Commissioners Unaware of Investigation of Head Start Director As County Administrator Pushed to End Funding For Head Start & Transfer Administration to WISD
Information about the outside investigation was shared with commissioners “after the fact” and after commissioners had voted to eliminate county funding for Head Start. One commissioner asks whether the County’s funding for and administration of Head Start were ended in order to allow the Head Start Director to “quietly retire.”
THIS NEWSPAPER’S analysis of credit card charges made by Washtenaw County employees between 2011 and 2013 revealed multiple instances of charges for luxury lodging, meals out and even a $1,846 trip to Waikiki by former Head Start director Patricia Horne McGee, who earned $95,347 when she retired at the end of 2011. Credit card receipts revealed that Ms. McGee had taken eight trips months prior to her December 2011 retirement.
In response to questions from The Ann Arbor Independent, a Washtenaw County official confirmed that Washtenaw County Administrator Verna McDaniel was Patricia McGee’s direct supervisor. Ms. McDaniel also confirmed that it was she who would have approved Ms. McGee’s travel.
However, in a recent phone interview Ms. McDaniel said she was unable to remember whether or not she had approved any of the eight trips Ms. McGee took in 2011. Ms. McDaniel said: “I would not have had a problem approving her (Patricia McGee’s) trips because it was federal money.”
In March 2014, The Ann Arbor Independent interviewed Ms. McDaniel about the county’s travel policies, credit card policies and per diems. During that interview, when told that the newspaper’s analysis had turned up multiple trips to Las Vegas, Ms. McDaniel did not register surprise. However, when asked about McGee’s trip to Waikiki, McDaniel’s reaction was one of surprise.
“Waikiki?!?” she replied. “Well, I don’t know about that.”
In a subsequent interview, Ms. McDaniel reaffirmed that authorization for county employee travel is not required to be submitted in writing, but rather permission may be given “verbally.”
The Chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, Yousef Rabhi, when asked whether there should be a written record of travel requests and approval said, “I think it’s worth looking into.”
Verna McDaniel, when asked the same question said, “We probably could tweak all of our policies.”
Rabhi, who has served on the BOC since 2011, said he had “no idea” that travel requests made by county employees and the approval of those travel requests did not require permission to be given in writing.”
In the case of Patricia McGee, this means there are no written records of why she took eight trips over the course of eight months—twice taking more than one trip in a given month.
Ms. McDaniel, in speaking to The Ann Arbor Independent, said that “Head Start encourages attendance at conferences.”
An official from the National Head Start Association said that while program directors are encouraged to take advantage of professional development opportunities, attendance at eight conferences in a single year is neither recommended nor required by federal Head Start officials or the association.
In April 2011 the National Head Start Association held its 38th annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Ms. McGee’s credit card records indicate she paid for a $1,248 stay at the Merriott in Kansas City in April.
Ms. McGee was not the only county employee to charge taxpayers for stays at luxury accommodations and/or resorts.
Mechelle Hardy, a management assistant in the county’s Information Technology Department, earns $54,500 per year. Between November 20-25, 2013 credit card records indicate Hardy made multiple purchases at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Hardy charged one cab ride on November 20 and another on November 25. She purchased meals and Starbuck’s at the Luxor Hotel and Casino on November 20, 22 and 25. Credit card records show Hardy purchased airplane tickets on Delta Airlines on November 18 ($25 and $50 charges), November 21 ($25 charge), November 22 ($100 charge, which was refused by county officials). On November 25, Hardy used her county credit card to pay $125 to Metro Airport Parking.
On February 3, 2014 Ms. Hardy used her county credit card to pay for a $330 charge at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
County Administrator Verna McDaniel, at the request of an Ann Arbor County Commissioner, prepared a 4-page report concerning the travel and credit card charges discussed in the March 11 front page article. In her report, Ms. McDaniel did not include any information about trips made by the former Washtenaw County Head Start Director Patricia McGee.
