Noting need group serves, state bolsters Urban League

By Timothy Pratt

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Nevada state agencies are stepping in to shore up one of the Las Vegas Valley’s biggest poverty-fighting organizations, the Urban League, following the resignation of several of its board members.

State officials say they seek assurance that the Urban League’s outreach programs are effective, especially at a time of growing need in a struggling economy. The state Human Services Department oversees $2.6 million of the Urban League’s $4.5 million budget.

The local Urban League has been wrestling with financial problems since spring, but it’s unclear whether the vacant board seats are related.

When the chairman, Raymond Specht, resigned Oct. 13, his departure was the fourth from the board in two months. Specht, vice chairman at Toyota Financial Savings Bank, announced his decision in a three-paragraph letter that offered no explanation. He declined to comment to the Las Vegas Sun.

His predecessor, Marie Ray, resigned from the board in August. So did Valerie Dunn, a certified public accountant.

Kenny Young, an assistant city manager for North Las Vegas, resigned in late September. The board is expected to vote today on replacing Young with his boss, North Las Vegas City Manager Gregory Rose.

Mike Willden, director of the Human Services Department, and Larry Mosley, director of the state’s Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department, have helped craft a plan to shore up the board, and it includes having Mosley and Mary Liveratti, the state’s deputy director of health and human services, go to board meetings from now on.

The reason: “With unemployment at the rate it is and government cutbacks, the Urban League’s services are more important than ever,” Liveratti said. “A strong board is important to having effective stewardship of public funds. If they don’t, that can affect programs, which affects real people.”

The 4-year-old organization’s services include job training, repairing homes of the needy and helping poor mothers buy baby formula.

Some of the programs used to be in the hands of the Economic Opportunity Board, which was founded as part of the federal government’s 1964 War on Poverty. That organization folded in 2006 under the weight of mismanagement discovered in audit report after audit report, even as board members claimed ignorance of the problems. Before its decline, the EOB’s budget had reached nearly $60 million, larger than some local government agencies, including the valley’s three housing authorities.

That experience — unchecked growth, mismanagement and poor board oversight — is seen by many in the local social services world as a cautionary tale.

“Something was learned from EOB,” Liveratti said. “We’re trying to make sure that the conclusions of reports are understood, and that they take action when needed.”

In fact, during the past year or so, even as the local Urban League has been ramping up, several local governments have pointed to problems, either pulling funding or putting funding in check until the problems are addressed. North Las Vegas, for example, took back $57,000 in June. The city had given the federal money to the Urban League to repair the homes of senior citizens.

Still, even as the problems mounted, attendance at many of the Urban League’s board meetings has barely been above half the membership, now at 15. And when board members have attended meetings, they’ve not always been up to snuff. A state representative went to a recent meeting to review a list of concerns, but the board members said they had not received the official’s materials in time to review them, so the presentation was postponed.

Liveratti said she would be working with the board to prevent such missteps. She added that it was unclear whether the board would seek new members other than Rose. It was also unclear whether the board is in compliance with federal rules attached to the $2.6 million requiring it to have members who are “from the low-income community,” government and businesses.

In any case, the challenge facing the Urban League, as with many nonprofit organization boards, is that too many people join with good intentions but without the expertise, time or willpower to truly provide effective oversight, those who work with such boards say.

At least as far as the Urban League’s $2.6 million in federal Health and Human Services funding goes, federal law tied to that money requires that the board maintain oversight of programs and finances, including familiarity with federal, state and local statutes and regulations.

Urban League President Ray Clarke’s explanation for the resignations from the board is that “these economic times are affecting everyone in our community, and some of our board members have had to readjust their community involvement.”

State officials are making this much clear: In difficult times, it is even more critical for the Urban League’s board members to invest the necessary time and effort, for the good of the organization and the valley.