Category Archives: Nonprofits

He’s Built an Empire, With Detained Migrant Children as the Bricks

Source: Kim Barker, Nicholas Kulish and Rebecca R. Ruiz, New York Times, December 2, 2018

The founder of Southwest Key made millions from housing migrant children. His nonprofit has stockpiled taxpayer dollars and possibly engaged in self-dealing with top executives. … Mr. Sanchez has built an empire on the back of a crisis. His organization, Southwest Key Programs, now houses more migrant children than any other in the nation. Casting himself as a social-justice warrior, he calls himself El Presidente, a title inscribed outside his office and on the government contracts that helped make him rich. Southwest Key has collected $1.7 billion in federal grants in the past decade, including $626 million in the past year alone. But as it has grown, tripling its revenue in three years, the organization has left a record of sloppy management and possible financial improprieties, according to dozens of interviews and an examination of documents. It has stockpiled tens of millions of taxpayer dollars with little government oversight and possibly engaged in self-dealing with top executives. …Southwest Key has created a web of for-profit companies — construction, maintenance, food services and even a florist — that has funneled money back to the charity through high management fees and helps it circumvent government limits on executive pay. …

Massena Hospital & Town Take Step Toward Privatization

Source: WWNY, August 21, 2018

Massena Memorial Hospital and the town of Massena have made a step toward privatizing the institution. Right now, the town owns Massena Memorial, but officials from both entities want to transfer ownership to a private, nonprofit organization. Town Supervisor Steve O’Shaughnessy said in a statement Monday that there was an agreement in principle on a plan to transfer the hospital’s assets from the town to a private entity that would run the institution. …

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Interim hospital chief executive officer says privatization her main focus
Source: Bob Beckstead, Watertown Daily Times, July 26, 2018

The interim chief executive officer at Massena Memorial Hospital says that, during the two months for which she is contracted, the focus will continue to be on a process that was first discussed in 2013 — privatization of the hospital. “My priorities right now are to continue to work with the town and hospital board to become a 501(c)(3) and complete the affiliation,” Ann Gilpin said during this week’s Massena Memorial Hospital Board of Managers meeting. Monday was Ms. Gilpin’s first Board of Managers meeting since she was named interim chief executive officer in June following the sudden resignation of former Chief Executive Officer Robert G. Wolleben. Her contract calls for her to serve as interim chief executive officer for up to two months, at a rate of $40,000 per month.

With CEO’s resignation, Massena council will push hospital to privatization, affiliation
Source: Bob Beckstead, Watertown Daily Times, June 19, 2018
 
With Monday night’s surprise resignation of Massena Memorial Hospital’s CEO, town officials will seek a contract with another hospital to run Massena Memorial Hospital and complete the privatization work already underway. Ann Gilpin was hired as interim chief executive officer following Monday’s immediate resignation by Robert G. Wolleben, but it will be a temporary position, Town Supervisor Steven D. O’Shaughnessy said. … Last month, Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne, D-Theresa, introduced a bill that would move the hospital into a public benefit corporation rather than privatizing, which would shift financial responsibility away from the town while keeping the hospital from going private. But Mr. O’Shaughnessy said that was off the table. …

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Foster family has troubling history

Source: Elise Kaplan, Albuquerque Journal, August 18, 2018

The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department has revoked the license of a not-for-profit that places high-risk children with foster families after discovering the business continued to house young girls with a family that was accused multiple times of sexual abuse and misconduct spanning nearly two decades. In the past few months, CYFD investigators found that since 2000 at least eight girls, ranging in age from 6 to 16, had accused the foster father of some sort of sexual misconduct. And, investigators say, Familyworks had been aware of the allegations and continued to contract with the family. … Law enforcement agencies are now investigating both the foster family and the not-for-profit Familyworks. …

