AUBURN — Dozens of social workers, counselors and other affiliates of Possibilities Counseling gathered at the Auburn Public Library on Thursday evening to share stories of missing paperwork, missing paychecks and what they saw as general mismanagement of the counseling agency that is soon to close.

Then the group of about 70 talked to a pair of Portland lawyers about the potential for a class-action lawsuit.

“I’m not going to tell you we’re going to get all of your money back. I think we’re going to get very little of it back,” said Susan Dore Lamb, meeting organizer and executive director of the Maine chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. “The question is, can we get some of it back?”

Located on Center Street in Auburn, Possibilities Counseling had 500 affiliate therapists and case managers serving 10,000 mental health clients around Maine. About a month ago, a pair of surprise Department of Health and Human Services inspections found that 16 of 18 office staffers had walked out in August and had largely been replaced by the untrained family and friends of Possibilities owner Wendy Bergeron.

On Sept. 21, the state issued a conditional license and gave Bergeron a slate of conditions she had to meet over the next year. Instead, at the beginning of October, Bergeron gave the state a 30-day notice that she would be shutting down. The agency is expected to close at the end of the month.

Possibilities was supposed to bill the state on behalf of its affiliate social workers, counselors and case managers and pay them when the state paid the agency. State records indicate that the state paid Possibilities more than $3.8 million for counseling services between June and Sept. 15. 

But Thursday evening, many social workers and other affiliates said they saw little, if any, of that money. Some believe their bills were never sent to the state. Others believe the state paid Possibilities but Possibilities never forwarded the money to them.

Some said they were owed for bills that were left partially unpaid for nearly two years. Others said Possibilities didn’t pay them at all in recent months. Amounts ranged from $2,000 to $15,000.

“That feels like such a violation to me,” said Catherine Coombs, a Farmingdale social worker who said Possibilities owed her $5,000 for the work she did with clients. “We help so many people and work so hard and no one wants to help us. It’s just not OK.”

Efforts to contact Bergeron were unsuccessful Thursday evening.

State Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, told the group she had met recently with Brenda Harvey, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees mental health agencies like Possibilities.

Rotundo said DHHS is investigating whether Possibilities failed to send in bills on behalf of its counselors, but DHHS believes those bills likely were submitted because the agency received a consistent number of bills from Possibilities over an extended period.

If Possibilities billed the state and the state paid those bills — but counselors didn’t receive the money — the state cannot now pay counselors directly for those services because, according to the law, the state would be paying the same bill twice. If Possibilities did not bill the state, the state can pay counselors, but Lamb said the state has agreed only to do that for services as far back as September. Counselors on Thursday said their unpaid services go back much further than that.  

Members of the group peppered Rotundo with questions about DHHS oversight, Possibilities’ contractual obligations and the possibility of an escrow account. Many were questions Rotundo couldn’t answer. She urged the group to meet with Harvey.

“I will do everything I can to help you,” Rotundo said. “I feel sick about this situation.”

For more than an hour, members shared the problems they said they had with Possibilities, including missing client files, repeatedly misplaced paperwork and a mismanaged office. Because Possibilities is still open, some counselors are still seeing clients under Possibilities’ umbrella, but they hesitated to send bills to Possibilities for fear even new bills would get lost or otherwise go unpaid.

“You feel like you may be sending your billing down a black hole,” Lamb said.  

Although members vowed to talk with their local legislators and to meet with Harvey as a group, they questioned whether either solution would get them what they need: payments. 

Greg Frame and Adam Taylor, lawyers with Taylor, McCormick & Frame in Portland, said the group might have a class action lawsuit. At the end of the night, the men talked with the counselors about their options.

“There’s strength in numbers,” Frame told them.

[email protected]