The Olympia Washington Kiwanis members and their friends have cost the Washington State taxpayers over $50 million dollars (so far), because of their willful ignorance of long term, merciless and well known, child abuse that occurred at the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch.

October 2006 note: This Olympia Kiwanis stuff is old news. I've left this information on the web, because I like the thought that someone will say to one of these Kiwanis friends or members: "Grandma, (Grandpa), are you still friends with those Olympia Kiwanians?"

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1994 Olympia Kiwanis Members List
2007 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,332 employees)(includes gross & overtime wages, hire date)
2005 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,257 employees)(includes hire date)
2002 Thurston County employees list (pop 207,355)(1,569 employees)
2002 Port Of Olympia employees list (pop 42,514)(40 employees)
2009 Oly Evergreen St Col employees list (938 employees)
Olympian Newspaper 2010 Thurston employees list
2006 Olympia School District employees list (Includes Benefits)
2002 City of Olympia employees list (pop 42,514)(685 employees)
Olympian Newspaper 2010 city of Lacy employees list
2002 City of Lacey employees list (pop 31,226)(226 employees)
2009 South Puget Sound Com Col employees list (1,001 employees)
Name search of Wash. State voters includes our addresses (and birthdays)
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Back to the beginning OKBR Home Page(http://lbloom.net/indexok.html)

Until Oct 1999, I believed that the Kiwanians and their friends were guilty of careless neglect or callous indifference. After hearing frightening audio depositions from some of the abused kids, I now believe that these Thur Co citizens were involved with an "active collaboration with evil." According to these depositioned kids, (which was not contradicted by Kiwanian attorney Don Miles), the OKBR staff was involved in long-term molestation and sadistic abuse of these helpless children. DSHS, Olympia, & the Kiwanians criminally ignored the warning signs and then justified their inaction by claiming ignorance. Many of these inattentive judges, lawyers, & politicians want your vote for re-election.

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There were many obvious and long-term warnings about the 1970-94 OKBR.

  • DSHS knew since at least 1977.
  • The OKBR staff certainly knew.
  • The abused kids told staff, schools, counselors, police, caseworkers, therapists, ect.., about their abuse at the OKBR, but nobody investigated.
  • Olympia Police Chief Wurner came to an Olympia Kiwanis meeting in 1986 and told the Kiwanis about the troubles at the OKBR. Chief Wurner was ignored. Maybe he should have done more, but he probably wanted to keep his job.
  • It was well know by the Thurston County courts. These kids were constantly in and out of the Thurston County legal system.
  • The OKBR was written about in the Kiwanis Komments newsletters, and the Kiwanis Board Ranch minutes.
  • All the OKBR Board Members had a legal oversight of the OKBR.
  • Were all Olympia Kiwanis Attorneys & Judges and/or Politicians uninformed?
  • It's amazing how blissfully ignorant some people were about the OKBR. You can read about their guiltlessness in some of their Washington State Patrol and Office of Special Investigation statements.
  • Here's Wa St Patrol Olympia Kiwanis member lists of 1987, 1990, 1994
  • Here is a 49 page index of 5,223 pages of documents that the WSP collected about the OKBR. Anybody can order any of those public documents by following the instructions on that page.
  • The OKBR sent kids for weekend visits to child abusers who donated land to the Kiwanis. The Kiwanians sold the land in 1993 for $125,000.
  • Can the Olympian Newspaper claim ignorance?

