The organization recommended to operate a harm reduction center in Madison falsely claimed partnerships with several local organizations in its proposal to Public Health Madison & Dane County, but the organization’s director said she did not mean to imply formal partnerships.
The proposed three-year, $2.4 million contract with CAYA Clinic is up for a vote at Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting.
CAYA Clinic, which operates a risk reduction psychotherapy clinic on Madison’s East Side, was one of four local organizations to submit proposals for a three-year, $2.4 million contract to operate a harm reduction drop-in center, funded by Dane County’s share of a legal settlement with opioid manufacturers. The County’s Opioid Settlement Subcommittee recommended the funding be allocated to Public Health Madison & Dane County (PHMDC) to contract with a local organization to operate the center. PHMDC issued a request for proposals in August, and received four proposals in October. A team of evaluators scored CAYA’s proposal highest, ahead of proposals from Anesis Foundation, Tellurian Behavioral Health and Urban Triage.
Madison365 has learned that CAYA’s proposal contained several false statements regarding partners and subcontractors.
CAYA Clinic founder and clinical director Skye Boughman said she did not mean to imply formal partnerships with the named organizations. She said she listed existing organizations to which CAYA has referred clients, and to which it could provide transportation, despite referring repeatedly to “partnerships” and “collaborations” in the proposal.
Several other organizations did not respond to inquiries from Madison365; none affirmatively confirmed partnerships or anticipated participation in the harm reduction center’s activities.
Click here to read the full proposal.
The misleading statements
CAYA’s proposal says the African American Opioid Coalition (AAOC) would be a partner and subcontractor, using $75,000 per year to hire a full-time peer support specialist at the center. It also lists OutReach LGBT Community Center and Drug Users Organizing (DUO) as subcontractors to provide part-time support for $25,000 each. It further lists the YWCA, Aaron Perry Free Clinic and Compass Community Health Center as “service navigation partners.” It mentions the Aaron Perry Free Clinic three times, the YWCA five times, and the AAOC 10 times.
YWCA Madison CEO Geraldine Paredes Vásquez told Madison365 in an email that YWCA “(does) not have any organizational collaboration with CAYA Clinic” and was “not aware of YWCA Madison being listed as a partner in this proposal.”
CAYA’s proposal also states, “Staff deliver LGBTQ+ affirming care through partnerships with OutReach and culturally specific programming with the African American Opioid Coalition and Aaron Perry Family Clinic.” In another section, it refers to the “Aaron Perry Family Clinic collaboration.”
Aaron Perry, who, through the Rebalanced Life Wellness Association, founded and operates the Perry Family Free Clinic (not Aaron Perry Family Clinic), said he was not consulted before being included in the proposal – and said in an interview that he had never heard of CAYA until he learned that his name had been invoked in the proposal.
AAOC founder and CEO Charlie Daniel said she did not give permission to CAYA to include AAOC in the proposal. She said she did have an initial conversation with Boughman and then a conversation with the AAOC executive board. She noted that she’s known Boughman for years, but said in a text message to Madison365 that “there was never a verbal or written agreement between us.”
She said she intended to revisit the issue with Boughman after a contentious Board of Health public hearing on the CAYA proposal, but by then the proposal already included AAOC as a subcontractor.
Boughman did not respond to a question about AAOC’s participation.
The proposal also said CAYA would partner with Compass Community Health Center, which, according to the proposal, “provides warm handoffs for primary care, dental services, and integrated behavioral health” and offers a sliding fee scale that “aligns with CAYA’s approach.”
No organization called “Compass Community Health Center” exists in Wisconsin. It appears the proposal is referring to UW Health’s Compass Program, which provides a low-barrier walk-in clinic offering medical services for people who use substances two days per week. The Compass Program’s medical director, Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, wrote a letter of support for CAYA’s proposal, saying Compass and CAYA already have shared patients through referrals and would continue to work together, referring patients and clients between the two organizations as needed.
However, Compass does not provide dental services.
OutReach and DUO did not respond to requests for confirmation that they intended to participate in the proposal as subcontractors, nor did Rogers Behavioral Health, which is listed as a partner that would provide telehealth services.
Boughman said she didn’t intend to imply that Perry Family Free Clinic or YWCA had formal relationships with CAYA, but rather was listing them as potential destinations for referrals, and as examples of destinations to which they would provide transportation assistance.
“Our clinical staff and service facilitators helped us to identify existing community services that they often refer (clients) to. The Perry Family Free Clinic, YWCA, and a number of other providers were listed in this section and our goal is to provide transportation assistance to these providers, so that transportation is not a barrier in access,” she wrote in an email to Madison365.
Perry told Madison365 that his clinics have not received any referrals from CAYA, and that his organization already provides free transportation.
(Photo supplied.)
Not the first concern about false claims
The revelation of false claims regarding partnerships comes weeks after Madison365 reported that the proposal claimed CAYA was “led by BIPOC people” even though its staff is entirely white.
