Lawmakers call for director of children’s services in Washington to resign

Gov. Jay Inslee (center) with Ross Hunter (left of Inslee) and several youth detained in juvenile facilities in March 2020. (Department of Children Youth and Families)

At least two Washington lawmakers are demanding Department of Children, Youth and Families director Ross Hunter resign amid the agency’s decision to suspend intakes at two state juvenile detention facilities due to overcrowding.

Democratic state Rep. Mari Leavitt of University Place and Republican Rep. Travis Couture of Allyn both posted on social media Thursday calling on the director to step down. It is the latest in a series of critiques over agency leadership by Hunter, a former Democratic state lawmaker and Microsoft general manager.

Leavitt said her post was spurred by a Thursday meeting with the Washington State Partnership Council on Juvenile Justice , the state’s advisory group for juvenile justice issues, where members expressed frustration with Hunter’s “lack of leadership” and the Department of Children, Youth and Families’ “blaming other entities.” Leavitt said members were also upset that Hunter did not come to the meeting, although department representatives attended.

Earlier this month, the department said it would pause taking in sentenced youth at the state’s only two medium and maximum security facilities for juvenile offenders – Green Hill School in Chehalis and Echo Glen Children’s Center in Snoqualmie. The agency said Green Hill was over capacity, creating safety concerns.

“It became clear that there wasn’t a sense of acceptance of responsibility and accountability,” Leavitt said. “I think the frustrating part for myself and for others is, had the agency properly flagged the problem to the Legislature, we could have acted upon that.”

Leavitt expects the council to send a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee next week that will “certainly express very strong concerns” about Hunter’s leadership, although the council cannot confirm that it will ask for Hunter’s resignation.

In a statement to the Standard, a spokesperson for Inslee’s office, Jaime Smith, did not directly address the governor’s stance on Hunter’s leadership but defended the department.

“ The department faces an extreme challenge with a 60 percent surge in juveniles since 2023,” Smith said, adding that the agency is “doing their mightiest to alleviate it, including making difficult but necessary choices to protect the safety of the young people and staff at Green Hill School.”

“They are committed to working with stakeholders and legislators,” Smith said.

Hunter, in a call, directed the Standard to the Department of Children, Youth and Families’ media team for a statement and then hung up abruptly.

Department spokesperson Allison Krutsinger said in an emailed statement that Hunter was at the Tribal Opioid Summit in Spokane on Thursday and that the agency has “no formal comment on the calls for resignation that emerged yesterday.”

“Our recent actions in juvenile rehabilitation were centered on ensuring the safety of the young people we serve and the staff who serve them,” Krutsinger continued. “These were challenging decisions. There are many competing opinions about juvenile justice held by many people.”

But Republicans , Democrats and families with youth in detention blasted the Department of Children, Youth and Families for its handling of juvenile detention in Washington, including the department’s decision to send 43 young men between the ages of 21 and 25 at Green Hill to state prison. That decision was reversed after a Thurston County Superior Court judge on July 19 ordered the department to return the men to Green Hill within two weeks in a preliminary ruling that was upheld on Friday.

“This wasn’t a reflection of the 43 youth who were moved,” Leavitt said. “They were working on what they were supposed to be doing. They were going to get education…they were making improvements. This is a reflection of the system failures. I believe that DCYF has a responsibility and a role in that system failure.”

Leavitt said she was also worried about staff safety amid the overcrowding.

In a statement Friday, the Department of Children, Youth and Families said the court’s latest decision will “put the safety of residents and staff at Green Hill at risk.” The department plans to ask for a pause on the court’s ruling while it files an emergency appeal. Gordon McHenry, chair of the Council on Juvenile Justice, said the department’s decision to fight the ruling only heightens his concern about Hunter’s leadership.

“It’s critical that they work directly with the impacted young men and their families on what is best in terms of how to address the harm that’s occurred,” McHenry said, adding that the letter will at the very least contain “grave concerns” about “the harm that is occurring to youth under the care of DCYF.”

C outure said that the calls for Hunter’s resignation are starting to become bipartisan for a reason and pointed to a vote of no confidence in the director launched last year by the union representing Department of Children, Youth and Families staff.

About 1,000 of the 2,800 department staff members voted against Hunter. The vote stemmed from his “ignorance about the work we do and indifference to the issues we raise, all of which have put children and staff at risk,” according to the union.

“I think there is a continuously reducing number of people of any party in Olympia that have a lot of faith in Ross Hunter to do this job,” Couture said, adding that from a Republican perspective, Hunter looks like a “failed political appointment.”

Couture also said Hunter’s leadership has been poor across the department’s different responsibilities, including foster care, child care, child welfare and more — and that lawmakers, regardless of party, likely have a subject area important to them the agency is involved in.

“People want results for their communities. That, sometimes, is where the partisanship ends,” Couture said, “when you’re not getting the results.”

This story has been updated to reflect breaking news.