| Issue | No. of Reports* |
|---|---|
| Fed Budget & Appropriations | 14 |
| Housing | 14 |
| Labor, Antitrust & Workplace | 14 |
| Education | 2 |
| Agriculture | 1 |
| Civil Rights & Civil Liberties | 1 |
| Economics & Econ Development | 1 |
Clark County is holding back federal money from the local Urban League because a recent review found double billing, problems with receipts and a lack of proof that one of the organization’s programs was actually helping the poor pull their lives together.
At issue is a grant of $67,000 that was to be used to help people who were having trouble paying utility bills or rent. The county found that the Urban League paid only part of what clients owed on their bills. The nonprofit organization then asked those clients to pay back 60 percent and billed the county for the same cases. The Urban League issued no receipts to some clients. At other times, clients got receipts but the organization entered the payments under “miscellaneous income.”
And still another finding: There were no plans for helping clients get back on their feet, a condition of the grant.
The Urban League has to correct most of the problems within 30 days to draw again from the grant, said Shawna Parker, analyst at Clark County Community Resources Management, the division that oversees the federal money.
Parker said the problems with the program are serious, adding there are “concerns about whether the organization can manage the money.”
“There is no accounting or justification of the taxpayers’ money, no assurance it is being used wisely and for the purposes it was intended,” she said. In sum, “the goals of the services are in doubt.”
If the money is cut off, it will be the third time in the past four months that a local government has taken back federal dollars from the Urban League. In all three cases, the nonprofit group failed to meet terms of contracts attached to grants, officials said.
Previously, the poverty-fighting organization had trouble meeting the milestones for a $95,000 grant to help seniors repair their homes. The Urban League failed to spend half the money by January. The organization told officials “the program had fallen apart” and suffered excessive turnover, said Tim Whitright, development manager of the Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department. So the city extended the deadline to March 31. When that deadline wasn’t met, the city took back nearly $70,000 in late May, “a matter of making sure the funds get out to the community,” Whitright said.
The city is managing nearly $5.3 million in federal Community Development Block Grants this year, but hasn’t had a problem of this size with any other nonprofit organization, Whitright said.
North Las Vegas found the Urban League couldn’t spend $57,000 from the same federal source, also meant for repairing the homes of seniors. North Las Vegas took back its money in June.
Parker also discovered more than $110,000 in unspent money for seniors from a $150,000 grant nearly 15 months old. If the money is not used by Dec. 31, it will also be taken back, she said. Further, the county discovered that the $40,000 spent to date went to one contractor. Federal rules require that the work be bid out.
At the Urban League’s board meeting in June related troubles were on the table as board members discussed the need to prepare a plan for cutting programs. In building up its budget to about $4.5 million during the second half of its four-year history, the organization apparently took on too many grants without sufficient qualified staff to handle them.
Executive Director Ray Clarke said in June that his staff would have the reduction plan ready in 30 days.
On Friday, Clarke had no comment on any plan to cut programs, the county’s findings, or the earlier pullbacks of funding.
Instead, he encouraged taking a firsthand look at “the positive impact that the Las Vegas-Clark County Urban League is having in the community,” adding that he is “very encouraged by the progress (the organization) continues to make.”
Staff at the Minneapolis Urban League has been a buzz about recent budget cuts. One MUL staffer who wishes to remain unidentified says, “I hope the $14,000 that my program is not getting doesn’t affect my job.
It has been alleged that the Minneapolis Urban League will not be getting 4th quarter dollars from the McKnight Foundation. In a ”leaked” letter to the MUL, the McKnight Foundation will not move forward on a grant request for the Minneapolis Urban League favoring an “operational review.”
Is it time for the Minneapolis Urban League to have a Sigma Six review?” (A Six Sigma is a philosophy that mandates operational excellence. This operational excellence is achieved through tools designed to reduce variations in processes. Six Sigma is also considered as a disciplinary methodology by many companies to meet client expectations. As per the philosophy, Six Sigma is not something else that is required to be done but it is what is required to be done.”)
