Public administrator draws complaints, praise w/ related documents

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

Guy Sesler, of Joplin, said staff members of the Jasper County public administrator’s office rarely checked on him and stalled his attempts to be released as a ward.

Jean Blackwood, mother of Gareth Blackwood, of Joplin, said court action on July 12, 2006, that made her son a county ward came with no attempt to contact the family.

And Sue Holle and Billie French said the public administrator’s office moved Rebecca Clark, their developmentally disabled relative, four times in a 16-month period. She finally ended up in a nursing home in St. Louis, but it was difficult and costly for family members to visit her, they said. She died there in February. After she died, Holle said Public Administrator Rita Hunter told her Clark was no longer her responsibility.

“She said she wouldn’t claim the body, and I shouldn’t either, because whoever does will have to pay the bill,” Holle said.

Hunter has responded in writing to these complaints and others from wards and relatives, based on written questions from the Globe that were directed through the office of John Podleski, attorney for the public administrator’s office.

The treatment of a 95-year-old woman and the arrest of her daughter on a kidnapping charge are the subjects of lawsuits against Rita Hunter, her attorney and an area physician. After Delores Forste was arrested for “kidnapping” her mother, Emma France, in 2007, some wards and family members of wards began contacting the Globe with complaints about the office.

In addition to the family members of Sesler, relatives of Gareth Blackwood and Rebecca Clark contacted the Globe with their information. The cases of Oscar Close and George Collins, which appear later in this story, were based on letters of complaint found in probate files.

‘She worked really hard’

Globe attempts to follow up on allegations in the France lawsuit prompted complaints from Hunter, who said the coverage was unfair and that no attempts were made to question people pleased with services of the office. Attempts to reach Hunter prior to the stories met with mixed results. She did not respond on several occasions and more recently has referred questions to her attorney in Springfield, who declined comment.

At the Globe’s request, Hunter, last week, supplied names of several who praised services of her office.

A woman whose finances are handled by Hunter’s office also contacted the Globe to praise the county operation, which she described as “a lot more organized and modernized” under Hunter.

Pam Hankins, of Joplin, called the Globe and cited Hunter’s efforts on behalf of her clients, saying the administrator’s office worked hard to find new lodging for Jasper County wards after the fire three years ago at a group home in Anderson. Twelve wards of the office were living at the home when the fire occurred.

“She worked really hard relocating people after the fire,” Hankins said. “And when the state cut Medicaid benefits, she went to Jefferson City and testified against it.”