THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040465
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
Before coming to Virginia, state Corrections Director Ronald Angelone presided over a prison system whose medical division paid its doctors for time they did not work, reimbursed doctors for travel against state regulations, entered into contracts of ``questionable value,'' and intentionally split contracts to avoid state scrutiny, an internal audit of the division found.
Angelone, chief of the Nevada Department of Prisons from 1989 to 1994, ``exceeded his authority in granting full-time compensation for part-time employment,'' according to the audit by Nevada's Division of Internal Audits.
``Management correspondence indicates that this was accepted practice for certain employees,'' the report said.
But a letter, released by the auditor as evidence of that claim, does not specifically outline such an arrangement. Written by a prison psychologist who also worked as a psychology professor in Fresno, Calif., it instead asks for approval ``for the work I do in Fresno, Ca.''
Angelone said Thursday that the audit was ``sloppy'' and inaccurate. The letter he approved was a routine request for secondary employment, he said. It was not a request for full-time money for part-time work.
``I have to assume the auditor must not have known what that piece of paper was, and that he just made his own assumptions, not knowing that every employee that has a second job must have that signed,'' he said. ``I signed about 300 of those a year, approving or disapproving requests to take a second job. The auditor never called me for clarification of the audit, or explanation, or verification of what was in the audit.''
John P. Comeaux, who oversees Nevada's Division of Internal Audits, conceded that auditors ``maybe should'' have talked to Angelone. But, he said, his auditors ``did not have any axes to grind. They based their conclusions on what they saw in black and white.''
Angelone himself ordered the audit of the medical division before leaving Nevada for Virginia in the spring of 1994, he said.
``When I was ready to leave, I was approached by my financial director, John Neil, who said, `We need to have an audit in medical because there may be some improprieties,' '' Angelone said. ``I said, `Fine.' I leave there in April. They do the audit in January.''
The results of the audit were released July 6. Among the findings: Of 25 contracts in force at the medical division, one violated the department's nepotism regulations, nine were intentionally split to circumvent review from the state's Board of Examiners, and seven did not include documentation of the required bidding process.
In June, the two people in charge of the division left their jobs. The director, George Kaiser, retired. The mental health director, James Michael Nelson, was fired for not cooperating with the auditors. Another psychologist also refused to cooperate with the audit and was put on administrative leave.
The audit prompted an ongoing investigation into the medical division by the Nevada Department of Investigations. David Alfred, a senior criminal investigator in charge of the case, describes a system in which health care workers milked the department for money and benefits while providing little care to inmates.
``Dr. Nelson had hired his little loop of people - most of them from California - that he knew, and they were given special benefits,'' said Alfred.
``They did not work a 40-hour week. A lot weren't even working as much as four hours a week, and they were making anything from $64,000 to $100,000 a year. We had one psychiatrist who lived in Las Vegas and his duty station was in Carson City. According to him, he would work four to six days a month. And he charged us for airfare and accommodations. I found out he wasn't even working here two or three days a month.''
The supervising psychologist at one of the prisons lived and worked full time in California while also holding down a full-time job at the department of prisons, Alfred said.
``If you were going to boil it all down and put it in one lump, it's just a lack of administrative control,'' he said.
``The administration continued to let people get away with what they wanted to get away with, and it just got completely out of control. I mean, there were people being paid who never even showed up for work.''
Angelone supervised Kaiser, who in turn, supervised the medical division and Nelson.
``We're talking about professional people,'' Angelone said Thursday.
``You don't have to look over their shoulders. . . . (Nelson) worked 500 miles away from the central office. You do this by timesheets, and you can only assume that the timesheets are being filled out properly.''
Nelson, Angelone noted, was instrumental in convincing a federal judge to end a 17-year-old consent decree dictating mental health treatment in the Nevada prison system. ``He did that in two years,'' Angelone said.
But Alfred, the investigator, said the division had ``fooled'' the federal court monitor appointed to oversee mental health treatment.
``I talked to Angelone in March or April,'' he said. ``When I laid out to him what our investigation had revealed at that point, he was very, very upset. He said he couldn't believe someone would pull the wool over his eyes like that. He was really upset with the federal court monitor because, at the time, the state was paying him $1,000 a day plus expenses.''
Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, whose office will prosecute if anyone is charged criminally as a result of the investigation, said Thursday that her office has ``enjoyed a good working relationship with Ron Angelone'' for five years.
``I talked to my staff members, and my understanding is that Ron called our office right after the audit came out and said that he was very upset with the report that he authorized the payment for part-time work,'' said Del Papa, whose office currently represents Angelone in two lawsuits involving the dismissals of former employees.
In Virginia, Angelone's boss, Secretary of Public Safety Jerry Kilgore, indicated Thursday that he also has a good working relationship with Angelone.
``I have confidence in Director Angelone, and we're not involved in the Nevada audit, and we weren't informed about it until today,'' Kilgore said.
``. . . He's doing a good job here in Virginia and a good job for us. Certainly, anyone could have someone working under them that doesn't follow the rules or jump through the right hoops. And hopefully, that's what the Nevada officials will determine.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
THE ALLEGATIONS
HIS RESPONSE
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB