[July 29, 2011] Two more leave GLCAC board Tweet LAWRENCE, Jul 29, 2011 (The Eagle-Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Two more directors have quit the board that runs the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, bringing the number of resignations to eight since the state crackdown. The crackdown was launched after The Eagle-Tribune disclosed the agency's chief executive was spending workdays at the Elks Club. Another director has announced she will leave in October. The stripped-down board last night cast a series of quick, unanimous votes to implement several of three dozen reforms the state Division of Housing and Community Development demanded of the $30-million-a-year agency in April, after an investigation prompted by the news story found mismanagement, nepotism, lax fiscal controls and a sexist climate at the top. Among them, the board voted 10-0 to award a one-year auditing contract worth about $56,000 to Anstiss & Co. of Lowell, complying with the state's demand that the agency break its contract with the North Andover firm that audited its books for more than 20 years. The state raised concerns about the "extended family relationship" between former GLCAC board member Joseph Shaheen and the auditing firm, Shaheen & Shaheen. Joseph Shaheen, whose father is a cousin to the father of William Shaheen, a principal in the auditing firm, resigned from the GLCAC board in the spring. In recommending the new auditing firm last night, GLCAC finance director Rick Robichaud said he expected it would be able to resolve his "biggest fear" that the agency would be "under-audited again." He deflected a question about whether he believed Shaheen & Shaheen had not provided rigorous audits, saying only he is "not looking back." The board last night also approved four new policies that had been demanded by the state, including one strengthening its existing whistle-blower policy and another placing new controls on contracts with companies that install vending machines in GLCAC buildings. The board also considered several other reforms but did not vote on them, including two that would govern conflicts of interest and nepotism inside the agency and another that would impose term-limits on board members that would restrict service to two consecutive two-year terms. Some members of the board, including chairman Thomas Perrault, have served for decades. DHCD threatened to withhold funding for key GLCAC social service programs -- including Head Start -- if the agency failed to meet a schedule of deadlines to make the reforms. The DHCD has continued fully funding GLCAC programs, but Attorney General Martha Coakley stopped funding a legal services program at the agency following the DHCD report. GLCAC interim executive director Christian Dame said before yesterday's meeting that the state has not changed its designation of GLCAC as a "troubled agency," which he said puts it at "a significant disadvantage" as it seeks other grants and contracts from the state and federal governments. All but about $1 million of GLCAC's annual budget comes from Boston and Washington. He distributed a letter to board members that he received from DHCD on Monday, which cited GLCAC's progress in implementing reforms but said there "is significant work yet to be done." Dame also said investigators from the Inspector General's office of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, who arrived at GLCAC after the state issued its report, have issued preliminary findings about their own investigation. He would not discuss them. In the meantime, the remaining members of GLCAC's board -- including Judith Yelle of Andover, a former board president whose resignation becomes effective in October -- and several agency staff members yesterday fulfilled another directive from the state when they received training on how to carry out their mission. The session was led by William Hunter, executive director of a Boston organization that specializes in rescuing troubled community action programs, who was a consultant on the state investigation into GLCAC last spring. Dame said the sessions lasted a total of five hours and included instruction on the "basic elements for good governance," which he said included instruction in the need to "attend meetings, do your homework, read documents and serve as good ambassadors." Beyond receiving the training and meeting the other demands for reform by the state, the remaining members of the 21-member board also have begun the process of restocking the nine empty seats on the board, which will become 10 in two months. Dame said more than 20 people have been nominated or expressed interest in serving on the board, which appoints its own members from names submitted from public and private agencies in Lawrence, Methuen and the Andovers. He said the board could begin naming new members in September. Besides Yelle, board members Ned Leone of Methuen and Ruth Pearlman of North Andover also recently resigned. The first to leave the agency was Philip Laverriere, who led GLCAC as executive director for 37 years until he resigned March 23, four days after the Eagle-Tribune reported that he was spending up to five hours a day playing cards and video games at the Elks Club on Andover Street. Ironically, the Elks Club is one of several private agencies in the four municipalities GLCAC serves that has a representative on the GLCAC board. The club is represented by Bruce Baril. Laverriere had been paid up to $144,000 a year in salary and other compensation. Dame has asked United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett to consider prosecuting Laverriere for fraud because he filed tax documents certifying he was putting in 40-hour work weeks. Gayle Williams also resigned as a $70,000-a-year director of a GLCAC child care program after the newspaper reported she was hired as a consultant after her husband joined the GLCAC board, and subsequently gave jobs to her brother and sister-in-law. The program Williams ran also provided $14,500 in tuition reimbursement to her daughter, Erin Upton, a therapist at Methuen's Marsh Grammar School. Williams husband, Evan, resigned from the GLCAC board April 28. Yelle, a board member for 15 years and its president for three, cited the increased demands on board members as her reason for stepping down. "I can no longer do the work that's required," she said last night. "I just think it's time." Staff writer Jonathan Phelps contributed to this report. To see more of The Eagle-Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.eagletribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]