It takes a village to combat a drug addiction or mental illness, and Richie Tannerhill is hoping to see a multitude of villages turn out when the inaugural Western Regional Rally for Recovery comes to Lake Junaluska Sept. 19.

Macon County Sheriff Robbie Holland has found some recent budget relief since Angel Medical Center took over supervising mental health patients that are brought in for evaluation.

Law enforcement officers in Western North Carolina have been spending too much time and money driving all across the state in search of available hospital beds.

When magistrate judges issue an involuntary committal order, an officer from that county is required by law to transport the patient to a hospital for evaluation, but the shortage of available beds for mental health patients is making the process burdensome.

In late February, a Macon County youth was checked into the local emergency room in need of psychological care. Because the hospital, Angel Medical Center, does not provide that type of service, he spent the night in the ER while awaiting transfer to a state inpatient facility that treats juveniles with mental health issues.

By Bob Scott • Guest Columnist

After the killing of 26 children and adults by a young man using a semi-automatic gun best used for combat, the knee-jerk reactions have begun.

Politicians on the Democrat side of the aisle are calling for assault weapon bans. Some Republicans are saying we need more guns. Others are claiming that if we arm more people, they will stop a shooter. If more people carry guns, there will be less crime. Schools should have armed guards. All of these solutions are inconclusive. However, 19 mass killings in the past five years have produced no reasonable answer to this terrible national problem. Stronger gun control will probably have no effect as there are more than 300 million guns in our society. It would be impossible to round up these guns or even attempt to register them.

The director of a mental health nonprofit falsely posed as the landlord for a building he didn’t own for nearly a decade, collecting more than $371,000 in rent on office space that in fact belonged to Haywood County, according to a civil lawsuit.

Since 2003, Tom McDevitt, the director of Evergreen Foundation based in Waynesville, collected monthly rent on two office buildings in Waynesville that were owned by the county — unbeknownst to the county.

The former director of Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health has lost his CPA license over allegations he backdated his first day of state employment to bolster his retirement benefits.

There are many issues to discuss in the wake of the tragedy in Arizona that left six dead and 13 wounded.

The ugliness of the political discourse in this nation is one. We took that subject up last week in news article and column form in The Smoky Mountain News, and I suspect we’ll probably explore this particular topic in greater depth in the future. Gun rights might be another subject to eventually tackle. Though I, frankly, find this particular angle as a potential outcome to the Arizona shootings less than convincing. Perhaps because I own firearms, my family owns firearms, and I grew up in these mountains where almost everyone I knew growing up had guns in their homes, too.

Having acknowledged my tepid interest in the debate concerning gun ownership, I do concede controls of a sort might be worth discussion — such as whether we should truly allow the insane easy access to weapons such as a semiautomatic handgun with a high-capacity ammo clip.

Which ties neatly into what I believe is the single most important lesson being offered in the wake of the Arizona shootings: the consequences of denying the mentally ill the care and monitoring required. The potential outcome of such neglect has been spelled out in graphic, heartbreaking detail. We can ignore what happened in Arizona only at great peril. And, if we choose to do so, I think it should be openly acknowledged that a repeat of what happened there could easily happen elsewhere, and probably will.

Just making sure we’re all on the same page: does anyone have the smallest doubt, simply by looking into the alleged Arizona killer’s eyes in that creepy mug shot taken a short time after police say he gunned down so many, that this young man is seriously mentally ill?  

I’ll give a nod of approval to the community college he once attended. After Jared Lee Loughner exhibited bizarre, scary behavior, they apparently acted properly and promptly. Officials expelled him, and agreed they’d let the 22-year old back into school only if he underwent a mental health evaluation (and, I assume, passed it, if one “passes” such a thing).

Then what happened, though? There the storyline of attention paid to Loughner seems to end. At least until all the dead and wounded piled up outside a Tucson grocery store.

In case you’re curious, North Carolina doesn’t offer much support to the mentally ill or their families these days, either. In the name of savings, the state largely dismantled a not-that-great-to-begin-with system a few years ago. Here’s a bit of what I wrote in 2008 in a series of investigative articles on the state’s mental health system for a local newspaper chain. We were examining North Carolina’s then new (translation: cheap) approach to helping the mentally ill:

“Reform, to hear proponents tell it, would empower people with choices. No longer would patients be shut out and shut up when it came time to decide on treatments. Now they would get to pick from a virtual smorgasbord of choices, all conveniently located in their hometown or county.

