. 15, 2011 by her former supervisor at child services, Christine Martinez, who then investigated Venegas’ work history with the agency Venegas still received her salary until she was fired Dec. 27, according to board officials.

Deputy County Executive Luke Leung said that it is not unusual for public employees to remain on paid leave during disciplinary investigations and appeals because under state law, such workers cannot have their “property rights” or salary removed without due process of law.

To terminate an employee, the county has to first hold a Skelly hearing, an internal administrative proceeding involving officials not involved in the department the employee had worked in, Leung said. If the Skelly hearing were to uphold the termination, the employee still has the right to appeal their case to the county personnel board, he said.

The Service Employees International Union Local 521 in San Jose assisted Venegas during the Shelly hearing and her successful termination appeal with the personnel board, according to the board’s 216-page file on her case.

In a letter sent on Dec. 27, the SEIU notified the board that the union was appealing Venegas’ termination, describing it as “without cause.”

Martinez started investigating Venegas after a client complained in 2011 that the minor and her foster parent “never saw the social worker” and she did not return phone calls, according to the board’s report.

Martinez concluded that Venegas failed to visit 14 children placed in foster care for up to five months in 2011, putting their safety and well being at risk, according to the board.

The employee also claimed to have made five contacts with foster children and parents in 2011 that were “falsified” and not corroborated by the juveniles or parents, according to Martinez.

Larry Merkur, program manager for children’s services, in a letter to Venegas in 2013, wrote that he agreed with Martinez that Venegas failed to see clients, “fabricated contacts” with foster care clients, wrote false information on office sign-out logs and made false statements to Martinez.

Merkur also stated that he agreed that she should be fired.

In her defense, Venegas, in a statement included in the board’s file, apologized for her actions but related that she had a stormy working relationship with Martinez, whom she claimed was unprofessional, moody and cruel to her and embarrassed her by making negative comments about her co-workers.

Venegas said she was placed on paid leave by Martinez after a dispute about overtime pay Venegas put in for while Martinez was on vacation.

--Bay City News