Funding sought for new conservator agency

(Photo credit: George Walker IV / The Tennessean )

Davidson Probate Judge David “Randy” Kennedy says he’s confident Metro Council will approve a proposal to create a new publicly funded office of public guardian, the first of its kind in Tennessee, to increase accountability in providing services to those unable to look out for themselves.

Kennedy made the comment Thursday, the day after Mayor Karl Dean proposed the new office as part of his budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The proposal, which tracks the recommendations of a task force Kennedy appointed, would staff the new office with a full-time public guardian and an accountant. He proposed funding of a little less than $200,000.

“We are confident,” Kennedy wrote, “that members of the council, many of whom have already voiced their support for this funding, will approve the mayor’s request.”

Former Metro public guardian Jeanan Stuart resigned under fire in late May 2013 amid questions about the fees she charged. She resigned the same day Kennedy announced he would no longer appoint her.

Stuart’s position was funded not by Metro but by fees she charged to those she was court-appointed to oversee. She was required to file periodic reports to the court.

In a series of stories, The Tennessean detailed how wards were charged up to $225 an hour to be taken on shopping trips or to attend a concert. Dean cited those articles in his speech.

In proposing the new office, Dean noted that Nashville’s array of advanced health-care facilities draws a large share of those who need protection.

“Due to our aging population, we expect the number of people in need of court intervention, as a result of disability, to grow dramatically,” Dean said.

Full Article & Source:
Funding sought for new conservator agency

See Also:
Ginger Franklin's Car Towed and Sold While in Conservator, Jeanan Mills Stuart's 'Care'

Ginger Franklin, Tennessee Victim

Tennessee Public Guardian, Jeanan Mills Stuart's Fees Exceed $1.8 Million

TN:  Conservator Jeanan Mills Stuart and Judge Randy Kennedy

Jeanan Stuart Response to Questions

Nashville Judge: Former Public Guardian, Jeanan Mills Stuart, Not Responsible for Ward's Losses

A Davidson County circuit court judge has thrown out part of a suit filed against a former public guardian who was removed from her post following multiple questions about her billing practices, including charging attorney-level fees for accompanying wards on shopping trips or attending a concert.

The ruling means that former Davidson County public guardian Jeanan Stuart is not liable for losses sustained by Ginger Franklin while Stuart was acting as Franklin’s conservator.

Circuit Judge Hamilton V. Gayden Jr. said in a letter to Franklin’s attorney that he had decided to grant Stuart’s motion for summary judgment.

Franklin, who lost her condo, car and all her belongings during the conservatorship, said she could not understand the decision.

“Everything I owned was gone,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Gayden’s letter does not disclose the reasoning behind his decision, and a formal ruling has yet to be posted on the circuit court web site.

But the judge left the door open for Franklin to proceed with her case on a second charge.

Gayden said in his letter to attorney Michael Hoskins that he had not yet decided whether to reject a separate claim by Franklin relating to Stuart’s placement of Franklin in a group home, where Franklin has charged she was put to work taking care of other residents.

A Sumner County judge, in a separate suit filed by Franklin against the group home and its owner, ruled that Franklin and other residents at the group home were the victims of “egregious and intentional abuse” when they were put to work by the group home owner.

The judge in the case, C.L. Buck Rogers, died recently before a hearing could be held to determine the amount of punitive damages to which Franklin was entitled.

Full Article and Source:
Nashville Judge:  Former Guardian Not Responsible for Ward's Losses

Hope Dims for Lawyer John E. Clemmons' Victims From Whom He Stole More Than $1 Million

The insurance company that provided malpractice coverage to jailed Nashville attorney John E. Clemmons is asking a federal judge to declare they have no responsibility to help pay back his victims who lost more than $1 million.

If the judge agrees, the amount Clemmons’ victims would receive could be smaller than expected.

In a suit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Nashville, lawyers for the Hanover Insurance Company stated that Clemmons’ policy does not apply in cases where he broke the law. Clemmons pled guilty in Davidson and Rutherford counties to theft from his clients.

