OCSE DIRECTOR DAN MCDONALD USES RESOURCES OF OFFICE FOR PERSONAL USE.

In a previous post information was detailed regarding misuse of public funds by OCSE director Dan McDonald (see post dated October 16, 2014, OCSE Director Abuses Travel Funds). 

Further investigation has revealed that McDonald has also used the facsimile machine in his office and long distance services to send personal documents unrelated to his performance of duties or in connection with his employment.

McDonald should be held accountable for his actions and should be removed from his position.

OCSE WASTES FUNDS ON GIVEAWAY ITEMS

According to documents obtained from the Office of Child Support Enforcement, since 2010 OCSE has spent over $30,000.00 for promotional items such as pens, keychain flash lights, clips and plastic goodie bags to be given away mainly at the Arkansas State Fair.

Why does the OCSE need to waste tax funds for promotional items?  Couldn’t these funds be better used applied towards additional positions?  A large number of complaints were recently featured on several Facebook pages of local television stations and featured in on-air newscasts about lack off and extremely poor service by OCSE (see previous posts).

From emails obtained it appears that when DFA Deputy Director Tim Leathers saw all the OCSE swag at the Arkansas State Fair in 2012, he did not recall approving their purchase (DFA procedures require an approval letter from him for such items).  Subsequent emails indicate that the required approval for 2012 purchases was not given prior to the purchase of the items even though this had been an issue in 2011.  Additionally the keychain flashlights were junk and fell apart easily posing a possible choking hazard to children.  Twana Porter, Manager of Communications and Outreach for OCSE,  was so concerned about the cheap quality flashlights she purchased being a possible choking hazard, that she told Sharon Pojar, the purchasing supervisor at the time, she “will not be using them for our outreach activities”.  When Porter was contacted by this blog about what happened to the unusable flashlights, she refused to answer or comment.  The question of what happened to the flashlights that cost $2,275.00 remains unanswered at the time this post was published.

Also in 2012, Pojar asked other OCSE employees “Can we refuse the keylites? We do not fell [sic] they are a save [sic] item to dispense to the public”.  In another email Pojar berated the performance of a subordinate, Chad Bland, who apparently failed to follow established procedure regarding purchase orders which appears to have resulted in errors in orders.

A previous post revealed that the OCSE NPOWR! program spent almost a million dollars and has a failure rate of over 75%. The NPOWR! Program spent close to $5,000.00 for stationary and envelopes alone.  In the real world the NPOWR! Program would have been shut down long ago as the services it purports to offer are already being provided by the Department of Workforce Services and it is a failed program.

How long will the people of Arkansas and their elected officials allow this agency to continue in this manner?  It’s long past time for a change in leadership at the Department of Finance & Administration and the Office of Child Support Enforcement.

2012 Documentation

2013 Documentation

2014 Documentation

OCSE Disbursements

Emails about promotional items - Part 1

Emails about promotional items - Part 2

Emails about promotional items - Part 3

Sharon Pojar email about flashlights

Sharon Pojar email berating Chad Bland

Emails about approval letter for purchases

Twana Porter emails about flashlights

SEARCY OCSE REFUSES TO REVIEW PAYMENT RECORD WITH NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT

On October 30, 2014, Pam Lunsford, Child Support Supervisor I at the Searcy OCSE refused to review child support payment history with a non-custodial parent telling him that a recent judgment obtained by OCSE "makes anything before it invalid".

The judgment obtained by OCSE in fact "validates" the payment history which allowed OCSE to obtain a judgment for alleged missed payments. Lunsford's obsurd utterance is unfortunatley a typical response of an OCSE worker.

When confronted with possible errors made by OCSE, instead of admitting the mistake or trying to resolve the matter professionally, Lunsford refuses to answer a simple question saying "We can't give you an answer you will understand" insinuating the non-custodial is stupid.

Gary Tackett, OCSE Field Manager, looms over non-custodial parent.

Searcy OCSE video link

Lunsford gets our vote for best Grumpy Cat imitation

COMPLAINTS ABOUND ABOUT OCSE IN FACEBOOK POST

Numerous individuals voiced complaints in a post made on the Facebook page of the CBS Little Rock affilate KTHV today.

Last month the ABC Little Rock affiliate KATV ran stories and had several Facebook posts regarding complaints about the Arkansas Office of Child Support Enforcement.

Hopefully, the newly elected Governor will clean house at the OCSE to ensure that the agency is rid of its incompetent leadership and ineffective, wasteful programs.

KTHV Facebook page

UPDATE TO JULY 31, 2014 POST

An email chain between Dan McDonald and his DFA bosses reveals that McDonald and others liked the photo of McDonald bearing it all used on a flyer promoting this blog.

