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NORWALK, Conn. The frustrated leaders of a Norwalk nonprofit are planning a public relations outreach to allay concerns and let people know how its programs help the poor and disadvantaged in Norwalk.
Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, which has tentatively been denied a city grant in the wake of an unflattering federal audit, has scheduled a news conference for Thursday to be followed by a community forum. Greg Burnett, president of the board of directors, would like the news conference to be a two-way conversation.
Board members met Thursday to plan the news conference and communications with the public. "Moving forward, we need to be twice as transparent," said Doug Hempstead. Packets of information the board members receive should also go to the media, he said.
An audit conducted by the Office of the Inspector General indicated that NEON took federal money meant for its Head Start program and used it for administrative expenses, tuition for non-Head Start employees, routine nursing consultations and inappropriate equipment usage, a misuse of more than $400,000 from Jan. 1, 2009, to March 31, 2011.
As a result, the city has not included a $389,500 grant for NEON's administrative expenses in its proposed 2012-13 budget. City money meant for Head Start $937,875 has instead been put in the contingency fund in the proposed budget.
Mayor Richard Moccia said a lack of answers from NEON representatives led to the denial of grant money. On Friday, he said his opinion has not changed, because he is still "waiting for answers." He was expecting a packet of information from the agency, which he planned to study over the weekend.
At Thursday's meeting, Burnett said, "I was informed that NEON was not targeted. They're doing this across the country. It's not as if this is something unique about NEON, like they said, 'Let's go look at NEON.'"
But board member Carvin Hilliard disputed that and said OIG was alerted, setting the audit process in motion. Hilliard said an auditor told him, "He wouldn't come if somebody didn't call."
Board members blamed the media for the problems. "We are portrayed as a bunch of people who don't know what we are doing," said Hilliard. "They put a negative spin on it, that we're going to absolutely have to refund the money. I think we should let the public know that we are trying to rectify that situation, where we don't have to refund the money. As far as I know it's just a minor error. Nobody is guilty of fraud. ... We need to clarify that and say that so people will have confidence that the type of error we made was administrative and not fraud."
About 200 people attended a meeting Wednesday night at NEON, which board members felt had been mischaracterized in The Hour. But Dawn Calle, a mother who has a son in the Head Start program, attended the meeting and said The Hour's story "was not inaccurate."
Board member Brian Baxendale took exception to the use of the word "misspent" in news reports regarding the $400,000. "It wasn't misspent in the sense that we spent it on the children," he said. "What the heck happened had something to do with the way we claimed for that expenditure. ... Misspent is very different. Spent on the right thing but definitely claimed in the wrong way."
"The report doesn't say misspent, the paper does," said Joseph Mann, NEON's president and CEO.
Members were frustrated that most media outlets did not print the statement they put out when the audit became public, choosing instead to use excerpts.
Hempstead said board members need facts for the news conference; the worst answer they could give is "I don't know." They need to admit they made a mistake, he said, and dispel the impression that problems with one program indicate a problem throughout NEON.
"The money that OIG has identified, the way it reads, the money didn't go to the kids," he said. "When in fact, because we didn't check an exception box, and we didn't apply for it and tell them we're going to deviate from the plan. The impression is the money went somewhere else. I'm just trying to say that somewhere else needs to be exactly identified. If 20 percent went to another program we just need to say it. It is what it is."
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