The executive director of a group-home company who expensed Caribbean cruises, luxury SUVs and meals while making $135,275 in salary is being placed on leave while the board of directors investigates the business practices, his deputy and a board member said yesterday.
Joseph Skariah, founder and executive director of Evershine Residential Services Inc., will go on administrative leave June 1 and will be temporarily replaced by Bonnie Meeks, the assistant executive director, Meeks said.
Meeks expressed doubt that the board would find problems with Skariah's management during its investigation, but also hope that she could make significant changes before he returned to the tax-exempt company. She said her first order of business would be adding board members with a background in child welfare. None of the five directors has such experience, except Skariah's wife, who also works at Evershine.
"We are going to make some changes, and it will be a lot better organization," said Meeks, who has spent more than 20 years working with disabled adults and children, the past six years at Evershine.
"And we're never going to have a Cadillac SUV either," she added, referring to one of the sport utility vehicles that Skariah had expensed.
The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee recently scheduled hearings on reforming - possibly consolidating - state regulation of children's group homes in response to a recent investigation by The Sun of Evershine and other companies. The state Department of Human Resources hopes to add as many as five inspectors to the eight who inspect the homes.
Skariah had proposed taking a leave last week, Meeks said. At Sunday's hourlong board meeting at company headquarters in Owings Mills, she said, it was unclear which board members - and how many - agreed with the chairman's suggestion that Skariah go on administrative leave because there was no vote, just nodding.
The directors did not discuss whether Skariah would be paid during the leave, said Meeks, who is day-to-day manager of the company's group homes scattered across western Baltimore County.
"I think the board thinks this will be a quick investigation and bring him back," she said.
Neither Skariah nor Vijayan Charles, a surgeon from Greenbelt who was said to be the current board chairman, returned calls. Charles would lead the investigation, Meeks said.
The board was responding to the newspaper investigation documenting that several owners of group homes used state funding to pay high salaries, rents and other expenses to themselves, relatives and friends without state regulators knowing or checking.
State laws and regulations permit the practices, giving boards of directors much authority to oversee the finances.
In 2002, Skariah expensed a $24,000 sexual-harassment settlement. He and his wife, Lillykutty Joseph, rent houses to Evershine for $32,400 a year. She also receives a $74,813 salary from Evershine for what former employees have called a light-duty job.
Norris West, a spokesman for the Department of Human Resources, said the agency supported any changes that would improve the quality of care at Evershine.
"For us, the matter is not who is in charge, but how it's taking care of children and what changes it's making to comply with our standards. Our concern is for the children," West said.
DHR licenses 10 Evershine homes housing 26 boys. The department pays the company $104,115 a year per child.
Evershine pledged to make improvements after DHR inspectors visited in February and reported concerns from current and former staff members about improper care, lack of staff to cover all shifts and "retaliation for reporting inappropriate behaviors of staff" to management.
Maryland licenses 330 group homes housing 2,700 children. The state pays the homes $157 million a year to take care of foster children, delinquents and the medically fragile. Various agencies set the rates, place the children in the homes and license and monitor the facilities.
After an interview with the newspaper in the fall, Skariah moved to reconstitute a board that its former president has said was ineffective. New board members include a resident of one of Evershine's group homes for disabled adults, Meeks said.
Dorothy Shuford, the 63-year-old mother of a longtime Evershine resident, said company staff members asked her to join the board late last year, and she has attended the three meetings since.
Because she never learned to drive, Shuford said, Skariah has been driving her to the meetings.
A Baltimore housewife with a high school equivalency diploma, Shuford said her 23-year-old son has been living in the group home for almost six years because he has cerebral palsy, mental retardation and complex medical needs that she cannot handle with her bipolar condition.
She said she expected the inquiry to clear Skariah of any suggestion of wrongdoing. "It's not the Dr. Joe I know and the Evershine I know."
For previous articles on this issue, go to baltimoresun.com/grouphomes.
Joseph Skariah, founder and executive director of Evershine Residential Services Inc., will go on administrative leave June 1 and will be temporarily replaced by Bonnie Meeks, the assistant executive director, Meeks said.
Meeks expressed doubt that the board would find problems with Skariah's management during its investigation, but also hope that she could make significant changes before he returned to the tax-exempt company. She said her first order of business would be adding board members with a background in child welfare. None of the five directors has such experience, except Skariah's wife, who also works at Evershine.
"We are going to make some changes, and it will be a lot better organization," said Meeks, who has spent more than 20 years working with disabled adults and children, the past six years at Evershine.
"And we're never going to have a Cadillac SUV either," she added, referring to one of the sport utility vehicles that Skariah had expensed.
The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee recently scheduled hearings on reforming - possibly consolidating - state regulation of children's group homes in response to a recent investigation by The Sun of Evershine and other companies. The state Department of Human Resources hopes to add as many as five inspectors to the eight who inspect the homes.
Skariah had proposed taking a leave last week, Meeks said. At Sunday's hourlong board meeting at company headquarters in Owings Mills, she said, it was unclear which board members - and how many - agreed with the chairman's suggestion that Skariah go on administrative leave because there was no vote, just nodding.
The directors did not discuss whether Skariah would be paid during the leave, said Meeks, who is day-to-day manager of the company's group homes scattered across western Baltimore County.
"I think the board thinks this will be a quick investigation and bring him back," she said.
Neither Skariah nor Vijayan Charles, a surgeon from Greenbelt who was said to be the current board chairman, returned calls. Charles would lead the investigation, Meeks said.
The board was responding to the newspaper investigation documenting that several owners of group homes used state funding to pay high salaries, rents and other expenses to themselves, relatives and friends without state regulators knowing or checking.
State laws and regulations permit the practices, giving boards of directors much authority to oversee the finances.
In 2002, Skariah expensed a $24,000 sexual-harassment settlement. He and his wife, Lillykutty Joseph, rent houses to Evershine for $32,400 a year. She also receives a $74,813 salary from Evershine for what former employees have called a light-duty job.
Norris West, a spokesman for the Department of Human Resources, said the agency supported any changes that would improve the quality of care at Evershine.
"For us, the matter is not who is in charge, but how it's taking care of children and what changes it's making to comply with our standards. Our concern is for the children," West said.
DHR licenses 10 Evershine homes housing 26 boys. The department pays the company $104,115 a year per child.
Evershine pledged to make improvements after DHR inspectors visited in February and reported concerns from current and former staff members about improper care, lack of staff to cover all shifts and "retaliation for reporting inappropriate behaviors of staff" to management.
Maryland licenses 330 group homes housing 2,700 children. The state pays the homes $157 million a year to take care of foster children, delinquents and the medically fragile. Various agencies set the rates, place the children in the homes and license and monitor the facilities.
After an interview with the newspaper in the fall, Skariah moved to reconstitute a board that its former president has said was ineffective. New board members include a resident of one of Evershine's group homes for disabled adults, Meeks said.
Dorothy Shuford, the 63-year-old mother of a longtime Evershine resident, said company staff members asked her to join the board late last year, and she has attended the three meetings since.
Because she never learned to drive, Shuford said, Skariah has been driving her to the meetings.
A Baltimore housewife with a high school equivalency diploma, Shuford said her 23-year-old son has been living in the group home for almost six years because he has cerebral palsy, mental retardation and complex medical needs that she cannot handle with her bipolar condition.
She said she expected the inquiry to clear Skariah of any suggestion of wrongdoing. "It's not the Dr. Joe I know and the Evershine I know."
For previous articles on this issue, go to baltimoresun.com/grouphomes.