Ms. McGee’s trips began in April 2011 with a trip to Kansas City, Missouri. The next month she charged $1,846 for a stay at the Sheraton Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii. In June 2011, McGee used her county credit card to charge $867 for a stay at the Hilton in Dedham, MA. and $606 for a stay at the Westin in Providence, RI. In September 2011, taxpayers paid for a $663 for a stay at a Holiday Inn in Georgetown. One month later, Patricia McGee’s county credit card was used to pay a $1,427 charge for a stay at the Marriott in Washington, DC and a $242 for a stay at the Hilton in Columbus, OH.
In October, 2011 the county’s Human Resources Department launched an investigation of McGee and her senior management assistant Lovida Roach in response to unspecified “allegations,” according to a source within the county.
When asked about the investigation, Verna McDaniel said it was “an employee-related matter,” and said she couldn’t remember why the investigation had been initiated. She also added that the McGee investigation was one of “very few” which had resulted in allegations being confirmed.
On December 13, 2011 Ms. Roach was put on leave in the morning, and McGee was put on leave around 5:30 p.m. the same day.
In January 2012, a county official told a reporter that the allegations against Ms. McGee had been “founded” and that information from the investigation would be released to the public.
Verna McDaniel confirmed that the findings were never released.
“We don’t release findings from outside investigations to the public,” she said. “We don’t have to tell the public.”
A county commissioner, upon hearing Ms. McDaniel’s assertion groaned and said, “Verna really said that? Of course we have to release information to the public about how we spend public money. We don’t get to pick and choose, even when releasing the information might embarrass somebody.”
County Commissioners were not apprised of the investigation of Ms. McGee or her administrator, Lovida Roach, until after the fact. This means when Commissioners voted in 2011 to discontinue funding for Head Start by 2013, the group had no knowledge that the program’s director was under investigation by an outside agency hired by the county’s Human Resource Department.
One commissioner said, “The case that Verna made to the Board was this: ‘We’re not in the business of education.’ We were advised that it would be in the best interests of everyone involved to eliminate county funding and transfer Head Start to the control of WISD. There was never any mention of any investigation of Pat McGee.”
Another county employee with knowledge of the situation said that information about the investigation, as well as the findings were kept under wraps.
The County Administrator confirmed that between 2011 and 2014 Washtenaw County has used public money to conduct investigations “of around 20” county employees in response to a variety of allegations. No details of any of the investigations or the findings from those investigations have ever been released to the public.
A county commissioner suggested that the “real issue here is whether the Head Start program was discontinued rather than deal openly with the Pat McGee investigation.”
Verna McDaniel strongly denies any suggestion that Washtenaw County cut its administrative and financial ties with the Head Start program to quietly allow Patricia McGee to retire.
“Pat McGee had a very clean record on her audit,” said the County Administrator. “Pat, on her own, decided that she was going to retire and when she was going to retire. Changes to the county’s health insurance program prompted many to retire.”
Yousef Rabhi said he “argued at length” against the elimination of the Head Start funding and the suggestion that the county cut ties with the program and pass its administration on to the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.
Rabhi was not the only County Commissioner upset by the move. Ypsilanti Commissioner Ronnie Peterson spoke out angrily about the proposed cut. Peterson accused county officials of playing “politics with children.”
At an October 21, 2011 BOC meeting, Peterson said: “If you say children come first, you stick by your conviction.” Peterson also said he had been left “out of the loop on discussions about passing off Head Start to the WISD or another organization.”
“I’m a sitting commissioner and I did not know that discussion was taking place,” he said. “I have been left out of the loop, and that’s nothing unusual, but I’m pretty upset about it.”
He accused fellow county officials of having had “secret back-room discussions,” which he characterized as “mean, cruel and offensive.”
When the decision was made to discontinue the county’s funding and administrative control of the Head Start program, Ann Arbor Commissioner Conan Smith was Chair of the BOC.
When asked what the BOC might do if it were revealed that the County Administrator had recommended that Head Start be transferred to the WISD rather than reveal potentially embarrassing details unearthed by an outside investigation of the Head Start director, BOC Chair Yousef Rabhi said, “I would hope that’s not the case.”
The Ann Arbor Independent submitted a Freedom of information Act request for a copy of the report compiled by the outside agency concerning allegations against Patricia McGee.
