A high-profile nonprofit returned $275,000 in taxpayer mental health funds to Orange County after a demand from county health officials spurred by LAist reporting.
That demand came after county officials said they found “no evidence Mind OC performed any of the services under the Contract,” when they reviewed records requested by LAist through public records law.
The demand noted that Mind OC “apparently subcontracted its work under the Contract to Josephina (Josie) Batres or her company, Talentgate, Inc.” and goes on to say Mind OC “cannot substantiate” that work was done. Batres is the wife of a top aide to disgraced former county Supervisor Andrew Do.
As LAist reported last month, Batres is the longtime partner — and now wife — of then-Supervisor Do’s chief of staff, Chris Wangsaporn. According to multiple people briefed on the contract, Batres was hired by Mind OC for the work at Do’s direction.
The contract called for two dozen community listening sessions and subsequent reports to help the county increase access to publicly-funded mental health services. Under the contract terms, the work was supposed to start in late 2020 and be completed by Nov. 30, 2022, in exchange for the $275,000.
The records show that Mind OC paid Batres the vast majority of those funds — $255,000, or about 93% of the total.
None of the records Mind OC produced to the County — not a single one — show Mind OC performed any work under the Contract.
— Leon Page, Orange County’s chief counsel
County officials now say the invoices and work product Batres did on behalf of Mind OC fall far short.
“None of the…
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