How Could You? Hall of Shame- Claretta Simpson House/Career Youth Development

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Milwaukee, Wisconsin, staff from Claretta Simpson House group home, owned by financially-troubled Career Youth Development, are accused of  lying about a 2012 sex assault perpetrated by a 16-year-old resident on a 7-year-old girl at a YMCA. This incident eventually led to the closing of Claretta Simpson House.

“Records obtained under the state open records law show that group home staff didn’t properly supervise the resident, who was living in CYD’s Claretta Simpson House at the time, even though his crisis prevention plan called for him not to be left alone around young children.

The Claretta Simpson House did not close immediately after the incident. The group home was allowed to keep its residents because county regulators decided the negative impact that a sudden move might have upon children would outweigh the immediate danger.

The reports surface less than a month after the Journal Sentinel reported that the agency owes an estimated $72,000 to the county and more than $100,000 in state and federal taxes — part of a 15-year history of mismanaged funds and failures to comply with standards established by its state and county contracts.

According to an incident report from county regulators, after the group home resident left the pool at the Northside YMCA he followed a 7-year-old girl who was there at the time into a changing room, locking the door behind him. He then removed her pants and his and asked her to perform oral sex on him.

After the assault, an on-duty staff member told police and state licensing department investigators conflicting accounts of what happened. He told the department he was in the hallway, within view of the resident and other teenagers. But he and another of the group home residents told police he wasn’t in the area at the time of the attack.

The records reveal the 16-year-old had stopped taking some unidentified medication two weeks before he was arrested for the alleged sexual assault and the records also revealed that the group home failed to follow his treatment plan.

The group home residents were supported by a program known as wraparound services, which are funded by several county and state agencies and are designed for children and adolescents who have serious emotional disorders and who are at risk of residential, correctional or psychiatric placement.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., who has been critical of CYD, said the state shouldn’t place high-risk children with an agency whose employees lack training.

“This 16-year-old had no business being placed in a group home (operated by) CYD. They’re a glorified babysitter. They don’t have the skills or knowledge to deal with a kid like this,” he said. “The state basically handed CYD a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before the bomb went off. And when it finally did go off, a 7-year-old happened to be in the vicinity.”

Records show the 16-year-old was arrested on allegations of sexual assault later that night, but the Milwaukee Police Department denied a request by the Journal Sentinel for police reports because he was a juvenile when the alleged crime occurred. The outcome of the case is unclear.

Group home closed

Emails obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that county officials and social workers learned about the incident days after it took place and temporarily suspended the Claretta Simpson House from accepting new referrals.

But after CYD’s house manager, Don Carlos Scott, revised the group home’s safety plan for how staff were to deal with high-risk youth in various situations, the county lifted the suspension.

On April 12, 2012, three days after county officials restored the agency’s ability to take new referrals, the state Department of Children and Families hand-delivered a letter revoking its license.

In the letter, the department cited CYD’s inability to properly supervise residents and the false information employees provided to investigators.

Among other complaints mentioned were three previous warning letters for not complying with department requirements. On at least one occasion, department inspectors also visited the group home to review staff files, but records were locked in a separate room, and no on-duty employees had the keys.

CYD appealed the suspension and was temporarily allowed to keep children in the house.

Through the wraparound program, the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division offers individual and community-based services for severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and youth, often placing them in group homes such as the one run by CYD. The agency also provides outpatient treatment to youngsters with substance abuse issues.

The division’s interim administrator, Jim Kubicek, wrote in an email to the Journal Sentinel that the decision to keep the children in the house was not based on limited options, but “through careful and thoughtful planning.”

“We approach any decision to move a child with caution, as all placement changes for a child are disruptive; there needs to be immediate danger and risk to a child’s well being before they will be moved,” Kubicek wrote.

Kubicek added that the alleged incident did not occur in the home, the person involved in the alleged incident never returned to the home, and the provider offered a specific plan for increased supervision and other measures.

