By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Fees charged by Rita Hunter, Jasper County public administrator, are many times higher than those levied by her predecessor. They also are many times higher than those levied by other public administrators in three similarly-sized Missouri counties.
Hunter’s staff also is larger than the combined staffs of the public administrator’s offices in Boone, Franklin and Buchanan counties, and revenues taken in by Hunter’s office — $226,001 so far this year — nearly equal the combined revenue collected by her counterparts in those same three counties.
The fees and the staff are necessary, Hunter said this week, but the daughter of one of Hunter’s Jasper County clients said she is “amazed” by some of the charges.
“I really believe this is all about money,” Delores Forste, the daughter of Emma France, said before she was arrested last month.
Forste, 67, has been in jail in California since Nov. 20 on a Jasper County warrant that alleges Forste kidnapped her mother when she took her from Carthage to her home in Needles, Calif.
France, 95, said she wanted to leave Jasper County after she was hospitalized and then made a ward of the public administrator, both against her will.
Public administrators are appointed by the probate court to serve as guardians for mentally disabled people when there is no one else available to serve. Their responsibility is to ensure the proper care of the person and to protect their assets against waste and theft.
Administrators also can be appointed to oversee the allocation of the estates of the deceased when relatives are in dispute, or to serve as a conservator for minors.
The probate court approved Hunter’s petition for payment of $3,457 for services for France from April 12 to Sept. 27. That included about $1,300 billed for activities by the office after France was in California.
A comparison to those same three counties — Boone, Franklin and Buchanan — found that each of those public administrators charges a 5 percent maximum fee, rather than $75 per hour as Hunter charges. That would have netted $138.76 if charged against the $2,775.15 in France’s bank account, and a total of $648.56 if it also included the $10,196.10 in a mutual fund.
“It’s Rita Hunter that wants my money,” France previously told the Globe.
But according to court records, France and her daughter were estranged, and Forste had allegedly taken financial advantage of her mother — an accusation that France denies.
Records submitted to the probate court asking that the public administrator be named France’s guardian also said there was no knowledge of any other children or relatives. Documents submitted at the same time by the Missouri Division of Senior Services noted a daughter “not willing to become involved,” and a handwritten note on later records cited a daughter but called her “estranged.”
For her part, Hunter has said Forste had been contacted by her office “multiple times, but she wouldn’t come.”
$150 trip
Hunter also defended a $150 charge reported recently for a May 30 trip described in her records as picking up France and taking her to the grocery store and then back home.
“There was two of us, a deputy and me. We spent several hours and we also took her to the bank and Wal-Mart and back and forth,” Hunter said. “We didn’t even charge the actual cost.”
Hunter compared her office charges — $75 per hour — to those levied by the Greene County public administrator’s office. She said the fees are needed to pay costs including the eight workers on her staff, and said she’s proposing the addition of two more employees for 2007.
“I could use more workers, but we don’t have the funding,” she said. “We’ve got about 500 cases; that’s one of the highest caseloads in the state.”
The Greene County public administrator’s office does charge $75 per hour for administrative duties, but the charge for clerical work is $35 per hour, while Hunter charges $75 per hour for all work done by the office.
And according to the probate court, the Jasper County administrator’s office has fewer cases — 388 — than the 500 Hunter claimed, though Hunter may be involved in additional cases not assigned by the court.
$670 vs. $5,096
A review of cases in the Jasper County probate court also shows fees charged by Hunter far exceed those of Janice Tusinger, the previous public administrator, even though the operation then was run as a “fee office” meaning Tusinger paid her salary and most other costs out of the fees collected from the estates of wards of the county.
The operation shifted to a salaried position when Hunter took office in 2003. Now, she gets the same $59,000 per year as most elected officials, and charges collected by the office go into the county’s general fund and costs are paid from it.
Tusinger, who had 352 wards when she left office in 2004, ran the operation using fees set by statute and collected from clients, normally a rate of 5 percent of a client’s income. She also bought all the office equipment and supplies, and paid the salary of one worker, while the county supplied office space and paid the salary of two workers. County revenues paid $38,172 toward office operation her last year.
A sampling of cases in probate court files that spanned both Tusinger and Hunter’s tenures showed a vast difference in charges.
For example, Tusinger charged $670 in annual fees for services to Ruby Walker, while Hunter charged $5,096; for William Gandy, fees went from $494 to $3,378; for Dorothy Witeka, fees went from $488 to $2,670; and for Sharon Stevens, fees went from $350 to $3,630.
Hunter said her fees are approved by the probate court and that not all fees assessed are collected, depending on the income of the client.
“We don’t keep any of that money; it all goes to the county. And in most cases, we’re not able to collect all we bill for because they (public administrator clients) don’t have that kind of money,” she said. “The court decides what’s reasonable.”
There have been instances where wards of the administrator, when represented by their own attorneys, have successfully challenged Hunter’s fees.
In one instance where Hunter was serving as a personal representative for a minor and sought fees of $3,279, a fee of $1,800 was found reasonable by the court.
In another, where she was serving as public administrator and sought fees of $4,312, the court approved $2,600.
The same ruling, however, rejected arguments that Hunter be removed as guardian on grounds that she had wasted or mismanaged assets in the estate.
Hunter said her office bills for services regardless of whether they are able to collect all of it, in case additional money is available later. She said the office gets no money from nearly one-third of its clients.
The office also does not charge for all the services it performs.
“Like when we’re selling a house and we get a call on it, we don’t charge for that,” she said. “And there will be times when clients will call 15 times in a day, and we won’t bill on all of them.”
However, in one case where fees where challenged, court documents show a ward was charged $240 for one day of services — a $15 charge for each of 16 calls made to the office in November 2006.
Hunter said the fees and staffing are necessary because the office had demands around the clock and some of the cases she handles are “problematic.”
She said a growing portion of her caseload is younger clients as a result of methamphetamine abuse.
“We get a lot of people who end up here after they have come for medical care and then they have to have someone to make decisions for them,” she said. “I get calls all day and night. It’s a seven-day a week job, but I knew that when I ran,” she said.
Setting priorities
When a guardian is appointed, the court is to consider, as first choice, any eligible person nominated by the ward; then a spouse, parent, adult child or sibling or other close relative; then any other eligible person.
Source: Missouri Revised Statutes