Clemmons is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence at the state prison at the Charles B. Bass Correctional Complex in Nashville.

In its complaint, the insurance company cited several provisions of the policy they say Clemmons violated, including “any intentional, dishonest, criminal, malicious or fraudulent act or omission.”

The suit cites pending legal actions against Clemmons in three Davidson County cases, his guilty pleas to theft charges and the suspension of his license to practice law.
“Clemmons admitted his misappropriation,” the suit states.

Court records show that bond insurance that Clemmons was required to purchase has provided at least partial reimbursement in three of the cases.

The victims also can collect from the Tennessee Lawyers Fund for Client Protection, but the maximum amount that can be claimed for any one attorney, regardless of how many victims there are, is $250,000.

Full Article and Source:
Hope Dims for Lawyer's Victims Who Lost More Than $1 Million

See Also:
Former Conservator, John E. Clemmons, Gets Potential Break on Prison Sentence

Former TN Ward, Ginger Franklin, Sues Former Conservator, Jeanan Mills Stuart

Source:
WSMV.com: Former court-Appointed Conservator Faces Civil Suit

See Also:
Ginger Franklin, Tennessee Victim

Judge Randy Kennedy Removes Former Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart

TN Attorney John E. Clemmons Takes Plea, Gets 18 Years in $1.3 Mil Theft Case as Investigation Continues

A suspended Tennessee probate lawyer has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after admitting that he stole $1.3 million from three conservatorship clients.

John E. Clemmons, 66, pleaded guilty to perjury, theft and defrauding the state's Medicare managed-care program, known as TennCare, according to the Tennessean.

Meanwhile, an investigation continues concerning claims by other former clients that they, too, may have been victimized by Clemmons. He is reportedly cooperating with the probe.

Source:
Probate Attorney Takes Plea, Gets 18 Years in $1.3 mil Theft Case as Investigation Continues

Former TN Attorney John E. Clemmons Accused of Stealing from Conservatorship

John E. Clemmons is now facing criminal charges in Davidson County for the first time. You may remember he pleaded guilty in Rutherford County for doing the same sort of thing he is alleged to do here - stealing from the infirmed who were powerless to protect themselves.

Now, Clemmons is jailed in Nashville on half-million dollars bond. He's accused of causing millions of dollars of heartache to families like those of Nannie Malone.

Malone was 82 when she died in a nursing home. Clemmons was supposed to be caring for her and paying her bills. He had been her conservator for six years.

"I would ask for money to buy diapers or to get her hair cut. He said, 'She had no money,'" said Malone's daughter, Teresa Lyles. "He was very arrogant, he was very arrogant." Lyles says her younger sister hounded Clemmons, demanding an audit and an accounting of their mother's money.

"So he filed a petition in court to keep her from seeing our mother. She couldn't handle that. She could not handle not seeing our mother. And she took her own life that night," Lyles said. Eventually, the bank statements would show Clemmons wrote himself more than 50 checks from Nannie Malone's account for a grand total of $367,000. "One of those checks would have paid for the medicine that my mother needed - the cancer drug that he stopped paying for," Lyles said.

Lyles told Channel 4 News in July she wanted Clemmons prosecuted, and that's the process now in place.

Full Article, Video and Source:
Former Attorney Accused of Stealing From Conservatorship

New oversight of conservatorships proposed

A task force assigned to examine the growing number of  conservatorships in Davidson County has concluded there aren’t enough resources to provide adequate oversight and has proposed the creation of a publicly funded Office of the Public Guardian.

The new office would replace the existing single public guardian, a post now vacant.

In a 55-page report made public Friday, the task force appointed in March by Probate Judge David “Randy” Kennedy said the proposed new office could be funded by a combination of public money and voluntary support.

The panel cited an increasing caseload of conservatorships in the local court, with the number jumping from 636 in fiscal year 2009 to 1,782 in 2012.

