Death bell ringing

Saturday, April 15, 2006 | 7:35 a.m.

For the first time in memory Friday, staff members of the Economic Opportunity Board sat at the same table as the organization's executive director and board.

There were no community members at the board meeting, none of the raucousness of years gone by.

It was a gathering to go over details of what appear to be the final moments of the organization's 42-year history and the end of its oversight of dozens of programs to fight poverty in the Las Vegas Valley.

Minutes before, in the hallway, near desks, tables and chairs piled up as if ready to be moved, those same employees talked about pending unemployment. "I haven't had a vacation in four years," one said, seeking the bright side.

The meeting proved a mix of the real - facts surrounding the dismantling of an organization that once oversaw millions of dollars for social services - and the surreal - a search for meaning in the end of an era.

On the one hand, Executive Director Lester Murray announced that Las Vegas Councilman and EOB Board Chairman Lawrence Weekly would be signing letters ending the organization's state contracts. That will leave it with no money, hardly any programs and an estimated $3 million in debt, Murray said.

Murray detailed how most of the organization's frontline employees would eventually go to work for whoever took over the programs EOB is now giving up, and noted it was "difficult to foresee (making) any payroll after April 21."

At the same time, Weekly reported on a technical move to reorganize the board to meet the organization's bylaws - the Rev. Marion Bennett went from representing the poor to representing the private sector.

The board, which has varied from 12 to more than 50 members over the decades, now numbers three, and Weekly has said in recent community meetings that the organization needed to build the board back up.

On Friday Weekly said he had received an "overwhelming response from people interested in being on the board." But Weekly said he had "decided to keep things the way they are for now."

Future meetings were discussed, but it was unclear what the board would meet about.

The board once oversaw millions of dollars in state and federal funds and was the largest nonprofit organization in the valley. But years of negative audits and reviews took their toll. The state and the federal government took away programs and contracts.

As the meeting wore on, several at the table saw fit to address the media, to leave several things clear "for the record."

Weekly said he wanted it known that "it's not like the state has come in and said we're stripping anything away." The EOB, he said, has "voluntarily relinquished" the programs.

He also stressed that the "transition" from having EOB run its programs to having the county in charge - a decision scheduled to be voted on at the Clark County Commission meeting Tuesday - needed to be "smooth, respectful and done with dignity."

He lamented that "our side of the story is not being told," referring to the good that EOB has done in its four decades. The organization has overseen a cradle-to-grave array of services totaling more than 40 programs, from child care to drug treatment to senior day care, with a budget of up to $60 million.

"People who have Southern Nevada history have some great memories," he said. "It's sad to see."

Shortly after, a woman named Emma sitting on the other end of the long table said she had been with EOB for 32 years - "half of my life I spent here" - and that it was "difficult to say that it's falling apart."

Struggling with her own grief, she almost cried.

Then she directed her attention at "the press," which she said was "only here now that things are bad."

Bennett, a Methodist minister, said, "Amen," from the other side of the table.

"They say EOB has been always bad. They are wrong," Emma added.

Reminded after the meeting of the organization's decades of difficulty managing and even losing millions of taxpayer dollars, board squabbles, criticism from community groups and discrimination complaints from former employees, she said, "Every agency has its problems."

Weekly said he looks at the current situation "in a positive way. One door closes and another opens. It's a blessing in disguise for people who use these services."

He said unlike when EOB started, there are many other agencies that will be able to pick up the slack as needed.

Murray had said during the meeting that the organization, strictly speaking, will continue to exist, with a three-member board and one large asset, public radio station KCEP 88.1-FM.

It even has at least two programs - drug treatment and Women, Infants and Children.

But that probably won't last long, he said, "because we don't have the money" to run the programs.

As for the board, he noted, "the next time we meet, there will be very little" to do.