A call made to the McKnight Foundation about the alleged letter regarding stopped funding for the Minneapolis Urban League, and the Foundation being in favor of an operational review, Tim Hanrahan, Communication Director for the McKnight Foundation says, “We don’t have a set amount we give to any programs but we did give the MUL a $50,000 dollar grant for operating support In 2007, (a one year grant).
In an email sent to the Independent Business News Network (IBNN) from the McKnight Foundation’s communications director, Tim Hanrahan – it reads, “After McKnight’s board of directors approves each new grant; we generally follow with a public announcement of the approval. I can tell you that McKnight’s most recent approved grant to the Minneapolis Urban League was for $50,000 in 2007, to support operating expenses. Beyond disclosing approved grants, however, McKnight simply doesn’t comment about confidential discussions with prospective grantees or community partners. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.”
What does this mean for the Minneapolis Urban League? The Minneapolis Urban League established the relationship with the McKnight Foundation in 1972’s when Russ Ewald was the Executive Director of the Foundation and Ms. Virginia McKnight, the matriarch of the McKnight Family made sure that the community in North Minneapolis and all underserved areas in the Twin Cities were being served by the Foundation. As they continue to do today.
There has been a good relationship throughout the years between the Minneapolis Urban League and the McKnight Foundation. Long time community leaders and activists don’t understand why–with the exit of Mr. Clarence Hightower and the upcoming layoffs in January the Minneapolis Urban League has not committed to a Capital Fundraising Campaign or a Membership Drive to assist in building capacity for the organization. The MUL may be facing difficult funding times ahead.
It has been observed that the Minneapolis Urban League, its programs and employees have worked in silo’s “within the building”, opting for the most part not to include other interoffice groups and programs in an effort to create an inept since of competition that cannibalizes the organizations programs, events and employees. For the most part the institution has become an institution unto it’s self – with consequences that don’t favor a productive community social-service organization delivering education, wealth and independence to their target demographic.
A fine example of this is Mr. Hightower’s going away celebration. While the event was going on downstairs, there was another meeting going on upstairs. In our views we think that Mr. Hightower’s celebration trumped anything else going on.
The second example was when the University of Minnesota–School of Medicine had their liaison for the Quit Smoking program interviewing people at the Minneapolis Urban League. The first group to participate was employees from the Social Wellness Cluster at the Minneapolis Urban League – the reward for taking part in the research was a $50 dollar Target Gift Card. We are not against Capitalism – but at the expense of the community turns into an issue. If it was about making a buck – in some cases the community wasn’t alerted including RFP’s (Request for Proposals) and other “soft-services” that could be completed by the community/business talent pool.
The Minneapolis Urban League, outside of its annual dinner is without a fundraiser this year. If questioned different people in the organization as to why the organization failed to mirror other successful social-service agencies in the Twin Cities and around the country by using marketing and communications to assist in creating an in-house source of new funding streams and build capacity through membership drives, the question went unanswered.
At the Urban League’s September board meeting, the first since June, a state official showed up with a list of things the poverty-fighting organization had to do to keep receiving $2.6 million a year in federal funds.
But the board put off the official and the list for another day, one of the latest examples of the organization’s recent tendency to miss deadlines and avoid dealing with problems.
The to-do list was put together in April and May, but at least four items were months overdue, including one on financial oversight — the heart of the board’s responsibility.
Gary Gobelman, the state official, said to the nine board members present, “It’s important for you to understand this.”
But within five minutes, board Chairman Raymond Specht tabled the item for at least another month, “out of respect for the time of everyone here.” It was 5 p.m., quitting time, according to the agenda.
First he asked whether anyone had any questions about the state’s three-page, 13-item list — three times. Board member Napoleon McCallum replied, “I just got this today.”
A few board members said they thought several of the problems had been fixed. Later, Gobelman, whose job it is to make sure the federal funding is properly handled, said they hadn’t been fixed.
The official said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the experience.
He pointed out that the “issues were out there” for months before the meeting, and that he’d expected the board to dedicate some time to them.
“It’s very important for the board to have an understanding of these issues, and I saw this as an opportunity for the board to have a dialogue,” he said.
It’s also important because the state is one of four Nevada governments in recent months to confront problems with the nonprofit organization’s handling of public money. Since May, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Clark County have withdrawn or frozen funding because of those problems.
