Housing group made deals with insiders, relatives

Housing group made deals with insiders, relatives

BY ROBERT ANGLEN and MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A West End development group has used a taxpayer-funded program to write checks to its board members, hire family members and repair relatives' homes.

General ledgers obtained by The Cincinnati Enquirer show Genesis Redevelopment Inc., wrote these checks in 1998 to board members, their relatives and the executive director totaling about $12,000.

Genesis has refused to release any financial records and its members have refused to respond to repeated interview requests.

The nonprofit Genesis Redevelopment Inc. has been given two homes by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop ment that were sold to the son of a board member and the ex-wife of another.

WOO HOO!

"Although the city has given more than $800,000 in federal grants to Genesis since 1991, officials said they were unaware of the insider payments until contacted by the Enquirer and have no way to track who received money and other benefits out of Genesis accounts."

No way to track the money? I am sure that won't happen again!

"Despite Genesis' history of financial problems and a spotty development record — remodeling its own offices, making minor repairs to 11 homes and building only one home while promising 130 units of new housing — the city does not require Genesis to submit copies of checks or lists of project employees."

The promised 130 homes and built one for a friend. Nothing like that could happen today.

Sure.

"While the grant money comes from HUD, officials there say it is up to the city's department of neighborhood services to distrib ute it and make sure it is not misspent."

Much like the money that is currently flowing to the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation. The last HUD audit found the City of Cincinnati had not conducted proper oversight of the program. Hope that doens't happen with the new Council.

"The former and current executive directors of Genesis confirmed that board members and their families received checks and other benefits, but say they had no control over it.

“Certain things (board members) wanted me to do were kind of shady,” said former Executive Director Ty Gilbert-Shabazz, adding he was told to ignore bid processes and look the other way when it came to hiring relatives."

Hey, at least the Beatty's got paid.

“I have heard rumors, seen reports and I have seen copies of the checks,” said Dale Mallory, who was hired as executive director in December.

Dale Mallory was executive director of Genesis Redevelopment. He did a bang up job, and is still doing it today.

“We don't give property away,” she said. “It just might seem like it.”

She also said that the property comes “with no strings attached,” so Genesis could do anything it wanted with the property — including selling it to board relatives.

They don't give property away until they have the title "no strings attached". Then, they don't like to comment on how they gave the property away.

What board members can't do is hire relatives without going out for a public bid, said Ms. Vacha.

Again, that is in theory and not practice when it comes to Club Genesis or the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation.

What was more likely to happen at Genesis, Mr. Shabazz said, is that board members would hire family and friends without ever seeking a bid.

"You see the same names come up over and over again. ... Those are the ones who would be preferred contractors,” Mr. Shabazz said. He also said board members made decisions to hire relatives instead of seeking bids from professional contractors.

“So what?” Jackie Shropshire said when asked about checks he received before becoming a board member. “What about it?” "

The same names come up over and over again. So what?

Although Ms. Hemmingway agreed to be interviewed, she said other board members, including board president Mr. Beatty and board member Mr. Kirkland, instructed her not to talk.

Mr. Beatty has also refused to respond to requests from the Enquirer for copies of Genesis financial records.

Don't talk, nobody will know, everything will be fine. These people take money from the public dole, and then they simply can't account for it. It is not like the FBI found Genesis innocent, they simply could not prove a crime. The simple fact remains until this day, nobody knows where the money went.

As a nonprofit agency supported by public funds, Genesis is required by law to make its records open to the public.

Mr. Mallory said Genesis records are a "mess” and only board Treasurer Sidney Cooper has access to all of the accounts and checkbooks.

Then as today, it is nearly impossible to get the crooks to cooperate with an investigation.

"In 1995, an auditor hired by Genesis to review accounts for 1993 and 1994 said “missing receipt and disbursement documents, unauthorized signatures on checks and disbursements made without written documentation of the board” left her unable to certify the audit as complete. "

I am aghast!

“An auditor is not going to find everything,” he said. “The things we looked at would not have detected performance issues.”

"Performance issues" is how well the money is spent and on what projects it is spent. They didn't even have to look at that critically to find problems with Genesis. Imagine what a full audit would do.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Drop Inn Center To Move

I was checking out Nick Spencer's blog and I read an excerpt from a Cincinnati Post article.