This, taxpayers were told, would save money – lots and lots of money. Millions, in fact, because more people would be treated in their own communities instead of being admitted to one of the state’s four psychiatric hospitals.

Who could argue with empowerment and saving money? Actually, a few people did, but not effectively enough for anyone in power to heed their warnings.

The result?

A mental health system that has wasted, not saved, millions of tax dollars. And worse, many of the state’s most vulnerable residents are unable to obtain adequate treatments. For those people and their families, the price has been incalculable.”

It is time — it’s past time — to face honestly what we are potentially unleashing with our neglect, and in the name of saving pennies. Take a look again at the massacre in Arizona.

Granted, most of those with mental illnesses do not buy guns and start shooting — God knows, I’m not saying that, so please don’t think I’m stigmatizing those who deserve compassion and help.

What I am saying is that we have a responsibility, a duty, to care for and monitor those who potentially pose a danger to themselves and others. The economic costs of doing so be damned — we need a mental-health system in place that works.

(Quintin Ellison can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

Millions in state and county tax dollars have been funneled to Evergreen Foundation, a mental health nonprofit serving the seven western counties. Yet it operates without public oversight.

The board of Smoky Mountain Center, a state mental health agency for the western counties, fears Evergreen has strayed from its mission and needs realignment.

“I don’t know that anybody ever envisioned a day that there would be such a disconnect between Smoky Mountain Center and Evergreen Foundation,” said Shelly Foreman, community relations coordinator for the center.

Evergreen, meanwhile, is resisting forays by Smoky Mountain Center to exert control over the nonprofit and its finances. Evergreen has even accused Smoky Mountain Center of a money grab.

“I cannot in good faith stand by and let [Smoky Mountain Center] raid the foundation,” said Hugh Moon, a member of the Smoky Mountain Center board. “It sounds to me like [Smoky Mountain Center] is saying we want your money.”

However, the money in Evergreen’s coffers was given to it by Smoky Mountain Center in the first place. Evergreen has $20 million — and nearly all of it stems from tax dollars earmarked by the state for Smoky Mountain Center.

“The funds came from the public purse and have always been intended for use on behalf of Smoky Mountain Center and its constituents,” said Brian Ingraham, director of Smoky Mountain Center.

Instead, Evergreen has enriched its own balance sheet, according to Smoky Mountain Center (see related article).

Now, Smoky Mountain Center wants Evergreen to come back under its auspices rather than operate independently.

County commissioners from all seven western counties have unanimously joined the call.

“We unanimously concluded that the money was public money, and it should have public oversight,” said Joe Cowan, a Jackson County commissioner.

Smoky Mountain Center wants control over who sits on the Evergreen’s nonprofit board, with the aim of stacking the board with many of its own members. But to do so, the current Evergreen board would essentially need to dissolve itself and agree to the new structure.

“All the other disagreements can be overcome if we can figure out a system of governance that both boards support,” said Ronnie Beale, board member of Smoky Mountain Center and chairman of the Macon County commissioners.

But that seems unlikely. Instead, it appears the boards of Evergreen and Smoky Mountain Center have reached a stalemate.

“I will never vote to dissolve. I would never support any governance other than the way we are going right now,” said Don Bunn, an Evergreen board member from Swain County. “I was offended by the accusation that we were not properly handling the money.”

A joint meeting between the two boards will be held this week. The last such meeting failed to reach a consensus.

The board of Smoky Mountain Center has indicated in a letter to Evergreen that it will pursue legal recourse if diplomacy fails.

Evergreen’s board may well test Smoky Mountain Center’s resolve to follow through with that threat.

Moon said it would be “blatantly inappropriate” for the foundation to be under the oversight of Smoky Mountain Center.

“I will do my best to ensure it remains a private nonprofit,” Moon said.

The nine-member Evergreen board meets only four times a year. Its meetings are not open to the public, nor are its finances. That troubles Don Barrier, a board member of Smoky Mountain Center from Caldwell County.

“I do believe it is public money and deserves public oversight,” Barrier said in the last joint meeting between the boards.

Barrier said he is uncomfortable with a private organization — one with no obligation to disclose its activities — holding the purse strings to millions in public dollars.

Barrier also takes issue with the board appointing its own members. Known as a self-perpetuating board, existing members handpick who will join their ranks when someone steps down. There is no limit to how many years a board member can stay on.

That’s not how oversight of public money typically works, Barrier said.

