In an emergency meeting Thursday night, the board of directors of New Haven’s scandal-ridden Community Action Agency decided not to renew the contract of the state-appointed interim director hired last year to steer the anti-poverty agency away from a history of bureaucratic unaccountability, corruption and political game-playing. “We’re in the middle of a transitional period and in that transition we’re looking to hire a permanent CEO in the next couple weeks,” said Darrell Brooks, president of the board (pictured, right), after the meeting.
Six months after John E. Richardson, Jr. was appointed director, board members said they still don’t have a clue about the agency’s daily finances and whether services are reaching those in need. In a heated discussion behind closed doors, they agreed to let Richardson go, leaving the agency with no one at the helm.
The CAA is the biggest social services agency in town. It hands out home heating oil to the poor, runs meals on wheels, and helps poor people winterize their homes. But over the years, embezzlement and bureaucratic ineptitude have stood in the way of these services. In July, the state director of social services stepped in to straighten things out. She appointed Richardson as Interim CEO, as well as an interim director of finance.
According to board member Matthew Nemerson, the agency is still a financial mess. He said the CAA has never recovered from a history of shoddy bookkeeping.
“The main issue has been horrendous accounting,” he said. “For years, we were simply misled.” Funds were embezzled. Money flowed without proper record, often into the pockets of friends. “This is a service delivery agency and it’s been run as a political machine.”
Now, financial officials have to go back to every check, every entry, and recalculate the agency’s fund balances, Nemerson said. “We don’t know what’s in any of our accounts.”
He said board members also don’t have data on how efficient their services are —‚Äù whether the elderly are getting their meals each day, or how long people have to wait to access home heating oil —‚Äù something the CAA had trouble with in December. The data just isn’t there. With a new arrival from Venezuela of gallons of discounted heating oil due to be distributed by the agency, this kind of information matters.
Board members Thursday complained Richardson didn’t help the lack of transparency. The board raised eyebrows at Richardson’s choice of spending —‚Äù no, not on lingerie, like a predecessor —‚Äù but on consultants, apparently without first figuring out where the money would come from. During Richardson’s six-month tenure, the CAA spent $5,000 on a Christmas party, $9,500 on human resources consultants, and another $30,000 on other consultants, much of which was spent on technology, according to a budget statement.
The amounts are miniscule compared to the agency’s roughly $12 million budget. But the expenditures, and a perceived lack of communication, prompted Edith Karsky, who directs the state umbrella organization of community action agencies, to tell the board in February she felt that “Mr. Richardson doesn’t understand how non-profits work,” according to that month’s meeting minutes.
At that meeting, the question of firing Richardson arose, but Karsky, Richardson’s boss, rejected the idea for fear of bad publicity. Board member Patricia Kaplan “asked if Karsky wouldn’t terminate Richardson. Ms. Karsky responded that she was fearful of the PR repercussions. That the public would view a move like that as yet another person who couldn’t handle the agency,” the minutes read.
“Firing Mr. Richardson would leave the Agency in a mess,” said Brooks, the board’s president, as quoted in the minutes.
So the CAA board didn’t fire him. It simply declined now to renew his contract, which expired on Monday. It also reviewed six resumes of potential CEOs.
Richardson did not attend the meeting and could not be reached for comment.
As for the board members, questions still linger over how long they’ll be around. Asked if he foresaw any changes in the makeup of the board of directors, Brooks responded: “Come back to me in three or four weeks and I’ll comment on that.”
Meanwhile, the CAA is still struggling with a plan to move the agency from its site on Whalley Avenue. According to board members, the CAA set up a deal with a landlord to foot $20,000 of the architects’ cost if the move goes through, but the plan to move to that building is apparently flailing. A budget report predicted the agency would end up paying that cost instead.