Interview:
AFAN’s new Executive Director Antioco Carillo Night Beat Exclusive by Bill Schafer Night Beat Publisher
some transition. I need to know where everything is, and I don’t have anybody else I can rely on. I need to know what’s going on in this organization. NB: How long will she be here? AC: I don’t know – until I stop using her. I’ve been here three weeks. I need to make sure I don’t come into a dark place. It would be horrible if she had completely disappeared, because it would be horrible for me to try to find my way around this organization. So, good or bad, I have to rely on someone for the continuity of this organization. NB: Are we talking about six months, a year, indefinite, forever? AC: No, probably six months, I don’t know, it depends on how difficult … You have to look at the other part. This organization is much more involved than CCC because the fundraisers are bigger. The connections with the supporters within the community are bigger also – many more; and she has continued those connections. I have to be introduced to all of them. I have to be able to continue that before she steps down. I said she will go out. And she is out, essentially as of when she resigned. The only reason she’s a subcontractor is because there needed to be some continuity with me, some transition. I was not willing to step into the darkness with anybody. How do I take over this organization when I have tons of supporters, tons of people that come here and do fundraising and major fundraisers that we have in the community. I can’t just step in, not knowing what happens. I’m still learning my way around.
Antioco Carrillo assumed the reigns of Aid For AIDS of Nevada (AFAN) on January 1. The Night Beat interviewed him about three weeks after he became Executive Director. He was still learning his way around, but we discussed his background, his qualifications for assuming this position and his plans for the organization. We also touched on some issues with AFAN from before the start of his tenure. AFAN and Community Counseling Center (CCC) are planning to merge later this year. Carillo has been employed by CCC since 1994 and he currently is charged with supervision of interns, management of the building, and staff development and supervision at CCC. He has worked with CCC’s Executive Director Ron Lawrence all that time. Carillo was born and raised in Mexico – he claims when he moved here 25 years ago he couldn’t speak a word of English, so he went to school. He then attended UNLV and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree (2003) in social work. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. ——— Night Beat: Is former Executive Director Jennifer Morss still employed at AFAN? Antioco Carrillo: She’s not an employee of AFAN. She has a contract, she’s a subcontractor. NB: So she’s still here. The main focus, which I’m doing AC: No. not as an employee. As a right now, is I’m looking at client care. subcontractor because I need to have I want to be able to make sure that we 18 $ February 2012 $ Las Vegas Night Beat
improve those services and after this I’ll look at the rest of the elements. NB: Speaking of fundraisers, does AFAN have policies or procedures for handling cash at fundraising events. There’ve been rumors of Jennifer’s mother, step father, brother and his partner in a trailer counting the cash receipts at the Black and White Party. AC: I will be happy to give you what I have. I haven’t looked into that because it’s a monster to take on. What I think is important for the community to know is with me, this is a new chapter. And I’m hoping to be able to let the community know that things are being taken care of. And if you’re not aware of some of those things right now, because it’s only three weeks, I will be happy to show you whatever it is we have and if there is nothing in terms of policy, and procedures it is my responsibility to create them. I will not run an organization that is questionable. My answers will be open to you regardless of how much money you gave us as an agency. That has to be addressed. We have run this organization – CCC – I was running the organization with Ron for many, many years. And we have always been transparent. That’s how I learned to be. I worked with Ron for 19 years. I don’t know how to be any other than how I am, and how I learned from Ron. So I have to do the same thing here. And if I don’t know something, if I don’t have anything in place, I certainly will put it in place. NB: AFAN had a Zero Tolerance Policy. Do they still have it? AC: All agencies have a code of conduct. Because I am not going to sit here and have people acting up at Continued on next page
Carillo’s first priority: Zero Tolerance Policy Continued from previous page the front, or do whatever they want to do. But if you come and access client services, you will be treated with respect and dignity. And I expect the same thing from any of the clients that come in here. Here is what we’re looking at. I am not having a Zero Tolerance Policy. That’s not what it’s called. I’m changing it. I’m rewording it. I can show you some of the drafts I have right now. First of all there’s a lot of waste and repetition forms. The repetition of forms is just horrendous. But it’s because all the grantors they give us these regulations that we have to adhere by and then two years later you go back to them and say, “Are we still supposed to be adhering to this regulation?” And they say “I don’t know” because they don’t even know themselves. First thing I questioned when I walked in here: tell me about this – patient rights and responsibilities. Everybody says you have to have one of these. You know, everybody has the right to confidentiality and all this stuff, but they also have to have responsibilities. You