“That is a point of disagreement,” said John Bauknight, an Evergreen board member from Cashiers.

Bauknight challenged the extent to which Evergreen’s assets can be traced to Smoky Mountain Center. Evergreen’s coffers have grown significantly in the past decade due to “real sharp investments,” Bauknight said.

“When public money is invested, then the interest generated is still public money,” Barrier countered.

Evergreen board members contested the notion that Tom McDevitt, the director of Evergreen, said any money given to Evergreen ceased to be public funds the minute they were given to the nonprofit.

Ingraham disagreed.

“The funds transferred from Smoky to Evergreen did not lose their identity as public funds,” Ingraham said.

Ron Yowell, a member of the Evergreen board, said the critical question is whether the funds are still considered public after being transferred to a private entity.

“Once that’s decided, answers can be found to all of these things,” Yowell said. “Until that fundamental question is answered, I don’t think we can resolve much of anything.”

Communication breakdown

Evergreen has grown increasingly estranged from Smoky Mountain Center over the past two years. Historically, the director of Smoky Mountain Center also served as the director of Evergreen. The dual roles worked well for three decades.

But two years ago, Tom McDevitt stepped down as the director of Smoky Mountain Center amid controversy. His departure from Smoky Mountain Center was less than amicable, yet the Evergreen board voted to keep him at the helm of the nonprofit. Relations between the two have since been strained.

“We all agreed there has probably been a disconnect,” Beale said.

For example, the director of the Smoky Mountain Center should be an integral player in handing out grants, Beale said.

“Nobody knows what the counties need more than the director,” Beale said.

It’s Smoky Mountain Center’s responsibility to know where there are gaps in mental health and substance abuse services, thus making it suited to know what grants are needed most.

“Why wouldn’t you want the organization involved that is recognized as the locus of control over planning and system development?” Ingraham said.

McDevitt said he, too, envisioned Smoky Mountain Center staff involved in ranking grants that come in to Evergreen.

“Evergreen had every intention of working hand and glove with Smoky Mountain Center, but when there isn’t a vehicle to sit down and talk with them and get feedback and do planning, we had no choice but to do it autonomously,” McDevitt said.

Evergreen board members say that communication is a two-way street. Evergreen invited a member of Smoky Mountain Center’s board to sit in on their meetings, but no one ever took them up on the offer.

Over the past two years, Evergreen has officially distanced itself from Smoky Mountain Center on paper. A new set of bylaws and new wording on its nonprofit tax filings have eliminated any reference to Smoky Mountain Center.

Historically, Evergreen’s tax filing listed its mission as “supporting Smoky Mountain Center.” But in 2009, the year McDevitt parted ways with Smoky Mountain Center, the wording was changed.

“[Evergreen] no longer characterizes itself as supporting Smoky Mountain Center,” said Jay Coward, the attorney for Smoky Mountain Center.

Beale said Evergreen appears to be moving away from what it was established to do.

But McDevitt said the changes more accurately reflect Evergreen’s mission today. In the past, Smoky Mountain Center was the primary conduit for all mental health services in the region.

But in recent years, the state has privatized mental health. Counselors and psycholoigsts are not longer employed by Smoky Mountain Center, but operate as private practices. The same goes for patient clinics once operated by Smoky Mountain Center.

Since Smoky Mountain Center is now solely an administrative arm, it made sense to have a more generic mission statement dedicate to supporting mental health services “and not specifically one government entity,” McDevitt said.

Evergreen has agreed to few concessions as a result of the prodding.

McDevitt said Evergreen will expand its board by three members. The seven western counties will take turns nominating people for those seats, but the Evergreen board will ultimately select the person.

McDevitt said Evergreen has already started doling out more in the form of grants. Evergreen will share its finances, and allow Ingraham to review grant applications that come in.

“We are not going to go back and jeopardize Evergreen to satisfy their control needs, but we will open up to generate public oversight,” McDevitt said. “I hope both sides will decide it is more important to concentrate on what we do rather than how it is done.”

Tom McDevitt, the director of the Evergreen Foundation, has kept a tight hold on the nonprofit’s purse strings. Rather than putting money toward the cause of mental health and substance abuse, McDevitt has instead focused on growing a nest egg to the tune of $20 million.

The nonprofit makes $1 million a year on average through investments and on rent from an expansive inventory of office buildings leased to those in the mental health and substance abuse fields in the seven western counties.

