15821: (Hermantin) Palm Beach Post- Editorial-Keep services to Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Keep services to Haitians


Palm Beach Post Editorial
Friday, June 6, 2003



Community activists who may be outstanding advocates all too often turn out
to be poor managers or worse. As a result, too often the communities that
most need the advocacy are hurt the most. To keep the Haitian American
Community Council from becoming the latest example, supporters must rally to
keep programs going and ensure that services are not cut.

The Palm Beach County Department of Community Services is looking into
allegations that the not-for-profit immigration program that receives tax
money routinely charged clients for services that should be free. Those
clients, who are among the 31,000 Haitian residents the 2000 Census showed
in Palm Beach County and 3,700 in the Treasure Coast, have sought assistance
on immigration issues such as completing and translating forms or retrieving
documentation from Haiti. According to police records and interviews, they
were charged fees ranging from $60 to more than $600 in one case.

In addition, the center reportedly has been having personnel problems, and
the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County -- which gave the
Haitian center a $145,705 grant this budget year -- is trying to find out
whether the recent firings of the deputy director, a caseworker and a
program director have affected a council-financed family service program.
There also are such questions as whether the center's executive director,
Daniella Henry, and former program director, Gethro Louis-Jean, violated
nepotism rules.

The Haitian center, however, has replaced two of the three fired workers,
and the council is helping the center bring its program up to standard.
Overall, the inquiries should answer the questions regarding the management
of the program, and whether passing along the administrative costs charged
by other agencies violates the center's contract. Ms. Henry said the center
did not keep any of the money charged, for example, to immigrants who were
assisted with document retrieval from the National Archives in Haiti.

That can be documented by comparing what came in from clients and went out
to Haiti. Even if the investigations conclude that center officials pocketed
money from what should have been free services, the objective should be to
fix the problem and, if necessary, punish the culprits while not hurting
those who need its services.

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