know, you can’t just come in drunk and expect to be served. You can’t just come in and throw objects at the front. I’m re-doing the HIPAA regulations, the consumer rights and responsibilities, with everyone. Those two, I’m making up new ones with the grievance procedure that adheres to everything. NB: We had a situation here recently where someone had a complaint against [former executive director] Jennifer [Morss]. And who responds to that complaint? AC: The Board. NB: No, Jennifer … something like “We have investigated your complaint against me and have found nothing substantial.” AC: No, No, No. No, because if there is a problem – and I don’t know where that was --but the policies and procedures that the county has given in the past was very clear. If you have a problem with this organization, then you go up to client services under Ryan White Part A.
NB: The Zero Tolerance Policy … It was extremely intimidating and that’s what got me interested in what’s going on at AFAN. AC: It was poorly written. But you know all the doctors’ offices they all have those policies. NB: But they need to be written correctly and they don’t need to intimidate. AC: As opposed to saying – do you remember what they used to say? Now it says something like this. “AFAN clients are expected to act in a manner that is respectful to other clients and their needs, as well as the agency
staff and agency property. Understand that providing falsified or fraudulent information in order to obtain services is against the law and will not be tolerated.” Those are the same things. I reworded everything: threats or incidents of assault or theft or abusive behavior towards staff, volunteers or other clients are not tolerated. So we’re looking at those policies and it’s important to know they’re being rewritten. Because you know we have people who come here and try to sell drugs. Here. They come here in possession or they come in with alcohol, with pot, with all kinds of drugs, and they try to sell them to the other clients.
So when we’re looking at a zero tolerance policy it has to be named something else and it has to contain some of the same elements because I can not just be here letting people be doing what they want to do because I’m afraid I’m going to post a zero tolerance policy and nobody’s going to like it. No. I’m willing to answer any questions for the community. I can rewrite it to make it more respectful, you know, for people to come here and feel more comfortable, but I’m not willing to be a doormat. Because they burned our building, for God sakes. And nothing will stop anybody from doing anything else – tag this building or doing anything. So some sense of order has got to be there at some level. This is part of what I’ve done. I knew that was the very first thing I needed to change. Now the other thing that I discovered, and this is not about AFAN, this is about the impositions that AFAN has had from funding sources. There are a lot of repetitive activities here. And that has been imposed by grant funding. How many consent of release of information forms do we need to have? One from the state, one from the city, one from the …? Really? Why can’t I create my own that adheres to all of them and expedite the process, save a couple of trees, and make sure that [the clients] only sign one piece of paper as opposed to four? I’ve gone through this at Community Counseling. We went to battle with everybody. This is exactly what I did four years ago. I consolidated all the same repetitive forms that the clients have to sign and I put it all together, and the transition from clients getting services went much smoother. Instead of having to look at over 16 to 20 pages, of paperwork, they went through eight. This is the first thing I started looking at. When I first came here I posed as a client, I went around, I started looking at the services, I started asking the questions that any client will ask (and God knows I’ve had many clients), and I met with the social worker and with the case manager, and it was taking me Continued on next page
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Goal: Improving quality of client services Continued from previous page too long and I said to them, “Doesn’t this take too long? Why does it take too long?” And the answer was “I was told to do it this way.” So I go up the ladder, right, who decided it was going to be this way? Everybody, the answer I get here is “I don’t know, we’ve always done it this way.” The second week I was here I called the county. And I said ‘tell me about these forms. My employees are spending two hours with the clients pushing these forms, making sure that they sign them … Why are they doing that?” What do you think was the answer? “I don’t know. I thought that was your idea.” So I come here and I look to the people who have been here the longest and I talked to Jenn and she has all the history: No, it was imposed by this person before that person left it was imposed by this person and you know there is a stack of paperwork that has been given to clients as if it was all they do is sit here, instead of looking at the ability to have services, they have to go through these regulations which are absurd. I told the staff when I met with them, I need to make sure the community knows that we’re improving the services here. But we have to improve it not because they have been wrong, or they don’t have any regulations. We have to improve it because of all this shit. Look at this. (Points to a stack of paperwork) In the last three weeks I’ve gone through all of this, I’ve consolidated all of these forms, and I still have more to go. I have to go to the county and to the city and the state, and to all of the people who give us funds to make sure that they’re okay with it.