    Back to the beginning Art Cantrall page

         STATEMENT OF ART CANTRALL December 28, 1995  95-687
        I am Detective Sergeant Steve McCulley of the Washington State Patrol, Internal Affairs Section. This is a statement of dictation notes from an interview I conducted on January 6, 1995 with Art Cantrall. Cantrall has 25 years of experience with Department of Social and Health Services.
        He started as a case worker in Family Services and remained in that position for four years, He became a case worker supervisor, and in 1984 he became an Office of Audit Review audit team member. Next he was promoted to the audit team supervisor. In June of 1994 he left his position as the audit team supervisor. His other experience with DSHS includes being on the development and coordination committee for the new policy and administration manuals in 1994.
        Cantrall was asked what his responsibilities were as the audit team supervisor. He said that because of his experience with children services and as a case worker, he was made the audit team supervisor which had direct control and auditing responsibilities within DCFS. His responsibilities included development of the annual audit plans, audit reports when audits were completed, and involvement with resolutions of differences on the drafts and on the audits themselves.
        He was asked why the audit was conducted on the OKBR in October of 1989. He advised that then licensor Sharon Weston told him about miscellaneous concerns about the OKBR and requested he audit the boys ranch. He stated it may have been a year or more after the conversation with Weston that the audit was conducted. He said there were severe limitations on the auditing function because of the fact there was one audit team consisting of three members and himself, the supervisor, to audit all the responsibilities within DCFS. This included all the internal offices within in DCFS as well as all the agencies they regulated including group homes, day care centers, foster care, and child placement agencies.
        Cantrall stated that if there had been major concerns or issues about a particular group home where other agencies or entity they audited, there were provisions in place to ensure that the group home would have been made a priority and audited as soon as possible. He said because of the limitations of the audit team with so many different offices and agencies to audit, that was probably one of the reasons the OKBR hadn't been audited since 1981. He said if issues came probably one of the reasons the OKBR hadn't been audited since 1981. He said if issues came up in an audit on a particular contract or office within DCFS and they were global issues, they would not only be corrected within that office or agency, but they would also be implemented to all the other applicable contractors or offices within DCFS.
        Cantrall was asked if the foster placement agency at the OKBR was ever audited. He said it was audited along with OKBR in October of 1989, but no visits were made to the foster homes. He stated if he had more time and resources he would have liked to visit the homes in order to complete a more thorough audit. Cantrall was asked when the audit was completed on OKBR, what kind of procedures were followed to address any of the problems discovered by the audit. He said at the time it was up to DCFS to coordinate the corrective action plan and submit it back to Operation Review for review and acceptance. He said now he understands that Soliz instituted, in approximately 1992, a program where DCFS develops a CAP (corrective action plan), then it is tracked to ensure the items in the CAP are followed up. Cantrall was asked who within DCFS was responsible for the CAP follow-up on the OKBR audit. He stated that normally the regional manager, Mark Redal, had to respond to the CAP. He stated in the instance with the audit on OKBR he wanted Joyce Hopson then director of DCFS, to have actual input into the CAP because of what he felt were the global issues he identified in the OKBR were more than likely occurring at all the other group homes in the state. In the CAP received from region 6 on the OKBR audit it is noted in a letter dated April 3, 1989, from Redal, they were not able to investigate some of the findings in the audit without some further information. Cantrall was asked whose responsibility it was to obtain the additional information. He stated that on numerous occasions or incidents in reviewing behavioral logs and other documentation there wasn't sufficient names, last names, or any other names to follow up on. He just noted the apparent problems. He stated that the responsibility would be up to Ennett or Christiansen to follow-up on the leads and to develop information. Based on his experience and opinion of the Ennett and Christiansen, he believed that none of it was followed up on. He classified Ennett as less than competent employee.
        Cantrall stated that a normal procedure with audits, especially an audit that brought forth highly sensitive issues such as the OKBR problems, there were meetings with deputy secretaries Benson and Trause on the audits.  Information he'd received from his supervisors through Benson and Trause was that when an audit was final the audit results for the position of the department and the audit was to be followed.
        Cantrall was asked about the memo from Redal to Hopson dated October 6, 1989, where it states that Redal is not responding to the memo from Cantrall dated August 15, 1989, regarding  the OKBR. He said there was confusion with this communication, and what really happened was Redal was suppose to be handling another issue, and Hopson was to be responding to the OKBR audit. He stated Redal was confused about Hopson's instructions. He said Hopson ultimately had the responsibility to respond to the audit with a CAP and to ensure follow up on the CAP. Cantrall stated since there was resistance or no apparent response to the CAP, he met with Bill Griffith reference him being the audit committee to enforce the CAP. He said it was a typical response from region 6 regarding audits. He said the resistance tended to come from regional administrator, Mark Redal, group care coordinator, Marv Christiansen, and licensor, Steve Ennett. He did not feel Kristy Galt, region 6 area manager, was responsive to the audits. His past history with auditing Galt's office showed a pattern of problems and non-response by Galt. He said 1985 they conducted an audit of the Olympia office and in 1987 or 1988 there was a management and foster care review of the Olympia office, and in 1989 there was a management review audit conducted. He said each of these audits showed significant management problems within the Olympia office. As far as he knew nothing was ever corrected. In his opinion the Olympia DCFS office is the worst DCFS office in the state.