The task force was appointed in the wake of the abrupt resignation of the public guardian, Jeanan Mills Stuart, after a series of Tennessean reports on the fees Stuart charged for a variety of tasks. Among those tasks were accompanying wards on shopping trips and attendance at events, including a symphony orchestra performance.

Stuart, whose resignation coincided with Kennedy’s demand that she resign, charged her wards the full hourly lawyer’s fee — up to $225 an hour — no matter the task.

A Tennessean review of Stuart’s billing showed she billed twice for the same services, including a five-hour shopping excursion.

Specific fees dodged

The task force dodged the issue of setting specific fees for nonlawyer tasks but did recommend that conservators be required to “use their time as judiciously as possible” and “act in the best interest of the ward.”

The panel, headed by attorney Colleen P. Mac­Lean, did not recommend a specific budget or staffing level for the proposed public guardian office but instead contrasted the current effort in Davidson County with Tarrant County in Texas, which it cited as a model program.

While Tarrant has a staff of 11.5 to handle an annual caseload of 1,237 cases, the panel said, Davidson has a single judge and a staff of 3.5. Davidson’s caseload is growing and is expected to surpass 1,910 a year.

The Tarrant court has an annual budget of $940,000 and it spends an additional $675,000 to contract with a third party to provide services to wards.

In addition to urging an increase in public funding, the panel said increased court filing fees could underwrite the cost of some of its recommendations.

Kennedy did not respond Friday to a request for comment but provided a copy of a letter forwarded to Metro Council members along with copies of the report.

“I am confident that working together we will continue to enhance and improve our system of justice in this challenging area of the law,” Kennedy wrote in the letter.

The panel attributed the high Davidson County caseload — the highest in the state — to a variety of factors, including a high number of nursing homes, hospitals and veterans facilities and a large homeless population.

“This translates into a ballooning demand, particularly of indigent individuals in need of a conservatorship who do not have friends or family available to serve in this position,” the report states.

Data gathered by the panel showed that the fees charged by conservators currently range from $50 to $250 an hour. Much of the current caseload, it found, is handled by nonprofit and government agencies.

But, the task force warned, those entities “don’t have the capacity to serve all the indigents in Davidson County.”

While not recommending specific fees for non-legal-conservator services, the panel did suggest a system under which overall fee limits could be set.

It cited a flat fee of $1,500 for a case requiring minimal duties and a ceiling of $10,000 for more complicated cases, with a requirement that fees over that ceiling would require greater documentation.

The panel also called for the creation of a program to provide voluntary services for overseeing conservatorships. Such a program would provide training for those interested in serving as conservators.

Overall, the panel concluded that the Davidson County court has too few resources dedicated to the administration and oversight of conservatorships.

“The number of these cases is expected to grow even further as the baby boomer generation ages and life expectancies continue to grow due to advances in modern medicine,” the report concludes.

Full Article and Source:
New oversight of conservatorships proposed

Expedited Probate Docket Is An Initial Success

Over a month ago, Davidson County Trial Courts approved the establishment of an Expedited Probate Docket.  Judge Randy Kennedy and Presiding Judge Joe P. Binkley, Jr. jointly announced that due to the large and growing volume of cases filed in the Seventh Circuit Court; it has been determined to be in the best interest of the public and for the efficient administration of justice to establish and maintain an Expedited Probate Docket, as distinguished from the regular probate dockets.

Over 100 cases have been tried by Special Probate Master Jennifer Surber and Special Master John Manson who alternately preside over expedited dockets and conduct hearings on uncontested probate matters including name change petitions, small estate administrative proceedings, petitions to administer intestate estates, petitions to probate wills, codicils and other testamentary instruments.  

Full Article and Source:
Expedited Probate Docket Is An Initial Success

See Also:
TN: Conservator Jeanan Mills-Stuart and Judge Randy Kennedy

Criminal probe requested in conservatorship case

John E. Clemmons

Citing “incomplete accountings and other misrepresentations,” a court-appointed conservator is recommending that the district attorney general and the TBI open criminal investigations into a Nashville attorney’s handling of a conservatorship.

