Kentucky officials say nearly $83,000 of federal and state funding for the Department of Aging and Independent Living could have financed a lot of help for people in the region – more than 11,000 home-delivered meals, almost 2,000 hours of home management services or about 2,000 hours of personal care services.

The Barren River Area Development District is fighting DAIL’s claim that $82,976.14 it authorized in across-the-board bonuses to its employees from 2009-14 was a disallowed expense.

Bowling Green attorney David Broderick on Wednesday sent a letter with pages stacking up to a half inch from BRADD to DAIL to fight the claim. BRADD Executive Director Rodney Kirtley has said no services were denied and the money for the pay raises couldn’t be used for services since it was in the administrative part of the grants. He told Ron Sowell, chairman of the new South Central Kentucky Workforce Board, last week that he expects BRADD to prevail in the legal challenge.

Documentation shows the money came from the following programs: Kentucky Family Caregiver, National Family Caregiver, Kentucky Homecare, Kentucky Adult Day, Kentucky Personal Care Attendant, Title III, State Health Insurance Assistant Program, Aging and Disability Resource Management, a program that DAIL could not identify, Money Follows the Person program, Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Doug Hogan, a spokesman for DAIL and Commissioner Deborah S. Anderson, said Thursday in an email that $82,000 in fiscal year 2013 could have provided more than 11,000 home-delivered meals, almost 2,000 hours of home management services or about 2,000 hours of personal care services.

“The services listed are services that BRADD had a waiting list for in 2013,” Hogan said in the email. “These services are to be provided to individuals who are age 60 or older who are residing in the community. Home delivered meals are meals that are delivered to an individual’s home when the individual is unable to safely prepare a meal on their own. Home management services are provided to individuals who need assistance with preparing meals, shopping for personal items, managing money, using the telephone or doing light housework. Personal care services are provided to individuals who need assistance with eating, dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring from a chair to a bed or walking.”

BRADD officials say the money could not have been reprogrammed because of time constraints.

Broderick said in his letter to Anderson that BRADD could take the action based on federal law, namely “compensation for personnel services includes all remuneration, paid currently or accrued, for services rendered during the period of performance, including but not necessarily limited to wages, salaries and fringe benefits.”

Broderick said Anderson cannot use Section 3 of the Kentucky Constitution as the reason for disallowing the expense.

That section says “no grant of exclusive, separate public emoluments or privileges shall be made to any man or set of men, except in consideration of public services.” An emolument is “the returns arising from office or employment usually in the form of compensation or perquisites,” according to Merriam-Webster.com.

While BRADD fights the DAIL claim, its performance in the workforce services arena continues to come under fire.

The Daily News has reviewed compliance reports from the state from 2014-16 and found the state reviewers issued several findings against the agency.

None are serious. State Auditor Mike Harmon recently told the paper that $1.3 million in workforce money, which showed up as unreconciled in an audit by his department, was a mistake by the state workforce agency in reconciling its books and not BRADD’s. Harmon, who spoke last week at the 2nd Congressional District GOP Convention, said his concern in the nearly $83,000 in money that BRADD shifted to bonuses was if services had not been delivered.

Looking over state compliance reports 

When working for the government, sometimes matters are just black and white – take the compliance reviews the state of Kentucky does annually on the BRADD workforce operation.

Sharon Woods, BRADD workforce director, said Wednesday that the state of Kentucky workforce officials told the BRADD that in redacting their workforce documents a black marker could be used to hide the personal information. However, when the state came in during 2014 to see if the BRADD was doing its job, it cited BRADD for a security violation involving personal information.

Woods said BRADD has since used a stamp to redact the information and that approach has been sufficient for the state. 

Compliance reports requested by the Daily News show 27 documented issues with how the BRADD has helped local residents find employment. BRADD officials contend the issues have been resolved and that they are finding people jobs every day as area industries have announced a series of expansions that stretch back to the fall of 2015. Officials in the private and public sectors have expressed concerns about BRADD’s performance.

BRADD’s job One Stops, called the Kentucky Career Centers, in Bowling Green and Glasgow, are evaluated in the reports. The agency’s youth program, in which a major employee was fired the morning of a state evaluation, Woods confirmed, was also reviewed. That firing occurred in a program year prior to the 2014-16 reviews.

Think of BRADD being scrutinized for everything from where records are kept to the aforementioned black markers policy. The evaluators were to determine if program goals were being met and whether the programs operate in compliance with the law.

The 2014-16 compliance reports show the 27 findings over the two-year period. A finding is where the review panel sees something it believes to be amiss when weighed against applicable law, relevant Office of Management and Budget circulars, uniform administrative requirements and local policies and procedures. BRADD is given an opportunity to correct the finding, similar to the process undergone with audits, and state workforce officials weigh in with their observations.

Findings were found in multiple years. One finding was a customer interviewed his wife to determine job appropriateness and the other finding was the breach in security of personal information – the black markers.

A visit was made to the Bowling Green Kentucky Career Center, 803 Chestnut St., on Oct. 28, 2014. The center served about 502 participants and received roughly 305 calls per week. A visit to the Glasgow center, 445 North Green St., was Oct, 28, 2015. The center there served 250 customers per week.

The most recent comprehensive compliance review, dated Jan. 4 of this year, showed eight additional findings, which included gaps in service to clients, issues with documentation in cases, and other paperwork policy issues that appeared in the previous reports.

— Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.