Group plans to recommend legislative changes
By: Adam Walser
LARGO, Fla. — A new statewide task force will soon make recommendations to improve Florida’s troubled guardianship system.
The ABC Action News I-Team has been exposing serious problems with guardianship in Florida for eight years.
We had an opportunity to engage in frank conversations with key
players who say they’re seeking solutions to those problems to better
protect vulnerable seniors.
Guardianship is the process in which judges remove rights from people who are determined to be incapacitated.
They can appoint family members, or even strangers, called
professional guardians to manage their health, finances and personal
affairs.
Big expectations filled the room full of court clerks, lawyers, guardians and advocates.
"We’re nowhere near getting it right yet"
It was the first in-person meeting of Florida’s Guardianship Improvement Task Force, which was formed earlier this year by the Florida Clerks & Comptrollers Association.
“What
we’re hoping to accomplish is to make the system better. The purpose of
this is to make legislative recommendations that will be enacted and
protect the wards,” said Pinellas County Clerk of Courts Ken Burke, who
chairs the task force.
“There have been problems. We constantly
revisit it. We constantly try to improve the system. But we’re nowhere
near getting it right yet,” Burke said.
The I-Team has done dozens of stories documenting how guardians isolate, exploit and abuse seniors under their care.
“We
want to make sure there are systems in place to catch those bad actors
and not let them wreak havoc on somebody’s life,” said Okaloosa County
Clerk of Courts J.D. Peacock,II.
Peacock’s office investigated Rebecca Fierle,
who is accused of causing the death of a man under her care by removing
his feeding tube and putting a Do Not Resuscitate order in place
without getting permission from a judge or family.
“With a case like Fierle that went statewide, a lot of people see
that. A lot of players in the system see that. Certainly, the court sees
that,” Peacock said.
Fierle is free on bond awaiting trial.
The I-Team learned that multiple prior complaints about Fierle had been filed with the Office of Public and Professional Guardians, the state watchdog office charged with policing professional guardians.
No action was taken against her as a result of the prior complaints.
"Everything isn’t perfect"
In
fact, during its first five years, OPPG did not successfully revoke a
single guardian's registration and had a backlog of more than 100 cases
awaiting completion in early 2019.
“That just doesn’t strike me as being acceptable,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in February 2019.
At
the Governor’s request, OPPG’s then executive director and several
staff members resigned. DeSantis appointed attorney Chante’ Jones to
head the office in 2020.
“Everything isn’t perfect. It’s not where I’d like it to be. It’s not
where our citizens will be happy. But I think they would be happy with
knowing some of the improvements that we’ve done,” Jones said.
She
says her office is more responsive to complaints and has changed
processes to move more quickly to identify problem guardians.
She
says she also wants to make sure wards are more likely to be exploited
by guardians in certain counties, including Pinellas County, which has
been called a “hot spot” by guardianship advocates.
“We want to
eliminate those hot spots you know, and whatever part we can play. I
think this task force, it will help us do that,” Jones said.
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