In a 26-page report filed Thursday in Davidson County Probate Court, Paul Gontarek found that attorney John E. Clemmons paid himself over $370,000 while acting as the conservator of Nannie P. Malone. Court records show that most of those payments were made without court approval.

Malone passed away last year at the age of 81, but her family has filed a civil suit against Clemmons, who is facing criminal charges in a separate case in Rutherford County.

Gontarek was named to replace Clemmons in the Malone case on April 10 after the Tennessee Supreme Court suspended Clemmon’s license to practice law. Probate Judge David “Randy” Kennedy also named Gontarek to take over three other of Clemmons’ cases.

Gontarek said that his review of the four cases showed Clemmons routinely submitted accounting reports that omitted the payments he made to himself. He said some of those reports were “totally fraudulent.”

Full Article and Source:
Criminal probe requested in conservatorship case

See Also:
Nashville Attorney John E. Clemmons Charged With Theft in Conservatorship Case

Tennessee Attorney John E. Clemmons, Court Appointed as Conservator, Sued for Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Conversion, and More

Pauper v Probate: Notice of Perjury and Referral for Prosecution and Disciplinary Action

IN THE FIRST CIVIL COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

 

Pauper v. Probate Court
(The Biggest Business in the World)                                                                                           

                                                                     Case No. : PD1; Filed: November 8, 2011

JUDGE “WE, THE PEOPLE…”, PRESIDING 

 

Notice of perjury by David E. Tate and Paul T. Housch 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Pauper v Probate - Notice of Perjury and Referral for Prosecution and Disciplinary Action

 

See Also:
NASGA:  Danny Tate

TN: Family Says Conservatorship Bilked $300K From Mother's Estate; The Conservator: Attorney John E. Clemmons

John E. Clemmons' law license was suspended a few months ago after he was accused of writing himself more than $50,000 in unauthorized fees from the bank account of a disabled client.
Now, another family says they're out more than $300,000.

Malone's children not only lost their mother, but they also lost everything that she had collected - all the precious memories. Clemmons sold everything at auction.

"They sold her clothes, family photos in that auction," Lyle said. "It was one of the saddest days I've ever been through."

"And now, seeing the money that has been taken from her, it's like living her death all over again," Boone said.

Source:
Family Says Conservatorship Bilked $300K From Mother's Estate

See Also:
Nashville Attorney John E. Clemmons Charged With Theft in Conservatorship Case

Judge Randy Kennedy Orders Jeanan Mills Stuart Reimburse Double Billing

More than a year after the Davidson County public guardian double-billed a ward to take her on a shopping trip to Dillards and Walgreens, the judge in the case has ordered a repayment.

The 6.5 hour trip on Jan. 16, 2012, still cost Marlene Spalding $1,462.50, but now she won’t have to pay twice.

The double-billing and the cost of the shopping trip were exposed by The Tennessean in a story about Davidson County's public guardian, Jeanan Stuart, who charged legal rates of $200 to $225 an hour for non-legal services. The Tennessean also found several instances of double-billing.

Court records show 40 open cases assigned to Stuart have been handed over to new conservators.

Seven cases were turned over to the Greater Nashville Regional Council and six each were transferred to Fifty Forward and the Guardianship and Trusts Corporation. Both are nonprofits.

Townsend said some cases will also be assigned to the Michael Dunn Center, a nonprofit serving the developmentally disabled.

Sixteen cases were handed off to private attorneys with Adam Hill getting two and Travenia Holden getting four.

The court records show Stuart still must file final  accounting reports in the reassigned cases by a July 31 deadline.

Full Article and Source:
Judge Orders Repayment in Shopping Trip Double Billing

See Also:
Judge Randy Kennedy Removes Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart

An Investigation into Conservatorship Abuse

Applause and standing ovation to Walter Roche Jr., the Investigative Editor/Reporter at The Tennesean, for his hard work, efforts, and his excellent ongoing expose of Davidson County Probate Court.