JobsOhio will likely survive the election

Source: Jay Miller, Crain’s Cleveland Business, August 19, 2018
 
It looks likely that JobsOhio,, the private-sector economic development nonprofit created by outgoing Gov. John Kasich, will survive in 2019, regardless of whether Democrat Richard Cordray or Republican Mike DeWine becomes the next governor. Both candidates issued statements indicating that they intend to keep the state’s principal business attraction organization outside of state government. The only question may be who will get to choose the nonprofit’s next leader: the current, nine-member board, all named by Kasich, or the board that will lead the organization after the new governor fills five seats that have four-year terms that expire in July 2019? …

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Despite 34 making six figures, true amounts of JobsOhio salaries still lowballed
Source: Randy Ludlow, Columbus Dispatch, March 12, 2018
 
JobsOhio continues to under report the amounts it pays employees — including 34 workers who make at least six-figure annual salaries — in a move that could run contrary to state law. In its 2017 filings with the state, Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic development agency again reported employees’ taxable income — which does not include salary diverted to non-taxable retirement contributions and health insurance costs — instead of their gross income. State law requires the nonprofit to report “total compensation.” But its practice of reporting only taxable income serves to understate employee earnings by thousands of dollars each. …

Justices again rule JobsOhio can’t be challenged
Source: Randy Ludlow, Columbus Dispatch, August 31, 2016

The Ohio Supreme Court stood on identical ground Wednesday to reject another attempt to declare JobsOhio unconstitutional. In a 6-1 vote, the court ruled that Victoria Ullmann, a Columbus lawyer, lacked the legal right — or standing — to pursue her action seeking to declare Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic development agency as illegal. … The court threw out another challenge to JobsOhio in 2014 on grounds the parties lacked proper standing, leaving some to question then if the legality of the nonprofit could ever be questioned in the courts. Ullmann argued she had standing to sue since she, and other Ohioans, support JobsOhio through their purchase of liquor, the profits from which support the entity under its long-term lease of state’s liquor sales enterprise. … Ullmann sued Kasich, Secretary of State Jon Husted and Auditor Dave Yost, asking that the court order the Republicans to take steps to dissolve JobsOhio. A spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine, who defended the officeholders, said his office was pleased with the ruling. … JobsOhio reported earlier this year it attracted a record 23,602 new jobs and $6.7 billion in corporate investment in 2015. The agency reported revenue of slightly more than $1 billion last year, largely from the state’s liquor-sales operation, which racked up record sales last year to produce net income of $235.2 million. …

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Statewide task force set to meet on group home troubles

Source: WBRZ, August 3, 2018

Following a litany of complaints around the state, a task force has been created that will attempt to provide solutions for a problem that has cropped up due to a lack of regulations. State Senator Regina Barrow is passionate about the cause and making sure those who are the most fragile in our communities have safe and clean places to live. In May, the WBRZ Investigative Unit uncovered squalid conditions that residents of a group home were living in. Tonja Myles said her uncle was severely neglected. The coverage sparked raids by Adult Protective Services and the State Fire Marshal. Ultimately, the Prosperity House run by the Davenport family and operating on Greenwell Springs Road was closed down. However, the WBRZ Investigative Unit found the operators were using another location a stone’s throw from that house to operate again. A dust-up occurred this week when Baton Rouge Police were contacted after residents were taken from the Greenwell Springs home. …

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State investigators raid group home over deplorable living conditions
Source: WBRZ, May 30, 2018

A group home that has been operating despite its name being revoked by the Secretary of State for failing to file documents in a timely manner is under the microscope after horrible conditions were exposed by a relative who has a family member there. Wednesday, investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s office paid a visit to the house following a flood of complaints. …

Unions try to thwart $250M Southampton hospital project

Source: Aidan Gardiner, The Real Deal, June 12, 2018
 
Three unions — the Civil Service Employees Association, New York State United Teachers and the Public Employees Federation — are trying to block state legislation necessary to build a $250 million hospital on Stony Brook’s Southampton’s campus, 27 East reported. The unions don’t like the plan for operating the hospital once it’s built, saying that the majority of the employees would not be subject to civil service laws. The legislation, which needs to be voted on before the legislature closes on June 20, would allow Stony Brook to lease the property to the nonprofit Southampton Hospital Association, which would then raise the money to build the hospital. …