Click to view document

OCSE DIRECTOR MAKES OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENTS

In a video produced for the questionable NPOWR! program, OCSE Director Dan McDonald claims that single parent homes are causing children to live in poverty and that noncustodial parents that are unemployed and cannot make child support payments are not deadbeat parents, but deadbroke parents because they are uneducated and emotionally broke. Perhaps "Deacon" McDonald needs to step down as Director and step behind the pulpit.

Click to watch the OCSE video

OCSE WASTES FUNDS ON INEFFECTIVE PROGRAM

The Office of Child Support Enforcement’s NPOWR! Program has cost taxpayers almost a million dollars, mostly in employee salaries, since 2008.  The 90 day program has a failure rate of over 75% but OCSE still wastes taxpayer’s money in a failed duplicative program.  According to OCSE the NPOWR! Program is “a partnership with the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) that offers noncustodial parents employments placement and readiness services”.

In fact the NPOWR! Program is nothing more than a boondoggle and a gross waste of state employee salaries that could be used to fund other needed positions.  If a noncustodial parent received unemployment benefits prior to being “accepted” into the NPOWR! Program, they have already used the exact same DWS services that the NPOWR! Program utilizes.  The only benefit for the noncustodial parent is that the OCSE defers punitive options such as driver’s license suspension, for the 90 day period, but OCSE could do that without the NPOWR! Program if they so desired.

This is another reason Dan McDonald should be fired and perhaps  Richard Weiss, the Director of the Department of Finance & Administration, and Tim Leathers, the Deputy Director, should be removed for allowing this terrible waste of taxpayer funds to exist in their agency.

Watch the Video Production that cost you $10,000.00

OCSE NPOWR! employees and salaries

Examples of OCSE wasteful spending

NPOWR! Monthly Reports

NPOWR! expenses

THOUSANDS AIR COMPLAINTS ABOUT OCSE

Little Rock television station KATV aired stories on October 30, 2014 and October 31, 2014 in which thousands of Arkansans detailed complaints about the Arkansas Office of Child Support Enforcement.

The majority of complaints concererned caseworkers and the apparent lack of training, nonexistant interpersonal skills and extremely poor customer service. Many called for OCSE Director Dan McDonald to be fired.

There is pressure from the Federal government for state child support agencies to take on visitation issues.  There are merits to this movement as the child support agency is looking out for the interest of the children, not the parents.  The Arkansas Office of Child Support Enforcement needs new leadership to fix the current problems with the agency and prepare to meet the challenges of the future.

KATV Facebook Post

http://www.katv.com/story/27171555/child-support-six-parents-six-ideas

http://www.katv.com/story/27164525/child-support

KATV / OCSE Emails

KATV ASKS PUBLIC FOR COMMENTS ABOUT OCSE

KATV asked their Facebook users to make comments about the Arkansas Office of Child Support Enforcement and then ran a story about what the public had to say about the OCSE.  KATV is sending old Dan McDonald the comments and has requested information about complaints made to OCSE.

There are hundreds of complaints posted by custodial and noncustodial parents about OCSE caseworkers and bad experiences with OCSE.  The issues range from lazy caseworkers, delayed receipt of payments to false information reported to credit bureaus. There are several comments that even ask for old Dan McDonald to resign.

KATV News Story

KATV Facebook page

Old McDonald at his "farm"

OCSE DIRECTOR ABUSES TRAVEL FUNDS

Documents reveal that OCSE Director Dan Donald used state funds to pay for hotel stay in Colorado with his wife.

Recently obtained documents indicate that OCSE Director Daniel G. McDonald used the state to pay for a five day stay at the Denver, CO Sheraton, in 2012 costing taxpayers $1,119.15. McDonald also used an "Executive" car service to get around Denver, also at the taxpayers expense. Not only did he fleece the taxpayers, he cheated the Denver Sheraton out of a double occupancy rate. McDonald also received 2090 Starpoints!  McDonald should do the right thing and reimburse the state for one half of the amounts he charged on his expense report.

McDonald Travel Documents

Complete List of OCSE Employees And Salaries

OCSE Employee List with Position and Salary

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rQ0dlNnVGbWhRcGc/edit?usp=sharing


You can check on any Arkansas state employee at these sites:

http://www.arkansas.gov/directory/

http://transparency.arkansas.gov/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.arkansasonline.com/right2know/statesalaries/

OCSE Attorneys That Have Been Investigated By The Office Of The Committee On Professional Conduct

This is a list of current OCSE attorneys that have been the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Committe on Professional Conduct and been found to have committed a violation of one or more of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

(1) Catherine P. Dean. Dean was charged with misconduct and was found to have commited six violations.  Dean failed to on two ocassions to complete a guardianship case (but she did take $500 from the client); Dean failed to keep the clients informed and avoided contact with them.

UPDATE 3/3/15.  Dean has left the OCSE and is now a part-time deputy prosecuting attorney in Mississippi County. Let's hope she can handle the work load there, she sure had issues with that at OSCE. link to her new job

Dean Documents: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rSTI0aF9NQlE1Zzg/edit?usp=sharing

(2) Mark L. Ross.  Ross was charged with misconduct and was found to have overdrawn three separate bank trust accounts on the IOLTA attorney trust. These type of accounts are only for funds that belong to a client and are not the attorneys own funds (hence the separate account).

