Consulting fees in the past decade were improperly awarded by Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services to members of its own board, a federal audit has found.

Auditors said the agency, charged with protecting the rights of Kansans with disabilities, had no business paying the then-president of its governing board more than $300,000 in consulting fees. Two other board members were paid a total of more than $60,000.

Because the payments involved federal funds, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now expects to be reimbursed.

“It’s our understanding that federal authorities are pursuing civil action against those involved,” said Rocky Nichols, the agency’s new executive director.

Robert Ochs, former board president, said he was the victim of a witch hunt and that the Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit settlements he negotiated while at the agency far exceeded the payments he received.

“This is absurd,” Ochs said. “I will resist this with every means and method that I can in front of people who are unbiased. I’ll not pay back a dime.”

Former board members Jai Sookram and Richard Gutierrez could not be reached for comment Monday.

Overpaid, ineffective

Federal agents last year seized the agency’s records and computers after the Journal-World reported on the contract with Ochs, a former pardon attorney for Gov. Robert Docking and a former vice president at the Lawrence-based Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

The newspaper stories coincided with complaints from advocates for people with disabilities that the agency was ineffective.

Ochs, Sookram and Gutierrez resigned from the board in June.

According to the audit, the agency paid Ochs $420,793 — $329,442 in consulting fees, $70,550 in legal fees and $20,801 in health insurance premiums — between 1996 and 2002.

“Every board member was aware of the arrangement, and the payments were always revealed in the annual reports to the feds,” Ochs said Monday.

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Sookram was paid $36,143 between 2000 and 2002 to be an advocate for children with disabilities in the state’s juvenile justice system. At the time, Sookram was director of juvenile programs at the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority.

Contacted Monday, authority officials said they were unaware the agency had paid Sookram to be an advocate for children in Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services care.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” said authority spokeswoman Mary Beth Kidd. Sookram no longer works for the authority.

According to the audit, Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services paid Gutierrez $25,000 in 1997 and $10,000 in 1998 for work on a survey aimed at developing “a comprehensive outreach strategy for serving under-served populations.” Gutierrez lives in Lawrence.

Reform campaign

Based in Topeka, the agency launched a major reform campaign shortly after Ochs’ resignation last year. It receives about $1.15 million annually in federal funds.

“The entire management team from back then was terminated, and out of the nine people on the board now, six are new,” said Nichols, who resigned his seat in the Kansas House of Representatives to accept the executive director’s position.

Nichols recently announced a new management team, a group that includes Topeka attorney Kirk Lowry, who last year filed a lawsuit accusing the state of illegal delays in providing services for people with disabilities.

Lowry sued on behalf of the Topeka Independent Living and Resource Center, his former employer.

“Basically, TILRC had me file the lawsuit because KAPS wasn’t doing anything,” Lowry said. “And now I’m with KAPS because it’s 180 degrees different from what it was. I’ve brought my whole caseload with me.”

Lowry is new litigation director for Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services.

The agency’s new fiscal officer is Debbie White, a licensed certified public accountant and former chief fiscal officer at Kansas Legal Services.

“For a long time, KAPS has been a nonentity in the disability-rights fight. It may have looked good on paper, but in reality it didn’t do much,” said Wendell Lewis, a former chairman of the Kansas Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities who has muscular dystrophy.

“All of that is about to change, drastically,” said Lewis, who recently joined the KAPS board.