Boughman initially told Madison365 in an interview that she didn’t know the proposal contained that reference. The next day, she said in an email that she hadn’t realized there was a word count limit on the proposal, and had to edit the narrative portion quickly before submitting, and therefore accidentally included that line. She later told the Board of Health that she had used an artificial intelligence tool to do that edit, and the AI had included that line.
Boughman wrote to the Board of Health on January 26, apologizing for that error and urging the board to reopen the request for proposals. She then clarified on January 28 that CAYA was not withdrawing its proposal, but did “fully support the RFP being reissued,” and said CAYA’s proposal would remain the same but be rewritten without using AI and “the wording will be accurate.”
Why it matters
Partnerships with other community organizations were one of the considerations in the evaluation of the proposals. Of 100 possible points, 15 were allocated to “Community responsiveness and low barrier access,” which asks evaluators to consider whether the “design is informed by community input or partnerships,” among other considerations. Another 10-point section of the rubric is entirely based on “Collaboration and partnerships,” asking evaluators to judge whether the “applicant identifies key partners/subcontractors, describes their roles, and explains how these relationships strengthen the proposed program.”
April Kigeya, a former county board supervisor and one of 10 evaluators who scored all four proposals, didn’t say whether the listed partnerships would have meaningfully impacted the score she gave CAYA, but did say the process should start over.
“While partnerships are an important component of service delivery, they do not replace or outweigh the direct work performed by an organization. My evaluation considered partnerships as one factor among many, but not as a substitute for demonstrated community presence or service impact,” Kigeya wrote in an email to Madison365. “I am deeply disappointed to learn that certain partnerships may have been represented inaccurately in the proposal. Accuracy and transparency are critical to maintaining trust in public processes. I am also concerned by the recent public statement from CAYA’s Executive Director acknowledging that the application misrepresented having staff of color — information that evaluators were not aware of during the review process. Given that acknowledgement, I do believe the RFP should be reopened. That position is not a reflection of the evaluation process itself, which was conducted in good faith based on the information provided, but rather a response to new information that directly undermines the integrity of the application as submitted.”
Perry, the founder of the Perry Family Free Clinic, also said the process should start over.
“You’re fraudulently using our organization,” he said. “You’re misrepresenting what you’re doing for Black men, because we wouldn’t know who you are. And if I don’t know who you are, that tells me you’re not in our community. And if you are in our community, you’re certainly not representing the interest of Black men … start the process over. Too many bad actors.”
He said the situation is emblematic of bigger systemic issues that stand in the way of solutions to problems like opioid addiction and overdose deaths.
“The problem is not improving because you’re funding organizations that are fraudulently stating that they’re working with the community, and they’re not,” he said. “They’re funding organizations that claim they have a relationship with the community, and because of poor oversight, nothing happens.”
Having gone through local government contracting processes himself, Perry suggests evaluators should visit organizations that submit proposals rather than relying on written applications.
Other considerations
CAYA was the only organization to propose opening a new location for the drop-in center, which they intend to locate in a storefront on Thierer Road. The proposal drew pushback from local leaders, including Alder Sabrina Madison, who represents that neighborhood on the Madison Common Council. Madison maintained that the proposed center – which would be open from noon until 6 pm every weekday, and provide free lunch, storage and showers – would be considered a day shelter, which could require additional planning for police, EMS and other services. Additionally, the City of Madison’s zoning coordinator told Alder Madison that it would be considered a day shelter for zoning purposes, and require a conditional use permit.
Madison has said she is not opposed to harm reduction as a strategy, and not even necessarily opposed to having a harm reduction drop-in center in her district, but wanted to ensure proper planning took place.
Others called the process into question over a conflict of interest; County Supervisor Rick Rose, who chairs the Opioid Settlement Subcommittee that first recommended that the County Board allocate funds for a drop-in center, works part-time at CAYA and Boughman described him as “one of my best friends.”
However, the Opioid Settlement Subcommittee did not draft the RFP nor did anyone on the committee evaluate the proposals. Both Boughman and Rose said that Rose did not contribute to CAYA’s proposal.
Another potential conflict of interest lies with Dr. Jerry Halverson, a psychiatrist who chairs the Board of Health and was one of the 10 evaluators of proposals. He works for Rogers Behavioral Health, which is listed as a partner in CAYA’s proposal. The proposal includes a memorandum of understanding signed by RBH CEO Cindy Meyers, which lays out how CAYA would work with RBH’s WORTH IT program to provide telehealth services for people at the drop-in center.
PHMDC staff told Madison365 that Halverson would not have to recuse himself from evaluating proposals or voting on it because RBH does not have a financial stake in the proposal; it is described only as a community partner, not a party to the contract or a subcontractor.
The Board of Health was initially set to vote on the proposal at its January 14 meeting. Following public pushback, the Board converted that meeting to a public hearing on CAYA’s proposal. Nearly 25 people, most of them staff or clients of CAYA, spoke in favor; about 15 spoke against the proposal.
The Board will vote on the proposal at its meeting at 5:30 Wednesday. Because the Board already held a public hearing on the proposal, it will not take public comment at the meeting.
This story has been updated to include comments from Charlie Daniel.
