Friday, February 11, 2000
MRDD overpaid for two houses, county says
Agent to review future purchases
BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — A Warren County agency bought two houses last year from sellers who in each case had paid at least $75,000 less weeks earlier.
The Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities paid $173,500 for a three-bedroom Springboro house in December.
The seller, Merdia LeMaster, had bought the house for $98,500 in September, and the assessed value of the house — which tends to be less than the true market value — is $87,230, according to county tax records.
“We felt it was a fair market price at the time for what we needed,” MRDD Superintendent Charlotte Marinacci said of the purchase price. She said she did not check the house's sale history.
In a statement Thursday, MRDD said: “The sellers of the home have no known relationship with the county board of MRDD and/or any of its employees.”
MRDD's houses, used by people with disabilities whose families can no longer care for them, must meet specific criteria, Dr. Marinacci said. They must be one-story and able to be made handicap-accessible.
Also, they must have separate living and family rooms and an enclosed yard.
MRDD's other 1999 purchase was a four-bedroom house in Maineville in March. The agency paid Harry Montgomery $178,500 about a month after Mr. Montgomery bought it for $98,160. Its assessed value is $93,830.
County officials are concerned.
“I don't know how this happened,” Commissioner Pat South said Thursday of the Springboro house purchase.
Said County Administrator Bob Price: “I did not get an adequate reason for why they spent so much over and above what appeared to be the market value.”
However, the county has no control over MRDD except that commissioners appoint a majority of its board members.
The MRDD board, which last February authorized Dr. Marinacci to buy two homes for a maximum of $180,000 each, will look into the purchases, board President Darrell Hunt said Thursday.
Also, MRDD has hired a real estate agent to review its properties and help with future purchases, Dr. Marinacci said.
One concern of Mrs. South, in addition to the price issue, is that the prosecutor's office was not shown the contract for the Springboro house until after MRDD had signed it.
It was unclear late Thursday at what point the prosecutor reviewed the contract for the Maineville house.
Normally, the prosecutor's office reviews all county contracts for property before they are signed, Mrs. South said.
MRDD has a waiting list of about 200 people who need “supported living,” in which they live on their own with limited supervision, Dr. Marinacci said.
The agency owns 11 homes and rents many more homes and apartments, she said.
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