The primary responsibility for operating the six human development centers rests in the hands of the Developmental Disabilities Services Board and not the state Department of Human Services.
"The board has primary control over the operations, maintenance, policies, and procedures," according to an April 29 state attorney general's opinion.
The board, not the Human Services Department, also "has the authority to terminate the employment of a superintendent," the opinion stated.
Overlapping state laws written in different years have placed supervision in the hands of the seven-member board appointed by the governor as well as the Human Services Department.
The human development centers are residential facilities for people with developmental disabilities, including mental retardation, autism, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. About 2,200 people from ages 10 to 70 live in these facilities in Alexander, Arkadelphia, Booneville, Conway, Jonesboro and Warren.
Bob Clark, longtime superintendent of the Conway Human Development Center, resigned effective June 30 after a barrage of critical reports by state and federal investigators stating Clark failed to report abuse and protect clients.
Several reports by Human Services Department administrators criticizing Clark were prepared before his resignation. Clark has headed the facility, formerly known as the Arkansas Children's Colony, since May 1980. The Conway center is the largest of the development centers with 590 residents and a $43 million budget.
The developmental disabilities board sets policies, but the money flows through the Human Services Department. Employees at the centers are state employees. They are under the Developmental Disabilities Services Division.
Kurt Knickrehm, director of the Human Services Department, requested the opinion from Attorney General Mark Pryor on March 12. "The department has felt for some time now that there has been some confusion in the state law," said Joe Quinn, a Human Services Department spokesman. "The initial read of the opinion seems to indicate it clearly gives a great deal of weight to the powers of the developmental disabilities board.
"We certainly will continue to work to build a system that best serves the needs of people accessing both community and institutional services."
Ron Carmack, chairman of the developmental disabilities board, said the opinion did not surprise him.
"No one involved now set it up the way it is," he said. "I agreed when Kurt Knickrehm asked the attorney general for this.
"The opinion is pretty much the way we thought things were," he said. "I don't think it will change things between us and the department. We're going to make it work."