Cape Girardeau County will wait to appoint disabilities board members

The Cape Girardeau County Board of Developmental Disabilities has functioned since July with just five members and last week recommended an applicant to fill one of its four openings, but the county won't make any appointments until ongoing legal issues are resolved.

County commissioners formally reviewed on Thursday the application of Tom Gibbons, a Cape Girardeau optometrist who has a son with high-functioning autism. In his cover letter to the county he said his son has benefited from services and that he feels an obligation to help others.

Gibbons' is the first application to be formally recommended by the board to the county, but it is the fifth the county has received since last May, according to county records. Ronald Kucera Sr., Bill Ramsey, Doug Morrison and Sandra Coyle submitted their letters of interest directly to the commission.

Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said Thursday that the county is glad to have board input and will meet with Gibbons and any other applicants to assess their qualifications.

The disabilities board is a volunteer board responsible for distributing county tax funding to provide services for people with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. According to ballot language that established the levy in 1975, the money is allocated specifically to establish and/or maintain a sheltered workshop and residential facility.

The county has been reluctant to appoint board members to control that funding amid ongoing litigation between the board and the only sheltered workshop in the county, VIP Industries Inc.

The board paid between $400,000 and $600,000 annually to VIP in recent years, but a dispute over how the money was tracked and spent caused the board to stop payments. VIP Industries filed a lawsuit against the board in March 2011, and the board countersued in July. Two trial dates were postponed, and a new date has not been set. Mediation was discussed as a possibility, but no agreement has been reached.

In September, the commission voted 2-1 to cut the levy in half, reducing yearly funding from about $870,000 to about $435,000. Tracy and Associate Commissioner Paul Koeper said they disapprove of the tax dollars being used for lawyer fees instead of being spent to help those with disabilities.

Tracy said the county will fill the board's vacancies when its legal battles have been settled.

"We look forward to some resolution in this arena," Tracy said.

In the meantime, the board has just enough members to have a quorum. Twice since July, absences from the monthly meeting caused the board to be unable to take action on any board business.

Board chairman Larry Tidd said there is no requirement for how often members must meet, but that having so many openings does compromise the board if someone is absent due to sickness or other reasons.

"It's a little more difficult to have a quorum because you have to have everyone there." Tidd said.

The county's role in appointing members and filling vacancies is outlined in state statutes, which say the county "shall appoint a board of directors consisting of a total of nine members, two of whom shall be related by blood or marriage within the third degree" to a person with developmental disabilities and "four of whom shall be public members."

Tracy said the statutes do not specify a length of time by which the county must fill vacancies.

"We will do so as we move forward," Tracy said. "We will appoint people."

salderman@semissourian.com

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