But Evergreen gave out only a single grant of $50,000 to benefit mental health services in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

This upset board members of Smoky Mountain Center, who see needs going unmet while Evergreen’s coffers grow.

“A percentage of the money that Evergreen takes in each year after expenses should be returned back to the seven far west counties,” said Ronnie Beale, board member of Smoky Mountain Center and a Macon County commissioner.

Concern that Evergreen is hording its assets has led Smoky Mountain Center to attempt to regain control over the nonprofit (see related article).

County commissioners in the seven western counties unanimously endorsed supporting Smoky Mountain Center’s position.

“You’re really not helping your entity if you’re just sitting there with a pot of money,” said Haywood County Commissioner Bill Upton.

Smoky Mountain Center made rounds to each board of county commissioners seeking support. The counties all passed a resolution that hints at legal action if Evergreen won’t play ball.

“I’m doing this for the people that have mental illnesses in Haywood County, since this may free up some of the money that may benefit them,” Haywood County Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick said when voting on the resolution.

Where Evergreen

got its money

Evergreen owes its wealth in the first place to Smoky Mountain Center. Smoky Mountain Center funneled state and county tax dollars to the nonprofit over the years, allowing it to amass an inventory of 25 rental properties across seven counties, which is now a major source of revenue.

The real estate holdings include offices for mental health counselors and psychologists, group homes for people with disabilities, the Balsam Mountain Center outpatient clinic — and even the office headquarters for Smoky Mountain Center.

While the buildings were purchased or built with state tax dollars, Evergreen pockets the money it makes on rent. Evergreen even makes Smoky Mountain Center fork over $140,000 in rent a year for its offices — offices built with money from Smoky Mountain Center in the first place.

If Smoky Mountain Center was relieved from paying rent, it could spend that money helping people with mental health and substance abuse problems, said Brian Ingraham, director of Smoky Mountain Center.

But that was never the deal, McDevitt said.

“What the foundation is in the business of doing, and what is was contracted to do, was to build that building and then turn around and rent it,” McDevitt said.

When Evergreen was created in 1977, state agencies couldn’t buy and sell property. Evergreen was created expressly to manage an inventory of office buildings for Smoky Mountain Center’s therapists, psychologists and counselors. And that’s exactly what it’s done, McDevitt said.

As a charity, Evergreen gives mental health service providers discounted rent, which is an incentive to those in the field to locate here, according to McDevitt.

Smoky Mountain Center hired a private CPA firm to track just how much money Evergreen has gotten in state and county tax dollars. From 1977 to 2009, $13.7 million in public funds were funneled to Evergreen through Smoky Mountain Center. Another $4.2 million in state money has been paid to Evergreen by Smoky Mountain Center on rent for buildings.

Step up the giving

This year, under pressure to ramp up its grant making, Evergreen has given out $357,000 in grants. McDevitt said the foundation’s assets finally grew enough that it could part with some of its money without jeopardizing its long-term capital.

“The board said we did not need to accumulate money just for the sake of accumulating money,” McDevitt said.

But it still fell short of what Smoky Mountain Center wants to see.

Despite a $2 million state budget cut that forced Smoky Mountain to cut services to mental health patients, Evergreen only gave Smoky Mountain Center $200,000 to offset the cuts, when its deep pockets could have afforded more to help the center through the crisis, according to Ingraham. The budget cuts have been restored this year.

And when Smoky Mountain Center needed to expand the parking lot at the substance abuse and mental health outpatient clinic in Balsam, Evergreen agreed to foot 75 percent of the bill, even though it owns the building and collects rent on it.

Smoky Mountain Center would like something more concrete than a verbal pledge from Evergreen that it will start allocating more money to mental health. Beale wants a formula that guarantees a certain percentage of annual revenue will be put toward grants.

“Most foundations have giving guidelines they have the grant process it is usually a pretty established process so of course that is what we want to see,” said Shelley Foreman, community relations coordinator at SMC.

But Evergreen’s foray into grant making won’t happen instantly, McDevitt said.

“You don’t go from being an organization that builds buildings and rents them for less than fair market value to making $800,000 in grants over night,” McDevitt said.

Other grants by Evergreen this year included $80,000 to Haywood Vocational Opportunities for pilot program tracking developmentally disabled people from employment to retirement; $10,000 to REACH for workshop series to educate parents at risk of abuse; $20,000 to Meridian Psychological Services to develop volunteer network; and $15,000 to put on training workshop for substance abuse counselors.