        He sighted Miriam Madison, intake supervisor, as a key problem to most of the problems within the Olympia office. He classified Galt as very poor manager. She had a tendency to work only in the Olympia region, and had poor supervision over the other offices.
        Cantrall was asked how the CAP to the OKBR audit finally got settled. He stated that he received a CAP from Hopson just meeting the minimum on the deficiencies noted in the audit. He felt the region would never follow-up on the noted problems. He was asked if he had these concerns why a follow-up audit was not conducted. He advised that OKBR greatly disputed the audit findings and dragged them out for over three years. He classified the attorney for OKBR, Jerome Buzzard, as very overbearing, and felt if he did a follow-up audit it would be viewed as harassment towards the group home.
        Cantrall was asked who he contacted or if he had meetings with anyone reference the audit. He said he didn't have any contact with Redal, although he did meet with Joyce Hopson before the draft of the audit reference concerns about Queener and Van Woerden. He advised that Hopson agreed on the qualifications, of some staff within the OKBR and on Queener's qualifications. He advised that he didn't have any meetings with Katherine Briar, then assistant secretary overseeing DCFS.
        In regards to deputy secretary Trause and Benson, he wasn't sure, but thought his superiors, Griffith and James, probably had meetings with Trause reference the CAP. He said he's sure this had to of occurred because he got the okay from Griffith and James to use the audit committee, and he felt this would not have been done had there not been meetings with Trause and Benson.
        Cantrall was asked about the in-kind agreement for repayment of the monies of over payment identified in the audit. He felt the in-kind agreement was very unusual, and he said the over payment was one of the largest he's ever dealt with in regards to a group home. He thought if DSHS stood firm on demanding actual repayment, it probably would have put OKBR out of business. This may have been one of the reasons the in-kind agreement was made.
        Cantrall stated that since he knew Redal was negotiating the in-kind agreement nothing would ever happen. He felt by Redal taking no action was probably a way to keep the group home open. Cantrall cited that he felt there was pressure to keep OKBR open as a resource, but Redal should have looked beyond the pressures of keeping it open. He also thought he should have been looking out for the safety and welfare of the boys and to get them into another facility where they would be safe.     Cantrall was asked if he ever had any contact or meetings with Bonnie Jacques reference the audit specifically in regards to a memo. The memo was from Katherine Cameron, then chief of Office Review, to Jacques dated February 3,1993. In the memo Cameron is advising Liz Dalton and Jacques of the Cantrall audit, and if they have any questions to contact herself or Cantrall. Cantrall advised that he never received any inquiries from Jacques or Dalton about the past audit. He stated that on the date the stop placement order was lifted on the OKBR, he met with Ron Hertel, and also spoke with Jacques. He said during that meeting he asked Jacques if she was aware that Queener had been named as the permanent director of OKBR. He said she was aware, and then he expressed to her his concerns about Queener's lack of qualifications. His main concern was that nothing would change at OKBR. He stated there was not much of a response or concern from Jacques.
        Cantrall was asked if he ever had any contact with Soliz reference the audit. He said the only contact he had with Soliz was when she contacted him to thank him for his work and information he developed during the audit on OKBR. He did not know the specific date when this occurred, but it was well after the time she'd been named secretary of DSHS.
        Cantrall was advised that we'd received information that he was being over critical and hard on OKBR during the '89 audit because Van Woerden's son was having trouble with Cantralls son. Cantrall was quite surprised of that statement and advised that he had at one time coached the soccer team with his son and Van Woerden's son on the same team, but he'd stopped coaching this team three years before the audit. He said he was not aware of any problems between his son and Van Woerden's son, and that there was absolutely no undue criticism for any reason other than the obvious problems at the ranch.
        Cantrall was advised of the memo from Les James to Bill Griffith stating that deputy secretary Benson had an interest in the audit he did on OKBR. He was asked if he was aware of what Benson's specific interests were. He said he vaguely recalls the memo, but could not recall what the interest was.
       Cantrall was asked if he had any interest with Rosemary Carr reference the negotiation of the in-kind agreement with OKBR and why she would be involved in the negotiations. He stated that Carr was chief of the Office of Contracts at the time, and was not sure why she was involved unless it had to do with developing the contract language.     Cantrall stated that he didn't feel the case load had a real impact on what had occurred at the OKBR. He said people within the Olympia DCFS office just didn't seem to do what they were suppose to do and what was required in their responsibilities. He believed case workers were overloaded, but even with heavy case loads they needed to prioritize. He stated if there had been inspections in monitoring as required, problems would have been detected. He also thought the OKBR should have been made a priority especially since it was located in the local Olympia area and the case workers did not have to travel far or adjust their schedules much in order to follow-up. He said with in the Office of Operation Review, audits are being done now only at the request of the program, and he said this is done only when real problems surface. He had real concems with this process in that the regular audits should be done on a consistent basis to detect problems prior to them becoming big problems.
       