Victims of unlawful and abusive conservatorships who have suffered and been "protected" into indigence and silenced by an uncaring system, are being heard thanks to the sunshine of the media and the dedication of Mr. Roche and The Tennessean.

NASGA hopes Mr. Roche will receive many awards for his excellent and stellar series!


Judge Randy Kennedy - Davidson County's only probate judge.

Source:
An Investigation into Conservatorship Abuse

Nashville Attorney John E. Clemmons Charged With Theft in Conservatorship Case

A Nashville attorney, whose license to practice law was recently suspended, has been charged with theft of more than $60,000 from a client.

John E. Clemmons, 65, was charged last week with theft from a retired teacher.

While serving as the conservator of the Rutherford County resident, Clemmons paid himself more than $50,000 in fees without court approval.

Paul Housch, Clemmons’ attorney, said his client already had entered a not guilty plea to the criminal charge. He declined to respond to the charge, stating that it would be addressed in court. An initial hearing is scheduled for June 7.

The charges were initially spelled out in an April order from the state Supreme Court which indefinitely suspended Clemmons’ license to practice law, concluding that allowing him to continue posed “a threat of substantial harm to the public.”

Chancellor Robert E. Corlew III on March 5 removed Clemmons as Russell Church’s conservator. Rutherford County Clerk and Master John A.W. Bratcher then referred the matter to District Attorney General Robert Whitesell, whose office brought the charges to a grand jury.

The indictment was unsealed last week.

Clemmons also is facing charges in a civil case brought by the daughter of a woman for whom Clemmons served as a conservator for more than four years. The suit charges that Clemmons misappropriated about $450,000 from the estate of Nannie P. Malone, who died last year.

The suit on behalf of Malone’s daughter, Teresa A. Lyle, charges that Clemmons breached his fiduciary duty and failed to properly account for thousands of dollars in proceeds when Malone’s property was auctioned. The insurance company that provided a bond for Clemmons under his services in the conservatorship has filed a cross claim against Clemmons for the value of the $300,000 bond.

Full Article and Source:
Nashville Attorney Faces Theft Charges in Conservatorship Case

See Also:
Tennessee Attorney John E. Clemmons, Court Appointed as Conservator, Sued for Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Conversion, and More

Judge Randy Kennedy Removes Public Guardian, Jeanan Mills Stuart

Citing “significant concerns” that she charged excessive fees to her clients, Davidson County Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy Wednesday permanently suspended Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart and vowed to help seek her replacement.

Stuart, who had held the job for five years, submitted a resignation letter effective in a week. Her letter was forwarded to members of Metro Council along with a letter from Kennedy announcing her termination.

In his five-paragraph letter to council, Kennedy wrote that while most conservatorship cases, including those assigned to Stuart “have been handled properly; even the perception that excessive fees have been charged is inexcusable.”

Stuart’s termination and simultaneous resignation follows a series of Tennessean stories raising questions about her billing practices.

Full Article and Source:
Judge Removes Public Guardian After She Charged Lawyer Fees for Non-Legal Work

See Also:
Tennessee Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart's Fees Exceed $1.8 Million

Editorial: Judge Should Let Public Guardian Go

We are glad to know that Davidson County Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy’s report to the Metro Council last month on the work of Public Guardian Jeanan Mills Stuart was only a preliminary finding.

That’s because there seems to be something missing from the report: that it’s time for a new Davidson County public guardian.

Kennedy still is reviewing Stuart’s active cases, but he told the council he had so far found no discrepancies. Perhaps he needs a better reading lamp.

Stuart has, for the past five years, been billing clients at the lawyer-fee rate of $200-$225 per hour for countless tasks that have nothing to do with legal expertise, often in six-minute increments, and sometimes multiple times in a day. Stuart says this is standard procedure. Billing for legal work in six-minute increments is; nonlegal, no, say legal experts. A review of Stuart’s bills since 2008 shows she charged her clients for six minutes 13,290 times, totaling more than $270,000 in fees. The tasks included such things as listening to a voice mail.

Experts have explained that lawyers typically have clerks or paralegals do these tasks — or, the lawyer bills for these tasks at a lower rate even if handling the voice mail themselves.