"Council members said they were concerned that 15 percent of all arrests were related to residents from the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter at 12th and Elm streets.

Vice mayor James Tarbell said this proves the center is "not in harmony" with the neighborhood and needs to be moved.

Council member Leslie Ghiz echoed that sentiment, and said Council within a few weeks would take action affecting the nearly two-decade old social service agency."

It appears that this city is about to have a serious discussion about concentrating social service agencies in any one neighborhood. The chronic homeless are the big problem. Some of these are people that would have been in a state mental institution prior to deinstitutionalization. Others are chronic homeless because of addiction. A good deal of them have both.

If they move the Drop In Center out of OTR they won't be able to put it in a neighborhood setting. Any community would go ballistic. It is a tough sell to get people excited about batshit crazy mofos wacked out on drugs, and convicts fresh out of jail. What a boon to development.

3CDC and the Drop Inn Center were never going to peacefully coexist. This has been in the cards for quite some time, and it shouldn't surprise anyone.

The question is where do you move the Drop Inn Center?

I think the State should start reopening psychiatric institutions so that sick people don't have to live on the streets. I would rather send people to get the care they need then send them to jail. That isn’t about to happen now however.

As for the location on the new Drop Inn, I am thinking that Queensgate is going to get a pretty good look. You can naturally barricade in the crazies on three sides with the Expressway (US 50), the Ohio River, and the beautiful Mill Creek. You get excellent containment with Queensgate, and nobody lives there.

Another location I have heard before is some of the older industrial sections of Spring Grove. The advantage of this over Queensgate is that land and development potential in Queensgate is higher than Spring Grove in my opinion. Spring Grove also has some nice barriers where it is nestled right in between I-75 and the train yard. Khans just closed the pig plant. You could make the meat house into the nut house.

Something big is in the air. Over the Rhine has been destroyed with decades of human dumping. We can’t use the OTR template to destroy another neighborhood, because simply moving and copying what has already failed will only result in more failure. This city has a chance to change direction with this situation. What happens here and now is going to echo back for a generation. Please choose wisely.

Update: Controversy Brews Over Plans To Move OTR Halfway House

This item isn't about the Drop Inn Center, it is about the Pogue rehabilitation center which is run by the Volunteers of America. They are looking hard at Queensgate.

"Cincinnati city council member Chris Monzel says he wonders if it's a move to bring in more sex offenders as clients.

The Pogue Center handles ex-offenders who are homeless and have multiple disabilities.

That includes 61 sex offenders who are being treated there right now.

Half have been sent to Cincinnati from other parts of the state by the Ohio adult parole authority.

That's why the city council member is raising a red flag."

Lets give a round of applause to Monzel for raising the question. What the hell are we doing importing sex offenders into our urban core. Stop the madness.

"President Chris Lohrman, of Volunteers of America, says a Queensgate site between downtown and the Mill Creek would provide enough land for a new social service community."

Notice the words Mr. Lohrman choose. He isn't talking about moving to a new building, he is talking about an entire social service community.

It sounds like something big is in the works.

CITY TO AUDIT CONTRACTOR

CITY TO AUDIT CONTRACTOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Saturday, May 20, 2006

"The city will launch two audits of Invest in Neighborhoods Inc., the non-profit contractor that administers $815,750 in city grants to neighborhoods, after its executive director was charged with embezzlement from an unrelated organization. Police say Gerald J. Tenbosch took $16,500 from the Finneytown Athletic Association, where he served as treasurer. He has not entered a plea, but told The Enquirer that he has medical problems and can't remember what happened. City Manager David Rager told City Council that the Department of Community Development and Planning will begin its annual audit of Invest in Neighborhoods next week. He said the city will also call in an outside auditor to make sure no taxpayer money is missing."

Two audits put some pressure on the auditors. You don't want the other audit team to find out what you didn't, because you would look bad professionally. Competition like this should make both sides work hard.

I am interested to know who the outside auditor will be. I would encourage both audits to look at funds from Invest in Neighborhoods that were channeled into the West End Community Council. I am not very knowledgeable about the Invest in Neighborhoods funding process.

They should look for the disbursements to the WECC. Did those disbursements from Invest in Neighborhoods make it into the WECC bank account? If so, was the money spent in an appropriate manner? Was backup for expenditures by the WECC submitted to Invest In Neighborhoods? Is the audit trail complete and substantiated in all respects?

