EOB child care aid threatened

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 11:29 a.m.

In the wake of a recent financial scandal, the state agency that oversees the child care assistance program run by the Economic Opportunity Board is quietly making changes that could eventually land that program in different hands.

Those changes include the state taking steps in the next month or so to see, for the first time since the program began in 1991, if new agencies have better ideas for running all or part of the program.

The state Welfare Division has also changed the way it provides money to the Economic Opportunity Board after discovering that $2.1 million could not be accounted for. For the first time, that state division is asking whether EOB is promptly paying the 800 child care centers with which it contracts.

For the fourth consecutive day, Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas and temporary spokesman for the EOB, on Thursday did not return calls seeking comment.

The EOB, created in 1964, runs about 30 social service programs for low-income people in Clark County, including senior day care, alcohol and drug addiction treatment and child care.

In the coming weeks, the Welfare Division, charged with overseeing the $20 million child care assistance program, will be issuing what's called a request for information, said Nancy Ford, administrator. The recent problems facing EOB -- combined with a growth in demand for low-priced child care -- prompted the decision, she said.

"The whole idea of finding alternative ways of running this program didn't come up until these problems with EOB occurred," Ford said.

The request will be to see if different agencies could handle different parts of the program -- such as eligibility determination and finances, for example. Alternatively, the program could be divided according to zip codes, she said. After the welfare division sees what ideas are turned in, it will consider opening up a bidding process for agencies to compete with the EOB for running the program.

"We have had everything in one basket -- EOB administering everything -- and with the valley growing so dramatically ... it's important to look for alternatives," she said.

The program serves 10,000 children in Southern Nevada, Ford said. Nearly 1,500 children are on a waiting list. State officials have said the EOB's financial and management problems have not affected the program itself.

Ford said that nonprofit agencies such as the Boys and Girls Club and United Way may have interest in responding to the state's request.

United Way could not be reached for comment.

Angela Quinn, president of the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas -- and former EOB employee -- said that more than one agency could work together to manage child care for low-income families in the valley -- and do a better job than EOB is doing.

"I am convinced that there is a better, more economic way to offer these services to the community, which would result in more people being served," Quinn said.

She said the waiting list for the program needs to be reduced and there must be assurances that federal and state funds are not mismanaged. The executive committee of her agency's board of directors met Tuesday to discuss their response to the request for information, she said.

Though the scandal surrounding the $2.1 million was made public only recently, the state knew of the issue late last year, after a child care center told the welfare division that a check EOB wrote had bounced. That claim prompted an inquiry that revealed the $2.1 million advance intended for paying such centers could not be accounted for.

Since January, Ford said, the state has decided to make advances to EOB on a monthly basis, instead of in a larger, yearly sum, in order to avoid similar problems.