This has a snowball effect among sources of public funding as they begin to compare notes. For example, the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, which receives federal money to help with job training and education, has been considering the Urban League for a grant of about $200,000.
The investment board is taking a close look at the nonprofit organization’s finances before making a decision and plans to meet with its staff to address concerns.
“We know local governments have had fiscal management issues (with the Urban League) in the recent past,” said John Ball, executive director of the investment board.
“We’re dealing with public money ... and this puts the issue on the radar screen for other potential funders.”
At the Urban League’s Sept. 24 board meeting, one item on the state’s list noted that the board was supposed to develop procedures for overseeing the organization’s funding by July 18 and had yet to do so. The procedures were to deal with cash flow, budget approval, appropriateness of expenditures, spending plans, and methods for fixing fiscal problems. Gobelman said the Urban League had sent him a letter saying it would have board Treasurer William Raihl sign a monthly “financial certification form” — but that’s not enough.
“We need a complete picture of the procedures the board will use to maintain oversight,” Gobelman said.
The Sun’s repeated attempts to reach Specht to ask about the meeting and the state’s list, particularly the item dealing with board responsibilities, were unsuccessful.
Gobelman said he wants to meet with the Urban League board’s finance subcommittee before next month’s full board meeting, to “make sure they understand what the status of this is and why they need to be involved.”
In any case, deadlines don’t die, and the Urban League missed another one Friday. The organization was supposed to explain its July payroll in more detail to the state, after its June bill to the state for payroll resulted in $12,000 in disallowed costs. Gobelman said the state will not pay August’s bill, which is likely to arrive any day, until July’s bill is clarified.
Two other items were due Tuesday. First, the Urban League’s financial report was due to the state. The second involved “time studies” — the Urban League has to show the state how employees are spending their time and whether they’re working in activities covered by the grants being billed.
What happens if those deadlines aren’t met?
“Nothing’s been decided on that yet,” Gobelman said.
A recent board meeting of the Las Vegas-Clark County Urban League saw a state official laud the still-new nonprofit organization for its ramped-up efforts in the past six months.
The $4.5 million organization is officially 4 years old but most of its grants have come in the past 18 months. It has added several programs since December.
Those programs include one to help former prisoners rejoin society, another for youth and still another for helping parents read with their children — all told, “an impressive amount ... to launch” in so little time, Gary Gobelman, grants administrator for the state Health and Human Services Department, told the Urban League board.
Then he launched into a three-page, 19-item report on things the organization needs to do to make sure it adequately manages the nearly $3 million the state oversees.
Nearly last but not least, Item No. 17, developing a system to track cash flow, was “the biggest, I think everyone would agree,” Gobelman said. The report said this was important because there are “concerns about agency ability to meet its ongoing obligations.”
A few days after the meeting, Gobelman said the Urban League has a system, but “we had difficulty following it.”
Until a new system is created, he said, “we aren’t going to know if there’s a cash flow issue.”
Ray Clarke, Urban League chief executive, said he agreed with the state’s assessment of the situation and added that his organization would come up with a new method to track cash flow by September.
Board members also discussed the need to consider cutting back some programs, just in case they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, financially speaking.
“We need to take a hard look at programs,” said board member Ray Specht, who is vice chairman of Toyota Financial Savings Bank. “I’m not advocating that we cut back, just, in the interest of fiscal responsibility, I think we should take a look.”
Clarke said it was important to put the issue “in context.”
“We’re not doing anything different than other nonprofits,” he added, describing the process of tying programs to his organization’s “strategic plan.”
In any case, he said, the effect of any cutbacks “on the community and the staff would be minimal.”
Staff will prepare a recommendation about programs in 30 days for the board to consider, Clarke said.
Asked if the need to track cash flow better was related to the need to consider cutting programs, the chief executive said, “they’re related because they both have to do with the budget.”
•••
On July 1, a government agency obtained something it needs for a lower price after shopping around as normal people do, instead of spending more just because it can.
The agency, the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, found an office with rent less than half of what it had been paying since 2005. The board hands out millions in federal dollars to local nonprofit organizations to train people for jobs.
