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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

Committee Set to Add Transparency at DCS

Lawmakers say a new Department of Child Services oversight committee will help increase the agency’s transparency by developing a greater sense of collaboration between the legislature and DCS.

The DCS Oversight Committee was created last legislative session as part of a larger Commission on Improving the Status of Children.

Middlebury Republican Senator Carlin Yoder, who chairs the committee, says it was created because of struggles DCS went through the last several years.

“I would say there was a lack of transparency there,” Yoder said. “I think it got overloaded at the top with too much power placed at the director position back in the Judge Payne days.”

While legislative committees typically produce legislation for the following sessions, Evansville Democratic Representative Gail Riecken says that won’t necessarily be the case with the DCS committee.

“But I think every intention is that we’d like to work through those problems around the table instead of in the state legislature,” Riecken said.

The committee meets for the first time Wednesday.  Yoder and Riecken say the meeting will give lawmakers an opportunity to get to know new DCS Director Mary Beth Bonaventura and receive an update on how new DCS funds allocated by the legislature are being used.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.