According the state Department of Children and Families, CYD lost its appeal to retain its license, and by July 11, 2012 — five months after the incident — all residents who had been placed in the house by the department had been removed.

The county, however, signed a contract with CYD to provide outpatient services to young adults with alcohol and substance abuse issues for 2013.

Kubicek confirmed the existing contract, but wrote that none of the Claretta Simpson House staff are a involved in the current services.

Clarke called the state and county’s response to the issue a “classic case of check-the-box mentality” filled with bureaucratic language and policies that didn’t address the situation’s impact on “young human lives.”

Multiple new chances

Since the mid-1990s, a series of audits have raised questions about how the agency spent tax dollars and why it hasn’t kept promises to repay its debts.

Milwaukee County Auditor Jerry Heer recently said closing down the organization would make it impossible to recoup the money it owes.

James Ferguson, who stepped in as CYD’s executive director when former CEO Charles Walton suddenly retired early this year, recently told the Journal Sentinel that “CYD needs a chance” and that it is “on the cusp of turning a page.”

Neither Ferguson nor CYD Board Chairwoman Barbara Franks, a Dane County assistant district attorney, responded to requests for comments on this story.

Milwaukee Public Schools has contracted with CYD’s alternative high school for the upcoming academic year despite a 2012 audit that concluded CYD had misused school district money.

School Board member Jeff Spence, chairman of the committee that approved the contract, told the Journal Sentinel in a recent interview that the agency has been able to successfully reach young people who haven’t been served well by other programs.

MPS declined to comment on whether the school district knew of the assault when it approved the new contract.”

Youth agency staff lied about 2012 sex assault, documents allege

[The Journal Sentinel 8/31/13 by Mario Koran and Daniel Bice]

Debt

“The agency owes an estimated $72,000 to the county and more than $100,000 in state and federal taxes. With expenses outpacing revenue, agency administrators must decide every two weeks whether to pay staff salaries or payroll taxes.

Now they are asking the county and others to forgive or reduce the money they owe.

“In the past we’ve had issues with other vendors, and we’ve clipped their wings,” said County Supervisor Mark Borkowski, who has been on the County Board for 20 years. “We’re not just some social service agency that’s going to dispense money to whoever wants it, without holding them accountable for how they spend it.

“And if we’re an enabler, then shame on us.”

Unable to afford basic maintenance at CYD’s headquarters, officials have watched the agency’s north side building fall into such disrepair that rain now pours down an abandoned elevator shaft.

Charged with the task of steering the organization out of its financial crisis is a 26-year-old law school student with no experience running a nonprofit.

James Ferguson, named executive director in January, grew up poor on Milwaukee’s north side. His mother disabled, his father out of work, the family relied on CYD’s food pantry around the corner from their home.

When former CEO Charles Walton brought him into the agency last year as associate director, Ferguson said, he was “on top of the world.” Then, while he was on a trip to Africa, Ferguson learned by email that Walton was leaving due to health concerns.

Walton has since retired and filed for personal bankruptcy. Along with Walton’s position, Ferguson inherited the agency’s debt and a building he calls his “nightmare.”

“This is what I walked into,” Ferguson said. “I walked into this debt to the IRS. To Wisconsin.”

CYD receives contracts from local governmental agencies to provide substance abuse treatment, a school for students with documented behavioral challenges and an adult GED program.

“It’s always been a struggle,” Walton said. “When you lose a contract it’s difficult to recover. We do all this great work, but the money isn’t coming in.”

According to Ferguson, the agency has a staff of 20, down from 31 after layoffs in the past year. It served more than 7,500 people last year, he said.

Troubled audits

The most recent audit by Milwaukee Public Schools, which has contracts with CYD, indicates the organization has continually spent more than it takes in to the point that it has been “unable to pay all of its current liabilities, specifically, payroll tax liabilities.”

For years, the agency was led by Jeannetta Robinson, Walton’s charismatic and forceful mother and CYD’s co-founder. Under her vocal leadership, CYD became a “household name” to African-American families and provided turnaround services to thousands of individuals, Ferguson said.

