[weishaupt1776]

*The top recipient was Commission Chairwoman Jewel Ware, who received at least
*$12,500. A typical commission campaign costs about $10,000.
*o The county can no longer borrow money without the state's permission
*because of a series of problems that began with $12 million in billing
*irregularities.
*o Taxpayers have footed the bill for at least $300,000 in overpayments to
*contractors.
*o The county has issued at least $20 million in no-bid contracts to care for
*youths since 2000.
*Many of the problems started under the administration of county Executive
*Edward McNamara. Some have been addressed by his successor, Robert Ficano, who
*took office in January 2003. But others are just now unfolding.
*"Has he cleaned it up? Probably," said Robert Wollack, chief executive
*officer of Wolverine Human Services, which owns youth lockups in Saginaw and
*Vassar. "They're working hard to get whatever's wrong right, but there's still
*stuff that can be straightened out."
*Arthur Carter, director of the county's Department of Children and Family
*Services, acknowledges problems, but says the $103 million program has improved
*care for the county's 3,400 delinquents dramatically.
*Seven years ago, about 60 percent of teens who committed crimes and were
*declared delinquents by juvenile courts were sent to lockups. Because of a state
*shortage of juvenile facilities, many were institutionalized out of state
*even for lesser offenses.
*Today, about 60 percent of Wayne County's delinquents -- who account for
*half the state's delinquent population -- serve their sentences at home, under
*the supervision of contractors. Only the worst offenders are sent to youth
*jails.
*The county maintains it has saved $10 million under the new system and cut
*recidivism rates. The system's cost is split evenly between the county and
*state.
*"This has been one of the county's most serious, complex problems. The
*problem stems from a lack of cash and trying to do with what you have," said
*McNamara, declining further comment.
*Former officials sue
*No one disputes the county is saving money under the new system, but Kelly
*and others wonder whether it's enough.
*Even with a privatized system that favors home treatment, Wayne County
*spends almost as much per youth as the national average for incarcerating one
*delinquent in a juvenile facility for a year. The county spends an average of
*$30,000 a year per youth to pay for drug tests, tethers, counseling, monitoring
*and, sometimes, youth detention.
*Nationally, the average cost to incarcerate a delinquent in a juvenile jail
*for a year is $35,000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
*"The amount of money thrown at the system and layers and layers of
*administration is astronomical," Brendan Dunleavy, the county's former auditor
*general, said in an interview with The News.
*Dunleavy, who was auditor general for seven years, is suing the county in
*state and federal courts, alleging his $152,000 contract wasn't renewed because
*he cooperated with the FBI on numerous investigations, including one about
*the juvenile justice system.
*Marlene "Willow" Hagans, the former deputy director of Children and Family
*Services, is also suing, alleging she was demoted after talking to the FBI and
*angering Ficano's campaign contributors by advocating reforms.
*Both lawsuits are in the discovery phase, in which lawyers gather evidence
*and take testimony from witnesses in depositions. On Friday, county attorneys
*filed a motion to dismiss Dunleavy's case.
*Hagans refused to comment, but The Detroit News obtained the depositions
*taken in both lawsuits. (Below is an excerpt of Dunleavy's deposition.)

*In their 2,500-plus pages, numerous allegations are made of millions of
*dollars in overspending; altered bills that charged taxpayers multiple times for
*individual youths; and retribution for officials who attempted changes.
*In a Jan. 13 deposition, Hagans alleges contractors went so far as to move
*youths from one school in a youth lockup to another during state audits that
*determined funding. She alleges she was hired to clean up the system, then
*demoted when she found numerous examples of billing for fictitious youths and
*overpayments to contractors.
*Ficano "knew something was wrong, but every time he sent someone over to
*determine exactly what was wrong, they were mysteriously removed," Hagans
*alleges in an April 4 deposition.
*Dunleavy had completed one audit of the system, was halfway through another
*and planned at least five more when his contract wasn't renewed last fall. At
*the time, commissioners said he talked too much to the media.
*In court papers, county attorneys claim Dunleavy alienated commissioners by
*politicking too hard for contract renewal and threatening to sue them.
*Dunleavy says commissioners were afraid of what he'd find. He alleges that
*one audit he started before he left office found $198,000 in billings for
*fictitious youths on July 31, 2004, one day before the county cut the budgets of
*providers.
*"They knew the information would be made available to appropriate
*individuals, including law enforcement," Dunleavy said.
*While the county declined comment on both lawsuits, Ficano's spokeswoman,
*Sharon Banks, said allegations of political favors to donors are "unequivocally
*a lie." So are accusations of fictitious youths, said Michael D. O'Connell,
*director of finance for Children and Family Services.
*"The (audits) are looking for something that isn't there" he said.
*Other findings in the audits -- such as no-bid contracts -- happened before
*Ficano took office, said Sue Hamilton-Smith, deputy director of children and
*family services.
*The Ficano administration was surprised by some of the costs when it took
*office, cut the budgets to providers, ended no-bid contracts and increased
*oversight, Carter said. The county is about to embark on yet another audit of the
*system this summer.
*Next year, the administration is reducing payments to nonprofits by $900,000
*to eliminate redundant services. A November audit found the county paid more
*than $100,000 in unnecessary drug and alcohol tests, including some for one
*teen who was screened 43 times in 16 months even though he never tested
*positive.
*"We didn't just bill for anything that we weren't directed to do," said
*Cynthia Smith, director of the Juvenile Assessment System, a Detroit nonprofit
*paid $5.2 million to assess the needs of teens after judges declare them
*delinquents.
*"Sometimes, there may have been misdirections, but it was always done with
*the best interests of the community and children."
*Accusations plague system
*From the start, the system has been dogged with conflict-of-interest
*accusations.
*Some providers had been in business with each other or served on the boards
*of directors of subcontractors, according to a 2003 report by Inspector
*General David Esper, Ficano's internal watchdog.
*The report also found multiple no-bid contracts. Like most counties, Wayne
*usually requires competitive bids on services to get the best deal for
*taxpayers.
*Esper's report criticized a $2.5 million contract awarded to a company
*co-owned by Evans and his brother, Blair, to manage the Blanche Kelso Bruce
*Academy, a charter school within the Calumet Center, a youth lockup in Highland
*Park.