by Frank James
ACORN haters, including the John McCain's presidential campaign and Republicans across the nation, have more ammunition today to fire at their version of Moby Dick, New York Times report on an internal probe by a lawyer working for the community organizing group.
The investigation found that ACORN has many governance problems, perhaps not surprising in a group comprised not by Harvard MBAs but low-income community activists. Indeed, we now know even Harvard MBAs can have a tough time managing: case in point, the financial-markets meltdown.
I'm not defending ACORN, just trying to maintain some perspective.
As the NYT reports:
The June 18 report, written by Elizabeth Kingsley, a Washington lawyer, spells out her concerns about potentially improper use of charitable dollars for political purposes; money transfers among the affiliates; and potential conflicts created by employees working for multiple affiliates, among other things.
It also offers a different account of the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of Acorn's founder, Wade Rathke, than the one the organization gave in July, when word of the theft became public.
"A full analysis of potential liability will require consultation with a knowledgeable white-collar criminal attorney," Ms. Kingsley wrote of the embezzlement, which occurred in 2000 but was not disclosed until this summer.
In a telephone interview on Monday, Ms. Kingsley and Bertha Lewis, Acorn's top executive, said the group had begun addressing the concerns raised in the report.
"Has everything been done yet? No," Ms. Lewis said. "We've been at this for three months, and we have taken everything she said in the report very seriously. It's a huge undertaking."
Over the weekend, Ms. Kingsley said, the national board adopted several good-governance policies, like appointing an audit committee for the first time.
Disclosure of her report, which was distributed to Acorn and 10 affiliates, increases pressure on the organization at a particularly troublesome time. Besides the inquiries into its voter registration efforts, Acorn faces demands for back taxes by the Internal Revenue Service and various state tax authorities. At the same time, foundations that have backed Acorn are withholding support.
Ms. Kingsley's concerns about the way Acorn affiliates work together could fuel the controversy over Acorn's voter registration efforts, which are largely underwritten by an affiliated charity, Project Vote. Project Vote hires Acorn to do voter registration work on its behalf, and the two groups say they have registered 1.3 million voters this year.
To an extent, ACORN clearly was it's own worst enemy, even before the McCain-Palin campaign and Republican operatives placed it in their cross-hairs.
One of the most seld-destructive things any organization that relies on donations can do is hide an embezzlement as ACORN did. That's the kind of action that causes the lifeblood of such a group, donations, to dry up.
The lawyer's report paints a picture of something approaching chaos in the way the organization managed itself. Here's another excerpt:
As a federally tax-exempt charity, Project Vote is subject to prohibitions on partisan political activity. But Acorn, which is a nonprofit membership corporation under Louisiana law, though subject to federal taxation, is not bound by the same restrictions.
"Project Vote and Acorn have a written agreement that specifies that all work is nonpartisan," Michael Slater, Project Vote's new executive director, wrote in answer to e-mailed questions about the relationship.
But Ms. Kingsley found that the tight relationship between Project Vote and Acorn made it impossible to document that Project Vote's money had been used in a strictly nonpartisan manner. Until the embezzlement scandal broke last summer, Project Vote's board was made up entirely of Acorn staff members and Acorn members.
Ms. Kingsley's report raised concerns not only about a lack of documentation to demonstrate that no charitable money was used for political activities but also about which organization controlled strategic decisions.
She wrote that the same people appeared to be deciding which regions to focus on for increased voter engagement for Acorn and Project Vote. Zach Pollett, for instance, was Project Vote's executive director and Acorn's political director, until July, when he relinquished the former title. Mr. Pollett continues to work as a consultant for Project Vote through another Acorn affiliate.
"As a result, we may not be able to prove that 501(c)3 resources are not being directed to specific regions based on impermissible partisan considerations," Ms. Kingsley said, referring to the section of the tax code concerning rules for charities.
She also found problems with governance of Acorn affiliates. "Board meetings are not held, or if they are, minutes are not kept, or if minutes are kept, they never make it into the files," she wrote.
As a do-good organization dealing with its own scandal and management problems, ACORN's name can be joined to those of far larger, better funded organizations, like the American Red Cross or United Way which have both had scandals that for a while overshadowed their essential good works.
But as ACORN officials are no doubt learning the hard way, just because you do good in the eyes of many--advocating on behalf of low-income people and giving them leadership roles--doesn't mean you don't have to cross your "T"s and dot your "I"s when it comes to management and governance issues. Because when groups don't, they often find themselves in the sort of trouble ACORN is in now.
Comments
Not to worry--ACORN will have a friend in the White House...unless that $800,000 gift prove legally troublesome.
Posted by: Menlo Bob | October 22, 2008 11:38 AM
"I'm not defending ACORN, just trying to maintain some perspective".
Me thinks Frank doth protest too much.
Posted by: Alex Garcia | October 22, 2008 11:45 AM
Wow! I bet Sarah Palin would have appreciated a softball headline like, "Report gives Palin haters more ammunition." It makes me wonder what "perspective" you and the Tribune are trying to maintain.
