Page 13 - PGA Community News - November '21

November 2021 November 2021 PGA C.A.N.!, Page 13

Clerk Alert

Clerk’s Guardianship Team: to report allegations of fraud, waste and abuse by court- nation, and its success has

A Decade Of Service To Palm appointed guardians or anyone willing to exploit incapacitated spurred the creation of
people. Tips to our hotline can be made online or over the
similar guardianship hotlines
Beach County phone, and are investigated by our Division of Inspector and programs throughout the
General (IG) team. United States. The program
Protecting our community’s most vulnerable people has Since 2011, the clerk’s IG guardianship fraud investigators: has received international
long been a priority of mine, and a priority of the entire team • Uncovered more than $8.1 million in unverifiable and recognition, and our office’s
at the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. questionable expenditures by guardians. subject-matter experts
For the past decade, our team has been a leader in • Received 1,126 tips to our Guardianship Integrity frequently provide trainings
guardianship fraud investigations, from the launch of the Assurance Hotline. and testimony throughout
Guardianship Integrity Assurance Hotline in 2011 that • Conducted 159 enhanced audits into Palm Beach the nation on guardianship
allowed people to anonymously report possible cases of fraud County guardianship cases. investigations and spotting
in guardianship cases, to the creation of an online reporting • Referred 48 cases to law enforcement for criminal the signs of guardianship fraud.
system for guardians that was recently highlighted by a investigation. Leading the way on this important work is our Deputy
statewide task force for potential use throughout Florida. We are proud of the recognition our program has Inspector General and Chief Guardianship Investigator,
Many people are familiar with our hotline, which is a received in the past 10 years. Our Guardianship Integrity Anthony Palmieri, who in the past 10 years has become a
trustworthy, go-to source for anyone in our community Assurance Hotline was among the first of its kind in the widely recognized expert on guardianship fraud. In 2022,
he will serve as president of the National Guardianship
Association, and will promote the organization’s mission of
advancing nationally recognized standards of excellence in
guardianship.
Anthony also recently served as vice chairman of the
Guardianship Improvement Task Force, which made a
series of recommendations to the Florida Legislature in
November on ways to improve the protection of people under
guardianship throughout the state.
During the task force’s meetings, our office demonstrated
a system developed by our staff, that my team and I believe
can be replicated and expanded statewide. Our office’s
Guardianship Inventory Reports & Accounting for Florida
system, also known as GIRAFF, operates as a powerful
auditing and monitoring tool for legal guardians. The
information GIRAFF collects is kept confidential and allows
us to share summarized information about the guardianship
system with the public and decision-makers.
One of the challenges facing offices like ours, which are
charged with monitoring guardianship cases, is the inability
to efficiently track cases and collect data at a statewide level.
GIRAFF can serve as the basis for a statewide system that
would give auditors access to information they need, while
protecting the privacy of people under guardianship.
If you’d like to learn more about our guardianship
investigations and other programs, please visit the
Guardianship Integrity Assurance Hotline page on our
website, www.mypalmbeachclerk.com. The work our office
has done in the past decade has helped so many people in our
community, and I look forward to building on that success
for years to come.
Regards,
Joseph Abruzzo,
Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller
Follow @ClerkPBC
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Please be advised that Florida has a broad public records
law, and all correspondence may be subject to disclosure.
Under Florida public records laws email addresses are
public records. If you do not want your email address
released in response to a public records request, do not send
electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by
phone or in writing.

Oxbridge Academy kicks off its Football
program starting in Fall 2022. Attention:

PGA Residents
Of Mellowing Years
An Oxbridge education goes beyond the classroom by encouraging
A single phone number may help you to live
all students to participate in athletics and offering a well-rounded program
confidently and gracefully in your own home.
that is an integral part of the Oxbridge experience. Now there is a volunteer senior ambassador
within PGA community who is well-schooled
Register for an Admission event to learn more at oapb.org/visit. in resources available to help with problems of
elders. The Alpert family and Children’s Services
has been helping seniors do just that for many
years.
• You have questions? We may have answers.
• You don’t know where to go? We can guide
you.
• You don’t know what you need? We’re well-
Celebrating 10 Years versed in that problem.
• Do you know a neighbor who needs help?
AN INDEPENDENT, CO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL FOR GRADES 7-12 Don’t wait. Call now. Dorothy Weiss, 624-
4035. Let’s keep connected with each other as
a community. All you need is the desire to live
West Palm Beach, FL | admission@oapb.org | 561.972.9826 comfortably in your own home.