http://166.70.44.66/2004/Jun/06302004/utah/179996.aspNew 'parent czar' to begin work next week
By Jacob Santini
The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah's -- and maybe the nation's -- first state-funded defender of parental rights has been hired and will take office next week.
Alicia Davis was selected from 38 applicants to be the new director of the Office of Parental Defense, a post created earlier this year by lawmakers critical of the way the state manages child welfare cases.
She will start Tuesday.
A 1999 graduate of the University of Utah law school, Davis became a publicly paid parental defender for juvenile court in Salt Lake County. After about a year, Davis shifted to defend juvenile delinquents. She then went to work for the administrative office that oversees the state's juvenile courts, eventually becoming an assistant administrator.
"I had the opportunity to experience the system from a lot of different perspectives," Davis said. "That really helps."
Lawmakers appropriated $239,000 for each of the next two years for the office, a portion of which will pay Davis' salary and that of an administrative assistant.
Lawmakers set three goals for the office: create standards for attorneys practicing parental defense; provide training for those attorneys; and create and manage contracts with local counties that are mandated to provide defense for indigent parents accused of child abuse and neglect.
Complaining that the state's child welfare system is stacked against parents, lawmakers passed 15 child welfare bills this year, including the measure that created the Office of Parental Defense. Parental rights advocates argue it will take a strong advocate to restore balance.
"If we have the right person in the job it will improve the system," said Sandra Lucas, the executive director for the Utah chapter of the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights.
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