Posted by: Common Sense | October 22, 2008 11:58 AM
If Mr. James isn't trying to "defend" ACORN, then why does the first sentence of his article start out with "haters" being the 2nd word? Why? Because Mr. James is doing what most of the lefty media is doing, demonizing anyone that says anything that could possibly cast a shadow of doubt upon "St. Barry". Look at ALL the articles written on the campaign. It would seem that the Tribune in on the BO payroll.
Posted by: John | October 22, 2008 11:59 AM
Frank: What a thoroughly corrupt article. First, since when is honesty a “governance issue”
Second, why are you contrasting ACORN embezzlement to the Wall Street meltdown? When crimes are committed by corrupt businessmen they are charged and go to jail. Remember ENRON? The government should be opening a R.I.C.O. case against these guys but they won’t because the Democrats will block it. Lastly, since when does one describe an organized effort to hijack a national election through comprehensive vote fraud a “do-good organization?”
Posted by: mike c | October 22, 2008 12:04 PM
Once again, another cheap trick from the Republicans. They have nothing left in their rabbit hat so they like to go after voter registration and try to keep those people from voting. Acorn is not perfect but many systems aren't either. There are just too many variables.
It is given any normal process will have discrepency. Take a look at our census data in 2000? 10's of thousands were recounted because the same people live in many places, change name, gender, citizenship, marital status; even new birth or death.
If the Republicans were really serious about voter fraud, they would help ACORN find the discrepency. Instead, their goals are to reject as many new applicants as possible.
How is it ACORN's fault that people write wrong information on their application? All they do is register people, not tell what people to write on the application. They can write anything on the application.
In regards to verification, it is not an easy job because there are so many applicants. Some do not have driver's license. Some do not have a home. And some problems are just basic: can't spell!
Posted by: Lou | October 22, 2008 12:10 PM
demonizing anyone that says anything
Posted by: John | October 22, 2008 11:59 AM
Do you mean like calling someone unpatriotic or unamerican when they opposed the Iraq disaster?
Cry me a river!
Posted by: bill "Hussein" r. | October 22, 2008 12:15 PM
Anyone else notice that ACORN owes back taxes? I guess that means they must be immediately silenced, as they have lost all credibility to speak on all matters of government, right, Joe the Plumber Haters?
Posted by: JB | October 22, 2008 12:23 PM
Is this the same ACORN that John McCain was pallin' around with back in Feb. 2006? I heard that McCain launched his presidential bid right there in that conference room.
http://tucsonobserver.blogspot.com/2008/10/mccain-attended-acorn-rally.html
Posted by: Dan | October 22, 2008 12:35 PM
First of all, ACORN defintely has some problems. Yes, I agree that the people running these things sometimes really have good intentions, but they are in way over their head.
mike c | October 22, 2008 12:04 PM: The guys on wall street go to jail because someone has to sue them you moron! If ACORN's board chose not to press charges then no one goes to jail!
Posted by: John | October 22, 2008 11:59 AM : ACORN has tried to do something good by getting low income and minority voters registered, but they have a flawed model that pays workers per signature. That will always breed errors and fraudulent registrations. They need to have a good model to work off of, but even so each states registration laws are different that requires different paperwork such as submitting known false registrations. From reports I have read, some ACORN offices were aware of these and relayed that information to the responsible government offices to work with them.
Overall, ACORN has some major problems that it needs to fix and might not make it through this mess in tact.
Posted by: Todd M | October 22, 2008 12:40 PM
I'd guess that ACORN should be held accountable for what they have done and not what one speculates.
As should any fraud doer.
But got to get the doer, not the organization in toto; but in doing so, ACORN then must be shown to be accountable and not guilty of whatever.
That's the test.
All the rest is squirreled when we don't concentrate on what is really what.
Get to the matter of things but don't exploit things without facts.
And, no one hates ACORN; it's the fraud that one is addressing no matter what the name of the organization and making things right.
Posted by: Lulu Zoe West | October 22, 2008 12:49 PM
Why do I have to read overseas newspapers to learn that McCain's campaign has paid over $100,000 to Republican operatives committing blatant voter fraud?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4992730.ece
Posted by: Dave | October 22, 2008 1:03 PM
@ Todd; So Folks at ACORN embezzle taxpayer money and the ACORN board chose not to press charges so I guess it's a private matter Huh?.
I won't call you any names because that would put me down to you and the ACORN boards level :)
Posted by: mike c | October 22, 2008 1:24 PM
That does it....ACORN will not get my vote!
Posted by: bill "Hussein" r. | October 22, 2008 2:18 PM
Too bad most of the Aneberberg files petaining to Acorn,, Obama and Ayers are still locked up at the university with this important election coming up-
Posted by: LOAM | October 22, 2008 3:46 PM
LOAM,
Just like the UFO files. Who cares. . . .
Posted by: Lou | October 23, 2008 12:35 AM