LINCOLN — A special legislative committee charged with investigating Nebraska's contract for private management of Omaha-area child welfare cases met Thursday to get started on its task. State Sen. John Arch of La Vista, who will chair the committee, laid out a work plan for the summer and fall, leading up to production of a report by the committee's Dec. 15 deadline.

The plan includes a public hearing in Omaha, surveys of key groups of people and questioning of state officials and leaders with St. Francis Ministries, the Kansas-based nonprofit that holds the contract to manage the cases of abused and neglected children in Douglas and Sarpy Counties. Arch said the committee will have access to thousands of pages of documents about the contract and how it was bid. Some of the material will come from Tom Kenney, an attorney who sued the state on behalf of PromiseShip, the Omaha-based nonprofit that held the previous state contract and came in second in the state's bidding process.

Arch said the committee will hire Kenney and a second attorney to help with its work. The committee has the power to issue subpoenas, if approved by the Legislature's Executive Board.

"We want to have a very thorough, very deliberate process," he said.

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