Longtime mental health board director given $154,000 in forced ouster

In the end, Jacqueline Martin got $154,000 to just walk away.

The former executive director of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County had enjoyed a long and seemingly unblemished career when she resigned last month - a resignation, records show, that was forced after a management coach hired to work with Ms. Martin quit after five months with no progress.

"It was a trigger," said David Schlaudecker, chairman of the mental health board and interim director. "I looked at it as a turning point, as a trigger. What did the coach see that we as trustees needed to act on?"

In fact, Ms. Martin's problematic management style had been laid out in at least two reports to the board - the first, an employee audit conducted in 2007 after the merger of the former Alcohol and Addiction Services Board with the mental health board and the second in an analysis last year of the agency's operations by a review committee assembled by Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken.

Its scathing report - an eye opener for many on the mental health board - and the subsequent attempt to remake the executive director through management coaching led trustees in April to give Ms. Martin an ultimatum: resign or be fired.

Last month, she resigned.

In a 9-0 vote, the board approved a package worth nearly $154,000 that will keep Ms. Martin on the payroll, though not at work, through Feb. 28, 2011.

"Although this is not cheap, I think it is as amicable a way to depart as we could hope for and is the best for the system, the staff, and the trustees," Mr. Schlaudecker wrote in a May 3 e-mail to Ms. Martin's attorney, Kevin Greenfield. "This will allow us to effectively move on immediately."

Mr. Gerken said the review of the mental health agency - and subsequent shake-up - was long overdue.

"We waited too long. It was a process that needed to be done and done at a high level without political interference," he said.

Ms. Martin has devoted a lifetime to substance abuse and mental-health programming.

With a master's degree in social work from the University of Michigan, Ms. Martin was first a social worker at the Toledo Methadone Clinic and then executive director at Drug Abuse Counseling Services before spending 14 years with the former Substance Abuse Services Inc., where she was clinical director.

She was hired in 1994 as an associate director at the county mental health board by longtime director Thomas Wernert, and, by all accounts, Mr. Wernert groomed her to take over the agency that now oversees $60 million a year for mental health services.

"Jackie has learned quickly about the board; her ability to acquire new knowledge has been excellent. Her learning curve has been superior," Mr. Wernert wrote in an early performance review. "Equally valuable has been her willingness to question existing practices and to instill a new commitment to standardized processes … Jackie has fully committed to the job."

After Mr. Wernert's death in 1999, Ms. Martin was named executive director. Mr. Schlaudecker said she provided a smooth transition through that period and again during the 2006 merger of the mental health and addiction services boards.

"Few people had that deep knowledge on both sides, and from that perspective the knowledge she brought was a real value to northwest Ohio," Mr. Schlaudecker said.

The problem, as trustees would later learn, was a management style that frustrated both her staff and the two dozen agencies that receive funding through the mental health board.

An employee audit conducted a year after the merger by Clemans, Nelson & Associates found an office characterized by a tense atmosphere and poor employee morale.

"Several employees felt that management did not trust them and, as a result, communication did not flow freely and, therefore, hampered their ability to effectively do their job," the report stated.

The Gerken committee report, prompted by the February, 2009, demise of Connecting Point, a mental health agency for children and adolescents, made a greater impact on trustees.

While the county board did not control Connecting Point, it provided 84 percent, or $6.8 million, of its operating revenue in 2008. The agency's financial collapse left 1,500 adolescents in need of new service providers.

The review committee's report, which was released Sept. 30, had harsh words both for the way the mental health board operated and the way Ms. Martin managed the organization.

The committee found that the board consisted of some trustees who were too involved in the agency's operations while others rarely attended meetings; trustees' role was unclear, and providers of mental health services were discouraged from attending meetings.

For her part, Ms. Martin demonstrated "inconsistent management and poor guidance," the report concluded. Staff, agencies, and consumers felt a lack of empowerment and feared retaliation if they disagreed with Ms. Martin. It deemed Ms. Martin's communication style "abrupt, counterproductive, and demanding at times."

"Simply," the report stated, "the Executive Director's communication style is not conducive to positive, productive relationships."

Not everyone who worked with Ms. Martin agreed, though no one denies she could be brusque.

Ken Leslie, who served on the Toledo-Lucas County Homelessness Board with Ms. Martin, said he was stunned by her departure.

"She was always an ally for people in need," Mr. Leslie said. "She's got her critics, but I've always loved and admired her no B.S. approach, which rubbed some people the wrong way."

At the advice of her attorney, Ms. Martin declined to be interviewed for this story.

Mr. Schlaudecker said the Gerken committee's findings floored trustees, who had just given Ms. Martin a 3 percent raise in January, 2009. "All of a sudden, it was like we haven't seen or we have had blinders on and we better listen to what our stakeholders are saying to very independent people," he said.