Anyone with more insight into how the Invest in Neighborhoods funding systems works please chime in.

Where are the Dale’s records?

Dale Mallory was President of the West End Community Council for five years. In February of this year, Dale Mallory was impeached and removed from his position of President by over 76% of the vote.

In March of this year, the West End Community Council undertook the process of rebuilding the Council from Dale’s shattered remains. Dale responded with lawsuits, suing over two dozen people in the process. The outcome of those lawsuits is no longer in question. One was withdrawn out of embarrassment. Dale Mallory faced a deposition where he had to go on record, and he withdrew his frivolous lawsuit. The other lawsuit was thrown out of court because it had no merit.

Dale Mallory has long claimed that he is still President of the West End Community Council, and that the court findings would bear that out. Dale Mallory has had his day in court, and his case got thrown out on its ass.

This leaves us with the simple fact that Dale Mallory has been legally removed from the West End Community Council. He tried to adjudicate his argument in our justice system, and that is his legal right as an American. When problems and conflict happen within our system we look to the courts to sort things out and make it right. Dale did that and lost because his case had no merit. That goose has been cooked.

Why am I restating this?

After the February meeting where Dale was impeached, he had decided to hold his own “Real” West End Community Council Meetings. The first one in March he cancelled either “due to the weather” or due to the fact that he lacks either legitimacy or credibility.

The second meeting in April was held at the West End YMCA, with a couple of his friends. He gives no public announcements to theses meetings, and they aren’t well attended. He sent Nate Livingston out with a bullhorn in April to try to drum up support, and they still had less than 10 people, and two of those were there just to keep a tab on what Dale was doing.

So here we are today in May. Dale’s lawsuits have either been abandoned or thrown out of court. No sane person still believes that he is still West End Community Council President. Does Dale Mallory still hold covert meetings? Nobody knows, because he doesn’t announce them. Does Dale still claim to be President? Who knows the color of the sky in Dale’s world?

What we do know is that Dale Mallory has failed to transfer any of the records of the West End Community Council to the new administration. All historical records are now and have always been the property of the West End Community Council. Dale Mallory is no longer a part of that, and they are not his property.

Some of the important records, like bank accounts, historical memberships lists, and so on are relevant and crucial to the proper functioning of the council. We don’t have them.

Someone needs to ask Dale:

Do you think you are still President of the West End Community Council?

If so, why?

If not, where are the records?

Dale Mallory was on the Board at Invest In Neighborhoods. He is a longtime friend of Gerald Tenbosch, who was Executive Director. Tenbosch managed the flow of funds from the City to the Community Councils, and he cut off West End funds before his recent resignation amid allegations of fraud and corruption, including his own indictment on felony charges.

The City administration is currently auditing Invest In Neighborhoods. To audit funds that are disbursed from INN you also have to check the community councils that receive the disbursements. No way around that. If they choose to audit funds from the West End Community Council, the West End Community Council will have to inform them the plain and simple truth: we have no access to any financial records. No bank accounts, no statements, no transactions, no anything for the last five years or more. How can you perform an audit? The people of this community are interested in what has happened to the funds and the membership dues, as well as any disbursements from Invest in Neighborhoods and the Empowerment Zone. We have no answers.

It is time for the City Administration to take a stand and demand the records that our own community council cannot commandeer.

Is the Dam about to break?

Council members call for audit of nonprofit group

"An embezzlement charge against the former director of Invest in Neighborhoods has prompted two Cincinnati City Council members to call for an audit of the group.

Laketa Cole and Chris Bortz said they want to ascertain whether any financial irregularities occurred during the tenure of Gerald Tenbosch, who was arrested May 9 on a felony theft charge. Tenbosch is accused of embezzling more than $16,000 from the Finneytown Athletic Association, of which he was treasurer. Cole and Bortz asked for the audit Wednesday in a letter to City Manager David Rager.

Hats off to Laketa Cole and Chris Bortz. The first place they should look in my opinion is disbursements to the West End Community Council. Dale Mallory still hasn't turned over any of the records since his impeachment in February. Someone from City Hall is going to have to ask for those documents, they belong to the West End Community Council.