Is Judge Kennedy simply going to accept Stuart’s version of what is routine, in the face of all the accounts to the contrary?

Full Editorial and Source:
Judge Should Let Public Guardian Go

See Also:
Ginger Franklin's Car Towed and Sold While in Conservator, Jeanan Mills Stuart's, 'Care'

Ginger Franklin's Car Towed and Sold While in Conservator, Jeanan Mills Stuart's 'Care'

For months, Ginger Franklin has been trying to find out what happened to the 2001 Nissan Altima she owned before she was placed in an emergency conservatorship.

At first she was told her car had been repossessed and sold by the bank holding a note on the vehicle.

The Tennessean was given the same answer when it first questioned Franklin’s conservator, Jeanan Mills Stuart, about the whereabouts of the car in February.

Stuart said Franklin was “upside down” on the car with an outstanding loan exceeding its value. She referred questions to the attorney who had handled Franklin’s bankruptcy.

The attorney, Maria Salas, however, told The Tennessean there was no loan on the car and the vehicle was never brought into the bankruptcy case. 

New records obtained by The Tennessean show that Franklin’s car, after being turned over to Stuart, was towed away from the garage where Stuart’s office is located on Franklin Pike after a caller said it had been abandoned.

West Nashville Wrecker Service declined to say who requested the car be towed in April 2009. It sent a legal notice by certified mail to Franklin, telling her that if she did not pay storage and towing fees, her car would be sold.

Franklin never got the notice because she was in a conservatorship handled by Stuart. Records show Herbert Mills, Jeanan Stuart’s father, received the notice and signed a receipt for it, in effect, authorizing the wrecker service to sell the car in an auction.

“I had nothing to do with the car other than leave it in the parking lot at my office where I had parked it after getting the low offer on it from the dealer. I had driven it from the dealer to my office and felt it was dangerous to drive the car any further because of the shaking of the vehicle when I drove it,” Stuart wrote.

Full Article and Source:
Client's Car Towed, Sold While  in Lawyer's Care

See Also:
Ginger Franklin, Tennessee Victim

Tennessee Public Guardian, Jeanan Mills Stuart's Fees Exceed $1.8 Million

TN:  Conservator Jeanan Mills Stuart and Judge Randy Kennedy

Jeanan Stuart Response to Questions

Tennessee Public Guardian, Jeanan Mills Stuart's, Fees Exceed $1.8 Million

The Davidson County public guardian, whose fees are under review by a local probate judge, has double-billed clients, billed more than 24 hours in a day and earned more than $270,000 in thousands of small, individual charges for tasks such as listening to a voice mail.

The Tennessean first raised questions  about Jeanan Mills Stuart’s fees when it found she was charging her legal rates of $200 to $225 per hour for nonlegal tasks, such as taking her wards on shopping trips and sorting their clothes before a move into an assisted-living center.

A new data analysis by The Tennessean of all of her billings between 2008 — when she was first appointed by the Metro Council — and February 2013 shows she has turned in fee requests with mistakes, such as double-billings, and more than 24-hour days, all of which have been approved by the judge overseeing the conservator cases.

In all, Stuart has billed for more than $1.8 million in fees since January 2008, when she took on her role, according to The Tennessean’s data analysis. As public guardian, she handles the affairs of people who are found by the Davidson County probate court to be mentally or physically unable to make their own decisions. Her wards have no control or say in what she does for them. The primary oversight of her fees is Davidson County Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy, who can approve or reject them.

Full Article and Source:
Davidson County Public Guardian's Fees Exceed $1.8 Million

See Also:
NASGA: Ginger Franklin, Tennessee Victim

Nashville Woman, Shannon Hill, is Assigned New Conservator

Following a more than two-hour hearing, a 67-year-old Nashville resident has won a partial victory in her battle to win release from a conservatorship dating back to 2009.

Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy told Shannon Hill Wednesday he would order an increase in her monthly allowance from $200 to $300, but he declined to dissolve the conservatorship due to concerns expressed by one of her doctors that her condition could deteriorate if she did not adhere to her medication requirements.