At the recommendation of the review committee, trustees hired Mary Werner of Werner Coaching & Consulting to work with Ms. Martin for a year at a cost of $14,000. Mr. Schlaudecker said he pushed for the coach both as a member of the review committee and as chairman of the mental health board.

"I wanted to get Jackie the opportunity for a coach and through this coach to in effect either prove the stakeholders' perception incorrect or to morph herself into the type of leader that the stakeholders and the trustees wanted," he said.

On April 14, the management coach called it quits. She said in a letter to the board that she was terminating the contract early because Ms. Martin was not receptive to coaching in the areas she'd been asked to focus on - enhanced communication, leadership, and improved organizational culture.

"After five months, based on my conversations, observations, and communications, I do not feel that Jackie is benefiting from my coaching," Ms. Werner wrote. "I witnessed little or no progress in the MHRSB focused areas."

For some members of the board, it was the last straw.

Mr. Schlaudecker immediately sent an e-mail to board members to let them know he would be calling an executive session to discuss a "personnel review" at the board's April 20 meeting.

Though he intended to have the board vote on a motion to terminate Ms. Martin "at will," the board's legal counsel advised him that state law only permitted the board to remove the director "for cause, upon written charges."

In e-mail correspondence obtained by The Blade, Mr. Schlaudecker informed the board on April 26 that discussions with Ms. Martin's attorney were "progressing to the point that we should hold off meeting on 'charges.' He feels confident that we will be able to reach an agreement acceptable to all."

At a special meeting May 5, the board accepted the executive director's resignation with the conditions that she remain employed with the board "as a consultant, a special adviser or working on special projects through the close of business Feb. 28, 2011, at her current salary and benefits (including full health care coverage currently at $723.40 per month) upon which date she will retire."

As part of the agreement, the board agreed to pay her pension contributions and, at the time of her retirement, reimburse her for all accrued vacation and sick days - a package worth $153,730.29. The two sides also agreed not to "disparage" the other.

To date, Ms. Martin has not been asked to consult or advise or work on a special project, though Mr. Schlaudecker said a new director may choose to call on her experience. He said finding a new executive director and making changes at the board level are now priorities at the agency.

Half of the 18 trustees' terms expire this summer, and it's likely there will be at least five new trustees appointed.

For the first time, all are to undergo training. Mr. Schlaudecker said the purpose of the training is "one, to get us working as a team; two, to reaffirm the roles of trustees, and three, to make sure they all understand the operations of a board as it relates to a not-for-profit entity."

Mr. Schlaudecker said he also is keeping a running record of which trustees attend meetings and which are absent. And service providers funded by the mental health board are now encouraged to attend and participate in committee meetings where most of the board's discussions take place.

Mr. Gerken said county commissioners have been accepting applications from persons interested in serving on the mental health board, but he's also been out talking with people.

"I think this is an opportunity to put some new eyes on it and some different perspectives," Mr. Gerken said. "This is 2010. This is not 1999 or 2000, and a lot of people have been on the board for too many terms."

Trustee Gayle Campbell was reluctant to talk about what led to Ms. Martin's departure but didn't hesitate to say what she hoped to see in a new leader.

"I would like to see an executive director who will be out there in the community, who will be collaborating, who will be building partnerships with other organizations, and figuring out how to leverage the dollars we get from the state," Ms. Campbell, a mental health advocate, said. "I also want someone who's open to new ideas."

Mr. Schlaudecker said he hopes the board will have a new executive director on board by October, and trustees may vote on Tuesday to hire a consultant to assist with the search.

Richard Arnold, a consumer of mental health services who worked with the Gerken committee, said the Lucas County Consumers Council is working on a list of questions for the final candidates for the director's job. He said it wants a new director in tune with what consumers in Lucas County need and want - something that is always changing.

"There's vocational rehabilitation, recreational services, medication monitoring, and we really need an executive director in there that understands this and understands that in our very uncertain economy, we have to divert as much money as possible into direct services to consumers," Mr. Arnold said. "We need an executive director that's going to shake things up."

Jennifer Moses, chief executive officer of Zepf Community Mental Health Center, which receives funding from the board, said she hoped the new director would be strategic-minded about health-care reform, funding issues, and the future.

"Someone needs to be looking ahead versus just dealing with the problem at hand," she said. "They also need someone who's client-focused because when it all comes down to it, that's why we're all here - to make sure the citizens of Lucas County have access to quality mental health services."

Mr. Schlaudecker concurred.

"We're at a point with the economic crisis … that we absolutely have to be focused on the best service with significantly fewer dollars that we can give to the sickest in our community," he said.

"That's what's going to come out of this new leadership at the board and the new focus of the trustees, and I'm real excited about it. Good things will happen. Better things will happen in Lucas County, and we'll get through this tough time."

Contact Jennifer Feehan at:

jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-724-6129.