BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Legal services agency PRO Seniors is a step away from losing its contract to advocate for nursing home residents throughout Southwestern Ohio.
The Ohio Department of Aging put PRO Seniors on probation following an eight-month audit of the agency's books. The department said it could not track paperwork for client cases or attorneys' time, raising "questions as to the reliability of data reported by PRO Seniors."
A letter from Beverley Laubert, chief of the Elder Rights Unit for the Department of Aging, informed Cincinnati-based PRO Seniors of its probationary status Friday and also demanded the agency return $2,288.23 in state funding that the audit could not account for. The letter was made public Monday.
Randy Leffler, a department spokesman, said this is the first agency statewide to be placed on probation in roughly 10 years of the nursing home ombudsman program. "We view this as a serious matter," he said.
PRO Seniors offers legal counseling through a statewide hot line, ombudsman advocacy for nursing homes residents, and community and professional education in elder law.
Losing the ombudsman program would cost PRO Seniors $380,000 of its $948,000 budget.
PRO Seniors said the audit is dealing with old problems that have been corrected since a new director, Garlinn Story, took over in October. Gregory French, who had held the job for 13 years, resigned after allegations that the agency was misspending tax dollars. The Department of Aging audit examined from October 1994 through June 1997.
"The organization is under new management whose top priority has been to improve the management and administrative procedures of this agency," said Peter Cassady, vice president of PRO Seniors' board. "I'd like to point out there is no allegation of misuse of funds," he added.
A Hamilton County grand jury launched an investigation of the agency's spending last summer. The county prosecutor would not comment Monday on whether the investigation is still pending. Said Mr. Cassady, "I wish I knew."
The Department of Aging is requiring a written plan to correct record-keeping problems at PRO Seniors.
Mr. Leffler seemed to have some hope that PRO Seniors would be able to prove itself by the end of the probation period, March 31. "We feel PRO Seniors has been putting some measures in place that will hopefully get them back on their feet," he said.
Agency funding was cut by more than $600,000 last year when Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes charged that PRO Seniors was researching legal reforms and other advocacy positions while billing taxpayers for services to individual clients. The funding had come from the elderly services property tax levy.
Mr. Rhodes charged that at least $70,512 in local tax money was misspent. His investigation sparked the grand jury probe and Department of Aging special audit.