Client services are really the priority that I have. Then it’s going to be continuing to make sure the community begins to trust us again. Because I had nothing to do with anything that happened prior to January first. I have to be able to take this organization into the next level of functioning, where the community will continue to trust us and we will be able to provide the services that we can in a more expedited manner. And the best part, I’m hoping to speak with any of the clients that are having a difficult time. So all those policies have to change. They have changed, I have to meet with them to make sure that everybody agrees with what we’re doing. We have to improve the services, the quality of services, by decreasing the amount of time they spend with the social worker signing documents that are on some level obsolete. Because a very, very low percentage of clients really need to have what used to be called the Zero Tolerance Policy. Very low percentage of clients. It is [now] blended between client’s rights and responsibilities. It is one document. We don’t have to have the other one. And it’s that simple: you have the right to access services, to be confidential, to make sure we protect you, take care of you, but you also have the responsibility to make sure that you don’t threaten my staff. So it’s something that’s very simple, you just get it, get rid of it, and blend it into the client rights. NB: What’s the term of The Board of Trustees. If you’re on the Board, how long is your term? AC: I haven’t checked that. But I
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can tell you it’s very simple. Whatever the Board exists right now they’re talking with the board of Community Counseling Center. We’re moving towards an integration. We’re moving combining the services in a merger. And in the process, some of the Board members are happy about it and some are not – in both places. Both here and there. I would expect that some are going from that organization and some are going to go from here. So my job is going to be to combine one Board and to give them the opportunity to stay or to leave. I don’t want people to stay here if they’re not feeling this is a place they need to go. I already have people in mind, people who have contacted me that want to join the Board once the merger takes place. As we’re going through this process, I’m not paying a lot of attention to them. Because I know, at the most, at the end of the year the Board is going to be transformed. It’s going to be made up of whatever is left of both Boards. And I’m going to have to bring it from there. NB: What has been done or will be done to restore AFAN’s good name in respect to client privacy? Videos of the clients in the waiting room were posted on the Internet, Morss sent client records to the Clark County Commission, posted them on the Internet, and claimed she had the right to do that. AC: I can only tell you as of January first I have to adhere to HIPAA regulations and I have to adhere to confidentiality laws and regulations we have for the state. And not only because the agency has to adhere to them, but because my license requires me to do that. The other part is that we have excessive training, coming up with all the employees. About confidentiality, about HIPAA regulations, and about making sure they understand what they’re doing with the client. In terms of treatment, in terms of providing services, and all of that. The other level is that every single person that works under that roof has to report to a specific board. The Board of MFT – Marriage and Family Therapists -- or the Board of Social Workers. And they have strict rules of confidentiality and conduct. Well, that applies here. [Staff who are not Marriage and Family Therapists or Social Workers] are Continued on next page
