Our community is flush with a host of non-profit organizations. Most provide vital services to the greater community they serve. Every one of those organizations has a board of directors which is responsible for hiring and guiding the leadership, establishing policies and approving budgets. Boston is a city where people generally love to boast about their list of board memberships. Our organizations, and through them, our communities, would not function and thrive without the hundreds of thousands of volunteer board member hours served by so many within our communities.
But what happens when those board members fail in their fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the executive performs his duties and manages the organization’s resources appropriately. Had it not been for a small group of persistent, scrappy residents, their families and employees of the Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Roxbury, who took bold action earlier this year, we would be having a very different discussion now.
In less than three years, the facility will celebrate 100 years. The Fisher Avenue building was renovated in 1927 under the leadership of attorney Benjamin, and a list of board members that included Boston Black notables such as Melnea Cass, attorney Harold Vaughn, and attorney Kessler Montgomery just to name a few. Since the Suffolk Superior Court appointed Boston attorney Joseph Feaster Jr. as the receiver of the facility in April, the facility has been blessed with an outpouring of offers of support from across the political and corporate community. We’re not completely out of the woods yet but things are certainly headed in the right direction. This month, the Benjamin will roll out its Christmas in July list in response to the numerous requests received from so many asking what they could do to support and protect the facility.
At one point late last year, residents, many frail but determined, and many employees who worked without pay for weeks, brought food to the facility for the residents while the former executive went on vacation in Hawaii. They deserve our support now.
If you come by the building now, you will see a beautiful front yard filled with flowers the employees and residents planted. You will hear stories of volunteers who have come in to paint the facility. The small changes are immediately visible. The vibe is electric. The employees are smiling, and the residents shared with state regulators that were there for a recent inspection that they love the food and love living at the facility. The regulators shared with us that it is unusual for such positive patient comments, especially without prompting. With the help of the public, we’ll continue to upgrade.
While the Benjamin is undoubtedly on the rebound, the receiver is just beginning the process of untangling the web of the Benjamin’s finances. There will be many questions and while yes, employees were constantly writing to the state agencies and regulators for the past 2-3 years raising serious questions about concerns of suspected financial mismanagement, the bigger question is looming large. Where was the board?
Some of the most astounding things we know about what happened were a matter of wide and intense press coverage. We know that the employees were not paid for five weeks towards the end of 2023. We know that even after a generous infusion of cash by the state in December 2023, more than 55 employee paychecks bounced in early January of this year. We saw it in print! We saw it on TV! That alone should have had board members running to the Benjamin to investigate, ask questions about the residents, perhaps ask how the 100 plus employees were faring without pay. Yet not one board member made one inquiry or visit!
Consider this a cautionary tale of what can happen when board members don’t take their roles seriously. Given the sheer level of loss discovered thus far, there will likely be many questions asked by regulators. Surely, they will have questions for the board members as well. Board service is about more than photo ops, panel discussions and banquets. There is a responsibility to ask tough questions. Once you know, you must act. That fiduciary responsibility runs not only to the executive, it runs to the organization, its employees and, in this case, the residents you have in your care and custody.
Board members who willfully violate that responsibility or turn a blind eye risk personal loss of their own property and other assets, especially where, as is the case here, the former executive failed to pay the insurance meant to protect executives and board members from liability. You cannot put on blinders, ignore what is in plain sight and then claim you did not see anything. That may be the exact opposite of fiduciary responsibility. Stay tuned as this story is far from over.
Dianne Wilkerson is a former Massachusetts state senator and current executive assistant to Benjamin Healthcare Receiver Joseph D. Feaster, Esq.
