Douglas County ECKAN Advisory Board members say a history of discord between Douglas County ECKAN and the agency’s home office in Ottawa continues to raise concerns about a top ECKAN official’s commitment to the needs of Douglas County residents.

That tenuous relationship has some board members worried that more than $17,000 in donations they and former Douglas County ECKAN coordinator Eve Cofer collected during her tenure will not be spent in Douglas County.

Many board members appealed to Richard Jackson, executive director of the East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corp., to reinstate Cofer after she was fired in late January.

“I think Douglas County running without Eve is down the drain because no one will go in there and do what Eve did,” said Baldwin resident and board member Mildred McConnell.

Jackson has maintained silence about why Cofer was fired, citing a policy not to discuss personnel matters publicly.

“We’ve got to move past that,” Jackson said. “We’re going to continue to provide services to those who need it. We’re in the job of working with people, and that’s what we want to do.”

Board members and Cofer herself contend that she had gone above and beyond the call of her duties as a coordinator but had received very little financial or moral support from Jackson.

“I wanted an advisory board because I needed support because Richard and I did not get along,” Cofer said. “I was on my own at that office. I had to get everything done myself.”

That alleged lack of support prompted Cofer and the board to open a separate account for donations made in Douglas County. The board would then decide how to spend the money  in Douglas County.

After Cofer was fired, and at the advice of an attorney, board members mailed a check for more than $17,000 to the agency’s headquarters in Ottawa. In an April 10 letter addressed to Jackson, board members emphasized their desire that those donations be used for the needs of Douglas County residents.

“I have a lot of mistrust toward him (Jackson) fulfilling that request,” said advisory board member Wayne Parkinson. “I think I might speak for some of the other board members when I say we’ve been kept in the dark.”

In fact, board members said they had not even been aware a new coordinator had been hired to replace Cofer.

Jackson said he had informed board members in a letter that a new coordinator would be hired. Beyond that, Jackson said, he and the multi-county board that governs ECKAN’s affairs have no mandate to keep the Douglas County advisory board informed because the board has never been recognized by ECKAN as a legitimate body according to the agency’s bylaws. None of the other counties served by ECKAN has a similar board.

Jackson said he didn’t understand the board’s concern that money collected in Douglas County wouldn’t be spent in Douglas County.

“Whatever’s collected in that county stays in that county,” he said. “We have bank accounts in Ottawa where it’s deposited and recorded.”