Pay ex- chief $ 127,000, disabilities panel told
Whistleblower- trial jury faults firing
A state board that administers federal grant money for people with disabilities has been ordered to pay its former executive director $ 127,000 in damages after a Pulaski County jury found she had been wrongfully fired for reporting potential wrongdoing.
Regina Wilson was fired by the Arkansas Governor’s Developmental Disabilities Council in October 2012 after two years as executive director. She filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the council in circuit court five months later.
Her attorney, Lucien Gillham, said Monday that Wilson had never done anything to warrant termination. But Wilson had complained that she’d been asked to alter budget documents, questioned some spending procedures and pushed for offices that were compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“She’d never been disciplined before,” Gillham said. “They admit she got favorable evaluations as late as June [ 2012], yet four months later, she’s fired.”
The damages award represents $ 90,000 in back pay and $ 37,000 in future earnings, Gillham said.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office, which represented the council, said state lawyers are reviewing the verdict before deciding how to proceed.
Earlier this year, the federal Department of Health and Human Services suspended the council’s funding, labeled the council “high risk” and ordered it to “cease and de-
sist” contributing to outside projects.
The council, established in 1972, oversees programs funded through the federal Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act. The council’s mission is to encourage independence and productivity of disabled people.
It is not affiliated with the Department of Human Services’ Board of Developmental Disabilities Services, which oversees a state Department of Human Services division of the same name.
The council’s 23 members are appointees of the governor.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson responded to the federal agency’s concerns in July by ending the board’s independent operating status and placing it under the control of the Department of Finance and Administration.
Last December, state auditors recommended that the council return $ 282,342 in federal funding because the money from the U. S. Health and Human Services Department was not spent within the time allotted. The council was receiving about $ 750,000 annually in federal funding. It was required to spend at least 70 percent of its funding on services for people with disabilities.
According to Wilson’s lawsuit, she and some council members had complained to Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration in spring 2011 about difficulties in the relationship between the council and the state Health Services Permit Agency, which was the receiver for the federal funding that the council managed.
Wilson told jurors that she had been asked, but refused, to change budget reports that were to be submitted to federal authorities, her attorney said. In court filings, she stated that she had brought her concerns to federal regulators and state auditors, as well as to council members and state lawmakers.
According to Wilson’s lawsuit, the council chairman told her in a text message that she was going to be fired a couple of hours before the council unanimously voted to terminate her employment.
During the four- day trial before Judge Wendell Griffen, state attorneys argued that she’d been fired for poor job performance and that her dismissal had nothing to do with the allegations she’d made.
But the jurors disagreed and sided with Wilson, finding evidence that Wilson had been the victim of retaliation.
Jurors voted 10- 2 her favor after about three hours of deliberations Friday night. To win, Wilson needed a nine voted from the jury.
Witnesses testifying at the trial included Debra Hobbs of Rogers, a Republican and a former state representative; former Permit Agency Director Jim Luker, a Democrat and a former state senator from Wynne; former council Chairman Jeb Joyce; and current Chairman Matthew Glass.