{"id":63852,"date":"2018-08-09T21:12:49","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T03:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/investing-in-abuse-pera-has-another-problem\/"},"modified":"2018-08-10T03:12:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T03:12:49","slug":"investing-in-abuse-pera-has-another-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/investing-in-abuse-pera-has-another-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in abuse: PERA has another problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But that\u2019s not how markets usually work, as we were reminded when we listened to Reveal, the public-radio news program. The installment had reporting by Audrey Quinn, starting with harm done to residents at a facility for the severely disabled in Florida. Its parent company, Bellwether Behavioral Health, has turned contracting with states for developmental disability services into a lucrative business \u201cat the expense of disabled people\u2019s lives,\u201d Quinn says.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Wellspring Capital Management, a private equity fund based in New York with $2.2 billion in assets, bought Bellwether. So is Wellspring responsible for what happens at Bellwether homes? There are plaintiffs who think so. Wellspring, along with Bellwether, has been sued for using Medicaid funds to improperly enrich itself.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, the enriched invest with Bellwether and realize profits. But these aren\u2019t fat cats. Many of Wellspring\u2019s investors are public-employee retirement accounts \u2013 such as Colorado PERA, which has invested $150 million. Measured by returns, it hasn\u2019t been a bad investment. That\u2019s notable when Colorado\u2019s public retirement accounts face shortfalls.<\/p>\n

Yet, the retirements of Colorado teachers, state government employees, judges, state troopers and others might depend to some degree on Bellwether abusing disabled people.<\/p>\n

In March, Dave Young, the Democratic candidate for state treasurer, decried that more than $1 million of Colorado PERA investments were in gun companies. The Wellspring investment is almost 150 times greater.<\/p>\n

So we asked Young and three other candidates: Would you recommend different or higher standards for PERA investing?<\/p>\n

\u201cAny kind of abuse of vulnerable people should never be tolerated,\u201d Young said in an emailed statement. Colorado\u2019s treasurer should play an active role in PERA\u2019s divestment policy review, he said. \u201cColorado should not invest in businesses that break the law or don\u2019t play by the rules. I\u2019ll steward our money responsibly and profitably for the state and PERA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responsibly and profitably is the trick, it seems to us. And you have to recognize the challenge before you can meet it.<\/p>\n

We asked Young\u2019s opponent in the race for treasurer, Republican Brian Watson, the same questions but got no response.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t one person who makes PERA\u2019s investment decisions, although, the state treasurer has a seat on PERA\u2019s board. Currently, that\u2019s Walker Stapleton, who is also the Republican candidate for governor. So we took our questions to him, in part because we think that this is an area where a Colorado governor could have a bully pulpit. Plus, the governor appoints three of PERA\u2019s 16 board members.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a current PERA board member, I find this information troubling,\u201d Stapleton said in a prepared statement. \u201cI hope PERA\u2019s investment department \u2026 looks into these allegations further.\u201d<\/p>\n

We went to Stapleton\u2019s Democratic opponent for governor, Jared Polis: \u201cMedicaid fraud and deliberately providing substandard care to people with disabilities is a crime,\u201d Polis emailed. \u201cShould these allegations prove to be true, I trust the PERA board will take that into serious consideration and would re-evaluate its investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, none of the three talked about the returns from Wellspring. None of them prioritized profits for retirees over the care of the vulnerable.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019ve learned is that it is at least possible that the state\u2019s next treasurer will push for even more responsible PERA investing without forgetting the obligation to fully fund retirements.<\/p>\n

Even better, we are gratified to discover that Colorado\u2019s next governor is on the record as at least being concerned by PERA\u2019s Wellspring investment now. That\u2019s a splendid start.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: After press time, we heard from Brian Watson, the Republican candidate for Colorado treasurer, who said, \u201cAs treasurer, I will encourage the PERA board and their investment division to conduct regular reviews of all state investments to ensure they are in compliance with Colorado Revised Statutes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

du1-i-syn But that\u2019s not how markets usually work, as we were reminded when we listened to Reveal, the public-radio news program. The installment had reporting by Audrey Quinn, starting with harm done to residents at a facility for the severely disabled in Florida. Its parent company, Bellwether Behavioral Health, has turned contracting with states for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-63852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63852"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=63852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}