It had been paying more than $25,000 a month in rent for three times as much space as it needed for the past three years.
No longer.
The agency’s new digs, near West Lake Mead and North Rancho boulevards, will cost about $10,000 a month. Bottom line: During the next year, $187,000 in public funds will go to help out-of-work and underemployed people instead of into a landlord’s bank account.
John Ball, 16 months into his job as executive director, said he can guess only that the agency’s former cavernous and pricey headquarters was chosen in 2005 because the budget appeared flush at the time, having gotten increases in federal funding for four years running. The trend was reversed that same year, however, and funding didn’t go back up until this year — now more than $8 million.
The allotment to the agency is based on unemployment rates and lost jobs. So Ball says he’s keenly aware of what having more money means, and where it should go.
“The reason we have more funding is because citizens are in a sinking economy,” he said. “So everything we can do to help them should be done.”
James Kelly, head of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, which advocates on behalf of African-Americans and other people of color, wants to rename the S.L.U.T.
"Just call it the Love Train!" he says, grinning broadly. The moniker certainly fits for Kelly, who's quickly becoming the public face of a $600 million effort to expand the South Lake Union Streetcar, which opened last year and currently travels from the southern tip of the lake to Westlake Center.
Kelly is co-chair of the Streetcar Alliance, a who's-who of transportation and business associations organized to support and help inform the city's plan to extend the streetcar along four proposed routes. (One from South Lake Union to the University District; one up First Hill, then north along Broadway; one through downtown, then east at South Jackson Street to 23rd Avenue South; and another along Westlake Avenue to Fremont and Ballard.) Kelly is gearing up to emcee a series of public forums on the idea this summer, which are being organized by the Streetcar Alliance. He also sat side-by-side with city staff during a recent meeting to brief the City Council on the plan. "Keep an open mind," he told council members. "Don't nitpick this apart."
A few days later Kelly was on the Seattle Channel debating the pros and cons of the streetcar with council members and with longtime monorail activist Peter Sherwin, who is arguing for more electric buses instead. "Buses just don't do it," Kelly said. "We have a chance to address connecting communities as well as to reduce greenhouse gases."
Of course, electric buses don't emit greenhouse gases. And Kelly's other arguments in favor of the expensive streetcar can sometimes be equally hard to follow. "Seattle has so many diverse neighborhoods that have not historically been well-connected," Kelly says during an interview at the Urban League's Central District offices. "Why would someone who lives in Ballard be interested in going to the ID? We're talking about a train ride that takes people to a destination spot. We're trying to create a vehicle that allows people to be connected. This is one way of doing that without people having to transfer three or four bus lines to get from one part of the city to the other." (For the record, you can get to within a few blocks of the ID from Ballard on the #15 or #18 bus.)
Only one of the proposed streetcar lines would reach the communities traditionally served by the Urban League. And streetcar expansion means fewer resources for bus routes: King County, which runs the buses, has agreed to pick up 75 percent of the existing streetcar's operating costs beginning in 2009, but will pay for it by reducing hours of bus service in Seattle.) The city has also said the county would likely terminate any bus routes made redundant by future streetcar lines. These are among the reasons that Kelly's high-profile support just doesn't add up, says John Fox, a housing advocate and head of the Seattle Displacement Coalition.
"Why is the Urban League involved when there's a plate of issues that directly affect minority communities and the CD where they could be weighing in? But here they are weighing in on something that is tangential at best, but it could also be perceived as gentrification that could drive rents up on affordable housing units and drive small businesses out," Fox says. "[The streetcar] is not a cost-efficient form of transportation. It's a toy, an instrument to drive up property values."
Fox says the movement of African-Americans out of the central area and southeast Seattle "is precipitous because of rising property values, redevelopment, and gentrification. There's a whole host of issues [the Urban League] needs to be working on. But quite frankly they just haven't been there for us....And you wonder why the Urban League is there for the streetcar."
Kelly counters that the streetcar won't lead to gentrification, but to economic development.
"It's an opportunity to have more people, particularly people of color and of more income levels, being able to come back into an area that hasn't had any development in a while," he says, referring to the route that would run up Jackson Street.