    Below is an e-mail I received from a former Olympia, Washington resident.

    From: ~~~~~~~~@aol.com
    To: Louis Bloom manaco@whidbey.net
    Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 11:34 AM
    Subject: OKBR
    Just came across your pages and felt the urge to respond... In the early 80's (81-83) I was at the OKBR frequently as a young kid walking to/from school, I became friends with some of the boys. At one point a small boy confided to me that he was being raped by another boy in the home. The abusing boy talked about it openly!
    Days later I walked the victim to OPD where we both gave statements. Later that evening I began to receive these incredibly threatening phone calls from a woman employee of the ranch who's name I believe was Paulette at my home. She kept calling over and over screaming at me calling me names. It was horrible. I thought I was helping someone. Nothing came of it. Then all these years later, it all comes out ... one of the boys that I had known there left as a young adult and still couldn't get it together, he eventually killed himself. As an adult now I don't often think back to those times but it still saddens me. All those boys that needed a safe nurturing place to be, and how many of them were better off for having been taken there? It's not about money. It cost these boys their lives, their souls, their trust. Those people who knew, who didn't care, they should feel such shame. Just my opinion.

    From: louis a bloom manaco@whidbey.net
    To: ~~~~~~~@aol.com
    Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 1999 7:30 PM
    Subject: Re: OKBR
    thanks for your e-mail. from what i've read, dshs, the olympia police department, and other "authorities" didn't consider child on child rape to be against the law. it was considered "normal experimentation". The "paulette" you mention, may have been Collette Queener who was an assistant director at the OKBR. Collette, OKBR Director Tom Van Woerdan, and OKBR counselor Laura Rambo Russell were ineptly charged by Wa. St. with "criminal mistreatment for failing to stop abuse". The charges were dismissed by Thurston County Judge Daniel Berschauer on technicalities. The lawyer who represented Collette Queener said, (Nov. 14, 1996 Olympian), that it was a "witch hunt", and that " a more innocent person (than Queener) you could not have for a client. She's an ex-nun ..... I don't see how you could view her in an evil or negative light."
    I congratulate you for doing the right thing, when all those adults looked the other way. I repeat on most pages that the " OKBR has cost the Washington State taxpayers over $35 million dollars (so far)", because I think most people don't care about the kids involved, but they may care that it has cost them (taxpayers) money.
    louis bloom


    manaco@whidbey.net