Board under fire for walking out
Parents whose children have developmental disabilities are outraged after a community board that manages their benefit money walked out of a meeting while a father was speaking about his son’s treatment at a group home.
The walkout by the Foothills Gateway board in Fort Collins was recorded by an audience member and posted on YouTube, then distributed by e-mail to hundreds of parents.
In the video, board president John Haley raises a hand and tells parent Keith Liddle that his “five minutes is up.” Liddle, a frequent speaker at board meetings, responds, “OK, let me go ahead and read this.” Haley repeats two more times that Liddle’s time is up and then abruptly calls for a recess.
The entire board stood and walked out while Liddle continued reading his prepared remarks for three more minutes.
The exchange sparked uproar from parents and a letter to the board from Sen. Irene Aguilar, a Denver Democrat who sponsored legislation this year that requires periodic state audits of Colorado’s 20 community-centered boards that manage state and federal disability funds. The new law also requires boards to post financial documents on their websites and allow public comment at their meetings.
“I encourage your board to develop alternative strategies to intervene in situations like this where families are having difficulty abiding by your expectations,” Aguilar wrote. “Despite your history with this parent, I found the behavior of the board disrespectful.”
The board president, in a three-page letter distributed by e-mail to the parent group, said Liddle continues to bring up the same issues even though Foothills Gateway and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment resolved the neglect case involving Liddle’s son in August 2014.
“While the board is willing to listen to new issues of concern with regard to services and supports to the individuals we serve, we feel that this constant focus on incidents that are many years past are neither acceptable nor productive,” Haley wrote.
The board allocates 10 minutes at the beginning of its meetings for public comment, and did so before the new law.
“Each speaker, at the chair’s discretion, may speak for up to five minutes,” the letter said.
Liddle said he was the only person signed up to speak at the Aug. 16 meeting.
Highlands Ranch resident Dawn Caldwell, whose 15year-old son has severe disabilities, said the video made her sick to her stomach.
“How could you treat a human being this way, much less a taxpayer and a customer?” she said. “How are you treating people when there is not a camera?”
Liddle’s 29-year-old son is nonverbal and has the function of a 2-year-old due to spinal meningitis as an infant. In 2014, a state investigation found his son was neglected at a group home and state officials asked Foothills Gateway for a “plan of action” to correct several issues. After staff noticed a rash on Liddle’s son, he did not see a doctor for 11 days and then was diagnosed with shingles. The state also found staff was negligent in placing him with an abusive roommate.
During his public comment at the board meeting last week, Liddle was again asking the board for a copy of a “rebuttal letter” it wrote to the state after the investigation. Liddle said the board’s attorney told him Foothills Gateway is not required to release the letter.