MRDD dispute leads to changes on ballot

The board had a $909
dinner check at a mandatory training session.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — The Columbiana County commissioners will change the way they put some tax issues on the ballot in the wake of questions about finances at the county Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

Jim Hoppel, the chairman of the commissioners, said Monday the commissioners will now have agencies present certified information on their finances when asking for new levies.

Some agencies, like the MRDD, must go through the commissioners to get on the ballot.

The commissioners don’t officially endorse levies for the outside agencies, and won’t, Hoppel added.

The MRDD board got voter approval of a levy increase in early 2007 that will bring in $1 million more a year.

Voters in November turned down a 2.5-mill levy that would bring in $3.3 million a year. At the request of William Devon, the MRDD superintendent and fiscal officer, the commissioners in December put that failed issue back on this year’s primary.

Devon said that without the 2.5-mill levy, the MRDD would have to close the Robert Bycroft School for youths.

The Vindicator learned, however, the MRDD board ended 2007 with $6.3 million in its coffers, which is about half of its annual spending. Most governmental agencies have much smaller carry-over balances.

MRDD has an additional $3 million in a consortium it says is to provide the local share to federal funds to care for clients after their parents pass away.

Devon previously has said the MRDD’s estimate of year-end operating revenue was smaller.

He also told local school districts that they may either have to care for the youths at the local school districts, or pay the MRDD some costs for aid to youths if they remain at Bycroft.

John Dilling, the superintendent at the Crestview School District, said, “that’s on hold” in light of the MRDD board’s meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday to discuss removing the levy from the ballot.

In the meantime, the board is defending its spending, including accumulating a hefty dinner bill at its mandatory annual training for board members.

By state law, board members have to have four hours of training each year.

The session Nov. 28 included dinner for 20 at the Spread Eagle Tavern in Hanoverton at a cost of $909. That included the $151 tip.

People dined on prime rib, Atlantic salmon and caramel pork, along with appetizers and desserts.

Steve Kline, a spokesman for the MRDD, defended the practice, saying it has been done for years.

None of the people at the meeting were spouses of the board members, Kline said.

The MRDD board had approved the training session at its October meeting at a cost not to exceed $1,000.

Tom Snow, the MRDD board president, did not return a call for information.

When asked why the board, which was supposedly financially strapped, didn’t have the training meeting at its offices at less cost, Kline said the dinner was in return for the unpaid service of the board members.

County Auditor Nancy Milliken questioned the high cost of the dinner. County Prosecutor Robert Herron, and the state auditor’s office, told her that under state law, she had no choice but to pay it.

Kline also defended the board’s approving $2,800 payments to both the Beaver Local Touchdown Club and the Beaver Local Junior Class Parents in August 2006.

One of Devon’s children was involved in the junior class organization at the time, and Chris Thaler, then the vice president of the touchdown club, works at MRDD.

The junior class cleaned the walls and windows in seven classrooms, a lounge, and a “spare room” at a cost of $311 per room.

The touchdown club cleaned seven classrooms at the Bycroft school at a cost of $400 per room.

Kline said Devon told the board about the connections and the board approved the spending. Kline added the next bidder for the cleaning was from a company that would do the work for $14,000.

The adults in the MRDD program — called clients — could not have done the work as well, Kline added.

The MRDD board also has said it has both cut and added workers.

According to Milliken, her office issued 185 worker paychecks for MRDD at the end of both 2006 and 2007.

Kline said the MRDD had 182 full- and part-time workers in 2006, and 177 full- and part-time workers in 2007.

Kline said the number of employees may differ because of the dates of the hiring or departure of workers.

wilkinson@vindy.com