Saturday, February 26, 2000
Prosecutor looks into agency purchases
MRDD board told to make changes fast
BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — The prosecutor's office is investigating a county agency's purchase of two homes at inflated prices last year, a Warren County commissioner said in an emergency meeting Friday.
Commissioners met to spell out their expectations of the county board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities in light of the purchases and other allegations against MRDD leadership.
They were not satisfied with explanations that MRDD board members and Superintendent Charlotte Marinacci offered at a joint meeting Thursday night.
Commission President Pat South said Friday she was “very disturbed over the answers we received, or lack thereof.”
“I'm still just dumbfounded that they could have participated in the purchases,” said Commissioner Mike Kilburn, adding that the county prosecutor's office is investigating to make sure no one at MRDD benefited from the sales.
Prosecutor Tim Oliver said he could neither confirm nor deny that he's investigating.
MRDD paid $173,500 for a three-bedroom Springboro house in December, three months after Merdia LeMaster bought it for $98,500. In March, MRDD bought a four-bedroom house in Maineville for $178,500 about a month after Harry Montgomery paid $98,160 for it.
The properties will house mentally retarded adults who need limited supervision.
Mrs. Marinacci apologized for the purchases Thursday, calling them mistakes. But that satisfied neither residents nor commissioners.
The county has no oversight of MRDD, but commissioners do appoint five of the seven board members. In a letter they voted to send to the board Friday, commissioners outlined changes they want in the works by the time the two groups meet again March 16.
“These are the minimum actions that we feel are required to begin rebuilding the Warren County citizens' trust in the MRDD program,” the letter said. “... If any of you doubt that drastic measures on your part are not required at this point, we would like to ask for your resignation.”
The demands:
• Get appraisals and inspections of the two houses MRDD bought in 1999. The commissioners must approve the appraiser.
• Require board approval of payments before the super intendent makes them.
• Itemize the superintendent's salary and benefits, and compare them with those in other counties.
• Review Mrs. Marinacci's performance.
• Get MRDD board training.
• Check on the job history of Steve Heil, the No. 2 person at MRDD, ""to assure that he was not terminated or resigned under pressure from his previous employer for embezzlement or other questionable causes.”
Mr. Heil said Friday that the allegations, raised by a resident at Thursday's meeting, are untrue.
• Change the board meeting from 7:30 p.m. Fridays to a time more conducive to residents.
• End any contract with outside legal counsel.
• Reconsider MRDD's philosophy of starting new “supported living” group homes vs. helping clients remain where they are.
Mrs. Marinacci did not return messages seeking comment Friday.
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