A5
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2018
Trump looking at several candidates for chief of staff
Top pick dropped
out of the mix
By ZEKE MILLER, JILL COLVIN
and CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald
Trump is considering at least four peo-
ple to serve as his next chief of staff, after
plans for an orderly succession for depart-
ing John Kelly fell through.
The high-profi le hiring search comes at
a pivotal time as the Republican president
looks to prepare his White House for the
twin challenges of securing his re-election
and fending off expected congressional
investigations once Democrats gain con-
trol of the House next year.
Trump’s top pick for the job,
Nick Ayers, announced Sunday that
he would instead be leaving the White
House, surprising even senior staffers
who believed the move was a done deal.
Trump is now soliciting input on at least
four people, including Offi ce of Manage-
ment and Budget director Mick Mulvaney
and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the
chair of the conservative House Freedom
Caucus.
Ayers, who is chief of staff to Vice Pres-
ident Mike Pence, was seen as the favorite
for the job when Trump announced Satur-
day that Kelly would leave around year’s
end. But a White House offi cial said Sun-
day that Trump and Ayers could not reach
agreement on Ayers’ length of service and
that he would instead assist the president
from outside the administration. The offi -
cials spoke on condition of anonymity to
discuss the sensitive personnel matters.
Ayers confi rmed the decision in a tweet
Sunday, thanking Trump and Pence for
giving him the opportunity to work in the
White House.
“I will be departing at the end of the
year but will work with the #MAGA team
to advance the cause,” he said.
Trump offered his own take on the devel-
opment: “I am in the process of interview-
ing some really great people for the posi-
tion of White House Chief of Staff. Fake
News has been saying with certainty it was
Nick Ayers, a spectacular person who will
always be with our #MAGA agenda. I will
be making a decision soon!”
Even senior White House offi cials were
caught off guard Sunday by the news of
Ayers’ departure. No obvious successor
to Kelly was in sight, and there was some
fretting that Trump may not be able to fi ll
the job by the time Kelly leaves.
Ayers and Trump had discussed the job
for months, making the breakdown Sun-
day all the more surprising. Trump said
Saturday that he expected to announce a
replacement for Kelly in a day or two. But
with Ayers no longer waiting in the wings,
Trump may now take until the end of the
year, according to a person familiar with
the president’s thinking.
And it remains unclear who wants the
job.
Mulvaney, the budget director, was
not interested in becoming chief of staff,
according to a person close to him who
spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mul-
vaney has been saying for almost two
months now that he would be more inter-
ested in becoming commerce or treasury
secretary if that would be helpful to the
president, the person said.
Also among those thought to be in
the mix were Treasury Secretary Steve
Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representa-
tive Robert Lighthizer, who said in a CBS
interview that he hadn’t spoken to anyone
at the White House about the job and was
“entirely focused” on his position.
The White House offi cial said that,
while the president likes Lighthizer, he is
reluctant to move him from his current post
because of the ongoing high-stakes trade
negotiations with China and others.
And a person familiar with Mnuchin’s
thinking said he, too, was happy with his
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
White House chief of staff John Kelly will
leave his job at the end of the year.
work at Treasury and had not sought the
job of chief of staff.
Acting Attorney General Matthew
Whitaker and Trump’s former deputy cam-
paign manager David Bossie were also
among the names being fl oated by some
close to the White House Sunday.
Trump’s administration has set records
for staff turnover, and he has often strug-
gled to attract experienced political profes-
sionals, a challenge that has grown more
diffi cult by the upcoming threat of costly
Democratic oversight investigations and an
uncertain political environment.
Workers: ‘It’s not just that it’s a lot of money for us. We worked for it’
Continued from Page A1
Former Klean employees
are skeptical after struggling
through months of escalating
chaos.
In Long Beach, employ-
ees say there were signs of
major trouble, including
bouncing and missing pay-
checks, severe understaff-
ing and declining levels of
patient care.
Brett and Melissa Sholin,
of Ilwaco, were among the
staffers who lost their jobs
last week. The Sholins say
Klean owes them about
$5,000 in unpaid wages that
were repeatedly promised,
but never delivered.
Brett Sholin feels the con-
stant broken promises were
so stressful they amounted to
“mental abuse.”
“We really need our
money,” Sholin said. “It’s
not just that it’s a lot of
money for us. We worked for
it. It’s a mess.”
John Thelen, a former
chemical dependency spe-
cialist with Klean, has fi led
a wage complaint with the
Washington State Depart-
ment of Labor and Indus-
tries. Thelen claims the
company owes him nearly
$4,000.
Thelen said he started
working for Klean in early
September. After receiving
his fi rst couple of checks
from the company, they
started coming in late and
later started bouncing, he
said.
Thelen has since found a
similar job at a nearby treat-
ment center, but said the loss
in pay from Klean nearly
put him and his wife out of
a home.
