Readers Write: Guardians ad litem, caucus memories, developments in Duluth and Grand Marais

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Assistant Dodge County Attorney Crysta Parkin, Guardian ad Litem Board chair, opines that just because volunteers are able to spend hours with kids doesn’t mean that’s always the right thing to do (“Children may lose volunteer advocates,” Jan. 14). “The role of a guardian is to go in and conduct an independent investigation ... .”

As a 24-year volunteer Hennepin County guardian ad litem, I know from personal experience that spending hours with family and child does not, as Parkin suggests, constitute a “personal, mentoring, ‘big brother, big sister role.’” It is, instead, the amount of time needed to carry out a thorough, independent (of the social services system) investigation and bring facts to the court, not the kind of superficial opinion generated by the “least intrusive investigation” that might be generated by a paid guardian ad litem juggling 20-30 cases a month.

Further, Hennepin County judges appreciated our independent, fact-based recommendations obtained by in-depth investigations made possible by hours spent with child, family, extended family, teachers, preachers and other collateral influences in a child’s life. To dismiss the time volunteers can spend on their one to three cases a month as a “big brother, big sister role” is to completely misunderstand what a fact-based investigation entails. Let the lawyers do their lawyering and the volunteers do their thorough investigating.

Elaine Frankowski, Minneapolis

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In the 27 years I spent as a volunteer GAL I was asked numerous times to switch over to taking a paid position. I declined each and every time. My rationale was that I could better serve the children I was advocating for by taking fewer cases and devoting the time and energy to each case that it deserved.

The article stated that paid GALs “juggle an average of 24 cases at a time.” If a person worked a 40-hour workweek that would mean spending approximately 1.7 hours per week on each case.

The president of the board of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) was quoted in the article as questioning whether those visits are “basically a drive by, or is it a quality visit?”

That is today — and always has been — my point.

Aside from the visits with the child, the GAL attends court hearings, often attends school meetings involving the child, confers with other professionals in the child’s life (mental health professionals, social workers, etc.). I truly believe all of this cannot be done by paid staff alone.

Do it for the sake of the many Minnesota children who are involved in these cases mostly through no fault of their own.

Patricia Ann Smrekar, Minneapolis

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I read with interest the article in Sunday’s paper about eliminating volunteers as guardians ad litem in juvenile court proceedings. I think this is a terrible idea.

Having practiced law in the juvenile courts for over 40 years, I think it is clear that using dedicated volunteers can be critical to a child’s life when he/she is caught in the morass of the court system. During my career I clerked in juvenile court, spent four years as the supervisor of the juvenile division of the Public Defender’s Office, organized the first group of attorneys to represent GALs, and spent several years as a member of the first State GAL Board organizing the first involvement of the state in running these programs. I can tell you several things are true. First, volunteers from the community bring dedication, empathy and unbridled commitment to the children involved. Second, as usual, it did not take long for the article to put cost effectiveness ahead of children’s needs. And third, making all GALs just another underfunded part of the bureaucracy, as always, puts children’s actual needs and thoughts and fears at the bottom of the list of commitments by the “system.”

Wright Walling, Edina

Sunday’s articles on the Iowa caucuses and Paul Wellstone’s campaign bus reminded me of my first caucus (”Green bus now capsule of politics, grief,” Jan. 14). In the mid-1980s I arrived in Northfield as a transplant from the East Coast. I had never heard of caucuses, and the 1988 caucus was coming up. My wife at the time, who had grown up in Northfield, said we had to go, this is how you vote in Minnesota.

On caucus night, I don’t remember much about the issues being debated, but I do remember after the presentations Paul Wellstone raced around the hall counting heads to organize and then reorganize people into various interest groups. Not enough support here, find another issue, he would say to a group of three or four people before rushing off to another group. In the end, though, we had settled on a presidential candidate and the important issues we wanted the state DFL to consider. To me it was chaos; there’s no way something like this would work in my hometown near Philadelphia.

A couple of years later, now living in Edina, I bought a Wellstone Senate campaign sign which turned out to be the lone Wellstone sign in the neighborhood. The day after the election I was out raking leaves. A neighbor walking his dog and apparently perturbed with the results said, “The election was yesterday, you need to take down that Wellstone sign now!”

Over years I followed Wellstone’s Senate career closely and was saddened by his death in 2002. He inspired generations of supporters to progressive causes and his legacy lives on. The caucus process showed me that your participation and one vote are important. It also showed me that people can debate fairly and respect other viewpoints.

Roy Forsstrom, Edina

What is this world coming to? One day I read an article that a Cargill family member is buying up properties on Park Point in Duluth at bloated prices, razing houses and causing consternation for the residents (”Big-name buyer rattles Park Point neighborhood in Duluth,” Jan. 14). Then I read that a 30,000-square-foot development may be plopped dead-center in the waterfront area of Grand Marais (”Sensible development in Grand Marais,” editorial, Jan. 16). Some places are sacred! For 50 years we have made trips to Duluth and Grand Marais, a welcome interlude from the soybean and cornfields of southern Minnesota. Like so many others, I want things to stay the way of my memories.

My sympathies to the Park Point residents. Keep fighting for preservation of your unique area! And I hope that Grand Marais residents can have an event center — just not on the waterfront.

Cynthia Wesley, Wells, Minn.

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Just as the Cargill corporation has transformed large sections of the planet in its century and a half of growth, so too we should expect the attempts of Kathy Cargill to transform Park Point to continue.