I have.
okay um what strategies would you like employ on an outset to make sure that we are uh complying
with state and federal regs um so through our compliance program we'll make sure that our
clinical record has all of the documents and forms needed to um in it to be completed by the
staff to ensure adherence to the regs make sure that the policy manual is available and that the
staff and all of the staff coming on board have read and been trained in applicable policies
and then we the compliance team will follow up behind with monthly weekly and monthly reporting
to ensure that we're meeting the metrics and we're meeting the policies this is done through
resident interviews and chart reviews and and and participation in clinical meetings
and let me see your strategic planning and and program development
to let let's talk about um your experience with other facilities in building up business
development strategies and and how you can adopt that at 508 more well so you know we have a we
have in most of our marketing plans we approach uh the pain points for where individuals with
substance use issues
you know
spend frequent
we go to emergency
rooms we go to
primary care offices to pain management
clinics we also
the other
the higher level treatment programs
the detoxes those
programs that are 3.5 and 3.7
on the ASM
uh scale and we work with them to provide step down services to those individuals straight out of
and that's great and and i do want to ask you about community impact but
let me let me ask you another question what have you done this
Let me let me ask you another question. What have you done this for other known facilities?
I don't want to say reputable, but known facilities.
So sure, as throughout my professional experience, I was employed for a long time as a large nonprofit in the state of Delaware,
where we did substance use treatment programming and I helped build and implement programs there
after when I left there I went into the consulting business and I worked for
some large entities both regional and national I did some consulting with Banyan and I helped
them open a large treatment facility I did some consulting with Gadenzi in Delaware to help them
maintain compliance with, obtain and maintain compliance with the state of Delaware.
And I also worked with a group called Lyman House out of the state, out of Delaware to help them
grow their business. So yes, I've done these things. And then I've also done these things
at American Treatment Network where, you know, when we opened, we had one facility. Now we have
we have four great great great great all right so coming back to 508 more um what
what um impact do you see um that that that having a facility like this or better yet
what strategies would you foresee in walking hand in hand with the community
well i i you know i and i understand it's always it's always um difficult to work with the
community especially when they have concerns about us being there but i think it's important
that we connect with them we talk to them about the fact that we're going to have jobs available
to them to members of their community within walking distance you know within uh easy with
and easy to commute distance we talk about um that we're going to do community service we talk
about the fact that you know we're going to do background checks on the people coming in and
we're going to make sure that there aren't registered sex offenders um we also are going
to have a zero tolerance policy about uh using you know using drugs and alcohol and if a person
uses them we're going to move them to a higher level of care we're going to remove them from
the program. I think it's important that, you know, we understand that addiction and the need
for treatment is all around us. And, you know, one in every five people suffer from addiction.
So there's people already in their community that might need the services that we offer.
Great, great, great. And one last set of questions. The opposition has
hold on an expert witness are you familiar with that individual i i am uh by name i'm familiar
with him i was probably in similar meetings with him when uh gdenzia first opened in delaware
he is absolutely an expert in the field i i do not deny that um and i think that you know
that he has
done a lot for individuals
with addiction throughout the region
Psychedentia operated in.
But much like you, and you're at
the peak of your career,
and you're
at least
you're
if he's a legend, you're the current star.
So having
said that,
I understand that the opposition did present comments allegedly written by him and presented it to the board.
Did you get a chance to look at those comments?
I did review those comments, and they break down into three different categories.
I mean, three different sort of overarching categories.
One was the zoning, one that had to do with parking, available parking, which was discussed at the last meeting.
One that talked about whether or not there was the clinical know-how and wherewithal to operate at 3.1.
And one was working with funding sources and referral sources to make sure that, you know, the program would be filled and would benefit the community of Philadelphia.
And so, I mean, I think that to the second one, you know, American Treatment Network has been licensed and regularly and been through several licensure audits with DDAP.
It has done really well with them. And, you know, we are prepared to to help.
We are prepared to help assist and oversee this program, and I think that also, you know, willing to bring myself to bear on it to make sure that we implement a treatment program that's based in evidence-based practices.
and you know uh american treatment network is in network with cbh we do have we have gotten a lot
of referrals uh developed a lot of referral sources we do get a lot of referrals from people
from residents of our residents of the city of philadelphia so you know we have an understanding
of of working with cbh and what that's like um and and i think that it's important to know
that there is there is need you know the city of philadelphia continues to struggle with
with uh with unintentional overdose deaths in 2022 they had more than 1400 for seven years they had
um more than 1100 uh more than a thousand for the last seven years they've had more than a thousand
overdoses each year and you know of the of cities of comparable size and throughout the nation they
have the largest overdose rate for 100 000 people the mayor or the mayor has said recently and some
of her staff have said recently that um that they are having trouble with uh available beds for to
meet the needs of the community and and so we think that we could be a help i'm gonna object
not to hear say from from him talking about mayor parker um he needs to just focus on facts that he
knows himself i i think he's his experience will so is clear when i agree about the mayor so just
let him talk about his own experiences sure um when it comes to and just one last question chris
and thanks for your testimony thus far.
