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State
Director of Disabled Quits
Financial management under fire
Edward W. Lempinen, Chronicle Staff
Writer
Thursday, August 28, 1997
©2004 San Francisco
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URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1997/08/28/MN9753.DTL
Sacramento -- The top executive in Governor Wilson's Department of Developmental Services resigned under fire yesterday, leaving the $1.5 billion agency in turmoil over mounting charges of financial mismanagement and inadequate care for the developmentally disabled.
Director Dennis G. Amundson informed Wilson's office Monday that he would leave at the end of September for a job in the private sector. He announced his resignation to department administrators yesterday morning.
From his appointment in February 1991, Amundson had endured charges that inconsistent state care had allowed high rates of health problems, abuse and neglect for Californians with mental retardation, autism, cerebral palsy and other disabilities. But the criticism intensified this year.
In a series of special reports, The Chronicle detailed how a department policy that transferred more than 2,000 severely disabled people from state hospitals to community homes had been linked to escalating death rates and medical emergencies.
Advocacy groups, the California Medical Association and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein called for a moratorium on the transfers, but Amundson rejected the pleas.
And in an audit now under way, federal Medicaid officials reportedly have discovered serious problems in the department's client care and financial management.
Still, the 58-year-old executive retained vocal allies in both political parties and among some disabled advocacy groups, and the Wilson administration supported him steadfastly.
``We're disappointed that Denny is departing,'' Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said yesterday. ``He has been a man of integrity and has served honorably and always to the best of his ability.''
Amundson could not be reached for comment. But one source familiar with his resignation said that he had wearied of the controversy.
``I think the stress and strain with regard to his day-to-day management of the department, particularly in light of a lot of the media attention, has taken a toll,'' the source said. ``He figured that it would be better for the sake of his health and his family to move on.''
Critics reacted cautiously to the announcement but expressed hope that Amundson's departure would herald major changes in the Wilson administration's policies on the developmentally disabled.
``Along with our fellow advocacy groups, we look forward to working with (the administration) to develop a system of services for the developmentally disabled that will make California proud, not ashamed,'' said Barbara Turner, president of a statewide advocacy group.
Amundson has been a pioneer in California's developmental services system, working with the Legislature and Governor Ronald Reagan in the 1960s to reduce reliance on state institutions and create a complex system of community care.
In 1990, shortly before Amundson was named director of the agency, a group of parents filed suit demanding that the state create more community residences so their children could leave the state hospitals. Amundson's department settled the lawsuit in 1993 by agreeing to move 2,000 state hospital residents to community homes within five years.
For many, the transfers brought new freedoms and opportunity. But when researchers based at the University of California-Riverside warned that death rates in community care were far higher than for comparable patients in the institutions, Amundson's department disputed the findings, attacked the researchers -- and accelerated the transfers.
Meanwhile, mismanagement and financial problems in the regional centers brought the system to a state of near-constant turmoil. Families, staff members and care providers rebelled, claiming administrative failures were leading to breakdowns in care.
Last week, The Chronicle reported that the department's system for tracking client deaths was so unreliable that the state had paid regional centers hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide care to hundreds of dead clients.
Late last year, Amundson offered a modest set of reforms, but critics saw his proposal as too little, too late.
Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said a national search would be conducted for a new director.
Some critics, however, predicted that little would change without extensive changes at the department.
``There needs to be a clean sweep,'' said one department staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ``As long as the old guard is at the top, it's going to be pretty much business as usual in terms of secrecy, defensiveness and denials.''
But some longtime foes of Amundson were hopeful that a change in leadership would help end years of confrontation with the department. And that may lead to a fundamental change in state's care for the disabled, said Dan Western, a lobbyist for one parents' group and for staffers at the state hospitals.
``In my mind, one of the impacts
of this era is that we may have to rethink how we take care of developmentally
disabled people,'' he said. ``I think we should look at all kinds of options.
Other states out there doing new, innovative things, and we need to look at
that.''