Dear Mr. Holbert:
I am writing to supplement your story in the July 15 edition of Lagniappe regarding the "decertification" of ARC Baldwin County. I am also writing to express my outrage at the Alabama Department of Mental Health. Full disclosure: my wife and I have a daughter who received waiver services through ARC Baldwin County for many years and has now been "shifted" to another provider.
As you note in your article, the Alabama Department of Mental Health has decertified ARC of Baldwin County. This decertification effectively murders ARCBC. The decertification was not justified. It was done dishonestly, secretly, and in violation of DMH's own regulations.
The decertification was unjustified. In her decertification letter, ADMH Commissioner Kimberly Boswell fails to allege any specific instance or case where ARCBC failed to meet ADMH standards in a way that posed a serious threat to the safety and welfare of any consumer.
Commissioner Boswell unjustifiably declared an emergency. In so doing she is trying to bypass the ADMH due process requirements. Rule 580-3-23-.16 of the Alabama Administrative Code requires that Kathy Fleet, the Executive Director of ARCBC and each member of the board of directors should have been notified of the recommendation for decertification. The board then would have the opportunity to refute to allegations before decertification. Instead, Commissioner Boswell declared an emergency, depriving ARCBC of due process and bringing their operations to a halt immediately with neither prior notice nor a hearing.
Commissioner Boswell declared that ARCBC posed an imminent threat to the health and safety of residents. There was no emergency. Commissioner Boswell decided on March 3,2026 that she was going to shut down the ARC. But she waited almost 4 months to do it, keeping her plot a secret until July 2,2026. lf indeed there was such an emergency Commissioner Boswell subjected our family members to danger for nearly 4 MONTHS !
This is not the first time that ADMH has flouted its own rules. In the case of Alabama Department of Mental Health v. Nobles Group Homes, Inc., 03CY2020- 900287, ADMH tried to decertify another agency. The Montgomery County Circuit Court and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals both held that ADMH had improperly ignored the due process procedural rights of the agency. Not a good track record.
ARC Baldwin County is a venerable and much-loved Baldwin County institution. It provides...provided...residential services as well as day programs for intellectually disabled people in Baldwin County. And they have been doing it for over 50 years! ARCBC not only cares for family members, but advocates for them. In fact, the director, Kathy Fleet, is known for being particularly fierce in defending her residents...usually from tangles of bureaucratic red tape imposed by the Department of Mental Health.
The people of Baldwin County love ARCBC. Witness the annual Strawberry Festival in Loxley. Witness Doc's Hot Trot, a 5K run to benefit ARCBC sponsored by the Robertsdale. ARC returns the love, having built a spectacular workshop, located in the Robertsdale area for day programs. The workshop doubles as a hurricane shelter which provided safe haven to scores of disabled individuals who were unhoused by Hurricane Sally 6 years ago. ARCBC still has the ability to appeal this decision. But the appeal will be too late. ARCBC will be a tremendous loss to our County.