Second director quits at veterans nursing home

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 11:23 a.m.

The state's newly opened Southern Nevada Veterans Nursing Home has lost its second director in less than a month. Interim director Ray Heath resigned over pay issues.

Heath said he resigned his position at the 180-bed Boulder City facility on Tuesday after state administrators informed him that his contract, approved in September, could not be honored after all and that Heath actually owes the state $315 for overpayment.

Heath's departure marks yet another setback for a facility that has been dogged by problems since lawmakers in 1997 approved $19 million in construction funding for the state's first subsidized nursing home for elderly and disabled veterans. There are 140 such facilities across the nation.

But Chuck Fulkerson, executive director of the state Office of Veterans' Services, on Wednesday hired a second interim director for the nursing home and a budget analyst in the governor's executive office reaffirmed the state's commitment to continue building the nursing home toward full operating capacity.

Perry Comeaux, state budget director, this morning approved hiring five new nursing staffers and admitting five new residents by Monday. A staff of 35 cares for six residents today, with a full staff of 205 expected by next year.

"The budget for the home is in place and the idea of ratcheting up to the maximum of 180 beds is certainly a commitment the state has made," said Paul Russell, a state budget analyst. "We're all aware of the bumps in the road along the way, but the state's commitment to the home hasn't changed."

The state plans to contribute roughly $4 million annually to help run the nursing home at full capacity, Fulkerson said. The home will collect another $7 to $8 million from Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance payers and from aid and grants from the Veterans Affairs Department.

But thus far, the nursing home has made little progress without controversy and conflict.

The home itself, projected to take a year to build, took more than two years, and was completed more than $1 million over budget. Shortly after it opened in June, director Jon Sias resigned.

Sias, a licensed nursing home administrator with four years experience, said he quit under pressure from Fulkerson. But Fulkerson declined to give him a reason, Sias said.

On Sept. 6, the same day Sias resigned, Heath was promoted to interim director from his position as administration manager.

In a deal negotiated with nursing home staff, Heath was offered and accepted the same $80,914 salary Sias had been paid, which was also the state-mandated maximum annual pay for the job.

Heath received the increased pay for a week before state administrators reduced his raise to a 5 percent increase from his old annual salary of $61,700. The plan, state administrators said, was to pay him at that middle annual rate of $64,540 for 30 days, until Sias' severance was paid. Then Heath would return to the maximum pay.

"To be legal, it had to be corrected," said Jeanne Greene, state director of personnel. "There really was nothing to be negotiated."

Heath must pay back the state for the one week he was overpaid, Greene said. The overpayment, according to the state, amounts to $315.

Heath, who said he did not find out about the change until Tuesday, and had been working long hours all month to "pick up the pieces," saw it differently. He said he will challenge the state's attempt to seek payment from him as a breach of contract.

"Apparently all the Einsteins up in Carson City decided the only way to pay Jon was to undo my appointment," Heath said. "Not only is it immoral, it's illegal."

Heath compared his pay woes to the wiring of the heating and air conditioning systems at the nursing home.

"If my facility manager wants to raise the temperature two degrees because someone's cold, he has to call Carson City. Heaven forbid it's a Saturday or Sunday," Heath said. Fulkerson on Wednesday hired Tom Feeback as a replacement for Heath. Feeback, a licensed accredited long-term care administrator with 20 years of experience, was hired as an independent contractor after Sias left to help the nursing home continue toward its own accreditation.

But even with the new hire, at least one veteran remained concerned that "something is rotten in Denmark."

"The nursing home is supposed to be a haven for veterans who don't have the wherewithal to go into a private nursing home," said Las Vegan Alan Dunbar, a World War II veteran and retired director of the Los Angeles regional office of the Veterans Administration. "It's something the state has agreed to support, so they have to decide whether they're going to do it right or not do it at all."