Fresno County's Genesis contracts at crossroads

County will decide Tuesday whether deals worth almost $5 million should end.

Published online on Wednesday, Jun. 03, 2009

Supervisors will decide Tuesday if Fresno County should end its contracts with Genesis Family Center, a decision that could crush the troubled nonprofit social-service agency.

The four contracts, worth almost $5 million a year, would have automatically renewed June 30 if county staff had not brought them back to the Board of Supervisors.

Criticism by supervisors who questioned Genesis spending practices recently led the county's Children and Family Services director to stop placing children in Genesis group homes and foster homes.

After Genesis founders Elaine Bernard and Carol Dela Torre were convicted of embezzling the agency's money last year, Genesis moved a county-funded program into pricey Palm Avenue offices, at more than twice the rent of the old location.

Also last year, the agency hired Bernard's live-in boyfriend, and approved the lease of a new BMW for Bernard and salary raises of about $25,000 apiece for her and her sister, Dela Torre.

Anna Marie Remedios, chairwoman of the Genesis board, said the agency has provided the services specified in the contracts and should be allowed to continue. The contracts are for mental-health services and substance-abuse treatment.

Group homes and foster homes accounted for most of the agency's revenues in 2007, according to an independent audit of Genesis. Except for a group home in Madera, all of the agency's homes are in Fresno County, the audit says.

Thus, Tuesday's decision could mark the end of Fresno County support for the agency, seven years after the District Attorney's Office publicly announced it was investigating Genesis for embezzlement.

Asked if Genesis could survive without the county's support, Remedios at first said that the agency would make it. But she later complained that the board's decision "could bring an organization down."

Supervisor Judy Case said she's ready to end the county's relationship with Genesis. She said she will vote to terminate the contracts.

"I don't know that I can ever support this agency," Case said. "We need to have our money spent on kids, not on luxury offices and other high-end items."

Supervisors Susan Anderson and Phil Larson said Thursday that they haven't made a decision about the contracts because a staff report about the request had yet to be released. Anderson and Larson said they're concerned about how Genesis operates.

Supervisors Henry Perea and Debbie Poochigian did not return calls Thursday.

If the board terminates the contracts, the county will ask agencies to submit proposals for the contracts, Behavioral Health director Giang Nguyen said. Genesis could submit proposals, she said.

Depending on the contract, the county must give Genesis between a month and four months notice before termination. Nguyen said she's confident the county can find other providers without disrupting services to patients.

Nguyen said she will not make a recommendation about how the board should vote.

"I have mixed feelings," she said.

She said she has been concerned about Genesis since the June 2008 convictions of Bernard and Dela Torre. Like county supervisors, Nguyen said she has been upset by more recent revelations, including the move of the county-funded program to a higher-rent location and the hiring of Bernard's boyfriend, former Fresno City Council Member Ken Steitz. Steitz was hired in March 2008 as a housing director for a program for troubled youth.

At the same time, Nguyen said, many Genesis employees provide quality care, and she worries about switching patients to different providers.

Remedios and other Genesis board members have met privately with some supervisors, attempting to improve the agency's image.

They're scheduled to address the board Tuesday. The presentation was scheduled because Larson refused to hold a private meeting with Genesis.