Head of Norfolk agency with no-show worker gets $21K bonus

NORFOLK

The executive director of the Norfolk Community Services Board will be paid a $21,700 bonus to her $115,000 salary. The salary boost follows a $15,000 bonus she received last year, a report released Tuesday showed.

The move puts Maureen Womack in an exclusive group: The city did not give any department heads a pay raise or bonus this fiscal year unless they were assigned as an acting assistant city manager, according to Nancy Olivo, Norfolk's director of human resources.

Womack's agency came under scrutiny last year after it was learned that the CSB paid a suspended administrative worker for 12 years who faced allegations of having a weapon at work and illegally disclosing medical information about a patient who was HIV-positive. Womack reported the status when she found out, but she is now being sued for defamation by two former workers she forced out over the scandal.

The CSB's board of trustees voted Feb. 8 to give Womack the bonus based on a report by a committee that worked without publicizing its meeting. A meeting of such a committee without public notice is illegal under state law.

Jack Cloud, a deputy in the Norfolk City Attorney's Office who assists the CSB, said he is "taking steps" to ensure the board complies with open meetings law.

That information had been made clear to the CSB on Nov. 9, when an assistant city attorney visited the agency and briefed board members on the Freedom of Information Act and gave them documents explaining it.

Lewis J. Taylor, the board chairman, accepted responsibility, saying he didn't know meetings of specialized committees required public notice. He was one of four CSB board members on the "ad hoc" committee that created the report.

Future meetings will be publicized, he said.

"That was my mistake and we'll correct that," he said.

City Councilman Tommy Smigiel said he was shocked and angry the board flouted the law. "It causes me to have doubt in that organization. I already had some concerns, but that raises more concerns for me," he said.

Taylor said the CSB's board believes Womack is doing "an excellent job managing the CSB over very challenging conditions." The agency provides drug and mental health services to the poor.

No one has explained why Jill McGlone, the 12-year no-show former employee, was neither fired nor put back to work. The CSB paid an estimated $320,000 to McGlone before Womack found out and stopped the payments; McGlone has said she is cooperating with an FBI investigation.

Womack, who has been executive director for two years, fired or forced out five employees in September who she said knew about McGlone's no-show status.

The CSB gets money from the city, state and federal governments. At least one City Council member says the city should study bringing the agency under Norfolk administration. Currently, the council appoints the CSB's board members but exercises little oversight.

A special review conducted by the state following the no-show debacle found "significant deficiencies in internal controls" at the CSB as of September 2010, and recommended about 10 changes. Among problems: Some spending was not transparent, and annual evaluations were not being turned in for every employee, as required by policy.

Randy Sherrod, the auditor, told the Norfolk CSB in January that the problems weren't unusual: "A lot of these are what I find at other CSBs." He said Womack's responses to the state report, if implemented, would meet his requirements and that he plans to check back around July.

Taylor said the problems were long-standing: "Essentially, Maureen inherited these weaknesses from the previous administration."

In an e-mail, Womack said she was "humbled and grateful for the recognition that the Board of Directors felt I deserved."

The last year was difficult, she said.

"We have lived the pain of negative publicity, been the subject of multiple audits, implemented significant regulatory changes and health care reform, faced difficult budget constraints and retooled the service delivery..."

The committee's report also said Womack deserved more money because she is modernizing financial management practices and is not making as much as directors of large, urban community services boards in Virginia, who average $142,691.

The $21,700 bonus is to be paid by March 1 and come from Community Services Board reserve funds, the report said. The agency's annual budget is about $25 million. The reserve fund contains operating expenses for approximately three months, Taylor said.

Because of potential budget cuts, it's unknown if CSB employees will get raises this year.

Pilot writer Harry Minium contributed to this report.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com

Norfolk Community Services Board Report

Review of Norfolk CSB by Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services