North Cook News

Rep. Deanne Mazzochi  (R-Westmont) recently spoke at a press conference to criticize Gov. Pritzker for failing to enact meaningful changes within the Department of Children and Family Services, and the contempt of court charges against its director, Marc Smith.

"I want to be clear: Courts do not issue contempt of court orders lightly – particularly against the director of a state agency," Mazzochi said. "To issue a contempt of court order against a director, by name, for him personally – that is a court facing extreme methods of last resort. It is unheard of that things sink so low that we have to get to this point – not just one time, but at least six times. It was bad enough that DCFS had to receive prior court orders in connection with many of these children, who are being held in impossible situations. But a contempt citation means that court orders were ignored repeatedly, chronically – that the court believed there was no other choice to get these kids some relief, and that is not acceptable," said.

Mazzochi was joined at the March 17 press conference by Reps. David Welter (R-Morris), Tom Weber (Lake Villa), and Steve Reick (R-Woodstock).

Pritzker appointed Smith to the position of acting director of the DCFS in April of 2019. The Illinois Senate confirmed Smith as DCFS director in June of 2021. Smith holds a degree in criminal justice from Illinois State University, as well as a master's in social work from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

On March 17, Smith was held in contempt of court for the seventh time in ten weeks, CBS 2 reported. In this instance, DCFS was ordered in March 2021 to find a placement for a 16-year-old boy within 20 days. Instead, the boy was held for more than a year in a shelter that couldn't adequately support his intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

DCFS has faced scrutiny in recent weeks for the deaths of two children who were supposed to be on the agency's radar, Chicago City Wire reported. Smith has been criticized over the last several months for repeatedly holding children in psychiatric care longer than necessary, rather than placing the children with foster families.

Smith was paid a salary of more than $110,000 in 2019, according to GovSalaries. The average salary of an Illinois state employee in 2019 was $66,819.