Plus, the Urban League has a history of being involved in civic issues, Kelly says, calling the need for "transportation choices" among the more pressing dilemmas the city faces today. He rejects the notion that the organization has lost focus, noting that the Urban League assisted Hurricane Katrina evacuees in 2005 and that it is one of few groups currently working with the city on a program to stave off home foreclosures.
George Griffin, a public-affairs consultant, says the streetcar may well be out of the purview of what the Urban League would have advocated for in the past. But he says that's a good thing. "There needs to be a belief that people of color care about everything that's going on in the community. The profile of the Urban League is so much larger than it has ever been. What they're demonstrating is that we can plan and be involved in things all over town, no matter what the project may be...and James is a great role model for that kind of stuff."
Griffin says Kelly and the Urban League learned some valuable lessons about bringing people together from the Coleman School redevelopment, an often contentious seven-year project that created the Northwest African American Museum and 36 low-income apartme
Fox, for his part, is more skeptical about the Coleman School project's tie to the Urban League's streetcar efforts. Because the city gave the Urban League more than $3 million for the $19 million project, he wonders if there wasn't some sort of quid pro quo with the mayor's office. "The city put in a huge chunk to keep it going over the years. Why is Kelly the public face [of the streetcar]? I believe it's a good way of remaining in the good graces of the mayor," Fox says.
While he says he has no specific information related to the Urban League, former council member Peter Steinbrueck says it wouldn't be the first time for that type of back-scratching. "Many people supported the South Lake Union Streetcar when there wasn't any direct reason," he says. "There tends to be a quid pro quo when it comes budget time and grants are made. Gifts are given to certain nonprofit organizations. I've seen that happen for years."
"No. No. No," responds Kelly. "I don't play politics like that."
But Steinbrueck (long rumored to be considering a run for mayor himself—see The Cutting Room, p. 8) has another theory for Kelly's involvement. "I would think he has aspirations to run for political office at some point," he says. "It helps, being involved in issues beyond what is directly part of the Urban League."
Kelly rejects this notion too. "My brother-in-law's in office," he says referring to City Council member Bruce Harrell. "That's enough."
Calls to other leaders in the black community couldn't find any who were troubled by Kelly's active backing of the streetcar (though all want to make sure that South Seattle routes get served). James Bible, for one, the president of the Seattle chapter of the NAACP, says he isn't second-guessing Kelly's judgment. "We haven't asserted any position yet," Bible says. "I'm sure the Urban League has reviewed the information at a different level given that they have asserted a position."
Kelly says if he's guilty of anything, it might be ego. "I like challenges," he says. "If I can make Coleman School happen, I can do this. In the words of Rodney King, 'Can't we all get along?'"
What a difference $46,000 doesn’t make.
Ten months ago, the Las Vegas-Clark County Urban League, a $4.5 million nonprofit organization, spent that much money on a strategic plan.
The state Health and Human Services Department told the group to develop a blueprint for positioning itself to be the Las Vegas Valley’s largest poverty-fighting organization. So it chose Gary Stokes of Mountain Consulting to do the job. The result: 10 pages with references to strategies, outcome, three-year indicators, Year One benchmarks — but few specifics.
Now the organization’s board has decided to do it all over again — for free.
A report submitted by a committee of three at the board’s April 23 meeting noted that the strategic plan should have “more emphasis placed on results” and ensure benchmarks are attained.
Kathleen Paustian, spokeswoman for the local Urban League, says the two versions will form “an ongoing, living document — not one replacing the other.”
The first report, the $46,000 one, outlined part of the next two years for the Urban League in the following way: Complete a plan to address poverty in the first year and seek funding for it; present the plan to “the community” and “coordinate internal and external programs” in the second year.
There’s little to no elaboration on any of that. The report doesn’t say what the community is, doesn’t say what those programs are or how to determine whether they are coordinated.
Its benchmarks included “seventy-five percent or more of programs ... achieve program objectives.”
The first draft of the new plan refers to a series of specific programs, though it’s still not clear how the success of those programs will be measured.