Dominos start to fall: Dale's buddy Gerald Tenbosch is going to jail!

Channel 12 Video

"A former treasurer for a local athletic association is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the organization. 55 year-old Gerold Tenbosch faces one count of felony theft. Springfield Township Police say he embezzled $16,500 from the Finneytown Athletic Association. A member of the association says she noticed the money was missing while conducting an audit of the account. She told police she confronted Tenbosch about the missing money last month. He resigned from his position. Tenbosch is scheduled to face a judge Friday morning."

Who is Gerald J. Tenbosch?

Gerald J. Tenbosch is the Executive Director of Invest In Neighborhoods, Inc. Dale Mallory sits on the Board of Trustees of Invest In Neighborhoods.

What is Invest in Neighborhoods?

In 1978 a private foundation awarded the City of Cincinnati a five year grant, putting money into a "Neighborhood Fund". The purpose of that fund was "to support planning and related activities that would strengthen community-based leadership and encourage the organization of active neighborhood councils." It is of this initiative that Invest in Neighborhoods (INN) was formed.
INN is an incorporated non-profit, a tax-exempt organization that allocates and distributes the income generated by the Neighborhood Fund. Many corporate sponsers give grants through INN, including the biggest names in this town. And to cap it off, the City of Cincinnati opened up the public spigot of taxpayer funds in 1990, when the City entered into a contract with INN to distribute funds for the Neighborhood Support Program (NSP Funds) and the Neighborhood Business District Support Program (NBDSF Funds).

If you check out their Federal filings you will find that over the past 5 year reporting period they have received well over two million dollars in public support (read= taxpayer dollars).

Think about this. Gerald Tenbosch just stole 16 grand from some little league teams, what the hell do you think he was doing to the City of Cincinnati? I will tell you, he was raping the taxpayer.

What does this have to do with Dale Mallory?

As already stated, Dale Mallory is a personal friend of Gerald Tenbosch. It doesn't end there. Dale also serves on the board of trustees of Invest in Neighborhoods, which gives money to communtiy councils (of which Dale was a president). [self dealing]

Some West End residents went through a long and protracted battle with Invest in Neighborhoods a few years back concerning Dale Mallory. It was cut short due to mounting legal costs.

Invest in Neighborhoods acts as an offical record keeper of Community Councils. Only officially recognized councils can get funding, and all councils keep their Constitution and ByLaws on file. Last year, Dale Mallory changed the bylaws of the WECC unilaterally and decided that term limits need not apply to him as he sought a third term as WECC President. People were furious, but when they went to Gerald J. Tenbosch he had Dale's back. I will post more on this later now that it has become topical.

After Dale got impeached, Tenbosch sent this letter to Shirley Colbert:




Tenbosch suspended all of our funding, "as a result of some officers trying to remove others from their positions", and he demanded a written report. He later commented that a CityLink laywer told him that the impeachment was illegal. The only known lawyer for CityLink is Tim Burke, Chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.

If Greald J. Tenbosch was willing to steal 16 grand from little league teams, imagine what he was doing with the millions of public funds at his disposal. Imagine what he would do when teamed up with a willing and able fellow compatriot like Dale Mallory, who was Executive Director of Genesis Redevelopment and who appointed his own cronies to the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation.

Tenbosch needs to be investigated. The first logical place that I would start would be to audit any disbursement from INN to the West End Community Council.

In ordinary times, the President of the West End Community Council could call for an audit or even perform one himself. But we live in special times. Even though Dale Mallory was impeached months ago, our President still has no access to the records of the organization. And as the letter from Tenbosch above states, we have been effectively cut off from all INN funding as well.

Things are about to change in the West End, whether the corrupt status quo likes it or not. And when the truth comes out it will be laid bare for all to see.

Media Roundup

Dale's response to the Empowerment Zone: here:

MISSION: LIAISON

Dale Mallory is more than happy to tell his Democratic primary opponent, Eve Bolton, what he does for a living, but he won't tell
anyone how much money he makes doing it.

Bolton, who is running against Mallory for the 32nd Ohio House District seat, tried to obtain the recent budgets of the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation, a nonprofit agency set up eight years ago to manage federal Empowerment Zone dollars for nine low-income Cincinnati neighborhoods, including seven in the 32nd District.
Mallory, brother of Mayor Mark Mallory and impeached president of the West End Community Council, is on the corporation's payroll as a consultant.

