TuscBDD severs ties with Starlight Enterprises

The decision last week by the Tuscarawas County Board of Developmental Disabilities not to renew its service contract with Starlight Enterprises Inc. comes as the relationship between the two organizations has become strained in recent years.

On Monday, the county board voted not to renew its one-year contract with Starlight Enterprises (SEI) for adult services and vocational and employment training.

Instead, the board approved a four-month contract that runs through Oct. 31, to allow SEI time to find a new location for its operations.

The board did approve a new contract with SEI to provide janitorial services for various county board facilities.

Under the current agreement, SEI procures contracts with area businesses to provide work for developmentally disabled people at the board-owned workshop at 638 Commercial Ave. SW in New Philadelphia. SEI also serves as a payroll agent for the board.

Although SEI will be moving out, the workshop will remain open, said Stephanie Wilson, president of the county board of developmental disabilities.

“It’s going to continue to be a place where people can come for employment. There will be a variety of employers using the space to offer an array of choices of employment,” she said.

But SEI officials said they were surprised by the board’s action.

“We did not know this was coming,” said Donna Beitzel, president of SEI’s board. “We thought we’d be staying in the workshop.”

Cassie Elvin, the CEO of Starlight Enterprises, added, “We were as surprised as the general public to receive this decision. We believed we were negotiating in good faith for the space.”

County board members sent Beitzel a letter Monday notifying her of the board’s decision.

“We are committed to offering a spectrum of choices with a variety of provider agencies to people with developmental disabilities,” the letter said. “This has been at the core of our recent discussions about and preliminary plans to repurpose the workshop as a collaborative space housing multiple providers, community members and, perhaps, even a growing business looking for room to expand. We do not believe that SEI is a provider with whom we can achieve the kind of dynamic partnership we seek for this endeavor.”

Noting that the connections between the two organizations run deep, the letter continued, “As you are aware, however, the relationship between TuscBDD and SEI has been strained in recent years for a number of reasons, despite efforts on both sides to resolve differences, and it is our assessment that it is unlikely to improve. We, therefore, believe that it would be best for our respective organizations to move forward in separate facilities.”

Elvin said there were no strained relationships between county board employees who work at the workshop or SEI staff. “The strain was at the management level,” she said.

STRAINED RELATIONSHIP

While the county board and SEI have been synonymous in the minds of many people in Tuscarawas County, SEI has been an independent organization since it was formed in 1969.

“There continues to be confusion in the community regarding the identity of SEI and the Tuscarawas County Board of Developmental Disabilities,” Wilson said. “They confuse SEI, the board and Starlight and don’t understand SEI is a separate entity, just like Horizons Inc. is a separate provider.”

But the two organizations have been intertwined, with some county board employees serving in SEI posts at the same time. Board officials say they are working to sever the last ties to meet state and federal mandates.

Relations between the two agencies soured in late 2014, after SEI officials allowed the Tuscarawas County Council for Church and Community (T4C) to use space at the workshop for the Share-A-Christmas toy distribution.

Chris Yurick, the county board’s director of operations, said SEI officials volunteered use of the building without consulting with the board. Board officials were concerned about liability issues.

“In hindsight, we should have asked, but it was a spontaneous act to help another organization in the community,” Beitzel responded.

“The Share-A-Christmas event was a great success and individuals at the workshop helped make it a very positive event,” Elvin said.

“No one was in danger, no one got hurt, all aspects of planning the event were successful.”

Nonetheless, county board officials were concerned.

“It really alarmed the superintendent (Natalie Lupi) and the board,” Yurick said. “That really caused an upheaval in our organization. At that point, the board said the relationship (with SEI) needed to change.”

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