Kennedy also agreed to replace her current conservator, a cousin, with the nonprofit Guardianship and Trust Co., which regularly handles conservatorships in Kennedy’s court.

Kennedy said he would review Hill’s status at a September hearing and stressed that his goal was to place Hill under the least restrictive conditions as possible and that the conservatorship could be tapered back at that time. He also promised a review of her conservator Kathy Mangrum’s final accounting report.

“This is about what’s in your best interests,” Kennedy said.

Hill testified at length about disagreements with Mangrum, who is her cousin, but Kennedy and others involved in the case said repeatedly they saw nothing wrong in the way Mangrum had performed her duties.

Source:
Nashville Woman is Assigned New Conservator

See Also:
New TN Conservatorship Law Comes too Late

TN: Conservator Jeanan Mills-Stuart and Judge Randy Kennedy

For Jeanan Mills Stuart, the public guardian for Davidson County, no job is too small.

At rates between $195 and $225 an hour, the costs for Stuart’s personal attention add up.

She billed five hours — $986 — to accompany one of her wards to a performance of Handel’s Messiah. She charged the same woman $1,282 to take her to Dillard’s, Walgreens and lunch, and for the same day, billed her $1,183 for a shopping trip to CoolSprings Galleria, according to a fee affidavit filed in court records.

At least twice, Stuart charged $400 to attend the funerals of her wards.

And in several cases, Stuart billed her wards for Christmas presents she bought for them — blankets, comforters and afghans embroidered with their initials.

Source:
Davidson County Public Guardian Charges Lawyer Fees Just to Run Errands

"The premium on my blanket surety bond is paid for by Davidson County. In exchange, I am the default person selected as guardian or conservator where there is no other party found by the Probate Court Judge to be appropriate or willing to take on the task. I am obligated to provide all the care needed by my wards regardless of the ability of the conservatorship estate to pay my fees, and I am on call 24 hours per day. As a matter of law, I cannot delegate certain of my duties to another person.”

Source:
Jeanan Mills-Stuart's Written Responses to The Tennessean's Questions

Davidson Probate Judge David Randy Kennedy says he is sorry if his oversight of the county public guardian has been lacking, and he has temporarily suspended sending her any more conservatorship cases.

“To the extent that my oversight of the Public Guardian is wanting, I am genuinely sorry,” Kennedy wrote in a three page letter  to members of Metro Council.

Kennedy, who had recommended Jeanan Mills Stuart for the guardianship post, said he has begun a “more thorough review” of all her cases “to determine whether or not there appears to be any inappropriate billing practices.”

“To the extent there has been any overpayment to her, it is my responsibility,” Kennedy wrote in the Friday letter. “In other words, the buck stops here.”

Source:
Nashville's Public Guardian Faces Review Over Fees

Davidson County Probate Judge Randy Kennedy did something almost unheard of in public service:  He apologized.

And he vowed to fix a mess he allowed to happen on his watch. He should be commended for candidly telling the Metro Council, before they had a chance to jump on him, “the buck stops here.”

Source:
Judge's Apology for Guardian Uproar Merits Praise
Read Judge Kennedy's Letter to Metro Council Members

Davidson County’s public guardian claims she gave a discount from her usual hourly rate when she accompanied a ward to a Christmas concert at the Schermerhorn in 2011.

Jeanan Mills Stuart made the claim in a letter sent recently to Metro Council in response to a Tennessean report last month on her billing practices.

Stuart also told council members that she was in the process of hiring a non-family member to perform errand-like tasks for the dozens of people whose lives she oversees.

“It has always been my practice to be cost effective for my wards,” Stuart wrote in the two-page letter, adding that she was well aware that the Tennessean article “attempted to make me look like a greedy person.”

Source:
Public Guardian Defends Fees

Note:  Jeanan Mills-Stuart was NASGA Member Ginger Franklin's court-appointed conservator. 

Read Ginger's Profile