Editorial: EOB must take reform seriously

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 8:43 a.m.

Scrutiny of the Economic Opportunity Board by state and federal officials began in January. It was then that the EOB acknowledged it could not account for $2.1 million it received from the state, a mix of federal and state funds intended to subsidize the cost of child care for poor, working families. Auditors from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department are continuing to investigate the missing money.

Because of the missing millions, several federal anti-poverty managers from around the country assembled as a team to investigate the EOB's organizational structure. The team's report was publicly released Wednesday. Its overall conclusion was similar to what the Sun has already reported -- that the 15-member EOB board of directors failed to provide proper oversight of the agency. When asked last month by Sun reporter Steve Kanigher about EOB's financial problems, state Sen. Joe Neal, a board member and spokesman for the agency, had said, "We (the board) don't fully know what's going on. I'm going to have to admit that the board is in the dark on a lot of this."

The EOB has 700 employees and administers 30 state and federally funded programs for Southern Nevada's poorest residents. With a $60 million budget, it is Nevada's largest nonprofit agency. It needs a board whose members are willing to work solely on behalf of EOB's clients, by working together and demanding accountability from the agency's managers. After reading the federal team's report, which said the board is "deeply divided" and lacks "a cohesive purpose, strategy, or plan," Mike Willden, director of the Nevada Human Resources Department, said, "The board's a mess. They need to reorganize. They need to redo their bylaws. The board is not running their ship ..."

The state gave the EOB board until May 6 to submit a plan for reforming itself. Neal's reaction was that if the plan is not ready by then, the board will ask for an extension. With more than 56,000 people seeking help from the EOB each year, the board should take the deadline seriously.