Employee Records Hard to Come by at Mysterious State Child Care Agency

By TOM GANTERT | June 5, 2010

The Michigan Home Based Child Care Council (MHBCCC), a controversial government agency that the legislature attempted to defund but was kept alive by the Michigan Department of Human Services, said in a June 2 letter it doesn't have a job description for its $80,000 executive director position and doesn't track the hours of its top executive.

But once contacted by Michigan Capitol Confidential, MHBCCC Executive Director D. Elizabeth Jordan stated Saturday in an e-mail the agency would provide a job description. Jordan's e-mail said there were no time sheets.

The government agency replied to a Freedom Of Information Act request by the Mackinac Center For Public Policy in a June 2 letter. It stated:

"Executive Director Time Sheets or other records which demonstrate hours spent on the job on MHBCCC-related business and which explain the fulfillment of the aforementioned job description and requirements. Please be advised that no such documents exist."

Jordan signed the June 2 letter that stated there were no documents on her job. Jordan's salary is $80,000 a year.

The MHBCC was created by the Michigan Department of Human Services and Mott Community College to act as a so-called employer of the state's 40,000 home-based child care providers and business owners. The MHBCCC signed a contract with a government employee union called Child Care Providers Together Michigan that allows the MHBCCC to collect union dues from the home-based workers and employers.

Earlier this year, the state legislature cut the funding for the MHBCCC but the Department of Human Services kept it alive by find other funds within its budget.FULL STORY