Top-to-bottom look at SCOPE timely with chief’s resignation

A 19-year career as executive di- rector of SCOPE Inc. of Trumbull County has come to an inauspicious end for Janet Schweitzer, who bears ultimate responsibility for a searing report of the agency’s operation by the Ohio Department of Aging. As a result of the state’s finding that several Ohio laws and rules were broken with regard to criminal background checks on employees, about 40 senior citizens who received PASSPORT services from SCOPE were assigned to a different entity.

SCOPE operates with money from local, state and federal sources. Last year, it received $1.28 million from the taxpayers — $798,288 from the proceeds of the Trumbull County Seniors levy; $426,734 from the state; $64,256 from the federal government.

Schweitzer, who submitted her letter of resignation as executive director last Saturday to take effect Tuesday, did not attend a news conference Monday at which several board members announced the decision. But Atty. Frank Bodor and others also addressed the department of aging’s allegations and said the board would ask for a hearing so it can refute the findings.

“We believe much of the information was based on erroneous information,” Bodor said. The state review was written April 9 and released Friday by the Niles-based Area Agency on Aging 11.

After reviewing SCOPE’s employee files, the state found that criminal background checks were never performed on 22 employees who provide direct care to clients, including one who has been employed for more than six years. SCOPE also failed to secure background checks within five business days of his or her hiring for 29 other employees, including one who has worked for SCOPE for nearly eight years. The agency hired two employees with criminal records — one in 2008 and one in 2009 — to work directly with clients when the offenses should have prohibited them from bring hired.

The Ohio Department of Aging also found that one of SCOPE’s employees served four months last year in a position that required certification as a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse, even though she did not have either of those certificates.

Nonetheless, board members were effusive in their praise of the former executive director, with President Genevieve Bauman saying Schweitzer “has made a major difference in the lives of seniors in Trumbull County.”

That may well be, but the state’s findings suggest that SCOPE was poorly managed — at least with regard to following state laws and rules.

Transparency

While there has been no public response from Schweitzer to the state review, we would suggest that the refusal by those managing SCOPE to do so in the bright light of public scrutiny contributed to the shortcomings. It is a truism that transparency begets good government.

Last month, we took SCOPE management and board to task for preventing the public from being heard at its meetings, for keeping its financial records under wraps and for refusing to let citizens read the minutes of meetings.

While we acknowledge that the service provider is not governed by Ohio’s public records and open meetings laws, the secrecy surrounding its operation continues to feed the public’s suspicion about what goes on behind closed doors.

County commissioners Paul Heltzel, Dan Polivka and Frank Fuda expressed surprise when told that SCOPE had a closed-access policy.

Given what has transpired with the Ohio Department of Aging, the commissioners would do well to meet with the board of directors and come up with a new set of operational guidelines. At the top of the list: Apply the state’s public records and open meetings laws to SCOPE.

With the agency’s troubles, a top-to-bottom review is warranted.