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State Unions Throw Up Roadblock To Key Bill Clearing The Way For New Hospital In Southampton
Source: Joseph P. Shaw, 27 East, June 8, 2018
 
State unions are working to block legislation to clear the way for Stony Brook Southampton Hospital to begin raising money for a new facility on the college campus, apparently concerned about the potential future impact on the workers they represent. … But a trio of state unions representing workers at hospitals like Stony Brook University Hospital, which is owned and operated by the State University of New York system, have formally opposed the legislation, worried that it might be an attempt to move jobs from the public sector to the private sector. At issue is the unusual arrangement at the heart of plans for the new hospital, a key to the affiliation agreement between the former Southampton Hospital and the Stony Brook system that was finalized less than a year ago, according to Mr. Chaloner. … Three state unions—the Civil Service Employees Association, New York State United Teachers and the Public Employees Federation—issued a memo strongly opposing the legislation. Their concerns, Mr. Chaloner said, are rooted in the fact that Southampton Hospital was a private entity, and its workers remain represented by a different union focusing on the private sector, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. …

Bill passes in Senate that avoids strike of group home workers

Source: Rick Lessard, Fox61, May 5, 2018
 
Senate passed a bill Saturday afternoon that will raise wages non-profit group home workers, which prevented a worker strike that was scheduled for May 7. The bill would provide a $14.75 minimum wage and a 5% increase for workers above $14.75 effective January 1, 2019.  This wage increase will cover 18,000 union and non-union workers who care for the disabled. …

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Without new workers contract, costly strike preparations loom for state
Source: Emillie Munson, CT Post, May 1, 2018
 
The state will commence costly strike preparations on Thursday if the General Assembly does not act in the next 36 hours on a new contract for workers who care for disabled people, House Democrats warned Tuesday. Some 2,400 unionized workers have threatened to strike on May 7, two days before the end of the legislative session. They are pressing for a contract that would impact thousands of employees in privatized homes and day programs for the disabled. Many of these workers have not received raises in years. Strike preparations involve hiring replacement workers and security to work while striking employees are protesting. Each day of the strike might cost the state close to $1 million, said House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, on Tuesday.

Connecticut Nonprofits Support Strike of Their Caregiver Workforce
Source: Ruth McCambridge, NonProfit Quarterly, April 30, 2018

Even as news stories proliferated over the weekend on the crisis in the caregiver workforce serving people with disabilities, in Connecticut, 2,400 employees of nine nonprofit agencies voted to authorize a strike that will begin in the early morning of May 7th. Supporting the strike are not just the agencies employing the workers but also the state’s nonprofit alliance (join yours today). … “We’ve reached a crisis of underfunding in the care our state provides people with disabilities and the workers who care for them,” SEIU 1199 spokesperson Jennifer Schneider said. “When privatized group homes and programs are shuttering and workers are forced to work 80 hours a week just to make ends meet, something has to change. …

Audit finds state lacks documented oversight of new foster care model

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Source: Allie Morris, San Antonio Express-News, April 1, 2018

A recent audit found flaws in the state’s oversight of a new foster care model that further privatizes the system and is set to roll out in Bexar County soon. In the new model, a contractor manages foster care providers within a certain region, instead of the state. The Legislature approved expansion of the model last session as a way to improve the embattled foster care system, which is facing a long-running class-action lawsuit by foster children who claim they faced abuse, constant movement and overmedication. The state audit found the Department of Family and Protective Services conducted site visits to ensure contractor ACH Child and Family Services was in compliance. But the state didn’t have documentation to show whether it verified that ACH monitored all 107 foster care providers in its seven-county area, which includes Fort Worth, or whether their oversight was effective. In one instance, state auditors reported that ACH hadn’t monitored one foster care provider for more than 18 months as children continued being placed there. …

