LAKEPORT— On Tuesday, Yvonne Cox, during the public comment hearing portion of this week’s board of supervisors meeting, expressed her thoughts about her termination as emergency warming shelter director.
Cox shared her story, expressing that there was an out of the area administrator brought in by Sunrise Special Services Foundation who terminated her after a conversation regarding inefficiencies in administration. Cox said, “Me being transparent I think is what got me fired, I think I intimidated the poor man.” Cox alleged she has been paying out of pocket expenses during her tenure as EWS director.
She told the board that she has been paying for food and cleaning supplies for the last three months to the tune of $2,000 to $2,400 a month.
Cox said her termination was “a hostile takeover” because she was replaced by someone who is, in her opinion, inexperienced and also accused the organization of “misappropriating funds” adding she has been hushed every time she has brought up the issue. “I will be lawyering up, thank you.” she said. At press time, Cox was unable to be reached for further comment.
In a press release issued Tuesday, Sunrise Special Services thanked Cox for her work helping to setup the shelter in February and announced Rayan Aava as chief executive officer and Chris Bloodworth II as director of operations. In a letter addressed to the community this week, Annie Barnes, Co-founder of Sunrise Special Services wrote, “I assure you that Sunrise remains in full compliance and good standing with the State of California and the County of Lake. We adhere to the professional processes set forth by the Lake County Continuum of Care and Board of Supervisors, which prioritizes oversight and transparency. It is unfortunate that slanderous comments have been made through the media and a recent Board meeting. Accusations of fund misappropriation by Sunrise are false, misguided, and ignorant of the facts.”
Aava informed the Record-Bee that the decision to let go of Cox as director of the shelter was made on Thursday after hearing multiple complaints from staff including that it was a “hostile work environment” under Cox, improprieties regarding logging of hours, and actions which were unethical, if not illegal. Staff claims they were threatened that they would lose their jobs (by Cox) or were threatened to lose hours if they went to Barnes about not getting paid for overtime or other matters. Aava said Cox was let go “based on performance issues.”
The turnover comes as an audit of the financial statements for the operation of the shelter is being completed. As reported by the Record-Bee, during the Lake County Board of Supervisor’s April 25 meeting, District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier alerted the board to concerns over invoices provided to the county which showed Cox had invoiced $34,338 in a single month.
Aava said that after meeting with staff, he determined there were no policies and procedures in place, such as not clocking in of hours in a proper manner. He also found that staff seemed intimidated to provide feedback in Cox’s presence.
He added that ultimately, he made the recommendation to the foundation’s board to replace Cox with Bloodworth because “he didn’t make it about himself” and he told the new CEO what was needed to do his job more efficiently.
Scott Abbott, program manager at Lake County Behavioral Health services, shared that as of Tuesday’s BOS meeting, the contract for the next phase of operating the shelter had not been awarded to Sunrise and confirmed there is more than one applicant. Abbott also shared that the county will develop a transition plan if needed, (depending on the agency) where they will try and avoid a gap in services.
Aava said that Sunrise Services interviewed with the County last week and that the board will make the final decision about which agency or nonprofit is selected. Aava also said they might ask for a one month extension once the contract ends this month, so that they can continue to be administrators at that shelter until the end of August if necessary.
Aava also shared that there will be a town hall style meeting in the near future, although a date and time have not yet been confirmed.