When it comes to building a program
at the levels that you've described,
do you think it's possible to do that here?
I think that this is a needed program
in a needed city.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I believe
the way I understand it, I can present my witnesses, rest my case, and then Mr. Masters
could cross-examine all the witnesses? Or are we going to do it each witness? And here's the
reason why I'm saying it. If I could rest my case, because I know Mr. Masters is playing a game with
the clock and so now let's let's i'm i'm objecting to the to the harassment that that mr bove no it's
not harassment it's it's an observation so so so so i i think at this point mr master should
do his cross thank you mr chair um mr devaney um i wanted to go over oh actually can you
not share your screen darwin because i wanted to share my screen
okay i wanted to um first go over your um your cv a bit okay um you mentioned in your testimony
that you worked for some time um in delaware would that be this entry here from 1998 to 2019
at Connections Community Support Programs, Incorporated?
Yes, sir.
So let me just go through the positions that you held there
because I'm concerned about some of the time
that you claim to be doing various things.
So from the end of 2003 to 2006,
you were the Director of Community Continuum of Care.
Mr. Chairman, can we talk about the...
we didn't present him as a witness as an expert and and we're going over his resume so i don't
understand the relevance i would like i would like i would like to state
you're muted you're muted steve sorry um the community can the connections community support
Programs Incorporated, during the time that Mr. Devaney was a leader in that organization,
was prosecuted two times by the Department of Justice, one for fraud and one for violations
for violations of the controlled substances act from the dea and what i want to find out is
of the Controlled Substances Act from the DEA.
i know that mr devaney was i object to all of that we're bringing up let him finish let him
finish i understand mr devaney that you were that you say that you were the um the the coo the um
uh the operations officer for this entity and i believe that the ceo was your mother is that
correct that's oh my god so i object we're bringing in the mother like miss darwin you
said that you wanted to like have time for everything so maybe maybe it would be helpful
just to let me move forward so mr devaney can you can you focus for me and and just confirm
with the years that you were the coo of this of this non-profit december of 2006 to the time i
left and the time you left was when january of 2019 okay um that's what i thought so i'm going to
uh would it surprise you that your mother um answered in um objection but that was
third party objection all right i'm going to why don't steve why don't we do this why don't we
concentrate on him and not try to bring other people in and right okay so let's do i am um
okay thank you okay sure we're going to uh i'll go now to the to the court documents that i have
um that are connected to this um objection those court documents
well mister wait first of all let me answer this steve it's the court documents is the connected
to the gentleman that just testified yes mr chris devini is mentioned in these court documents as
one of the leaders who was involved in the fraud in the the first prosecution by the department
of justice he's also mentioned in the second group with the controlled substances prosecution
from the dea and the justice department because the time period that he says he was the coo
is the time period of when the illegal activities were happening so we have to go through mr chairman
Mr. Chairman, organizations always name the leadership.
No, this is the court.
Organizations always name the leadership.
The caption of that document has his mother.
So I don't understand the relevance.
Again, right?
All right, I'm trying to hear.
So, Steve, I think.
Has Condensia ever been charged?
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Here's where we're going to go.
Steve, try to focus on this.
What if he did?
And Darwin, I do think there's a degree of he's going to be the interim head.
And Steve's trying to say, well, the interim head has some problems.
That's the way I see it.
And I think what I want to do is get to this.
And Darwin, I will give you every chance to respond to this.
OK, let me just try to get to the beginning here.
These are very long complaints that the Department of Justice brought against Connections Community. So, we're going to get to the top here.
And this was, Mr. Chair, just so that you know, this was research that we had to do in the two and a half hours before the 3.30.
so it is um just just just just okay sure um excuse me mr masters just a brief question
was was this information previously submitted to the board and council for the applicant
okay we shared it with the board and the applicant before our case was called today
okay i did see updated exhibits from you but i did not get a chance to review them
Yes, these are in the...
And yet, again, my objection stands, right?
He wants the standard applied to everyone else but him.
Let's continue, please.
We'll go to the substance abuse ones first.
So that is...
And while you're looking for this, I...
Well, I have it. I have it. So, Darwin, it's not necessary for you to filibuster at the moment.
Just to give you the context, members of the board, there are four press releases put out by the Department of Justice concerning the false claims, fraud, and the substance abuse, criminal and civil violations.
the substance abuse, criminal, and civil violations.
This first one is from April 9th, 2021.
It's the U.S. attorney announcing filing the civil complaint against Connections Community Support Programs, Inc.,
as well as three of its current and former officers, including...
Now, this one is listing William Northey as the COO,
but apparently uh mr mr devaney tells us that he was a ceo at the time so i'm not sure if that was
if that was i can clarify that now i left in december of 18 so i'm assuming they filled the
position with somebody else okay all right so um then uh so you did you left you left the
organization in december 18 after the first false claims prosecution when was that there was no false
claims prosecution well there was a settlement there was a complaint and then a settlement was
reached all right we'll go to the false claims one then because i was in other words no one was
charged no right everyone was charged so so but not not not not chris no and again mr chairman
the relevance i'm going through this all right here we have so we have the four um here's the