(from Seattle PI)

Even before the civil-rights organization was caught up in the Seattle Public Schools' financial scandal, the city had reduced its financial support drastically, killing one big contract and slashing another.

By Jim Brunner

Seattle Times political reporter

It's already been a rough year for the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

Even before the venerable civil-rights organization was caught up in the Seattle Public Schools' financial scandal, the city had reduced its financial support drastically, killing one big contract and slashing another.

In January, the city yanked a $500,000-a-year contract for the Urban League's youth-violence prevention work and awarded it to other organizations. The city criticized the Urban League for submitting vague, inaccurate invoices — accusations similar to those raised by auditors in the schools scandal.

The city also cut long-standing financial support of the Urban League's center to help minority small-business owners to get construction contracts, deciding to seek other bidders for the first time in years.

In the midst of all this, longtime President James Kelly stepped down in January, citing health and personal concerns.

The Urban League has been largely silent since the school-district state audit made headlines last week.

Tony Benjamin, the Urban League's acting chief executive, said he's been through a "baptism by fire" and would answer questions at a news conference Wednesday morning. The group has tapped political consultant Cathy Allen for advice.

"We'll address all of that tomorrow," Benjamin said. "Hopefully, it will clear the air."

State audit

Questions about the Urban League's handling of public contracts surfaced in the state audit, which questioned $1.8 million in expenses in Seattle Public Schools' small-business contracting program.

The Urban League was the largest single recipient of that money, receiving nearly $600,000 in contracts that were labeled "questionable uses of public funds" by auditors.

One of the Urban League's big contracts from the city of Seattle was awarded in 2009 as part of then-Mayor Greg Nickels' initiative to tamp down violence after a rash of shootings in Central and South Seattle.

The no-bid contract paid the Urban League about $900,000 for its work over two years.

As part of the program, the Urban League hired outreach staff to seek out troubled youths and try to reconnect them with schools, jobs and counseling.

But this year, under Mayor Mike McGinn, the city decided to put the contract out for competitive bidding. The Urban League submitted a bid, but the work was awarded to the YMCA and Therapeutic Health Services in January, records show.

"Deficient"

A city evaluation finished last month criticized the Urban League's performance on the contract — rating its performance "below requirements" or "deficient" in 16 of 28 categories.

The harshest grades were for sloppy invoices and budget problems — issues similar to those raised by state auditors with the Urban League's work with the school district.

The organization met the city's contract requirements in 10 categories and was rated "superior" in two — including praise for trying innovative approaches to the violence problem.

Mariko Lockhart, head of the city's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, described the Urban League's record on the project as mixed.

"They had strong staff. I just think the oversight of it was probably not tight," said Lockhart, describing the organization's invoices and other records as "a mess" — especially after the departure of program coordinator Jamila Taylor.

Taylor, who quit the Urban League last fall, now works on the youth-violence-prevention effort with Therapeutic Health Services.

She said she could not explain the Urban League's difficulties but said the youth-violence effort has paid dividends by reaching at-risk kids.

"We were able to do some very important things to help kids stay out of some trouble," Taylor said.

Even before losing its city contract, there was some indication the Urban League was having financial difficulties. "It was always a rush to make sure we turned around their bill as fast as possible so they could meet their payroll," Lockhart said.

When the city late last year declined to pay the Urban League bonuses of several thousand dollars on the youth-violence effort, the organization complained and threatened to go to the City Council or mayor, Lockhart said.

Second blow

A second blow came when the city drastically cut the Urban League's other major contract that supported its Contractor Development & Competitiveness Center.

The CDCC was created in 2002 to help small minority-owned businesses win construction contracts. The city spent about $480,000 a year between 2003 and 2010 on the CDCC, according to McGinn's office.

That was reduced to $100,000 this year, and city departments were encouraged to seek other competitors to do similar work, Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith said.

Requiring more competitive bidding for contracts "is the direction we're going" with all city services, Smith said.

"It's difficult for the public to buy that you're not going to work your contracts in that way," he said.

CDCC program

The state audit accused the Urban League of overcharging the school district to fund its CDCC program.

