Friday, February 25, 2000
MRDD boss apologizes for $150,000 'mistake'
Agency under fire in purchase of homes
BY BY CINDI ANDREWS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — When the highest-paid Warren County official makes a $150,000 mistake, apologies aren't good enough, county commissioners and residents told the mental retardation board Thursday.
Commissioners stopped short of calling for resignations from the leaders of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) during a joint meeting.
Some taxpayers and those with relatives served by the agency, however, had no such compunction.
“We haven't heard a legitimate reason except "I'm sorry,'” said Vance Satterthwaite of Lebanon. It just doesn't fly. ... We need a new board. We need a new superintendent.”
Another asked the county prosecutor to impanel a grand jury to investigate the purchases.
Commissioners sought Thursday's meeting in hopes that MRDD could explain its purchase of two houses in 1999, in both cases for tens of thousands of dollars more than the properties had sold for weeks earlier.
“There is no way to rationalize it,” MRDD Superintendent Charlotte Marinacci said in apologizing. “It was a mistake.”
Mrs. Marinacci handled the purchases without an appraisal, sale history or legal advice until after the contracts had been signed.
MRDD paid $173,500 for a three-bedroom Springboro house in December, three months after Merdia LeMaster bought it for $98,500. In March, MRDD bought a four-bedroom house in Maineville for $178,500 about a month after Harry Montgomery paid $98,160 for it.
“We trusted Mrs. Marinacci to find the best home out there for the participants,” said Darrell Hunt, MRDD board president. The agency uses houses and apartments as residences for mentally retarded adults who need limited supervision.
But commissioners said that wasn't good enough.
“I don't believe you guys know how bad this is,” Commissioner Larry Crisenbery told the board. “And that upsets me.”
While commissioners have no oversight of MRDD, they do appoint the majority of board members. Commissioner Mike Kilburn said Thursday he would seek appointees' resignations if the board did not accept input from commissioners on how to run a tighter ship.
Mr. Hunt said the board was willing to work with commissioners.
But members will have a tough sell convincing some residents that they've turned MRDD around. The agency is partly funded by a bond, and the next time it comes to the voters for operating money, several members of the audience said, they won't support it.
“For the $156,000 that the county overspent on these two houses, 104 families could have been helped,” said Martha Harris of Lebanon. “It's a slap in the face to all the county residents who have supported MRDD over the years.”
Mrs. Marinacci's salary — about $104,000 last year — and her four-year contract also were criticized Thursday night. Her salary is in the same ballpark as those of MRDD superintendents in Butler, Clermont and Hamilton counties, but commissioners called her double-digit raises and other perks excessive.
Mrs. Marinacci gets $10 an hour when she carries a beeper — about seven hours a week, according to payroll records. She also gets a vehicle allowance of $300 a month.
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