Compassion Personal Care rolling again
Health care company still in crisis mode
but trying to restore its credibility

Care givers and clients of Compassion Personal Care wait outside of the business on the afternoon of April 18 in Thoreau as they try to find out the status of their paychecks. [photo by Jeff Jones / Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

THOREAU — Officials for Compassion Personal Care in Thoreau said Tuesday they are trying to get the organization back on track and restore its credibility with area businesses.

The company has been in a “crisis” mode since early April when employee checks began bouncing. Two weeks ago, most of the 100 or so employees of the company converged upon the company headquarters in Thoreau expecting to be paid only to be told that paychecks would be delayed a few more days.

Gordon Nez, the company’s new director, said Tuesday that things are beginning to get back to normal — employees are at work, clients are being taken care of, but payroll checks are still not going out on time. Employees were told that payroll checks supposed to be out last Friday will be coming out this Friday.

Nez said the company has the funds to meet payroll but the delay has been caused by setting up a new disbursal system, getting new checks and preparing the payroll with new software and computer personnel. Once this gets in place, he said, paychecks should be coming out on time.
Compassion Care provides home care to elderly and those in medical need in the Thoreau area. It’s part of Highlands Navajo Outreach, Inc., which runs similar operations throughout the Navajo Eastern Agency.

Nez said the problems began about April 4 when the organization’s original bank — First Commercial — started getting concerned about the movement of funds within the accounts and decided to freeze the account. Nez said the organization had $41,000 in the account at that time which it planned to use to pay the employees.

When the account was frozen, checks began bouncing and most businesses announced that they would not cash any further paychecks until they had been reimbursed for the checks that had bounced.

Nez said a decision was made last week to transfer the account to the Pinnacle Bank in Gallup.

On April 18, the board decided to remove Fran George from her position as director of the organization. But George has stayed in touch with the employees, said Nez, which has caused some additional problems.

One of these problems, said one employee, stemmed from promises made by George last week to employees which promised that they would not only get their paychecks but those who were kept on with the company would get a 10 percent bonus.

Nez said Tuesday that George had no authority to make such a promise since she was no longer employed in any capacity with the company. There is no bonus being paid to anyone, he said, adding that none of the employees have been laid off.

Right now, we are working to get our credibility back with the businesses along with our employees and our clients,” said Nez.

In the past week, the organization has lost five clients who have decided to transfer to other service providers but none of the employees have resigned and seem to be willing to give the new management a second chance.

Nez said he has talked to the businesses who still have the bounced checks and has promised that the organization will redeem those checks as soon as the accounting system is in place. He said the company has installed new software and has hired two persons to develop a new financial program for the company.

As for employees, he said that they have been encouraged to cash future paychecks with Pinnacle Bank until other businesses agree to cash them again.

He added that he also plans to talk to the board to see if something can be arranged to provide employees mileage from Thoreau to Gallup to reimburse them for the costs of going to Gallup to cash their checks.