Client restraining orders; mending fences Continued from previous page going to be held to the same standard as social workers and MFTs. By HIPAA regulations they have to go through training on HIPAA and confidentiality on an annual basis. Just caring about HIV doesn’t make you a good candidate to be working here. You have to be able to have some formal training. And so I still have to look at who was hired here, how long have they been hired, I kind of have an idea, but I have to have a look at their personnel files to see who’s got the education and who doesn’t have the education. And whoever has the education, we’re going to encourage them to improve themselves and their lives with training and development and whoever doesn’t have an education we’ll encourage them to go get an education. If that was done for me by Ron [Lawrence], Why can’t I do that here? And so hopefully with that, we’re going to be able to increase the quality of services we’re providing. NB: Is AFAN doing anything to mend fences with other organizations? AC: Of course. I am now the face of AFAN. I have to get to know what we do so that I can go and be with the other organizations and talk to them, because I never had any problems with any other organization. And the idea is, “Look, you can agree or disagree, but we still have to provide services to clients.” I have already talked to several people. We know this can only be bad for so long. You can’t just continue running an organization that’s just having the most horrible experience because the clients don’t want to come to an organization like this when they hear all this shit in the press. They don’t want to come here. NB: Will anybody here be taking legal action against clients? I don’t know. NB: Restraining orders? It depends. I don’t think I need to get to that level. But if I have somebody that’s coming chasing me with a gun because they think the changes haven’t improved or the changes haven’t taken place when they want to you know, it’s been three months and nothing has changed so I’m going to change it with a gun, yeah, really, that’s not a nice question. I don’t have the intention of doing that. Let’s make it very clear, I don’t have
the intention of creating this adversarial relationship with the community. My intention is to preserve the services that we have and to increase the quality and so, no, to me that’s not what I do. Is that off the table? I don’t know, I never encountered it in the other building. The Community Counseling Center offices at 1120 Almond Tree Lane were ravaged by an arson fire a year ago. CCC has moved into another building at 714 E. Sahara Ave. and their old building, which they still own, has been renovated. Aid for AIDS of Nevada is now renting that building, and saving thousands of dollars each month due to lower rent. NB: Is any settlement with Lane Olson in sight? AC: I have no idea. I’m going to meet with the board to talk about that. I don’t know how that’s going to be. I don’t know where the process is. I know they were talking about a settlement but I have no idea where the process is. It’s legal and we can’t talk about anything about that. I know there is still some process going on with him. NB: I understand he’s planning to file a counter-suit or an amendment to his counter-suit next week. AC: I’m going to let the Board address some of those. I need to be in with them. I need to know what’s going
on. But that’s not the way I operate. My focus has really been about this. About the quality of services. NB: The Lane Olson thing leaves a lot of people wondering what AFAN is doing. They’re suing a former employee. And they tried to prevent him from getting his COBRA insurance, It just leaves people with w bad taste for AFAN and the sooner that gets resolved, the better. You have to know there’s two sides to the story. NB: I know that, but even Jerry Cade wrote a public letter AC: I know. I read the letter and I know about that. And what I can tell you is that it didn’t have to get to that level. And I don’t know the details because I have not asked for those details because that’s not something I’m interested in doing right now. I will get to it. Because I will be pulled into it. I know that … when the time comes. And then I’ll have to read all of that, all the details. But what I can tell you is that by looking at quality, by looking at policies and procedures, if I find somebody stealing money, I don’t care if they’ve been here for nine years … I don’t care if I go to war. You will be gone if you steal money from here. I don’t know the details and I haven’t gotten involved in all that.
Lawrence to speak at Lambda Lunch, Wednesday, Feb. 8 Ron Lawrence, Executive Director of Community Counseling Center is the scheduled speaker at the Lambda Lunch on Wednesday, Feb. 8. He will be talking about the intended merger with AFAN, the reasons why such merghers are very important in the current healthcare reform climate, and the intended transformations that will occur in the hybrid agency according to the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act legislation. Las Vegas Night Beat $ February 2012 $ 21