Ross Documents: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rRXR0dWM5WEsxX2s/edit?usp=sharing

(3) Susan G. Jones.  Jones was charged with misconduct and was found to have commited three violations.  Jones  took $440 to handle a divorce proceeding and avoided contact with the client for about seven months.  Jones finally did what she had been paid for after the client threatened to take action against her.

Jones Documents: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rRjNqUXUxWDBEWmM/edit?usp=sharing


Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct:
https://courts.arkansas.gov/rules-and-administrative-orders/%5Bcurrent%5D-arkansas-rules-of-professional-conduct


You can check to see if any attorney in Arkansas has been investigated and found to have committed an infraction at this site:
 https://courts.arkansas.gov/administration/professional-conduct/opinions

OCSE Employee Derides Vendor

In July 2013, OCSE had to purchase official badges for two of its employees that are Special Police Officers, that actually function as process servers,  after one of the OCSE employees was caught wearing a North Little Rock Police Department Badge and using the rank/title of lieutenant while performing his official duties.  This same process server left a note when serving notice of a hearing that if the person being served did not call him back a warrant would be issued for their arrest (see blog post entitled "OCSE Process Server Uses Bogus Badge").

In documents obtained from OCSE about the badges, an email was provided in which Lanita Bateman writes about dealing with two employees of Cruse Uniform & Supply, who she mentions both have support cases, and she offers assistance to them in regard to their child support cases to get badges purchased ( a violation of DFA code of ethics).  Bateman then makes derogatory and inflammatory comments about their perceived intelligence “Combined IQ of the two might be in the low 50’s”.

Bateman , who by the way does not possess any type of certification or license to perform psychological examinations nor does she have a license to practice law in the State of Arkansas, all but calls two employees of Cruse Uniform & Supply retarded.

Bateman exhibits her unabashed and derogatory bias towards the mentally retarded and her frustration in dealing with vendors of her agency that she feels are beneath her intelligence level.  This type of behavior by a public employee is unacceptable and unprofessional.

document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rdWRoTERJZFltdTQ/edit?usp=sharing

"Doctor" Lanita Bateman, "Esq."

OCSE Process Server Uses Bogus Badge

In June 2013 Ken Cross, an employee of OCSE who main job function is a process server, was caught wearing a North Little Rock Police badge and signing documents as “Lt. Cross” and threating to have people arrested if they did not call him.

Cross retired from the North Little Rock Police Department in 1997 at the rank of lieutenant. Cross was initially not chosen for promotion to lieutenant in 1982. Cross filed a lawsuit against the NLRPD about not being promoted  which went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1984 (One Justice said it looked like the NLRPD did not want to promote Cross and another stated that Cross was at the bottom of the list).  After retirement Cross held jobs with trucking companies until when 1999 OCSE was able to offer process server positions.  NLRPD has confirmed that Cross would have been able to keep his NLRPD badge due the rank he held upon retirement.

After OCSE received a complaint about “Lt. Cross”, they purchased Cross a badge and told him to stop using his former NLRPD rank.

OCSE tried to cover up and minimize Cross’ deceptive tactics, but his actions of pretending to be something that he was not and threating bogus warrants was/is despicable and behavior that damages the reputation of and undermines the public trust in DFA/OCSE. 

documents: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rYmdsVzZmNWJobGc/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rbXhDb3lHQ2x1UkU/edit?
usp=sharing

"Lt." Cross wearing his old NLRPD issued badge

Arkansas OCSE Issues Apology for Harassing Families of Dead Children

In January 2008, Dan McDonald, the director of the Office of Child Support Enforcement, had to apologize to Governor Mike Beebe after his agency sent approximately 1500 notices, bills and letters threatening legal action to deceased individuals or parents of deceased children.

Governor Beebe sent a scathing letter asking for answers to McDonald after his office received a barrage of complaints about the "mistake".

Internal communications about the incident obtained provide some comic relief:  

"A little something we may have forgotten with our billing on closed cases...deceased customers" (10/29/07 email from Gwen Terrell to OCSE administrators).

"We should zero out fees on deceased members" (10/29/07 email from Dan McDonald in reply to Terrell's email).

"Exclude all dead people from State tax (intercepts) because they cannot receive notice of the offset"; "Don't send the annual reminder letter to dead NCP's"; Don't send billing coupons to any dead person" (10/30/07 email from Mary E. Smith administrators).

documents: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rVU80T29wUmpLYWc/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rc0RwUkhUQTVMMEk/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rNDgtOW9sdkJiaDA/edit?usp=sharing

Dapper Dan McDonald

document:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6bAeBjaZ__rMFNMamJOZ0tmTGM/edit?usp=sharing