Staff changes underway at Greenville disabilities agency

By Charles Sowell  

MAY 31, 2012 10:37 a.m. (6)

Greenville lawyer David Holmes’ contract as attorney for the defunct Greenville County Disabilities and Special Needs Board has been terminated by the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, agency spokeswoman Lois Park Mole told the Journal this week.

“State DDSN’s attorney reviewed the contract with Mr. Holmes and determined it could be terminated with 30 days notice,” Mole said. “Holmes has been sent a letter notifying him of this action and he has 30 days to turn over all materials related to Greenville DDSN matters.”

In a related development, Mole said on April 30, former Greenville DSN interim director Patrick Haddon submitted an emergency requisition for $7,500 to pay a legal retainer for then-board Chairwoman Roxie Kincannon in regard to a possible lawsuit against Chris Clark, author of a critical 2011 audit that raised eight “areas of concern” about a lack of accounting controls and potential ethics violations the auditor said could damage the DSN board’s credibility.

The check was made out to Columbia lawyer Curtis Dowling and signed by Haddon. The lawsuit plans were dropped and Dowling has since returned the check to Holmes, who has 30 days to return it with the rest of the materials relating to the Greenville DSN, she said.

Mole also said there has been a shakeup among the Greenville agency’s top staff.

Of the eight positions that reported to Haddon, two have been changed: quality assurance is now being filled by state DDSN staff, while finance is being handled on a contract basis with the Charles Lea Center in Spartanburg.

State DDSN officials have placed a link on the DDSN webpage to keep families with members served by Greenville DSN informed on coming events, said Mole.

“This is a very short-term solution,” she said. “We hope to have the local DSN website up and running soon.”

The Greenville DSN website was taken down shortly after Haddon took control at the agency and has not been up since.

In addition, the Journal has confirmed through minutes provided to County Council that former Greenville DSN board chairwoman Connie Holmes set in motion the series of votes that led to her own, short-lived contract as a nursing consultant last year. According to the minutes, Holmes maneuvered a change through the board’s finance committee in 2010 to raise the ceiling on then-executive director Brent Parker’s ability to execute contracts from $15,000 to $75,000. She was chairwoman of the DSN board at the time.

Minutes from the Aug. 26, 2010, finance committee meeting show Holmes spot-appointed June Kellam to the committee because a quorum was not present. The committee then voted to raise the contract ceiling.

Holmes left her position as chairwoman in November and was replaced by Kincannon. In December, Holmes was awarded a contract for $72,000 as a nursing consultant. The contract was dropped after it was questioned in the 2011 audit as being duplicative of duties already assigned to current staff.

Comments

Add New

Harold Smith  - wow   |2012-05-31 15:53:41 Seems like it just keeps getting better and better. Thank you Greenville County Council for having a unanimous vote to disband the GCDSNB. Now that SCDDSN has stepped in, the mess that was left from the previous board and all of those un-qualified replacements can now be cleaned up. I still can't seem to figure out what the motive was with those folks. Oh well, I'm sure there will be no more meetings that never happened. Thank you SCDDSN. Reply

Barbara Gambrell  - Unsung heroes at GCDSNB   |2012-06-04 05:42:33 I would like to acknowledge all the dedicated staff at the agency who continued to give great care to those people in their charge during all this drama of the Board et al. It should be noted that under very stressful conditions, the quality of care has not suffered despite what Mr. Haddon reported to the County Council to justify his and the Board's actions. The staff that go to work everyday (from accounting to direct care staff)do so without any other agenda than to just care for the consumers. Reply

marvin nelson jr  - comment   |2013-06-18 11:11:10 sounds like some of these people should be professionally sanctioned and not allowed to serve in any function for any south carolina tax supported agency. their pensions or any financial gains through bonus payments should be immediately withdrawn and subject to be returned to the state. just another of the self serving attitudes and actions of state employees. why do they have to drive suv and other luxury cars. look at the city of spartanburg...they drive small white ford cars with the appropriate organizations name on the vehicle for immediate identification...eliminate some of the useless "perks" and hire people that feel it is a great honor to serve the citizens of this state...greenville seems to have problems everywhere with the school boards to the disability boards. the greenville citizens need to wake up and find out which idiot is responsible for these abuses. prison sentences would seem to stop... Reply

marvin nelson jr  - COMMENT: CONNIE HOLMES   |2013-06-18 11:15:36 CONNIE HOLMES SHOULD BE STRIPPED OF HER HEALTHCARE LICENSE AND NEVER ALLOWED TO SERVE IN A HEALTCARE FACILITY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. SHE SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR HER CONTRACTUAL AND FINANCIAL MALFEASANCE. CONNIE HOLMES WAS BEING SELF SERVING IN HER ATTEMPT TO GET THAT CONTRACT DECEITFULLY. Reply

marvin nelson jr  - roxie kincannon   |2013-06-18 11:22:41 SOUNDS ASTHOUGH ROXIE WAS TRYING TO HIDE SOMETHING FROM THE TAX PAYERS. WHEN AN AUDITOR FINDS EIGHT "AREAS OF CONCERN" OLD ROXIE TRIES TO SUE.....I GUESS TO COVER HER INCOMPETENCE. SHE SHOULD BE PROFESSIONALLY SANCTIONED AND RAN OUT OF THE STATE ALONG WITH OLD CONNIE. DECEITFUL, SELF-SERVING,MALICIOUS, STATE EMPLOYEES. WITH PEOPLE LIKE THESE TWO IN THE STAT NO WONDER S.C. RANKS SO LOW IN STATS OF THE 50 STATES. THIS DOES MAKE OUR STATE LEADERS LOOK LIKE IDIOTS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT WHEN A GOVERNOR VANISHES FOR DAYS TO BE WITH HIS LOVER AND ISNT IMPEACHED AND STRIPPED OF HIS RETIREMENT OR STATE BENEFITS...GOOD OLD BOY AND GIRL POLITICS....GET OUT ROXIE AND CONNIE. Reply

cheap uggs  - http://www.mysteriousplanet.net/mybolg.php cheap l   |2013-12-20 16:55:06 Gan Pingzh link:http://compsac-2012.cs.iastate.edu/compsac.p hp eng operation of law must be careful link:http://compsac-2012.cs.iastate.edu/compsac.p hp , this matrix method relates to whether the safe return of bell soul, never sloppy, although it has seven locks spiritua link:http://www.rapidascent.com.au/main/EntryProc essPaymentResult_M1M.asp l matrix array figure this assistance, but in the end the law must still be done to yourself, positive law must be a road into the arr Reply

Leave a Comment
Comments are moderated and may not be posted immediately.
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."