Adult center to become first casualty of EOB

Monday, Aug. 23, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

James Thompson, a 62-year-old disabled former Liberian national police officer, does not understand why the Hollyhock Adult Day Health Center he has gone to for the last 11 years for treatment and social activities is facing closure.

Plagued by problems such as a decaying building and a recently emerging sewage odor -- coupled with a dwindling client base and six-figure debt -- the 17-year-old facility at 380 N. Maryland Parkway near Bonanza Road apparently is going to be closed so that the property can be sold by the embattled Economic Opportunity Board, a state official and advocates for the center say.

"I love Hollyhock and its staff," said Thompson, fighting back tears as he described the range of motion therapy he has received there since suffering a major stroke in 1992. "They made it so I could walk with a cane, when doctors and therapists said I would never walk again."

"If something is broken there, they should just fix it, not close it and sell the building and property," he said. "You don't get rid of something that's so valuable. You repair it."

Some say Hollyhock may not be as much in need of repair as the EOB, Las Vegas' largest taxpayer-supported nonprofit agency, which has been awash in controversy since the spring over $2.1 million in missing state and federal funds and alleged mismanagement. Last year, the EOB received nearly $60 million in public funds intended to help the poor.

The future of Hollyhock and other federally funded EOB programs are slated to be discussed at the Aug. 30 EOB board meeting at 4 p.m. at the EOB Community Action Partnership headquarters, 3680 N. Rancho Drive.

While EOB officials are tight-lipped about whether Hollyhock indeed will be the first of the agency's myriad services to be placed on the chopping block, the facility's employees have been told the center will close next month.

At least 25 of Hollyhock's 45 registered clients already have been transferred to another EOB adult day care facility, sources at Hollyhock said. But that facility does not take Medicaid -- state insurance for the poor -- that Thompson and the majority of other Hollyhock clients use to pay for treatment.

The EOB has been directed to sell off property to get itself out of a sea of red ink and is obligated to consolidate services to right the ship, critics acknowledge, but whether or not the agency can do that and still provide quality and continuous care to displaced Hollyhock clients remains to be seen.

"It absolutely would be a major impact losing Hollyhock," said former EOB Board Member Chester Richardson, who lost his position when the board recently reduced its members from 16 to five, but still keeps close tabs on the agency.

"Hollyhock is what EOB is all about, or should be about," Richardson said. "But it has been mismanaged and overstaffed and never has been properly marketed. It went $300,000 in debt and now they feel the only way out is to sell the property."

Richardson said he doubts the property will turn into a "cash cow" for the EOB because "there is no development going on in that part of town and no one is chomping at the bit to buy that property. The best use for it is what it is being used for now -- adult day care. I think Hollyhock should be saved."

Mary Twitty, the interim EOB executive director and member of an Iowa-based management team brought in by the state of Nevada to find solutions to the EOB's plight and restore public confidence in the agency, did not return calls for comment.

Her office referred all inquiries to State. Sen. Joe Neal, D-Nev., chairman of the EOB board and appointed spokesman for the agency.

Neal acknowledged that Hollyhock sent its clients home on Aug. 14 after a storm resulted in a sewage odor coming from the area -- a potential health hazard. Since then, no clients have received services at Hollyhock.

But, Neal said, "No decision has been made on closing Hollyhock. We have asked the management team to take a look at all of our grant agency operations and give us a report on Aug. 30 to let us know the grants that are not being fulfilled or are a drain on the agency. We'll take action from there."

But a state official and longtime Hollyhock employee are among several people who say the decision to close Hollyhock apparently has already been made.

Jane Martin, a 72-year-old Hollyhock records clerk, who has worked at the center for 14 years and started its stroke exercise group, says her bosses have made it clear to her that Hollyhock's fate is sealed.

"I was told by my supervisor that Hollyhock is going to be closed," said Martin, a community activist who, for more than 20 years, has championed causes for animal rights and for Las Vegas Housing Authority reforms.

"We have transferred 25 of our clients to the (EOB) Lied Senior Care Center at 601 N. Jones Blvd.," she said. "If we were staying open, why would we transfer our clients?"

Martin, one of just three employees working at Hollyhock last week, said the center is more than just bricks and mortar. To many clients it has been like a home away from home, she said.

"The benefits Hollyhock has brought to its clients and the community have been tremendous," Martin said. "Many people over the years have benefited from our programs -- from social activities like bingo and birthday parties to exercise programs to music therapy.

As the building has aged, attendance has dropped from a high of 70 to 80 clients a day five years ago to fewer than 25 per day in recent times, Martin said.

Still, Martin is angered by the solution of selling the center to defray debts instead of doing what is necessary to make it a viable business operation.

"Where is the conscience?" she said. "Where is the soul in doing something like that? What will happen to these people (clients)?"

That's the question James and Peggy Thompson are asking. He is disabled. She takes care of him full time and thus cannot work. They have no money other than his monthly disability check. They live in the Henderson apartment rented by their daughter. He commutes to and from Hollyhock in a para-transit van.

"They (EOB) want to transfer J.T. to the Lied center, but that place will not take Medicaid, so I don't know what we will do," said Peggy, 61, who has been married to James, a naturalized U.S. citizen, for 22 years.

She has been his caregiver since his stroke and has assisted him in recovering from other medical problems, including an operation in May to remove a cancerous kidney.

"They say there may be other programs that will pay for his physical treatment but I don't know much about them, or whether he will qualify," she said. "I have not received any paperwork to sign up for those programs."

Mike Willden, director of the state department of human resources that oversees about $30 million in state and federal money that goes to the EOB, says the insurance issue can be resolved.

"The situation is that Hollyhock is a medical model facility, while the Lied center is a social model facility that does not address medical needs and therefore is not entitled to Medicaid reimbursements," said Willden, whose agency brought in the EOB management team that is contracted through November.

"But there are other medical model adult day care facilities in Southern Nevada -- Nevada Adult Day Care is one and the Salvation Army's Friendship Circle is another. Hollyhock's clients will be sent to an equal or better quality care facility."

Willden said the alternate funding sources for centers that do not accept Medicaid -- funds for which Thompson might be entitled -- are the Community Home-Based Initiative Program, a state pool of money, and Title 3 B federal grant money for the aging.

Willden said that his staff is addressing the potential alternative funding issue for Hollyhock clients because he too has been advised that Hollyhock will be closed and that the EOB's intention is to sell the land.

The news of the pending closure and land sale comes as no surprise to Clark County officials, who during the spring withheld $70,236 in rehabilitation money for Hollyhock over concerns that taxpayer money would be spent to repair a building that in turn would be sold to a private entity.

"That would not have been a good investment for the taxpayer," Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said.

In addition to EOB funding, Hollyhock operates on $285,000 a year in state funding. Of that state money, only 8 percent can be spent on administration, with the rest going for direct services -- money that would be freed up to help other social service programs should Hollyhock cease to exist.

If that happens, James Thompson says he would miss not only the free medical therapy he receives at Hollyhock, but also the fellowship with other clients, many of whom are his age and also are disabled.

"I had four of my birthday parties at Hollyhock because that is where my friends go," Thompson said. "I will miss them a lot." 9"If something is broken there, they should just fix it, not close it and sell the building and property. You don't get rid of something that's so valuable. You repair it."

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