There’s no “75 percent of the people in job training program X will find jobs within six months and hold those jobs for at least six months,” for example.
The three-person committee is awaiting opinions from the other 15 board members about the newest version of the plan. Time will tell whether the volunteers can do better than the company hired with public money.
•••
ALBANY -- Aaron R. Dare, former Urban League president, pleaded guilty Monday to a felony charge related to a real estate scheme that is expected to land him in state prison for up to three years.
Jury selection in the case was scheduled to begin when Dare accepted the plea deal. It leaves open the prospect Dare could face additional charges -- and prison time -- for alleged real estate crimes still being investigated by State Police and the Albany County district attorney's office.
But the federal deal could be jeopardized because Dare has admitted committing a felony while free on bond in the federal case. He faces a maximum of 27 years in prison for the federal conviction on three felonies, including mail fraud.
Dare was once a rising star in Albany but his reputation was tarnished amid repeated financial failures and criminal investigations of corrupt deals that have left a wave of financial destruction across the city.
The deals resulted in dozens of foreclosures and several victims said they were duped by Dare and his former business partner, Albany police Detective Kenneth Wilcox, who died in a car crash in April 2006.
Monday's plea involved the sale of a single property in the South End last year. Dare admitted filing a fake property deed that concealed his role in the $150,000 sale. The woman who bought the home is facing foreclosure and may not even own the property, prosecutors said.
The corrupt deal is similar to Dare's federal crimes, including 31 instances of mortgage fraud. Those deals involved Wilcox, who also was a target in the FBI investigation.
Dare, dressed in a suit jacket, spoke little during Monday's proceeding before acting State Supreme Court Justice Dan Lamont.
"Are you guilty of offering a false instrument for filing?" Lamont asked.
"Yes, sir," Dare responded, showing no emotion.
Lamont allowed Dare to remain free on $25,000 bail pending sentencing in June. Dare also is free on bond in his federal case but is restricted to home confinement and must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Federal prosecutors have declined to identify the 31 properties -- most in Albany -- that Dare and Wilcox allegedly used to commit mortgage fraud. By not including that information in the plea agreement, it's unclear whether some people may have been victimized and don't know it.
In the State Police case, an unidentified source who once worked for Dare told investigators "Dare has defrauded mortgage companies of several hundred thousand dollars" and "would take two and sometimes three mortgages on the property without telling the owner of the house," according to an affidavit contained in court records.
In articles published last year, the Times Union outlined similar findings following a months-long examination of property deals that were set up by Dare and Wilcox.
The newspaper uncovered instances in which Dare and Wilcox allegedly sold houses they didn't own, filed forged deeds, used appraisers who placed arguably inflated values on properties and duped an untold number of people into believing they were buying refurbished rental properties that could turn a profit.
Brother of former New Orleans mayor sentenced to home detention for not filing tax returns
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The brother of a former New Orleans mayor whose administration has been the target of a long-running corruption probe was sentenced Wednesday to six months of home detention for failing to file federal tax returns.
Jacques Morial, 45, pleaded guilty in September to three misdemeanor counts of the tax charges. Each count carried a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $25,000 fine.
U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon also sentenced Morial to three years of probation. Prosecutors did not object to home detention.
Prosecutors and defense attorney Pat Fanning said Morial has paid more than $26,600 in taxes he owed for the tax years 2000 through 2002, when he was a political consultant and radio producer.
Morial's brother, Marc, was mayor from 1994 to 2002 and is now head of the National Urban League. Their father, the late Ernest Dutch Morial, was the city's first black mayor, serving from 1978 to 1986.
Reading from a prepared statement, Jacques Morial apologized to the court and his family and friends and blamed his failure to pay taxes on procrastination, not a desire to cheat the government.
"I am extremely ashamed that my family's good name, earned over generations of community service, may be tarnished in the eyes of some because of me," Morial said.
Marc Morial was not at the hearing. The former mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing, but his administration has been the subject of a corruption investigation that has landed several former city officials in prison. Prosecutors have not said the Jacques Morial tax case is connected to that investigation.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has said that Morial was not targeted because of his brother.
From International Herald Tribune
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