[R]utland Mental Health Services CEO Dan Quinn resigned Tuesday after nearly eight years with the social service nonprofit, according to a statement from its board of directors.
Dick Courcelle, a program director, is serving as “short-term” interim CEO while the organization “plans for a longer-term interim leader and undertake a search for a permanent replacement,” the statement says.
Reached on Wednesday morning, Courcelle said, “I’m not able to provide any more context,” as to what prompted Quinn’s resignation.
Documents show the state had uncovered serious issues with the care RMHS was providing that, according to the state, violated the terms of their grant agreement. (The documents were obtained by VTDigger through a public records request.)
The alleged violations and issues highlighted include: failure to follow safe staffing protocol resulting in a near-death suicide attempt, prohibited use of physical restraint, and failure to secure medication, among others.
As a result, the state has not entered into a new grant agreement with RMHS, and instead has entered into several short-term extensions — the latest of which lasts through the end of June.
RMHS is also going through a re-designation process to keep its designated agency status. That process takes place every four years.
“We’re looking forward to working with the new leadership that comes out of that resignation to ensure Rutland is providing effective satisfactory services,” said Agency of Human Services Secretary Hal Cohen, adding that his agency still has concerns about care deficiencies and RMHS practices. He would not go into detail about those concerns.
“We’re hoping to move toward doing a new contract, but again that has goes hand-in-hand with the re-designation process, and we need to feel satisfied they’ve put together a satisfactory plan for corrective action,” he added.
RMHS Board Chairman Chris Keyser, who joined the board last year, said Wednesday that Quinn resigned because he felt the agency couldn’t have a productive relationship with the state while he was at the helm.
“In the turmoil that’s happening in the mental health and social service agencies, it became clear to the board and to Dan that the state was not going to allow an orderly and cooperative, collaborative process,” Keyser said.
He did not want to go into detail around the breakdown between his organization and the state, but did say “there’s a big money crunch, and that doesn’t bring out the best in people.”
“Given the current turmoil, the resignations and reorganizations, it has trickled down and affected the designated agencies in a negative way,” Keyser added.
He compared the events that led to Quinn’s resignation to a “Greek tragedy,” and he said he looks forward to building a “constructive and healthy exchange with the state” to best serve the agency’s clients.
“(Our clients) have the least resources and the least political power and sometimes they go begging,” he said.
Susan Wehry, commissioner of the Department of Aging and Independent Living, and Paul Dupre, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health recently announced they will be leaving the Shumlin administration this summer. In total, seven agency or department heads have left the administration in the last year.
All but one of those who left were from within the Agency of Human Services, the largest state agency. Its roughly $2.3 billion budget represents more than 40 percent of the state’s total expenditures, including federal funds.
The state paid designated agencies $300 million for services in fiscal year 2013, mostly for mental health and developmental disability services, according to a report from State Auditor Doug Hoffer. Of that money $23.8 million went to RMHS.
RMHS gets most of its money from Medicaid — approximately 85 percent. Only 1 percent of its revenue came from patients with commercial insurance, according to a 2014 consultants report. The remaining 14 percent came from other government funding.
Rutland Mental Health serves as the designated mental health agency for Rutland County, and received $1.7 million in government grants in 2014, according to its most recent 990 tax filing. It had a $297,000 contract with the Department of Mental Health.
Its net assets were $5.6 million at the end of 2014, with $3.5 million cash-on-hand.
Quinn’s total compensation last year was $204,180, making him the second highest paid employee. A psychiatrist made $214,240.
Executive compensation at designated agencies was examined by Hoffer’s office in another report, following the revelation that Health Care and Rehabilitation Services Inc., the designated agency serving Windsor and Windham counties, gave to its former CEO Judith Hayward a $650,000 compensation package upon her retirement last year.
The report concluded Hayward’s compensation package was “an extreme outlier.” More information on Quinn’s retirement compensation will be reflected in the next RMHS tax filing.
Subsequent reports by the Valley News revealed Health Care and Rehabilitation Services Inc. lost $1.8 million operating group homes in California, expenses that were not listed on its 990 tax filings.