Spanswick
did
not
respond to a question about
when he planned to pay his
employees.
Legal trouble
The 30-bed rehab cen-
ter on Pioneer Road opened
in 2013. It was one of sev-
eral Klean-brand treatment
facilities owned by White
Rabbit Partners Inc., a West
Hollywood-based holding
corporation.
In October, Presidential
Healthcare Credit Corp., an
Alpharetta, Georgia, lender,
fi led a federal lawsuit, ask-
ing White Rabbit for nearly
$8 million in overdue loans.
In 2013, White Rabbit
used its holdings as collat-
eral for a $1.1 million vari-
able interest loan and a
$2.9 million revolving loan
from Presidential. Revolv-
ing loans allow borrowers to
borrow and repay up to their
limit any number of times.
They are often used to help
businesses stay liquid in day-
to-day operations.
White Rabbit allegedly
asked Presidential to extend
payment deadlines several
times. Presidential agreed,
in order to give White Rab-
bit “time to reorganize their
affairs and to pay the indebt-
edness,” according to the
lawsuit.
In mid-September, White
Rabbit signed over even
more collateral in order to
borrow another $250,000.
About a week later, the com-
pany allegedly requested
another $250,000 so they
could make payroll. By then,
White Rabbit was over its
borrowing limit, but Presi-
dential agreed, once again.
They also lent White Rab-
bit $99,000 to “preserve and
protect its collateral.”
Spanswick and his part-
ners had agreed to provide
Presidential with weekly
fi nancial statements and pay
at least $200,000 in August,
but allegedly failed to do so.
By the end of October, the
company reportedly owed
more than $7.9 million.
Presidential terminated
the loan, demanded full pay-
ment and fi led the lawsuit,
which asked the court for
permission to take control of
White Rabbit’s assets.
White Rabbit denies the
allegations, and says Pres-
idential acted unethically.
The judge postponed any
decision about the takeover,
but ordered White Rab-
bit to round up its report-
edly scanty fi nancial records
and cooperate in a fi nancial
audit.
Klean is also facing two
lawsuits from Astoria prop-
erty owners Sean Fitzpat-
rick and Anne Carpenter,
who, through their company,
Wecoma Partners, rented
Klean an apartment com-
plex on Alameda Avenue for
a 40-bed sober living facil-
ity and offi ces at 12th and
Exchange streets for outpa-
tient treatment.
One lawsuit, fi led in Cir-
cuit Court against the Well
in Mind nonprofi t associated
with Klean, claims the com-
pany has fallen behind on
rent at the apartment com-
plex by more than $44,000.
The other, fi led against
White Rabbit Partners,
claims Klean has fallen
behind by more than
$16,000 in rent at the offi ces.
Fitzpatrick also has locked
Klean out of the offi ces, with
equipment still inside.
The total Klean owes
Wecoma Partners now
exceeds $100,000, Fitzpat-
rick said, and he expects a
default judgment against
the company, which has not
responded to either lawsuit.
Patient care
In better times, Klean
served up to 30 patients
and employed 50 to 80 peo-
ple in Long Beach. But the
patient census fl uctuated.
White Rabbit’s leaders laid
off or fi red a dozen or more
workers on two or three
occasions, employees said,
claiming patient numbers
had fallen too low.
In late October, pay-
checks were late. And they
were handwritten — a sign
that payroll had not been
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ASTORIAN
was going on,” she said. “It
was hard for them not to
know.”
On Tuesday, some work-
ers learned they’d lost their
jobs via text message. Most
patients made plans to move
to other treatment options. A
couple of patients told work-
ers they had nowhere to go
and would likely end up liv-
ing in their cars.
The Sholins and others
stayed because they liked
their jobs despite the tur-
moil, and because they felt a
sense of duty to the remain-
ing patients. Many patients
want to get out and get high
again, Brett Sholin said, but
the ones who were still there
on the last day were people
who wanted to get clean.
“For these clients to stick
with it and stay in that build-
ing for their treatment — I
couldn’t leave,” Sholin said.
Edward Stratton of The
Daily Astorian contributed
to this report.
RESOLUTION SERVICES
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
A
processed in the usual way,
Sholin said. Eight paychecks
bounced. When the staff got
paid again in early Novem-
ber, a group of leery employ-
ees rushed to a bank in Asto-
ria to cash their checks.
“No one wanted them to
bounce,” Sholin explained.
They didn’t receive their late
November or early Decem-
ber paychecks.
A worker who asked not
to be publicly identifi ed said
patient care steadily declined
as employees got laid off and
quit. A few stalwarts strug-
gled to provide counseling,
groups and classes.
“The clients that were left
were not getting good care.
Not even close to what they
were supposed to be get-
ting,” she said, noting there
was so little structure or
accountability for patients
that staffers started urging
them to fi nd other treatment
centers.
“The clients knew what
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