Tom McDuffie, executive director of Cache Integrity Services, a nonprofit that provides private guardianship services.
OPA violated the law by failing to guard the interests of some of its clients, a state judge in Anchorage.” The judge removed McDuffie’s organization as guardian and said the court “will review any future requests to appoint Cache Integrity Services with heightened scrutiny.” On Tuesday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ordered a hearing “on the common question of the fitness of Cache Integrity Services and Thomas McDuffie to serve as guardian or conservator.”Alaska’s Office of Public Advocacy turned to McDuffie in 2021 at a time when public guardians were buckling under the weight of their caseloads.
The number of public guardians employed by the agency was down from 24 in 2021 to 16 this month, after two recently resigned, according to Stinson. The staff that remains is carrying just under 1,600 cases. All but two of the guardians handle 80 or more clients.
None of his employees at Cache Integrity Services had guardian licenses at the time they were hired. In the past two years, at least five guardians have left Cache for various reasons after only a few months on the job.Court filings show this was not the only time OPA petitioned the court to have some of its cases transferred to Cache Integrity. McDuffie said he took over OPA clients as late as June of this year.
“I’ve already let him know I will not recommend him to anyone again. People are going without income for months,” Shinn wrote to Elizabeth Russo, a supervising attorney at OPA. Brian Hafferman, the OPA guardian whose resignation precipitated the case transfer, said in a May 2022 email that “judging by their webpage and the resumes of their board members I don’t have much faith in their success but hopefully they prove me wrong.” Hafferman also wrote that OPA management was “aware of these concerns.”
In June, Anchorage attorney Caitlin Shortell, representing another of McDuffie’s conservatorship clients, filed a lawsuit against Cache Integrity and McDuffie, alleging he failed to submit timely applications for Medicaid and other benefits, failed to file and pay taxes, overbilled and placed the client’s funds in a single account with the funds of over 100 other wards.