Less Compassion —
Agency still grappling with problems

Care givers and clients of Compassion Personal Care wait outside of the business Friday afternoon in Thoreau as they try to find out the status of their paychecks. A sign in the window stating that checks will be mailed contradicts other information that employees had that said checks would be issued at 3 pm. [photo by Jeff Jones / Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

THOREAU — Compassion Care is still trying to deal with a variety of problems that go back to its former management, the agency’s attorney said Tuesday.

The Thoreau-based social service program, which provides care to the sick and elderly in the Thoreau area who need home care, has been struggling for the past four months since its former management team, Bobby and Frannie George, were removed and new management was installed.
The switch over was caused when the agency’s bank froze its account, resulting in employee paychecks bouncing all over Thoreau and Gallup. It also led to the agency shutting its doors in April for a couple of days and employees parking themselves outside the doors demanding to be paid.

A few days later, valid paychecks were issued and the agency opened its doors again.

But this past week some employees again began complaining that they weren’t being paid, with one woman claiming that the agency has again broken its promises to them.

James Fitting, the agency’s Albuquerque-based attorney, said Tuesday that wasn’t so.

“Everyone who should be paid is being paid,” he said. Those who haven’t been paid are those who were involved with the agency at the time of the switch over and are no longer employed.

Fitting said the agency has $100,000 in the bank and is in good financial shape.

That doesn’t mean that the agency doesn’t have some serious problems that need to be dealt with.

Fitting said there are a number of issues that date back to when the Georges ran the agency that the Compression Care board of directors is still trying to resolve, including reports that some of the former management may have used company funds to pay personal expenses.

The board is also trying to address a problem that may eventually affect their federal funding status — the fact that they are a non-profit company without the proper credentials.

Although the agency is operating like a 501 (3) (c) company — which is the designation in the federal tax code for a non-profit organization — it hasn’t filed all the proper paperwork for that designation, and Fitting said efforts are underway to correct that.