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New Texas Law Will Create A More Private Foster Care System
Source: Becky Fogel, September 5, 2017

On Sept. 1, hundreds of new laws took effect in Texas. A number were aimed at improving the state’s child welfare system. Failure to do so was not an option. … In December 2015, after a wave of reports about Texas kids dying from neglect and abuse while in foster care, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack found the state’s foster care system was unconstitutional and deemed it “broken.” Fast forward to May, when Gov. Greg Abbott signed a number of bills to overhaul that system. The case hasn’t been dismissed. But one of the major changes to the foster care system that lawmakers approved during this year’s legislative session was already in the works before Texas was sued in 2011. It was originally called Foster Care Redesign – and now that Senate Bill 11 has taken effect, it establishes a model that increasingly privatizes the foster care system. The program will begin rolling out across the state soon. But the term “model” is a bit misleading, since the redesign is not a one-size-fits all program.

… The foster care model envisioned by Senate Bill 11 is already in use by one community provider. In fact, ACH Child and Family Services in north Texas has been at it for three years. … Over the last three years, the non-profit ACH actually lost money. Carson says they spent $6 million building up services in the region they managed. Considering this extra investment, does the state really need to privatize the foster care system to get better results, or did it just get bad results because it was underfunded for decades? …

Abbott signs Texas bills on CPS, foster care, though federal judge may have last word
Source: Robert T. Garrett, Dallas News, May 30, 2017

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed into law “landmark legislation” that he said would improve child protection in Texas. … Two of the bills he signed seek to give CPS workers more options after they remove children from abusive and neglectful homes. One begins moving toward a community-centered system of procuring foster care beds and services, using area nonprofits or local governments. By September 2019, in a total of five areas, the state would give private providers “case management” duties now performed by CPS workers. … The bill’s author, Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, and House sponsor James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, yielded to a decade-long push by foster care providers to be able to take over CPS conservatorship workers’ duties in those five regions.
… Skeptics have noted, though, that good early results in Tarrant and six nearby counties were achieved using state workers as well as the private entities. …

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Central chooses contractor to run next five years of privatized government

Source: Andrea Gallo, The Advocate, January 9, 2018

People in Central should expect another five years of their government services coming from private contractor IBTS after the company won praise Tuesday evening from both Mayor Jr. Shelton and the Central City Council. IBTS, the Institute for Building Technology and Safety, has spent the past seven years running government services in Central, where the number of city government employees can be counted on one hand. The not-for-profit, Virginia-based company was one of two that bid for the contract to run services that other City Halls hire government employees to accomplish. IBTS offered its services starting at $3.9 million annually and working up to $4.4 million in the final year of a five-year contract. … One big change Shelton said Central wants from IBTS is to beef up emergency services. The August 2016 floods exposed a weak spot in Central’s privatized system of government — the lack of personnel and resources available on a round-the-clock basis to respond to disasters, he said. … CH2M Hill provided city services before IBTS took over.

New Haven Housing Authority restructuring for private investment

Source: Mary E. O’Leary, New Haven Register, January 2, 2018
 
The Housing Authority of New Haven will start issuing layoff notices on Friday as it restructures, but said there will be opportunities to seek similar jobs under a new nonprofit company it has formed.  A total of 50 people at the authority will be affected throughout 2018, according to the authority, but it plans to hire between 40 and 45 people for similar positions in a restructuring it said is needed to ensure its financial stability. … The authority already has one affiliate, the Glendower Group, which oversees its construction projects. It now has formed a second nonprofit affiliate, 360 Property Management Co., which eventually will oversee the maintenance and security of 1,300 housing units, as well as handle leasing. … DuBois-Walton said the new jobs, which are almost one for one with the current positions, will reflect private market salaries, which will be less than those negotiated by the two American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees locals representing workers. …