PARENTS’ PUSH FOR AGENCY AUDIT DENIED
Parents of kids with developmental ills wanted their benefits agency looked at.
Arapahoe County officials have denied a request from parents of adult children with developmental disabilities for an audit of the community agency that manages their benefit money.
Arapahoe County officials have denied a request from parents of adult children with developmental disabilities for an audit of the community agency that manages their benefit money.
The group of parents wants the county to hire an auditor to review about $98 million in mill levy funds from Arapahoe County taxpayers to Developmental Pathways since 2002.
Pathways, one of 20 communitycentered boards for Colorado’s disabled community, determines who is eligible for state and federal Medicaid dollars as well as the county mill levy funds. A business Pathways created employs therapists and caregivers who are sent to families’ homes.
The county commissioner who responded this week to the families’ June request is also a voting member of the Pathways board.
“Money seems to be being spent according to the law and the resolution that was passed in Arapahoe County,” Commissioner Nancy Sharpe told The Denver Post. “In terms of spending taxpayer dollars (to hire an auditor), we are not seeing a reason for that at this point.”
Sharpe and a commissioner from Douglas County sit on the board for Pathways, which serves people with disabilities in both counties and the city of Aurora.
Sharpe said her dual role is not a conflict because she has “no financial interest” in Developmental Pathways. The five Arapahoe County commissioners rotate serving on community boards for mental health organizations, chambers of commerce and economic development agencies. But the families disagree. “Who is going to want to audit their own decisions?” said Denver Fox, whose son has intellectual and developmental disabilities. “We have claimed conflict of interest for years, but they deny that.”
There has never been a county audit of the mill levy funds. Instead, county commissioners rely on financial statements and an annual review done by an auditor hired by Pathways. The county does not have an auditor so commissioners would have to hire an independent auditor to meet the families’ request.
Fox, a leader with Parents of Adults with Disabilities in Colorado, said that relying on Pathways’ own audit reports and financial statements is inadequate. Denver officials did the same for years until the city auditor scrutinized Rocky Mountain Human Services, the community-centered board serving Denver residents with disabilities. That audit last year uncovered misspending of tax money and extraordinary benefits for
its chief executive and other employees.
The Denver audit brought increased scrutiny to the state’s 20 disability boards, and the legislature this year passed a law requiring state audits of the boards every five years.
Sharpe apologized for the commissioners’ delayed response, attributing the lag to information-gathering. She said she was looking into the new state law and reviews done by the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
“That’s why it’s taken a little bit longer,” she said. “I probably waited too long. I was trying to get additional information that would answer all of their questions.”
The Arc of Aurora, the Arc of Arapahoe/Douglas and the Colorado CrossDisability Coalition also asked for an audit.
The mill levy was approved by voters in Arapahoe and Douglas counties in 2001. Pathways has received $53 million from Douglas County in the last 13 years, according to county officials.