By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services is perhaps the state’s most troubled and beleaguered agency. Now, director Marc Smith has announced his resignation, effective Dec. 31.

The next director will be the second chosen by Gov. JB Pritzker.

Not even a week ago, State Rep. Steve Reick (R-Woodstock), top Republican on the House Adoption and Child Welfare Committee, called for a localization of these services. He said the job of child welfare belongs with the people who know the local children best.

Reick said in a news conference following a highly negative audit of DCFS that the problems are too deep and too wide-ranging to be blamed on a single director, and that it’s Pritzker who must take the problems seriously and guide the state toward a solution.

Of Smith’s yet-to-be-named successor, “I don’t think anybody who is not willing to take some bold moves with regard to reforming the agency and turning it into something that it is now not,” Reick said, “will have any better success at it.”

Reick added the governor’s track record is unimpressive.

In announcing Smith’s resignation, the governor’s office announced two other departures from the directors’ ranks: Theresa Eagleson at Healthcare and Family Services and Paula Basta at the Department on Aging.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]