Editor’s Note: This continues our Celebrate Community series on Santa Rosa County nonprofit organizations that improve our quality of life.
MILTON — Despite $300,000-plus fines and fees the Arc of Santa Rosa owes to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, the Arc of Florida and Arc of Emerald Coast leaders say they are committed to continuing local services.
The Arc of the Emerald Coast currently leases the building the Arc of Santa Rosa owns but the latter organization must sell it to pay the state, which wants the matter resolved within a year.
The Arc of Florida Executive Director Deborah Linton, along with Arc of the Emerald Coast CEO John Roper, met Thursday to explain how the Arc of Santa Rosa ended up owing the state money, which options are available, and what the future may look like.
Linton said when an Arc organization provides the services it does, funding goes through the Medicaid Waiver Program, which requires certain paperwork, training and background screening requirements.
“There can be serious financial consequences for missing documentation,” Linton said to residents with family members who receive Arc services. Because of some of these missing items, the AHCA levied the Arc of Santa Rosa over $300,000 in fines and fees. To meet this cost, a judge ordered the Arc of Santa Rosa to liquidate its assets, namely, its building.
After the Arc of Santa Rosa’s dissolution, the Arc of the Emerald Coast stepped in to continue services for Santa Rosa County participants, the only local place with adult day training programs for residents with special needs, according to Linton.
“The Arc of Emerald Coast has committed to (keeping) services in this community,” Linton said.
She said the state wants the matter resolved within a year, but the Arc of Florida is already trying to raise funds in the community and secure donor commitments.
“I think it’s going to be up to your local community to work to do it. The relief is not coming from the state. But I was very encouraged as I talked to several local people … who understand how important these services are,” Linton said.
Roper, who stepped into his job at the Arc of Emerald Coast two months ago, said, “We’ve never looked at closing down these services. That was never something we were going to do. We’re not going to quit doing services until they put us out of the building; the building sales; the building forecloses.”
Linton said if the building forecloses, the debt would fall on the Arc of Santa Rosa, not the Arc of Florida or the Emerald Coast since all entities are separately incorporated.
“If worse came to worse and we couldn’t get this building, we would maybe reach out and try to find another facility in this community and keep providing services,” Roper said. “We want to be in Santa Rosa and we don’t want anything to happen to our clients over here.
“We’re not making money over here. We break even. It’s about who’s here … We’re not through with this building yet.”
Linton said, “We’ve picked plenty of fights in our life and we lived to tell the story another day … We’re going to be around. And this is a fight we’re willing to join in and I’ve got other members around the state that are willing to join in, too.”
While Linton and Roper expressed optimism that services for those with cognitive, intellectual and developmental disabilities would continue in Santa Rosa County, at least one father did not feel completely assured.
Gene Bolek’s 28-year-old daughter requires the programs the Arc of the Emerald Coast provides in Santa Rosa County. He said he hopes the Arc of Florida and Emerald Coast can keep the program running, “but it’s not a done deal.”
“Melissa did not do these things wrong,” Bolek said. “The people who are being served here did not do these things wrong. To take away from these people who need these services the most is horrible …
“When you start saying you have to have fundraisers. We have to do this. We have to do that just to keep this program open, it’s not right.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: ‘We’re not through … yet’