Solution proposed for agencies’ dispute

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Thanks to offered assistance from the Van Wert County Board of Commissioners, a situation that threatened to pit the Crisis Care Line organization against the YWCA in a battle for domestic violence program funding, could significantly enhance domestic violence services in the county.

During a meeting with YWCA Executive Director Tammy Branham and Jamie Evans, director of the YWCA’s Transitional Housing and Domestic Violence programs, the commissioners offered to mediate the situation between the two organizations, both of which are applying for the county’s share of marriage license fees to help fund their domestic violence programs.

Both Branham and Evans expressed interest in working together with Crisis Care Line representatives to provide some type of partnership with that group.

Kathy Taylor, representing Crisis Care Line, also had expressed her willingness to work with the YWCA on the situation during a meeting with commissioners on Tuesday.

Branham explained Thursday that the YWCA only got involved in providing domestic violence services after being asked to do so by a third party working with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. That request came after the A-G’s Office cut funding to Crisis Care Line over financial reporting issues.

In the meantime, Crisis Care Line board members, including then-board president Tom Riggenbach, worked hard to correct the reporting issues and had baseline funding restored this year by Ohio Criminal Justice Services. Riggenbach later resigned as board president when he was elected county sheriff.

However, with its problems corrected, Crisis Care Line found itself now competing with the YWCA for domestic violence program funding. United Way of Van Wert County, having concerns with the group over the financial issues, awarded the approximately $29,000 it had earmarked for domestic violence programs to the YWCA, while the YW also received nearly $90,000 in domestic violence program funding from DeWine’s office.

With both sides expressing a willingness to sit down and talk, Commissioners Thad Lichtensteiger, Todd Wolfrum and Stan Owens expressed their desire to serve as go-betweens to restart a dialogue between the two agencies that could lead to some combining of the two agencies’ resources and services.

The end result could be enhanced residential and domestic violence services for the county, since each group brings excellent resources in those areas to the table.

The commissioners plan to meet with the two groups in the near future to work on resolution of the situation.