But a lawyer for the corporation wrote Bolton refusing her request, saying CEC is not a federal agency and not required to turn over financial documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Mallory told The Enquirer on Friday that his job involves acting as a liaison between the CEC and community councils in Empowerment Zone
neighborhoods. He also said he is working on six active Empowerment Zone projects. But he would not say how much he makes.

"I'm not going to discuss that," Mallory said. "

Dale Mallory's impeachment didn't escape the Ohio Chamber of Commerce as well: link

House District 32 (Democrats) ­ Eve Bolton (D-Cincinnati) , a teacher and former Hamilton County Recorder, is looking to score an upset of frontrunner Dale Mallory (D-Cincinnati). Mallory is the brother of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and a retired GE employee. He has been plagued by fallout from a local controversy that resulted in his being impeached as president of the West End Community Council. Also in the race are Yvette Barbara Baldwin (D-Cincinnati) and Eric Wilson (D-Cincinnati) .

The Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation Responds

The Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation's response
to public requests for information was to have all relevant officials take immediate vacation while their lawyers sent out a letter:

"As you may be aware, CEC is not subject to FOIA [Freedom of Information Act]. Pursuant to 5 USC 552, only an "agency" is subject to FOIA. "Agency" is defined in the statute as an "executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President_, or any independent regulatory agency". CEC is a tax exempt, non-profit corporation, but not a Government corporation nor a Government-controlled corporation, and thus does not meet that definition."

If the empowerment zone gets public money, don't we have a right to examine the things connected with that public money – where it came from, how much it is and how it is spent? What are the laws on this?

Isn't the City of Cincinnati charged with oversight of the Cincinnati Empowerment Corporation? I think so. In the last HUD audit they found that the City wasn't providing proper oversight, which was my first clue. Does that oversight constitute "Government control", which is a guideline for FOIA requests? If they can't control it, they probably can't provide much oversight.

What about the mission of the empowerment zone?

Governance

"This program is innovative because of its required component of broad community participation and resource allocation based on a comprehensive community vision for neighborhood revitalization. By requiring community participation in the EZ/EC application process, HUD has tried to ensure that zone residents will play an active role in deciding what happens in their neighborhoods. Each EZ/EC community has written "benchmarks" or quantifiable goals that determine how the money will be spent and what the results of the activity will be."

Where is the community participation when the community tries to find out what the heck is going on and they get a letter from a law firm?

To date the CEC hasn't even confirmed that Dale Mallory even works there, nor have they provided the proof of his Form 1099 that would have been a required filing to the Internal Revenue Service. Dale is running for public office and he listed the CEC on his ethical filing. This isn't out of the ordinary in terms of requests for verification of public information. Prove that he works there. Prove that you paid him money. It is simple and obvious.

They haven't answered any questions about the role of the functional illiterate, part time dishwasher / part time killer Howard Beatty, who sat on their Board of Directors. The only response they had on that was to take down their website for a time and excise his name from the ranks. I guess he didn't have to miss the required three meetings to lose that job once the spotlight was on them.

In reality Howard Beatty technically is still on the CEC Board of Directors. He missed his first meeting on Wednesday. He will have to miss two more meetings before they can take disciplinary action. Who knows, maybe he voted by proxy from Cell block Six. You bet your ass the CEC won't tell you.

If any legal eagles would like to chime in, please direct the focus of my energy. I have to believe we can find a way to get some answers. A reminder, some of the people involved were the exact same names and faces of the Genesis Redevelopment Scandal a few years back. Genesis promised 130 units of housing, and ending up building one house for $850,000. At the time the median price for housing in the West End was probably around $50,000. Hell, it probably still is. They hired and paid money to friends and relatives at Genesis, and they are doing the same thing at the Empowerment Zone. They are taking your tax dollars to do it.

I think Genesis was just a primer, just a training session for things to come. These people have learned from experience and gone big time. The CEC budget dwarfs anything they could have hoped for with Genesis.

We have to find ways to get answers, and I am open to suggestions. These people have no comment. They go on vacation, they lawyer up, and all this at the first instance of public questions. I would suspect this thing runs deeper than even I imagine with that response. We need to shine a light on what is happening with our tax dollars.