Highland County commissioners issue Fraud Awareness Month, Community Action Month proclamations

Two local agencies accepted proclamations during the Wednesday, May 20 Highland County commission meeting, with commissioners recognizing staff of the Highland County Job & Family Services agency and the Highland County Community Action Organization. 

Commissioners issued a Fraud Awareness Month proclamation, as Job & Family Services agencies across the state are raising awareness of public assistance fraud during the month of May.

The proclamation was accepted by representatives of the Highland County JFS agency, including Director Jeremy Ratcliff, Income Maintenance Administrator Darlene Ford, supervisor Jessica Christy and fraud investigator Jeri Gifford. The agency oversees various benefits programs, such as Medicaid, Food Assistance, Ohio Works First (including cash assistance and workforce development programs) and Child Care, according to the JFS website.

“We serve about 14,000 people on Medicaid in our county, and about 6,000 SNAP participants in our county, and these are the folks that are doing the work behind the scenes to ensure program integrity,” Ratcliff said.

The group also dressed in red to “raise awareness and stand together against public assistance fraud,” according to a Facebook post by the agency.

“Our eligibility staff work hard every single day to ensure the appropriate people are accessing benefits through extensive interviews, working thousands of alerts that they get, verifications,” Ratcliff said. “We also have a dedicated team of folks that are working toward preventing fraud, catching fraud, working that case, whether it's intentional program violations or just flat-out fraud.”

Ford shared some statistics from 2025 with commissioners.

“Our agency received 158 referrals or complaints to review to determine if an investigation was warranted that might be potential fraud occurrences,” Ford said. “Of those 158 investigations, 33 of them were determined to be an intentional program violation, which then results in a period of ineligibility for the individual that caused that action. 

“That also caused a total of over $107,000 in benefits that was issued as a result of those 33 intentional program violations, and out of that $107,000, we have already collected $21,000 of that benefit amount, with the remaining balance to be continued to be recovered. That's pretty active work on specific timelines that are required of us by the state and federal government.”

Christy added that in honor of Fraud Awareness Month, the agency has two billboards in the county right now to raise awareness.

“It has information to encourage people to report household changes, and it provides a web address to also report fraud,” Christy said.

To report fraud anonymously, call (937) 393-4278 and select option 4. You may also visit jfs.ohio.gov/fraud to file a report.

After meeting with the JFS representatives, Britton read the proclamation recognizing May as Fraud Awareness Month in Highland County.

“By promoting strong oversight early detection, and clear reporting processes, we help ensure the integrity of these programs remain intact,” the proclamation says. “This safeguards taxpayer dollars, strengthens public confidence and supports our mission to provide fair, equitable and reasonable services.”

Commissioners also proclaimed May as Community Action Month, with staff and board members of the Highland County Community Action Organization accepting the proclamation.
 
Those in attendance included HCCAO executive director Julia Wise and staff members Beth Allering, Jeanette Mottie and Valerie Williams, as well as board members David Bushelman and Jared Warner.

Wise told commissioners Highland County has one of “800 Community Action organizations across the country,” although they have various different names.

“We're actually serving about 6,500 unduplicated individuals, operating housing programs, healthcare, workforce, senior services, emergency services, early childhood, recovery services,” Wise said. “If there's something out there, we're going to try to pursue it and make it help work in coordination with Job & Family Services.

“We just kind of try to, I don't know if we want to say combat poverty, but help people become self-sufficient and make sure they have the supports that they need throughout the county and the country.”

Britton also read the HCCAO proclamation, which recognized May as Community Action Month and honored HCCAO’s work as “a testament to the power of partnership, collaboration and community in building a stronger, healthier, and more equitable Highland County.

“Highland County Community Action dedicates its mission to empowering individuals and families by providing vital resources, programs and services that promote self-sufficiency, strengthen our communities and create opportunities for a better tomorrow,” the proclamation read. “Highland County Community Action addresses the causes and conditions of poverty and advocates for those in need, making a lasting difference in the lives of our residents.”

For more information on HCCAO’s services, visit https://hccao.org.

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