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FacebookELECTION 2008:
Court: Candidate owes agency
Woman who allegedly mishandled money is seeking state board post
Tue, Sep 23, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Tiffany Brown
Investigators questioned more than $1 million in expenses of a program Willia Chaney ran to provide meals for poor students. She has been ordered to repay over $500,000.
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Beyond the Sun
A candidate for the State Board of Education owes the Nevada Education Department more than $500,000, according to a court’s finding involving a program she ran to provide aid to needy students.
The Nevada Education Department sued Willia Chaney’s company seeking repayment.
In August, a District Court judge ruled for the department and ordered Chaney to pay back the money.
From 1993 to 1999 Chaney operated a federally funded program to provide meals to poor children during summer vacations and other school breaks. The state shut down the Smart Start Summer Food Service Program in 1999 after the inspector general identified $1.01 million in questionable expenses.
“We believe the pattern of fund misuse existed over a number of years,” investigators said of the program, funded by the U.S. Agriculture Department and administered by the Nevada Education Department.
In an interview Monday, Chaney said she disagrees with the audit’s findings and plans to appeal.
“We feel like we need to clear our name,” she said.
Chaney is running for the District 3 seat on the State Board of Education, which sets policy for the Nevada Education Department and the state’s school districts.
The legal dispute should have no bearing on her candidacy, Chaney said, because if elected she would abstain from any action related to the lawsuit. Having worked with young children at a day-care center and high school dropouts at a beauty school, Chaney said she understands the challenges facing public schools.
“My goal is to go up there and work with the others” on the board, said Chaney, a 48-year resident of Clark County. “It’s not about going up to settle a score.”
But Keith Rheault, Nevada’s superintendent of public instruction, said he’s concerned about the possible conflict of interest if Chaney is elected. “It could become a serious distraction,” he said.
Doris Wallace Fletcher, who is also seeking the District 3 seat, said Chaney’s legal woes should be a red flag to voters. When asked why she was more qualified for the post than Chaney, Fletcher, who served four years on a school board in California, said: “She owes the state money. I don’t.”
Chaney has argued that the state shut down Smart Start without giving her an opportunity to respond to the audit or make corrections. She filed a lawsuit in 2000 against the U.S. Agriculture Department and the Nevada Education Department. The lawsuit was dismissed.
Investigators determined Smart Start was serving fewer children than it claimed in requests for reimbursement. The breakfasts and lunches were to be delivered to 13 apartment buildings in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.
Investigators said James Chaney told them “the inflated meal counts were due to errors on the part of the site employees.”
Also among the audit’s findings:
• More than $250,000 was paid in salaries to 15 Smart Start employees, “even though they apparently did little or no work” and no time cards were maintained. Chaney’s husband, James, served as the program’s director and her son and daughter were on the payroll.
• Federal money was used to purchase five vehicles. The titles were in the Chaneys’ names rather than in the name of the Smart Start program.
• The program’s costs included $2,000 a month paid to Chaney’s day-care center, Smart Start Daycare, for use of its kitchen and parking spaces. Investigators determined the food program’s facility had ample parking, and the child-care center was paying $1 a year to lease its entire location.
Chaney continues to run Smart Start Daycare and the Expertise Cosmetology Institute, which serves mostly young women who dropped out of high school.
Discussion: 9 comments so far…
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All the more reason to give her the job. Her philosophy is a simple one: WHERE'S MINE?
Where is the indictment? This thug, her husband and children belong in prison and pay the money back. I guess the district attorney was afraid the fat slob Sharpton would stage a protest saying Chaney was the victim.
Clearly, the reporter who wrote this story doesn't have all the information. The State of Nevada isn't the most credible of agencies when it comes to "program administration". This is a prime example of mismangement on the part of the State and an attempt to scapegoat an agency providing service. NBS (Nevada Business Services) is another such example. Initially, the State alleged that,there were millions in questionable expenditures and, it was not until they destroyed the agency and disenfranchised 1500 youths from obtaining summer employment did they then say that, there was no money misappropriated, only poor accounting practices. The State is in danger of losing their designation from the Department of Education if they didn't go after the Smart Start Summer Food Service Program, so they did.
Dear ADS: If you have proof of what you say, please contact me at www.elizabethcrum.com -- because I blogged about Chaney's misdeeds (which don't seem to be in question now that the court date has passed?) but want to have my facts straight.
How is it that this toad is running for anything and not on her way to jail? Yet another black opportunist who sleazed her way into a position of trust on the premise that she's in tune with the street level issues and then she steals the money intended to make a difference in peoples lives. Put this pig in jail!
Not to defend or condemn Chaney because there hasn't been a trial but interesting that Gertz immediately wants to throw out the race card. Funny all the wall street criminals aren't identified as WHITE opportunists who sleazed their way into business based on their network with other white opportunists.
What a lowlife Toad. Sure does look like Lynette Bogg (must be related both have that stupid, arrogant and greedy look about them. Lock em up!) She wants to appeal now? Ha, These issues are from 1993-1999. The state has been trying to collect from this deadbeat for almost a decade. If she had ever even attempted to clean up this mess (i.e. pay back the funds she received under false pretences)the case would have already been resolved. ADS,if you know anything about these funds, you know the state accepts in good faith the reports she and her staff submitted. In her case, fraudulent meal counts, reports that were inflated not once, twice but "over a period of years".She defrauded the state on a massive scale, as did her husband and kids (accepting state funds for work not performed) The agency you speak of was also incompetent on a massive scale,and in the most important area, accounting. does no one take responsibility for their actions anymore?.NBS is closed not because of the state, but because they were idiots that could not run a business. (which I will add they all got paid well to do!) Sadly the children always seem to lose out. This woman should be prohibited from running for anything. She had a chance to do work for the state and look what she did. I think she would be a first, the first elected official that stole a million before being elected. ha ha, only in Vegas!. Where is "most Rev" Al Sharp-ton anyway? must not be any money in it for him. I think a call to the Nevada Department of Investigation is in order to find out exactly why this is still unresolved.
I am going to seek out the opponent Ms. Fletcher and give her a donation and a vote, I suggest you do too.
OK Gertz, why does this have to be racial? I agree that this is messy and prosecutable. However, I don't know why people like you have to always go racial. Nation: We have a problem!
okay first off she doesnt owe money to anyone.
She's had that daycare open for probably more than 10 years and has been helping out the community. She a very kind lady for those who are just writting things and dont even know who she really is.
My opinion i think that alot of people are scared to have her in charge of things because she gets things done. and its still unresolved because there is no case. she is a hard working lady and she's african american people don't want too see her succeed in life well she already has so just let it be. Making comments about people family talking about they should be thrown in jail is not apprioprate.
Plus if there was a case and it was serious it would have already been taking care of so. juss drop it and dont be a hater
And this election she will win...