Disabled advocate halted by audit

Martin Kuz

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1998 | 11:22 a.m.

Suspension of state funding for a controversial law center may be hampering investigations into charges of mistreatment brought by the physically and mentally disabled against state institutions.

The Nevada Legislature has withheld $109,000 from the Nevada Disability Advocacy and Law Center since October 1997 following a dispute over a legislative audit of the private, nonprofit group. Under a contract with the state, the center investigates claims of abuse and neglect of the disabled in state hospitals, clinics and other facilities.

State agencies routinely perform internal reviews on complaints. The NDALC has acted as an outside watchdog since 1995, the year Gov. Bob Miller dissolved the state Office of Protection and Advocacy, replacing it with the law center. The move was intended to ease ethical anxieties over a state agency investigating claims against the state.

The NDALC, with offices in Las Vegas and Reno, probes complaints made by the disabled over violations of their civil rights. The group's duties include receiving referrals from state departments on such matters. Yet without state funding -- money that the center used to hire an investigator to review the reports -- group officials say they have had to reassess their priorities.

As a result, NDALC Litigation Director Gloria Stendardi said, "Some incidents (involving state agencies) that might've been investigated before are not going to be investigated."

NDALC Executive Director Jack Mayes said the center continues to evaluate each state report, but a full-fledged investigation now occurs only if the complaint concerns an apparent civil rights violation. Before the state halted its funding, the group -- which receives nearly all of its $900,000 annual budget through a variety of federal grants -- reviewed a broader range of claims, he said.

News of the law center reducing its number of investigations has spread slowly throughout state agencies. Carlos Bradenburg, head of the Division of Mental Health and Retardation, learned of the development only two months ago during a meeting with Mayes.

The mental health division, overseer of regional centers in Las Vegas and Reno as well as numerous rural clinics, produces most of the state reports sent to the NDALC. Despite his confidence in the internal review process, Bradenburg said a third-party investigation remains the only way to assure impartiality -- and that the disabled are protected.

"I really believe sunshine is the best form of disinfectant," he said. "I've welcomed the NDALC looking at things (so) if we're doing something wrong, we can fix it."

The law center investigated 30 of the division's 150 referrals in fiscal year 1997-'98, according to Bradenburg. In fiscal year 1998-'99, which began July 1, the NDALC has investigated 3 of 53 referrals, he said.

Cindy Roragen, senior investigator for the center, contested the accuracy of Brandenburg's figures, but declined to provide NDALC's statistics, citing confidentiality.

It was the issue of confidentiality that precipitated the audit clash last year and eventually prompted state officials to cut off the center's funding. Persistent criticism inside and outside government of the group's spending practices and overall performance had led legislative auditors to seek a review of the center's financial records in October 1997.

A battle ensued over access to the files when the center invoked attorney-client privilege, maintaining that only federal auditors could view certain documents. With no compromise in sight, the state pulled all but $15,000 of the center's $124,000 biennial allocation.

The NDALC board of directors reacted to the impasse by voting in June to no longer request state assistance. While that decision would appear to sever the center's financial ties to the state, the break is unlikely to be a clean one.

State officials, legislators and advocates for the disabled contend the NDALC abandoned its obligation to Nevada long before the funding dispute erupted. They speculate that, although the center is under federal mandate to look into any referrals regarding civil rights' abuses of the disabled, NDALC officials will now treat legitimate complaints filed by state agencies with little urgency.

Department of Human Services Director Charlotte Crawford said she had noticed a steady decline in the number of NDALC investigations as relations soured between center and state officials. Like Bradenburg, she would like the state to contract with an outside agency that would follow up on every incident report.

"There's been a great deal of difficulty trying to establish an agreement and understanding with the NDALC" on the scope of its responsibilities, Crawford said. "I'm deeply saddened that we don't have an independent investigative entity that we can rely on, that our clients can rely on and that their families can rely on."

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, pushed hard for the Office of Protection and Advocacy to break off from state government three years ago and become a private entity. She described NDALC's response to the disabled community as "very disappointing," and said she has heard numerous complaints from people whose cases were sent to the center and subsequently languished.

The falling out between NDALC officials and the state offered no surprises to Rosetta Johnson, president of the Nevada Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which counts thousands of clients statewide. "You would think the law center would recognize who we are and work with us, but they're operating in a vacuum. I don't depend on them to do anything," she said.

But Mayes argued that, perhaps more than anything else, the center's willingness to sue the state has inflamed legislators and state officials.

The NDALC has filed a number of high-profile lawsuits over services provided to the disabled at state mental health clinics. A year ago the center brought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of several people who assert state officials have delayed their Medicaid benefits. Considering the awkwardness of suing one of the center's benefactors, a divorce from the state has proved liberating, Mayes said.

"You can't have any constraints on you to do this job. So it's benefited our agency by cutting the strings attached to entities who are potential defendants. (Legislators) were bothered that we were suing the state on one hand and then collecting (state) money on the other," Mayes said.

Stendardi added that the state, by virtue of withholding the center's funding, has done a disservice to the disabled community. "It's just reasonable to assume that without an objective investigation into a situation of abuse or severe neglect, clients are not as well served," she said.

With NDALC officials walking away from state assistance, the 1999 Legislature will have to find another agency to fill the center's small but crucial role.

It won't be easy, according to Vince Triggs, head of the Nevada Association for the Handicapped, who criticized NDALC for "a total lack of communication" with the disabled community. Few groups exist that can offer statewide services, and police agencies that investigate abuse and neglect already are overwhelmed, Triggs said.

In light of the NDALC's waning presence in the human services department, Crawford has intensified her agency's internal investigations. Still, she would like to have third-party scrutiny just to be safe.

"It isn't that I distrust internal review. It's that having independent review for our clients is something everyone should have," she said.