Auditors said the school district was overcharged by the Urban League for services that did not benefit the district — including up to $15,000 a month for "general overhead and administration."

The Urban League didn't document how the charges benefitted the school district, but it stated repeatedly that the money was needed "to keep the doors open," auditors said.

The State Auditor's Office now is examining the CDCC as part of its regular audit of the city of Seattle, spokeswoman Mindy Chambers said Wednesday.

(from SeattlePI)

The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and several prominent political figures were among the vendors who received "questionable" payments from a Seattle Public Schools program that is the focus of a criminal investigation.

Prosecutors have dropped mortgage fraud charges against a man accused of skimming home equity from distressed homeowners

The case against Thomas Cuomo could not stand in the wake of an e-mail and paper trail showing the mortgage company he was working with wasn't the victim of fraud - but instead the possible cause of it.

Cuomo, who once was a housing counselor for the Jacksonville Urban League, bought homes from people in foreclosure. At one time, he was suspected of skimming out what equity had been built up and renting them back to the original owners, promising them a chance to buy the houses back.

But the houses slipped back into foreclosure.

He was first charged in 2007 with money laundering and mortgage fraud after state investigators found similar stories from nearly a dozen people in Duval and Clay counties. That case was dismissed on a technicality.

In 2008, he was charged again, this time accused of taking out fraudulent loans.

Mitchell Stone, Cuomo's attorney in the 2008 charges, but not the previous case, said a simple e-mail trail showed that Cuomo tried to correct wrong information on his mortgage applications. For example, he said, loan documents said one of the homes was going to be owner-occupied, but Cuomo tried to correct the information to say it would be a rental.

It was Countrywide and other lenders, according to Stone, that refused to correct the wrong information so that it could make the loan, then bundle and sell it with other risky mortgages. The case is a microcosm of the wider mortgage meltdown that has sent the economy into a tailspin.

April Charney, an attorney at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and one of the nation's experts in foreclosure law, is defending one of the foreclosures on behalf of the tenant, Lester Thomas, who sold his house to Cuomo. Thomas still lives there because the bank has not been able to prove it has the right to foreclose on it.

Charney said the case represents many of the problems with the mortgage crisis: Irresponsible lenders and irresponsible borrowers, scams perpetrated on low-income people in dire straits and the improper securitization of high-risk loans.

And, she said, it illustrates why law enforcement agencies must put more effort into investigating such cases.

From Jacksonville News

By JEFFREY B. COHEN |The Hartford Courant

February 14, 2009

National Urban League

National Urban League

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

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?lname=National+Urban+League&year=2008

For more Information Cut and Paste above link

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.”

From the Las Vegas Sun

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 4^th 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.

From Independent Business Network

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.

From the Las Vegas Sun

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.”

From the Las Vegas Sun

Critics say expansion will lead to gentrification. James Kelly envisions economic development.

By Aimee Curl

Published on May 27, 2008 at 10:16pm

From the Seattle Weekly

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.

•••

From the Las Vegas Sun

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.

Dare is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court next month for another series of real estate crimes. He faces up to 51 months in federal prison under a plea agreement signed in November 2006 in that case.

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.

From Times union

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

Does City Money Buy Urban League Support for the Chief?

posted by Josh Feit on June 26 at 11:11 AM

By BERNARD CHOI and CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - Two powerful civil rights groups are taking sides in the controversy surrounding Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske and his handling of an internal investigation.

The Seattle chapter of the NAACP on Friday called on the Kerlikowske to step down, while the Urban League is supporting the Chief.

James Bible, president of the NAACP, said the police chief took unusual steps in trying to influence what should have been an independent review of a controversial drug bust.

Last January, two Seattle police officers arrested a drug suspect in Belltown; that arrest was caught on tape. The suspect said he was roughed up and the cops planted drugs on him. The officers were reprimanded because their written report didn't match the video taken of the arrest, and the prosecution dropped charges against the man.

Then, the citizen oversight board released a draft report this week accusing the chief of interfering with the internal investigation into the two police officers and taking "extraordinary" measures to get a witness statement.

