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The same old, same old ....
Press
reports say fired LME director Charles Franklin to be replaced by
recently "resigned" LME director Tom McDevitt, both of whom are
controversial and both of whom were paid in excess of $200,000.
 Earlier
this month, Charles Franklin was fired from his position as director of
the Albemarle Mental Health Center, the local management entity
covering 10 counties in northeastern North Carolina. The AMHC Board of
Directors took the action after layoffs, disruption of services
and a state report that found a myriad of problems with the agency.
A
good background on the difficulties that led to this "Mental Meltdown,"
including Franklin's salary of more than $200,000, can be found in an
editorial by the same name in the Elizabeth City Daily Advance here.
Yesterday
comes word that former Smoky Mountain Center director Tom McDevitt has
been tapped as the state-appointed replacement for Franklin. McDevitt,
for those of you who don't know, resigned in September from his
position leading the state's largest LME in terms of geography.
That
resignation came as the result of an investigation by the Smoky
Mountain News, a synopsis of which ran in the newspaper's "Best of
2008" column several weeks ago in the category "Sweetest Deals."
It
read in part: "While the state's mental health system lay in shambles,
the director of a regional mental health agency was having a bit of an
easier go. Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health Director Tom
McDevitt allegedly paid himself two salaries, gave himself special
perks, and changed the date of his hire to dodge taxes on his
retirement benefits. McDevitt also paid his wife commission for real
estate transactions and used a loophole in the agency's guidelines to
employ his daughter. All the while, McDevitt raked in one of the
highest six-figure salaries in the state among those with comparable
positions."
McDevitt's combined salary was $216,407 as director
of both Smoky Mountain Center and its nonprofit foundation, the
Evergreen Foundation, for which he was to receive $60,000 in 2008 for
the 8 hours he bills the nonprofit each week, according to the
newspaper. The report on McDevitt's resignation is well-done and well
worth reading and can be found here.
Did
I mention that terms of McDevitt's severance call for him to be paid 9
months in accrued leave time, plus a year's salary? Thank heavens he's
found another job.
And thank heavens for the community press for
not only covering issues that affect the entire mental health system,
but covering them well, while the state's larger papers give them
scant, if any, coverage.
Ludicrous. Unconscionable. Bizarre.
Preposterous. Unethical. Just a few words that come to mind. As the
majority of the nation celebrates the hope of change while tightening
their belts, the state has apparently again decided that mismanagement
and malfeasance will be rewarded. It's as if state officials,
presumably from the Division of MH/DD/SAS, figure they can move a
fallen director from one end of the state to another and no one will
notice.
Hopefully, HHS Secretary Lanier Cansler will.
David Cornwell
Executive Director
North Carolina Mental Hope
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