EOB consultants’ report may recommend replacing board

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

Breaking up the board of directors and bringing back a team of consultants that reviewed the Economic Opportunity Board last week to help run the agency are two possible outcomes of that team's visit, according to two people close to the process.

The consultants were hired with $17,500 in federal money to come in and look at the troubled nonprofit agency after its largest program -- child care assistance -- couldn't account for $2.1 million in state and federal funds.

The team spent last week reviewing that program and the EOB generally, said EOB board member Chester Richardson. Conversations with members of the team -- brought in through the Health and Human Services Department -- lead him to believe their final report will suggest disbanding the current 15-member board and creating a new one.

HHS gives more than 70 percent of the $20 million in child care funds that the state then channels to the EOB.

The consultants, who work for a program called Peer to Peer Crisis Intervention at Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc., will submit a report to the state within two weeks, said Mike Willden, administrator of the state Human Resources Department, which oversees the funds that go to the child care program.

Willden said, "board governance and board oversight are probably the number one issue" the team looked at.

"One option there is would be for the MICA team to be brought in to help run the agency," he said.

"They're probably going to need some short-term help in any case, since there's not many people left to do the job."

In recent months, the agency has lost its executive director, chief financial officer, human resources director, risk management director and a Head Start administrator.

The team looked at a range of issues the agency is facing, including governance, internal controls, contracting policies, cash management and assets, Willden said.

The recommendations from its final report will come with a timeline for submitting a plan of correction -- possibly as short as 30 days, he said.

At the same time, the state is set to advertise for new ideas on how to run the child care program, and for new agencies to carry those ideas out.

"We're keeping our options open," Willden said.

However, Richardson said the agency's problems have been with management and finances, not with the delivery of services, including the child care program.

Those problems are being fixed, he said.

"Why look for someone else if we're already doing a good job?" he said.