Hi Folks: Today there will be a meeting of the "community" at Sabathani to discuss CNIA's proposed plan modification to transfer NRP funds to CNIA administrative costs. On Wednesday, Robert Schmid, former treasurer of CNIA posted an item regarding $110,000 of "missing" CNIA funds. Last night around 10 PM, the CNIA president, Zack Metoyer, posted a "disclaimer" regarding those same funds. The complete cnia-chat archives are available to the public. CNIA-chat is not officially authorized by the CNIA board of directors. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cnia-chat/messages/ The following was posted on Wednesday on cnia-chat by the former treasurer of the CNIA board: I would prefer not to post this information as it premature and the facts are still sorting themselves out. However, I feel it is necessary to post them because; * this information is relevant to Saturday's meeting whether fact or rumor, * I will be out of town on Saturday, * those of you who are interested may need time to digest this, * I'm sure many of you are already aware of this rumor and finally, * some of you trust me where you won't trust others. I received a rumor on Sunday that CNIA was intending to report that $110K was "missing" as of May 2000. This amount was very interesting because it is very close to the requested Plan Modification. As the former treasurer, this concerned me and I immediately got a copy of last year's audit from the Atty Generals office. (When I was in the office I was surprised to find the file checked out by an attorney form the charities division. When I explained why I needed a copy she indicated that she had also heard similar information but could tell me no more than that.) I also made several calls which included John Ruffin. After talking to various parties I think I have a picture of what's going on. David Jensen and I have provided what assistance we can and I have promised John Ruffin to continue to provide assistance as I can until this is sorted out. Naturally, at this late date, my ability to be of help is decreasing rapidly. It appears, to me, that this is mostly a result of misunderstanding of the way CNIA used to work and allocate funds. It has been severely complicated by the loss of James Ford Bell, Honeywell and McKnight. When Jana was ED her goal was always to "leverage" funds between funders. By that I mean that rather having one funder pay for a single project she would allocate funds from multiple funders. Funders appreciated this method because they got more for their money and it showed that we had support from sources other than them. Funds that COULD have been allocated from NRP were sometimes allocated from private sources. The NRP encourages this kind of financial management. It encourages neighborhood groups to seek private grants and to split the cost between public & private sources. This makes the organization stronger and builds public/private partnerships. This had the effect of not spending NRP funds as quickly as we could have but also made the NRP funds go farther. It also makes it appear that we failed to bill NRP for expenses that we could have. There may be confusion about what which expenses were charged to which grants - if it is assumed, for example that all salaries were charged to NRP (they were not) then it would appear that private grant money should be available and that there are unbilled expenses to NRP. This is not the case, and I will do what I can to bring clarity to the issue. However, while I am perhaps most familiar with the finances of that era, my knowledge of the nuts, bolts and paperwork is insufficient to the task. The best resource for that information is Jana Metge but since she is involved with a suit against CNIA she can not offer help at this time. We knew that there would be a gap period between NRP 1 and NRP 2. We expected to fill the organization's needs with the support of the James Ford Bell foundation combined with $80K of remaining admin funds in the NRP budget. However, support from JFB was lost and the remaining admin funds were drained in the last year on costly consultant's fees. Now 5 1/2 years after NRP began, we are still waiting for NRP 2 to begin and we do not have the JFB foundation to support CNIA. Fortunately, we still have NRP program funds that can be reallocated through a plan modification to get us through the interim which is direct result of leveraging funds. As I have studied this problem it has become clear to me that it is necessary to modify the NRP plan somehow in order to assure the survival of CNIA. The real debate is where and how to make cuts and shift funds. It is important for people to separate their feelings about one board or another from their concerns about the functioning of the organization. I suggest working for a smaller plan modification (one that will last until Sep 30, 2001). This way the organization will survive but you also express to the board that they do not have your confidence. Any plan modification must take into consideration that some private grants must be repaid. The repayment problem is a situation created by the board which took power in June 2000. After the May election, another plan modification meeting can be held for funds relating to FY2002. If everyone can accept the May 2001 meeting as "clean." I believe that we can all back the necessary modification regardless of who is on the board. -------------------------------------------------------- The following was posted on cnia-chat by Zack Metoyer, President of the CNIA Board of Directors. Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 21:39:00 EDT Subject: [cnia-chat] CNIA Disclaimer Dear Neighbors, I'm sending this e-mail as a point of information. This action is not as a Board Member of CNIA. Zachary Metoyer Central Neighborhood Improvement Association Disclaimer Cover Letter Please except the enclosed disclaimer as notification of our current financial situation. We have diligently tried to meet our obligations of stewardship of the Central Neighborhood. Although our efforts have been hampered by our inability to obtain critical historical financial and organizational information from those previously responsible for the Association. As stated in the attached document we fully intend on meeting the legal obligations of the Central Neighborhood Improvement Association. At the same time, however, we are thoroughly investigating the state of the Associations affairs and finances at the end of the prior administration. Our review of fiscal year 2000 has raised a number of serious concerns, which we are bringing to the attention of the proper authorities. If you have any further questions, comments or input regarding the attached document please feel free to contact our offices. Sincerely, Zachery Metoyer President, CNIA Disclaimer On Behalf Of Central Neighborhood Improvement Association (CNIA) (May 2000 to Present) I An organizational investigation into our financial status has reveled that restricted funds totaling more then $110,000 (funds that were expended prior to May 2000) were expended for purposes that are unaccounted for. Past organizational Audits do not reflect use of these funds nor are there any invoices that reflect how these funds were used. The funds in question should have been in the organization's bank accounts when the current Board (elected May 2000) gained access to these accounts but they were not, as a review of the bank statements for that time period shows. It is clear, however, (and the CNIA bank statements following May 2000 show this) that the current board and administrative staff of CNIA never had access to the funds which now are found to be unaccounted for the community which this Board serves and the funding community that supports this organization deserves to know this fact. The community also deserves to know what was done with the unaccounted for money, money which should be available for community support projects per the Neighborhood Revitalization process. We are currently developing a plan to make sure the missing funds are replenished or restored to their rightful place and purpose, by all available legal means. II Investigation into our financial status has also revealed that at some time before the current Board was elected (May 2000) CNIA expended funds totaling more then $24,000 but did not bill for reimbursement from the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program office. NRP indicates that funds to reimburse CNIA for these expenses are no longer accessible to the organization. Documentation of the use of these funds is not in the organization archives. One of our past audits mentions this non-billing. These funds are therefore also gone and not reimbursable to the organization The Board will thoroughly examine its options for recouping this money. III As President of the CNIA Board of Directors, I pledge our diligent efforts to replenish the missing funds. We are currently developing a plan to do so. I wish to make it known through this statement and Disclaimer that this current Board (May 2000) never had access to the missing funds, as a review of our bank statements shows. Nevertheless, we will take responsibility on the organization's behalf to insure that everything that can be done to recoup this money will be done. _________________________________ Zachary L. Metoyer President Central Neighborhood Improvement Association Subscribed and sworn to before me this ______ day of April 2001. __________________________________ Notary ----------------------------------------------------- Click here for Free Video!! http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/ _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
