Members of a Stoddard County board created to help developmentally disabled residents have been asked to sell a newly constructed building as officials continue to debate what programs to support and how.
A special meeting of the Senate Bill 40 board was held Thursday with the agenda including discussion of a nearly $1.3 million building loan and a contract with the existing Stoddard County Sheltered Workshop.
SB40 spent approximately $2.3 million on construction of two new buildings, according to board member Josh Hester.
Approximately $1.3 million of that will need to be funded through a loan, payments of which could top $100,000 a year, according to the discussion.
The new buildings were constructed to serve as office space for targeted case management, one of the groups serving developmentally disabled, a thrift store and a new sheltered workshop program.
Stoddard County commissioner Steve Jordan suggested the office building be sold to TCM, with an agreement to share a parking lot with the second building.
"Then you've freed up a lot of interest and working capital," said Jordan.
The office building cost approximately $720,000, said administrator Dana McClure.
TCM receives its money from Medicaid and may not be able to do that, said Clay Prough, vice chairman of the SB40 board.
"We're going to have to figure out a way to finance all of this," said Hester.
Devin Miller, interim director of the existing sheltered workshop, questioned what work the new program would handle.
Board members said commercial paper shredding and recycling, as well as other work.
These are contracts that the existing workshop handles, said Miller.
"We do the shredding. We do cardboard bailing. We do everything I heard they are going to do here. I just personally think that's going to cause a big conflict, because there's already a service," he said.
There are people not working at this time who could be served by the new program, said SB40 board member Deb McKay.
The SB40 board voted in July to stop funding the new sheltered workshop, Stoddard County Progressive Industries.
The board had stopped providing funds to the existing workshop at the beginning of 2018, but voted in July to restore funding.
It is unclear what that funding will look like, and members discussed Thursday what to include in a contract with the existing program. No decisions were made on the contract, which is expected to be discussed again at the next meeting, at 7 p.m. Sept. 25. The meeting date was moved to accommodate Stoddard County fair week.
The existing sheltered workshop is hurting without the support of SB40, said Miller, and Sam Huey Jr., president of the existing workshop.
Huey asked SB40 to give the program $50,000 to make up for what has been withheld this year. Board members said that matter was not on the agenda, with Huey asking to be placed on the September agenda.
"We are hurting. You have about starved us out," said Huey. "You were giving us an average of $10,000 per month. We've got old trucks that are broke down. That's $80,000 you've withheld from us this year, for whatever reason you see fit."
McKay said she just wants to know where the money is going.
The existing workshop presented a one-page budget, with a line item for $315,000 in salary for the combined cost of approximately 40 clients and seven staff members.
Another $81,600 would be spent on insurance, taxes and employee benefits.
Supplies and building maintenance and operation would add another $140,500.
The existing workshop estimates expenses at $537,100 for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
They are asking SB40 for $191,100, to be combined with $160,000 from work production and $150,000 from the state department of education.
McKay said the salary expenses seemed high.
Requests have been made by citizens at Stoddard County commission meetings for 10 years of financial documents from the existing workshop.
"We can't get 10 years," Huey said, adding state agencies only require seven years.
He questioned what the existing workshop is required to release.
"According to the state law, to just hand that audit to anybody without a Sunshine request could be breaking the HIPAA laws," Huey said, adding later, "The only financials we have to give up is our audits and they've all been clean.
"You've got us at the wall and yeah, we're going to fight like tigers."
The Missouri Sunshine Law or open records law governs which documents public bodies are required to release and which records they are allowed to withhold from the public. It sets specific exemptions for which records can be kept closed, such as personnel, real estate and legal matters.
HIPAA laws protect the privacy of medical records and other health information.
It was unclear from the discussion what medical information would be included in an audit of the existing workshop.
Huey questioned the authority of SB40 to construct new buildings.
Hester also raised questions about how many of the people who have applied to work at the new sheltered workshop would qualify for state assistance.
The sheltered workshop receives funds from the state department of education for qualified individuals.
Mike McCollough, who has requested financial records from the existing program, said the county does not have to apply for the state funds.
"All you're talking about there is government reimbursement," McCollough said. "A facility can work .. as long as they are either getting funding through SB40, private funding or making money off those jobs, they can exist."
No decisions were made during the meeting and both workshop programs, as well as funding are expected to be discussed again in September.