Taking a Closer Look at Nebraska's Foster Care: A Timeline of Reports
by Sherman Smith
In mid-December, Omaha news outlets began reporting on a whistleblower account of financial misconduct within St. Francis Ministries, which is contracted by the state to handle adoption and foster care cases. The faith-based group operating in Nebraska has also worked in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Central America, with its home base in Kansas. Thus, NOISE is working with The Kansas Reflector, a non-profit news organization in Kansas to bring you more complete coverage of this developing story than NOISE could deliver on our own.
“Journalism is a team sport.”
December 4, 2020
Kansas agency serving 3,100 foster children is accused of ‘rampant’ financial mismanagement.
Top management at Saint Francis Ministries purchased $80,000 worth of Chicago Cubs tickets and agreed to pay $7 million to the president’s business partner for software development as the organization tumbled into financial chaos, sometimes relying on loans to cover weekly expenses, according to a whistleblower’s report.
The chief executive and operating officers of Kansas and Nebraska’s largest foster care provider managed to shield its board of directors from learning about the allegations for nearly a year while the Kansas Department for Children and Families hired a private firm to audit Saint Francis’s finances.
Last month, Saint Francis without explanation severed ties with the Rev. Robert Smith and COO Tom Blythe after learning about the whistleblower report, which was delivered to DCF in November 2019.
December 11, 2020
Foster care provider, Saint Francis Ministries fired an employee who falsified 165 reports of visits with children, parents in Kansas. The provider also operates in Nebraska.
A Saint Francis Ministries investigation revealed 165 falsified reports about service provided to children and families and led to the firing of two employees, officials said on December 11th. Laura Howard, secretary for the Kansas Department for Children and Families (pictured above), said her agency was moving quickly to address concerns about the falsified documents, as well as the financial stability of the state’s largest foster care provider.Information about falsified reports came to light in mid-November as Saint Francis was separately investigating whistleblower reports alleging financial mismanagement by its leadership.
December 15, 2020
Kansas-based foster care provider’s financial turmoil and purchase of Cubs tickets amplify concerns in Nebraska.(Illustration by Kansas Reflector)
Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh never understood how Saint Francis Ministries secured the state’s only private foster care contract with a shockingly low bid and no plan for providing minimum services. She was concerned the cost savings would be made by overloading social workers with too many cases, despite warnings from legislators that state law required foster care providers to keep caseloads low. After Saint Francis took over services for the Omaha region in January, it was no surprise to Cavanaugh that the organization failed to meet its obligations.
“We told Saint Francis at our public hearings numerous times that this was a statute, and if that was their plan, they could not increase case numbers,” Cavanaugh said. “It was against our laws. We could never really get a full answer.”
December 20, 2020
Leader of the foster care provider, Saint Francis Ministries charged $469K to credit cards and hid financial losses
As the CEO of Saint Francis Ministries, Robert Smith used company credit cards for lavish hotel stays, first class upgrades on airlines, clothing, cash withdrawals, iTunes purchases, and meals at five-star restaurants while hiding increasingly dire financial problems from his board of directors. Documents from a Saint Francis investigation show Smith invested $11 million in a friend’s business for software that crashed and destroyed the organization’s financial records.
Saint Francis spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a program led by Smith’s wife to harvest a “miracle” food in El Salvador, where staff asked for and received Visa credit cards for the purpose of getting cash to bribe local officials. Smith repeatedly was warned about the financial perils of entering a contract to provide services in Nebraska, where Saint Francis is projected to lose $27 million in the current fiscal year, before Smith signed the deal.
December 22, 2020
The former CEO of foster care provider defends travel charges, and Cubs tickets.
The former CEO of Saint Francis Ministries says he charged thousands of dollars to the organization’s credit cards because of the job’s travel and fundraising demands. And, he said, the $65,000 purchase of Cubs tickets was just an opportunity to flip them for a profit on the secondary market.
Robert Smith, known as Father Bobby, released a statement through a public relations firm in which he lamented the “inaccurate and uninformed reporting” that followed his departure from Saint Francis. The nonprofit foster care provider severed ties with Smith and other leadership in November following an investigation into Smith’s financial dealings.
January 22, 2021
Saint Francis asks Nebraska for immediate funding boost to maintain services
William Clark, (pictured above) the interim CEO for Saint Francis Ministries, provided a bleak and urgent understanding of his organization’s financial stability during a hearing last week with Nebraska lawmakers. Past executives for Saint Francis misled Nebraska officials about the cost of providing foster care service for the Omaha region, Clark said. Now, he explained, lawmakers have one week to provide an additional $110 million through an emergency, no-bid contract or the Kansas-based nonprofit will run out of money.
“I’ll say this twice, just so I’m not misunderstood,” Clark said. “Saint Francis failed to bid the contract properly. Saint Francis takes responsibility for not accurately providing a bid to the state of Nebraska for what it costs to provide the services that we’re expecting.”
Former Saint Francis CEO Robert Smith and COO Tom Blythe left the organization in November after an investigation substantiated allegations of financial misconduct. A combination of bad investments and personal expenses forced Saint Francis to eliminate programs and staff as it works to stabilize its core operations.
In 2019, Saint Francis expanded its reach to Nebraska by severely underbidding PromiseShip for a contract to provide services in the Omaha area. Smith and Blythe lied to Nebraska officials and board members about the true cost of those services, according to an investigation conducted by Saint Francis in November of 2020. Nebraska lawmakers and child advocates immediately scrutinized the state’s decision to award the contract to Saint Francis, which has failed to meet basic requirements for social worker caseloads and left foster children sleeping in offices.
During Friday’s hearing, Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, of Omaha, lashed out at Dannette Smith, CEO of the Department of Health and Human Services, for not recognizing red flags. “How could you possibly think that another child welfare entity could come into the state and do the work at such a significantly reduced amount,” asked Cavanaugh.
A Nebraska statute limits the number of cases a caseworker is responsible for, and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services recommends a caseload of 12-17. Saint Francis stated a standard caseload of 25.
“I can only hold my head high when I hear that because I can stand before you as a grown man and say that is not Saint Francis,” Burnley said. “I will be indebted to Saint Francis every day of my life. It changed my life. I owe my development as an equestrian.”