16708: (Hermantin) SunSentinel-West Palm officials let Haitian agency continue to collect funds (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

West Palm officials let Haitian agency continue to collect funds



By Leon Fooksman
Staff Writer

September 10, 2003

The Haitian American Community Council's director violated
conflict-of-interest rules by steering AIDS clients into relatives' rental
homes, but West Palm Beach officials say the agency should continue getting
public money to provide housing assistance.

In an Aug. 26 warning to the Delray Beach-based social services agency, City
Administrator Ed Mitchell said any more reports of conflicts of interests
could lead to the contract being terminated.

The city, which oversees $228,000 a year in federal money given to the
Haitian council to provide housing for AIDS clients, plans to turn over all
of its findings to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The
federal agency will be asked about sanctions against the Haitian council,
which has been under scrutiny this summer by several funding agencies for
alleged nepotism, poor management and limited oversight by its board of
directors.

Haitian council Director Daniella Henry said she put clients into her
relatives' homes because they had nowhere else to go.

"I have felt relief all along. It wasn't done out of financial gain," Henry
said Tuesday.

While West Palm Beach ended its investigation into the Haitian council,
another Haitian social-services organization came under fire Tuesday from a
Palm Beach County agency for alleged nepotism, mishandling of public money
and poor record-keeping. The Children's Services Council of Palm Beach
County issued a preliminary report requiring the Haitian Center For Family
Services to resolve 41 administrative issues.

The West Palm Beach center receives $1.6 million from public and private
sources to provide AIDS counseling, parenting skills, out-of-school youth
programs and other services for more than 3,000 clients, mostly in the West
Palm Beach area. The children's council came upon the issues during its
routine monitoring of the organization and from a former employee's
allegations. It has no ties to the Haitian American Community Council.

Children's Services Council spokeswoman Marlene Passell attributed the West
Palm Beach agency's problems in part to the turnover in the past year of 15
of the staff's roughly 35 employees, including its former director, Robert
Arrieux.

"It's been an unstable agency for a while," Passell said.

Haitian center board member Dr. Patrick LeConte said his agency plans to
cooperate to resolve the problems.

"We want to get better and better. We acknowledge the mistakes that were
made," he said.

The children's council criticized the Haitian center for allowing interim
director Thierry LeConte to earn $34,500 while he was a consultant for the
organization and while his brother, Patrick LeConte, was board chairman and
signed the checks.

One of them will now have to resign because they violated the children's
council's nepotism policy by working together.

The children's council also had issues with Arrieux, three employees and
Patrick LeConte receiving $25,429 in loans from the organization. The
council didn't detail what the loans were used for but indicated tat most of
the money has been paid back.

LeConte said he used the $5,000 loan to help a friend pay for a "cultural
event" this year. LeConte, who co-signed the loan to himself, declined to
name the event or the friend.

He said his friend hasn't repaid the money, and he would reimburse the
organization himself if the friend doesn't pay back the loan.

The Haitian center couldn't provide information to the children's council on
the names and address of its current board members, but its managers told a
council monitor that five members, including LeConte, attended a meeting in
July -- even though most members hadn't been sworn in yet. There was a
turnover of every board member except LeConte in the past year, the council
found. The board met only once in the past year, even though quarterly
meetings are required.

The council could find only nine personnel files for the 12 positions it
supports, and some were incomplete.

The Haitian center was required to pay back $83,500 because it was used for
programs not associated with the children's council's money, which amounted
to $674,913 this year.

Leon Fooksman can be reached at lfooksman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6647.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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