No paychecks today
The check is in the mail… officials say

ABOVE: Newly appointed director Willie Antone secures the front door to Compassion Personal Care in Thoreau on Friday whil behind him dozens of employees and clients sit in their vehicles and stand nearby, waiting for their paychecks. BELOW: Michael Vandever holds his son, Kaylem, as he and dozens of other care providers working for Compassion Personal Care gather outside of the businesses office Friday in Thoreau, waiting for word on when they will receive their paychecks. [photos by Jeff Jones / Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

THOREAU — So what happens when the company you have been working at for years locks it doors and leaves you up in the air, wondering when you will be paid?

That was the situation in Thoreau, Friday, and what employees of Compassion Personal Care did is wait ... for hours and hours hoping they would get paid.

Some of the 60 employees who spent the day in front of the building arrived at the site of the headquarters in the early morning hours and were told that the payroll checks would be distributed at 3 p.m. But then there were reports that the checks were going to be distributed at the former headquarters at Smith Lake, and then there was a notice on the door which said that the offices were closed and checks would be mailed.

But 3 p.m. came and went, and no checks were distributed. People stayed calm, but some complained that they did not have money to get home, as well as not having money to purchase groceries for the weekend.

All people had, said Emerson Lee, one of the workers waiting to be paid, were questions.

Compassion Personal Care provides home care for the elderly and the sick and is funded through grants. Navajo tribal health officials said the program is not funded by the tribe, and state health officials were not available Friday afternoon to explain what’s happened to the funding of the organization.

Lee said the organization was run by Fran George, wife of Bobby George, who was an aide to Navajo Tribal Chairman Peter MacDonald during the 1970s and ’80s. But she has not been seen around for a couple of weeks before Friday.

Amy Charley, who has been a caregiver for the company for he past three years, said there have been indications for weeks that the agency was having funding problems.

“Checks have been bouncing, and we have been told to only cash our checks at Basha’s Supermarkets,” she said, adding that she doubted other businesses would take a risk cashing the checks at this point because of the problems with bounced checks in recent weeks.

“Right now, no one is telling us anything but lies,” she said.

The Compassion offices were closed all day Friday, although the doors were unlocked most of the day. Just after 3 p.m., one of the program’s board members, Willie Antone, showed up and locked the doors but didn’t provide any information to those who had been waiting for hours in the hopes that they would be paid.

Just after 3 p.m., the frustrated employees heard reports that someone had called the police and they would soon be told to leave the area. A few minutes later, a McKinley County Sheriff’s deputy drove up, but only said that two of the cars that were parked at the entrance of the ambulance service would have to be moved elsewhere, and he then left.
Most of the group had decided to stay until 5 p.m.

Just before that time, the new director — Allen Woody — showed up and explained that the employees would be paid, but not that day.

He explained that there was a lot of paperwork involved in transferring the agency’s account from one bank to another, and that they had hoped to have the funds transferred into an account by Friday that would allow the company to pay the employees.

“You will be paid next week,” he said.

At that point, Fran George showed up and spoke to the crowd, saying that she had been removed but that she wanted to work with them in an effort to get them paid and possibly get mileage for their trip to headquarters on Friday.

She said the problem started when the state agency put down Allen’s name as Earl, which delayed the paperwork. She said she wanted the group to name two or three people to go with her to the board.

It was at that point that a fistfight broke out in the crowd, and the sheriff’s office was called again to come to the scene.

Spectators, however, said the fistfight only lasted a few seconds and it was tough to see who was involved because of the crowd.

It all ended about 5:45 p.m. when sheriff deputies showed up and told the crowd to disperse.

The consensus, said Charley, was that people would be coming back on Monday, hoping that paychecks would be dispersed by 3 p.m. that day.