The NAACP says the chief should not have intervened to affect the probe. The local NAACP chapter has raised questions about one of the two Seattle police officers in years past. Last month, the local branch of the NAACP called for the chief's resignation.

"If we have a chief that will seek to hide information for his own personal gain or interest, then that chief needs to step away that chief needs to find another town," Bible said Friday.

The NAACP said Mayor Greg Nickels also needs to be held accountable for the outcome of the investigation.

The Urban League is standing by Kerlikowske.

"I will be damned to allow any draft report, any incomplete investigation, to ruin the five year relationship we have tried to establish on behalf of African-Americans and the police department," said James Kelly of the Urban League.

From King 5 News

Urban League sinks under debt

The Hillsborough affiliate dissolves after decades of economic and social services to Tampa-area blacks.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published July 18, 2006

---

TAMPA - The Tampa-Hillsborough Urban League will cease to exist, its leaders announced Monday, signaling an end to an 84-year-old institution that has helped thousands in the black community.

"This is a sad day," said Curtis Stokes, vice chairman for the Hillsborough County NAACP. "This is a sad day for black America period."

The decision came a week after Mayor Pam Iorio said the city was willing to talk to the league's mortgage holder to help the group stay afloat and about 2 weeks after the nonprofit organization jettisoned two of its programs to another organization. Both moves couldn't save the Urban League, which has been weighed down by $3.1-million in debt since 2004.

Calls to several people listed as members of the board of directors were not returned except for Warren Hope Dawson, who said, "Every goodbye ain't gone."

But he declined to elaborate, and representatives from the National Urban League and the Pinellas County Urban League didn't know of any talks or plans to resurrect the institution.

"We hate to see any affiliate dissolve," said Ricky Clemons, a National Urban League spokesman.

The Tampa-Hillsborough Urban League's problems began after the city gave it the Centro Espanol de West Tampa building in 1999 as its new headquarters. A $3.1-million renovation of the historic building ballooned $2-million over budget after several unforeseen construction problems surfaced, league officials said. Soon, the nonprofit owed Wachovia, the city, Hillsborough County and the Internal Revenue Service, among others.

An institution that had once helped blacks break down barriers in high schools, hospitals and the police force and was renowned for its job training program began to break down itself. Its staff dwindled from 49 two years ago to one after the league announced the transfer of two state-funded programs to Derrick Brooks Charities late last month.

"In the last 15 months, the (Tampa-Hillsborough Urban League) sounded a clarion call to action in an effort to save the 84-year-old community service agency," interim board chairwoman W. Lois Davis wrote in a statement. "The call went to the community, civic and religious leaders, business and elected officials.

"I want to thank all of those who answered that call and unfortunately, notwithstanding the tremendous effort we fell short of our goal, your efforts were appreciated and will never be forgotten."

In a three-page news release, the Urban League board of directors wrote an account of several last-ditch efforts to save the institution. Mostly, the release seemed to shield board members from criticism while saying the city and county was slow to respond when quick aid was needed.

When the county proposed buying its headquarters two years ago to bail the group out, they said, Davis asked about the offer but never got a call back. (County officials said the offer never became serious because another league board member shot it down.)

League officials acknowledge that the city has helped the Urban League try to find a new owner for its building. But when solutions were proposed, they said, the city never gave the league adequate feedback.

Mark Huey, Tampa's economic and urban development administrator, said the city dropped out of negotiations after Davis told him on April 10 that the city's involvement was no longer needed. Huey had helped put Wachovia and Davis together, and the two sides seemed optimistic about a solution, so the city walked away.

"Lois, I believe, had the best of intentions back in April," he said. "I think she believed it was going to work out, but at this point, it hasn't."

Now the city is unsure of what it'll do as millions of dollars of renovation grant money, funneled through the city, is sunk in the league's headquarters. The city hoped it would find another group to move into the building - until Monday's Urban League announcement.

"All we can say is we will do whatever is prudent to protect taxpayer interests," Huey said, adding that reacquiring the building is now an option for the city.

"I was hoping they could still be there," said state Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, a former league board member, who had been working over the weekend to help the nonprofit stay in business.

From St.Petesburg Times

mmmanning@bizjournals.com | 813.342.2473