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Alternative Opportunities Chief Financial Officer Tom Goss and Clinical Services Director Keith Noble have been with the Springfield-based nonprofit since the early 1990s. In 2002, AO assumed management of the Carol Jones Recovery Center for Women, above.
Alternative Opportunities Chief Financial Officer Tom Goss and Clinical Services Director Keith Noble have been with the Springfield-based nonprofit since the early 1990s. In 2002, AO assumed management of the Carol Jones Recovery Center for Women, above.

Alternative Opportunities stacks up fee offices

Posted online
A Springfield-based provider of social services that's landed contracts to operate 10 of the state's motor vehicle and driver's license fee offices is defending its growth strategy and dismissing charges of political favoritism.

Alternative Opportunities Inc. has become one of the state's go-to vendors since its inception in the early 1990s. Today, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit's wide-reaching network of Missouri offices provides a range of support services to the disabled and unemployed as well as foster youth and those struggling with substance abuse.

"It's the people who for whatever reason, need some type of support or intervention to either regain or gain a successful quality of life," Chief Operations Officer Bontiea Goss said of AO's clientele.

Goss said AO aided more than 20,000 individuals in fiscal 2008, during which the organization posted revenues of $56.6 million, according to its U.S. Internal Revenue Service Form 990. Expenses that year, the most recent reported, were $57 million for an annual loss of $383,000.

Fee offices now managed by AO - including two in Springfield, one in Republic and one in Joplin - will provide a new revenue stream for the expanding nonprofit, which employs about 2,000 people statewide. Revenue from the 10 offices last year generated an estimated $3 million in agent fees, according to the state Department of Revenue.

AO officials said that managing fee offices in the cities it serves simply made sense from a service standpoint, but the Missouri Republican Party has suggested that the nonprofit's officers were rewarded with the contracts for contributing to Gov. Jay Nixon's campaign.

"The more we learn, the more it seems that this nonprofit has positioned themselves within the Democratic establishment," said Lloyd Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, in a news release.

After taking office in January, Nixon implemented a criteria-based competitive bidding process for the state's 183 fee offices. Under the new system, bidders are evaluated on customer service, financial stability, employee qualifications and office security/accessibility.

Goss said AO's success in securing the contracts -- and the subsequent political fallout - has been unexpected.

"We were naïve - very naïve," Goss said. "We were thinking we would get maybe one or two (contracts)."

A contribution-contract connection?

Both Goss and AO CEO Marilyn Nolan contributed to Nixon's campaign, but Nolan also donated to Republicans, including Springfield state Reps. Charlie Shields and Bob Dixon, and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

The majority of contributions from AO officials did, however, go to Nixon: Goss and husband Tom, AO's chief financial officer, gave $4,700 to the governor's campaign last year, and Nolan contributed $3,350 to Nixon's coffers, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records. Steven Harter, administrator of AO affiliate Brooke Care in Branson, also gave $1,000 to Nixon's campaign in 2008, records show.

"The contributions are personal; they are not contributions from the company," Goss said.

Nolan noted that AO officials have developed relationships with certain state lawmakers who are sympathetic to the organization's goals.

"We've gotten to know very closely who it is that believes in our mission and supports our mission," she said.

Goss maintained that AO won the fee office contracts outright, and she said proposals posted online at the Office of Administration Web site - www.oa.mo.gov - offer insight into why the organization beat out other bidders. AO proposed to keep its fee offices open every Saturday, add staff and generate monthly report cards that touch on customer satisfaction and error rates. The nonprofit also has set up an 800-number that encourages customers to report problems or positive experiences about their office visits.

Goss said AO also is using its fee offices as work force training sites for disabled and disadvantaged clients, including a young woman who recently had a baby and is now a full-time employee at the South Fremont office.

"That's the exact story we wanted to create by managing these licensing offices," she said.

Goss said the fee office bidding process was as objective as AO officials have ever seen, and she noted that her organization submitted proposals for contracts that were awarded to other bidders.

"Our experience in this process has been absolutely and completely arm's length," Goss said. "We have no information about who reviews these bids. We don't know how they're scored. ... And at no point at anywhere in the process has there been communication or even an opportunity for anyone to speak with the individuals making the decisions."

DOR spokesman Ted Farnen said in an e-mail that the bidding process is "open and transparent."

"Just like any other state contract out for bid, the state attempts to pick the best bid," he stated. "When a selection is made, sometimes a person or group is disappointed that they were not chosen, but the reasons for the choice are well-documented."

Branching out

Much of AO's growth has been organic, and its recent foray into fee offices was no different, officials said.

The organization began by serving people with developmental disabilities in Springfield, and then Joplin, before expanding into the Missouri Bootheel at the urging of various state agencies, said Nolan. AO offices established in Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau in the mid-1990s are still in operation.

AO later expanded into Kansas City, St. Louis and mid-Missouri by pursuing state government contracts to address community-specific needs in those regions.

"We believe very strongly to efficiently serve people you have to have a local presence," Goss said. "That's why you see so many (AO) offices spread out geographically. We don't believe you can effectively serve Nevada, Missouri, from Joplin."

Goss said AO officials adopted a strategy of bidding on fee offices in communities the organization already serves because most of its clients access multiple services. She noted that seven offices AO bid on have not yet been awarded.

In Springfield, AO is often associated with the Carol Jones Recovery Center for Women, which was merged into the organization's purview seven years ago. The center provides inpatient and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment for women.

Assistant Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Jill Patterson said the center provides important services to what she described as an "extremely vulnerable population." She said AO is a partner in Mothers Choosing Change, a drug court-administered track for mothers who are struggling with chemical dependency issues.

"Knowing them as I do, I firmly believe that they are rooted in being socially responsible and legitimately trying to help people with drug addictions," Patterson said of AO staff. "What I have really come to respect about them ... is that they are research-based in terms of what counseling and therapy they provide to clients."

Patterson also noted that AO officials have contributed to her husband's campaign for Greene County Prosecuting Attorney, a post that becomes available in January 2011; Dan Patterson is a Republican.

Looking ahead, Nolan said AO just secured a $400,000 annual grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - to assist the center's pregnant and post-partum clients. Goss said AO also is pursuing federal contracts to provide additional substance abuse and employment counseling services to its client base.

"We believe very strongly in not sitting back and waiting for people to provide services for the folks that we serve," she said. "We feel very strongly it is our obligation to try and go out and access those. And by doing that, we've secured multiple contracts that have then benefited people outside our original group of folks."[[In-content Ad]]

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