EOB: As poor as the poor?

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006 | 12:33 p.m.

Lester Murray, who in January became the fourth executive director in the last two years to run the Economic Opportunity Board, stood in his office's downtown lobby last week, talking about ways to bring millions to an organization founded 42 years ago to fight poverty.

He laid out a scenario involving selling the organization's public radio station, KCEP - a bottom-of-the dial home to hip hop, gospel and some community programming.

There is no contract yet, he said, only interested buyers. He couldn't mention the asking price. The sale could take six months, but a bank might loan the organization some money meanwhile if the buyer was credit-worthy enough.

Meanwhile, a cast of characters filed in and out, some the organization owed money, others who said they could help.

In a surreal way, the organization founded to fight poverty four decades ago had come to mirror the very people they were supposed to help - living day to day, struggling to survive.

While Murray spoke to a reporter, an emergency board meeting, called to figure out how to deal with about $379,000 in paid time off that was owed to the Head Start program's 350 employees, was being rescheduled for later in the day.

The Head Start program - perhaps the linchpin of the EOB's operation, reaching a $60 million budget in 2003 - was officially taken away from Murray's organization at the close of business Friday, weeks after the federal government found that sloppy management was putting the health and safety of about 1,800 children at risk.

A Denver organization called Community Development Institute came in Tuesday to take over the early-education program.

Worth $12.6 million to the organization, the Head Start grant was the last large pot of money to slip through the hands of the group, formed as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. The EOB has lost other grants in the last two years of federal and state investigations.

Thursday's board meeting came three days after the federal government pulled the grant. But despite the weight of the moment, by noon only three board members had shown up - Chairman Claude Logan, the Rev. Marion Bennett and Linda Harris.

Bennett said he "couldn't believe" the Head Start program had been mismanaged. A few minutes later, board member Hannah Brown came in and wondered, "How would you know?" there was mismanagement.

Bennett added, "It's a shock to me."

A little later, Sen. Steven A. Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, Asian Chamber of Commerce member Arthur de Joya and Eloiza Martinez - board treasurer - joined via the phone.

Larry Mason, who as a Clark County School Board member is the only board member with experience in education, was not present.

About 12:15 Logan said the meeting would have to be "recessed" because staff couldn't reach the San Francisco office of the federal Head Start bureau to find out what the law said about the paid time off issue.

Logan said afterward he was "concerned" about the Head Start employees. A memo given to board members detailed how much time the agency would have to pay the $379,000, depending on whether employees were "suspended" or "terminated."

Logan also laid blame for Head Start's troubles at the feet of Mid-Iowa Community Action Inc., a group brought in to run the nonprofit organization from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005, at a cost of at least $624,000 in public funds.

When reminded that many of the dangers to children the federal government cited in its recent decision to take the program away were of more recent vintage, Logan switched gears, blaming the whole thing on Head Start administrators.

"We (the board) received reports from Head Start that things were being taken care of," he said. "I guess they weren't."

Meanwhile, a stream of people including a Pentecostal minister, a cleaning company owner, a state employee and an official from a center serving drug addicts came through the office, either because they were owed money or wanted to offer something.

Murray said at least one check was cut to pay off a debt, though he wouldn't say for how much.

Calls to the EOB front desk included one from a representative of the Ferguson family trust, owner of a property at 3680 N. Rancho Drive. The EOB once had offices at that address and has a lease on the property until September. A representative of the trust said the organization has not paid February's rent of $12,500.

Thursday evening the early education program's 350 employees went to the Renaissance hotel downtown to find out what the immediate future looked like in the hands of the Denver group.

Most of them came in sneakers, jeans and sweatshirts, the front-line attire of professionals who spend their days with the small children of our valley's low-income families.

Many hoped they would have jobs - they had to reapply for their jobs, and a full day of interviews was scheduled for Saturday. Basically, the Community Development Institute has the right to hire the same or different employees to staff the valley's 15 Head Start centers in the coming weeks.

Observing the day's events, Chester Richardson, who was once on the board and made complaints in 2004 to the federal government about alleged fraud and mismanagement in the organization, said the "primary issue" in the weeks to come would be the children and families in the program, and making sure the program is made right.

As for the EOB, he wondered, "Have they fulfilled the charge of eliminating poverty? Or are they perpetuating the status quo ... only to get to the point where they themselves are living check to check."

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at [email protected].