FERGUSON SAYS HE'S TURNING OVER CASES

Former Cape Girardeau County public administrator John Ferguson insists he isn't holding out on the county when it comes to turning over cases to his successor.

A list supplied by Ferguson's attorney, John Layton, shows that the former public administrator has filed final paperwork with the circuit court in 47 of 101 cases he had at the year's beginning. In five other cases, the clients have died, the document shows.

"We are turning them over as quickly as we can," said Ferguson, who receives fees for each person whose financial affairs he handles.

But that doesn't sway county officials who still believe Ferguson is dragging his feet and may be trying to gain from his former elected position by holding onto the most profitable cases. The county commission threatened in May to sue Ferguson.

"We still have got concerns that the cases are not being turned over to the new public administrator," said 1st District Commissioner Larry Bock.

Ferguson denies it, but says he will continue to serve as guardian for those who ask.

The public administrator is assigned by the circuit court to handle the financial and personal affairs of disabled, incapacitated and deceased adults and cases involving minors. Ferguson continues to receive fees from the cases until they are turned over to the new administrator, Phyllis Schwab.

Ferguson already has been appointed by the court to continue to handle the financial affairs of one man who requested it. He said another four to six clients are making similar requests. It's up to the judge to decide, he said.

Ferguson doesn't understand the county's desire to speed up the transfer of cases since the county in most instances won't get any fees from most of those cases until next year, after Schwab has had the cases for a year.

"The county is not getting anything this year," said Ferguson.

County Auditor H. Weldon Macke said the county received $1,400 in fees this year from public administrator cases. But he agrees the county won't receive most of the fee money until 2002.

Under a new state law, the county is paying Schwab a salary of $42,458 regardless of how many cases she handles in her first year in office.

Dispute not new

Controversy over the changing of the guard isn't new to Missouri's public administrators. "It is a continual problem," said Vickie Keller, president of the Missouri Public Administrators Association.

Keller, who has served as public administrator in Andrew County in northwest Missouri for nine years, said some public administrators get angry when voted out of office. They don't want to help the new administrators, so they delay turning over the cases. "They hang onto them," she said.

Keller said she experienced that problem when she was elected. A judge threatened to jail her predecessor if he didn't turn over the cases to her, she said.

Ethics question

The county commission believes Ferguson would violate the state ethics law if he doesn't turn over all his former cases to his Schwab by the end of the year. The warning came in a May 14 letter to Ferguson from Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle and approved by the commission.

"It is morally and legally repugnant for you to be sifting through the public administrator caseload trying to keep the profitable cases for your own financial gain," Swingle wrote. He said state law prohibits a public official from using confidential information for financial gain.

Schwab says she isn't sure how many cases ultimately will be turned over to her.

To date, she said, over 40 of Ferguson's cases have been transferred to her. Some are still making their way through the court system.

Coupled with new cases, Schwab said she now handles the financial affairs of about 65 people.

Under state law, Ferguson can continue to serve as guardian or executor in each case until the anniversary date of when the case was assigned to him by the court.

Ferguson said he receives a fee, typically $300 to $500, only after the annual settlement of a case. He said there's no financial gain in holding up the final paperwork.

Ferguson said he made about $35,000 annually from fees paid from the assets of clients. He also received a $10,000 payment from the county in his role as public administrator.

Most cases involve people who don't have big estates. Ferguson said the largest estate he handled in his dozen years as public administrator was worth about $300,000. When his client died, most of her money went to the Cairo Public Library and the School of the Ozarks, he said.

In some cases, he said, clients have no money. Most of Ferguson's clients live in adult group homes and nursing homes.

Administrator transition

Schwab beat Ferguson in the Republican primary last year. Schwab defeated Democrat Mike Hurst in the November election and took office on Jan. 1.

Schwab initially requested that all the cases be turned over to her immediately after she took office. But Associate Circuit Judge Peter Statler rejected the idea. Schwab said the judge felt the court couldn't handle all the clerical work at one time.

At Schwab's request, Statler on Feb. 6 ordered Ferguson to turn over the cases throughout the year as each anniversary date arrived. The judge also ordered Ferguson to turn over any remaining public administrator cases by Dec. 29.

Layton, who also receives fees for his legal work on Ferguson's cases, said the settlements involve a lot of clerical work and reconciling bank accounts. It's not just a matter of signing a form.

"It's a clerical impossibility to do it any different than we've been doing it," said Layton.

The document provided by Layton shows that Ferguson turned over some cases months early or within days after the anniversary date. In other cases, he didn't file his final settlement reports until nearly four months after the anniversary dates.

County officials hope everything will be worked out by year's end without having to go to court.