But since the mid-’90s, a series of audits disclosed an agency in deep financial trouble.

After a 1996 audit turned up $374,000 in undocumented expenses, county auditors questioned whether the agency had used taxpayer dollars to finance a trip to a Jamaican resort that offered sailing, snorkeling and glass-bottom boat rides.

The agency blamed the problems on sloppy bookkeeping. After CYD later produced documentation and explanations for its haphazard record-keeping, county officials reduced the balance and ordered CYD to pay back $150,000. CYD kept to the five-year repayment agreement for only five months. Roughly two years after it was told to pay, the agency still owed more than $130,000.

More problems followed.

CYD was stripped of county contracts worth roughly $700,000 a year after another messy financial audit.

An on-site performance audit in 2005 turned up multiple concerns. Among them: drug and alcohol assessments that weren’t consistently found in client files, out-of-compliance service plans and incomplete caregiver background checks.

In 2008, Robinson died, leaving her son to step in.

Then–Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway asked county officials later that year to “practice love in action” — the agency’s motto — by absolving CYD of the nearly $50,000 it owed.

But then-County Executive Scott Walker rejected the idea, saying it would set a bad precedent. Walker did, however, agree to a revised repayment plan for CYD that also restored the agency’s eligibility for county contracts, which it had lost in 1998.

A catch-22

Despite the trouble, CYD has survived. Ferguson said the county and IRS have no interest in closing down the organization.

“It’s a bit of a catch-22,” said County Auditor Jerry Heer. “If we cut off the contract completely, then we’ll never get our money back.”

Borkowski, the county supervisor, said the agency’s ability to survive may come from the fact that it offers services that others don’t.

“I’m not saying that CYD has a monopoly on what they provide, but they might be the only vendor that we can work with for those services,” said Borkowski.

Despite a 2012 audit that concluded CYD “did not always use resources provided by MPS in an appropriate manner,” did not seek permission to exceed its allocated budget, and used school district money for outside expenditures, School Board members voted unanimously June 27 to approve a new contract with the agency for the upcoming school year.

For $9,000 a seat, CYD will run an alternative school for 110 students with documented behavioral problems.

“They do serve young people who haven’t been served well by other programs, which is why I think the board has been willing to work with them,” said School Board member Jeff Spence, chair of the committee that approved the contract.

Ferguson said the success rate for students who go on to get their diplomas is around 50%, adding that many of the students come to CYD as seniors who are too far behind to graduate on time.

He acknowledged the organization has mismanaged money in the past, but said that theft or fraud has never been a problem.

Instead, Ferguson blames ongoing financial concerns on the agency’s inability to raise unrestricted dollars — money not tied to a specific program that can be used for routine expenses. He plans to be more aggressive in raising unrestricted funds. A recent fundraiser netted around $15,000, enough to buy Kleenex, Pine Sol and other supplies for a year.

He and CYD board members plan to make a settlement offer to the federal government to pay 10% of their total debt to the IRS.

As for the debt to the county, Ferguson said he has “reached out” to try to get county officials to confirm the debt and possibly forgive the $72,000.

“CYD needs a chance,” Ferguson said. “I can’t stress enough that I know that we’re on the cusp of turning a page.”

For all the problems the agency faces, Ferguson said his biggest worry is the building. The roof needs repairs, he said, but a roofer who came to estimate costs told Ferguson he wouldn’t put his men on top of the building until masonry issues were addressed. The director anticipates those costs to be around $50,000.

Ferguson said he’s proud to serve as CYD’s director, but the honor carries a heavy responsibility.

“There are times when I’ve wanted to walk out of here and not come back,” he said. “But when I step into the building and see the children and families who rely on us, I’m always reinvigorated.”

As a spiritual man, Ferguson said he is petitioning God for help.

“It’s going to take a miracle to save CYD,” Ferguson said. “But I believe miracles happen.””

Career Youth Development seeks reduction in long-term debt

[The Journal Sentinel 8/4/13 by Mario Koran and Daniel Bice]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces