Just more than a month ago, potential legal problems came to the attention of the Latah County Board of Commissioners concerning the county’s Non-Indigent Public Assistance Program.
Now, the Board plans to discontinue the program by the end of April.
According to Latah County Clerk Susan Petersen, the program, as set forth in Latah County Resolution 2009-10, was created to assist people in emergency situations — especially in cases where people needed help after the Social Services Office closed at 5 p.m. However, the program may have been created out of sync with Title 31, Chapter 34 of the Idaho Code — which outlines county duties for providing non-medical indigent assistance.
“The code also says that the Social Services director or the clerk can authorize an expenditure of not more than $200 for non-medical assistance,” Petersen said. “We kind of used that to go into this resolution where if somebody didn’t have a place to stay for whatever reason, we could authorize that they could stay in the hotel for one night.”
Petersen said the county had an agreement with the Royal Motor Inn and another motel on 6th Street. The motels would receive the necessary forms from the Sheriff’s Department and bill the county $35 for providing rooms for the applicants.
County Commissioner David McGraw said people in need could obtain such a voucher under the program and have a place to stay for the night.
“This particular tiny piece — of our very large indigent program in Latah County — this is the piece where, for example, let’s say … you have no money, no place to go, you can run up to the Latah Sheriff’s Department right to the dispatcher’s window (and) explain your situation,” McGraw said. “We’ve had a program where (they) would typically check your driver’s license, look and see who you are, make sure there’s no arrest warrants out for you. They would give you a voucher for a motel room at the Royal Motor Inn.”
McGraw said the county is not legally allowed to hand out vouchers in that way. He said an investigation must be completed before any vouchers can be given to anyone.
“By statute, we can only assist people after an investigation process, an application process has gone through,” McGraw said. “When you show up at the window at the Latah County dispatchers, the only thing they do is they run your name through the computer database to see if you have any wants or warrants for you. If you don’t, the give you the voucher and you run down to the motel.”
McGraw said the investigation is lengthy and necessary by law, but it doesn’t happen under the Non-Indigent Program. He said the program’s checks and balances are lax.
“When we go to help people out with their rent, we go to their checking account, their credit cards,” McGraw said. “We look at what they’re spending for food, what they’re spending for fuel, what they’re spending for rent. That doesn’t happen when somebody comes up here to get a voucher for a motel room for a night. The checks and balances on this program have never really been there.”
Additionally, McGraw said the program has been abused. He said this is partially how the idea to end the program came about.
“We’ve had a couple instances down at the motel where it’s been abused,” McGraw said. “We had a gal who went down there and apparently was using drugs in the room or something. She was in the room and just the story we got — no way to investigate or anything — the motel said she’d been using drugs in the room and they wound up charging us an extra $50 to clean the room or something. That’s what kind of brought it up.”
Despite the program’s setbacks, McGraw said very little is spent on the program each year.
Petersen said $2,000 is usually budgeted for the program.
“I usually put in about $2,000 into our budget for that each year and that’s what the commissioners adopt,” Petersen said. “This year, we’ve spent $835 of that.”
While the county will not and cannot cease assisting indigents altogether, McGraw said the Board hopes the volunteer groups in Moscow will help pick up the slack once this program is gone.
“The volunteers in Latah County are just absolutely second to none,” McGraw said. “I hate to tap into them for even more, but I hate for the county to be doing something that’s not legal.”
Andrew Jenson can be reached at [email protected]