Editorial: Let’s move quickly on EOB probe

Friday, March 12, 2004 | 5:04 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

March 13 - 14, 2004

The Equal Opportunity Board has grown over the past 40 years to become the Las Vegas Valley's largest nonprofit agency. With a $60 million annual budget, mostly from state and federal grants, it runs 30 programs for low-income families, including child care, health care, pre-school classes, transportation and housing. There are day-care facilities for senior citizens, drug treatment programs for addicts and job counseling sessions for men and women who have been out of work. The agency has become the bedrock of the valley's social services system. People who need the EOB for services count on it being there for them. And taxpayers who provide the funding to keep it going count on it being well managed. Last week we learned it's failing on both counts.

An article by Sun reporter Timothy Pratt disclosed that the agency cannot account for $2.1 million in state and federal money. State auditors, in the early stages of an investigation into the agency, say they have discovered other problems that they will reveal this week after they have had a chance to more throughly examine the books. The missing $2.1 million came from the state Welfare Division and was intended to fund the EOB's Child Care Assistance Program.

Management problems are going hand-in-hand with the financial crisis. About a month ago, EOB Executive Director Marcia Rose Walker fired Finance Director Debra Santos. Sen. Joe Neal, a member of the EOB board, said that Walker herself resigned last week. The EOB is so far not commenting publicly about either the management or financial troubles. The public, however, has a right to know about what's going on with this agency that it has funded for decades.

Clark County officials are also joining with state officials in an effort to learn what has been happening in the agency's executive offices. Their main concern is that critical services will soon be shut down because of the financial mismanagement at EOB. Where will the people go who get turned away? In the words of Clark County Manager Thom Reilly, "This sounds pretty serious."

Mike Wilden, director of the state Department of Human Services, said the problem may be serious enough to call in federal investigators from the Health and Human Services Department. We believe state and county officials, and federal officials too, should move quickly in getting to the bottom of the EOB's troubles. The problem is that EOB's troubles, if not corrected soon, will add immeasurably to the troubles of people needing its services.