The head of Cook County's troubled juvenile detention center faced harsh criticism yesterday from county commissioners, who accused him of lying to them and failing to update them on problems at the facility.

Last year a federal judge appointed Earl Dunlap, a 40-year veteran of the juvenile justice system, to overhaul the center after an ACLU lawsuit alleged it was filthy and dangerous.

Though experts say Dunlap has made some improvements, violent incidents are still common. A Feb. 18 fight injured dozens of children and staffers.

Dunlap said 175 positions at the facility are vacant, and that understaffing is at the root of continuing problems at the 400-resident facility. He said he submitted a budget to commissioners in August that included funds for some of those positions.

"The general response that I've have gotten is that until the [county] budget was approved I wasn't in a position to move," Dunlap said at yesterday's county board meeting.

But acting HR chief Jonathan Rothstein said he has been posting positions for the juvenile center since September 2007 and only two hires have been made.

Commisioner William Beavers (D-Chicago) responded: "So in other words that man over at the juvenile detention center is lying. He's saying that he can't get anybody hired. I've had some real, real serious problems with him."

The imbroglio at the juvenile center is the latest in a series of disputes over staffing and performance as the country wrestles with budget cuts. Board President Todd Stroger is seeking to fire the county's public defender, who says the board hasn't provided the funding he needs to staff his office.

Dunlap said that a shortage of security staff and absenteeism by employees means kids at the juvenile center are regularly confined to their rooms for 8-hours stretches. Remaining staff are being forced to work large amounts of overtime, he said.

He is seeking to hire contractors to provide janitorial and security services at the facility.

"The problem now is catching up," he said. "It's May, we have over 175, nearly 200 vacancies. We've done 80 interviews recently for detention counselors of those 80s there's probably 10 or 11 that have made it through the process."

He added that the hiring process has been further delayed by bureaucracy, as well as the need to recruit good workers for a facility he says has been previously manned by unqualified patronage hires.

"Hiring is going to be a slow, complex process," he said. "I don't want to get in a position where we're hiring more bodies off the street to fill those positions."

Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-Westchester) criticized Dunlap for not communicating better with the board. "I have not seen you in this room since the budget talks so it's been a few months," he said. "I resent reading about these problems in the newspaper when all you need to do is pick up the phone and give us a call."

But Commissioner Earlene Collins (D-Chicago) praised Dunlap's efforts to deal with the staffing problem. "I know that Mr. Dunlap and his staff have been working overtime trying to finally fill those positions and protect those children. We can no longer leave our kids in a juvenile detention center that is almost 50 percent understaffed."

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