Just a quick update to let followers know that this site hasn’t been abandoned. Issues raised with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office are still under investigation.

Morrison County Record reported that Morrison County will receive FEMA Emergency Funds but the article did not identify who would be responsible for the funds or how to apply…I’m investigating further, curious to see if that 31,000.00 dollars ends up with Ted Pfohl at Pine Country Bank….Also very curious that the Record would run a story and leave such vital information out entirely.

More on this later!

The concerns over the Federal Emergency Funds Program have been well documented on this site including having been noted in the documents sent to the Attorney Generals office. So then would would Morrison County United Way (MCUW) turn the program over to the individual whose management of the funds is currently in question? It would seem that in an attempt to maintain credibility within the community that Ted Pfohl would have been kept as far away from the Morrison County United Way office as possible at least until the Attorney General had completed its investigation. Instead, Ted has had access to the office, attended board meetings and now it appears that the MCUW Board has turned over management of the very program in question to none other than Ted Pfohl and Pine Country Bank.

So do the federal dollars deposit into Pine Country Bank or the United Way’s General Fund? What about applicants…if I had a loan at Pine Country Bank would I really want to ask them for emergency dollars?  What about data privacy laws…if Ted can work his bank job and oversee the emergency funds why can’t Board President Teresa Schmitz who works in Human Resources at Morey’s Seafood.

If something improper had happened who would be the only person who knew exactly where all the evidence was?  I certainly hope they are familiar with Sarbanes Oxley…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

FORMER MORRISON COUNTY UNITED WAY DIRECTOR FILES COMPLAINT WITH THE MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE

On August 22, 2008 Morrison County United Way’s executive committee called for the resignation of Executive Director Jody Scott Olson and offered over $4,000 dollars in severance pay providing she not discuss the non profit organization. In the 4 months Olson spent working in the Morrison County United Way office she found issues of conflict of interest, financial mismanagement, fraudulent reporting on state and federal documents and systemic mismanagement. Olson refused their severance offer and later ignored a Cease and Desist letter issued by the organization by granting interviews to the local news media which included an appearance on the radio talk show Up-Front with Rod Grams. No subsequent action has been taken by Morrison County United Way with regard to their defamation claim. Olson told Grams during her interview that regardless of how unflattering the truth may be defamation can only be claimed if the information is somehow incorrect.

Olson said, “We’ve seen too many scandals and its everyday people who suffer the greatest loss. This organization has been taking in well over a quarter of a million per year from economically struggling community. You have to ask yourself how much of that money is actually trickling in far enough to provide a community benefit and how much is being spent on golf tournaments and agency salaries. When you have a 30 thousand dollar revenue short fall and you are not providing any oversight for some of the funding received, why would you  (Morrison County United Way Board) allow the former director full time wages to work-part time hours? Why would you preface my employment by telling me that the job isn’t really full-time? You not only have a mismanaged organization but an accountant who admitted to making the organization look good on paper and a local newspaper who sidesteps facts to cover the auditor and  the organization.. It’s gravely concerning and I have to question how deep the selling out of the poor in this community actually goes.”

Olson said that during the Morrison County United Way’s August board meeting, that auditor Gary Paulson admitted to having only verbally acknowledged the material weakness to key committee members and deliberately withheld that information from the previous years audit, stating that he was acting out of concern for the reputation of his friend, former Morrison County United Way Director Ted Pfohl. He further admitted to having “softened” the language from that of his preliminary report for this years audit after running into Pfohl at a golf event and after executive committee members made it clear that they were unhappy with his preliminary report. Despite the auditor’s admission, the Morrison County United Way Board approved the audit report and subsequently filed it with the IRS and signed off on its submission to Minnesota Attorney General’s office.

Olson has since completed the compilation of 3 reports all of which have been submitted to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. In the interest of public trust and transparency all correspondences and documents have been posted for public viewing online at www.live-untied.com

Olson said that this is the second time she was hired to “clean up” a mismanaged office and that in both cases, once she was on staff that she was expected to participate rather than rectify.  In 2002, Olson filed a similar complaint with the Attorney General’s office which lead to a legislative audit of the management of Environmental Trust Fund dollars securing the repayment of over $70,000 in grant dollars. http://www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/Fad/access/03-12.htm

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I promised to post all documents sent to the Attorney General and I have finally gotten around to actually posting them: Below is a list of all information formally submitted to the Minnesota Attorney General.

Formal Complaint Part 1

Formal Complaint Part 2

Mismanagement

Morrison County United Way (MCUW) board closed the office for 4 months while they pursued a new executive director. Despite the time and expense gone through to locate the most qualified candidate, I was asked to resign after only 4 months and offered over 4 thousand dollars in severance pay providing I relinquished my right to discuss all matters pertaining to MCUW and my departure. The separation agreement also mandated my silence over financial matters and issues of mismanagement. I refused to resign and refused their severance pay offer but MCUW board once again elected to close the office for the second time this year. Board President Teresa Schmitz cited “communication issues” as the reason for their request.

MCUW requested my resignation because of disagreements over items that substantially hindered the efficient running of the office and the distinction between my role as executive director and their role as the governing board of directors.

During my period of employment as executive director I completed the extensive reporting requirements mandated by national United Way. These reports were part of Ted Pfohl’s transitional contract; he was paid $1,000.00 to address a short list of MCUW’s business while the board looked for a new director. The report paperwork was mailed to all United Way offices in January allowing them 4 months to compile the needed information to complete the extensive reports. These documents remained in a sealed envelope and were never opened. When I began neither the MCUW Board nor Ted Pfohl ever indicated that these reports were due, and by then some were past due. By the time I started the deadline on 2 reports had elapsed and the most extensive report was due in 10 weeks and required detail knowledge of how the organizations donation database was mapped. While, MCUW board members paid Ted to complete the work, they never saw to it that he met the terms of the contract.

Renewing MCUW’s membership with national United Way brought still other oversight issues into focus. The fees for membership renewal were already approved as part of the 2008 budget therefore I collected the needed signatures and renewed the organizations membership without delay. After I did, Board President Teresa Schmitz was angry that I did not seek board approval. Since the funds were clearly approved in the budget a second board approval seemed redundant. When I looked at the paperwork from the previous year it was apparent that the board approved the funds for membership renewal in the budget but when the time came to actually renew the membership later in the year Ted went back to the board to obtain their approval.

When I discussed the duplicated effort with Board President Teresa Schmitz she insisted that any expenditure regardless of an approved budget required board approval but her assertion didn’t exist in any policy. Clearly such repetitiveness defeats the purpose of going through the budgeting process, wasting valuable time of the director and board members. I then asked state coordinator Doris Pagelkopf to weigh in on the discussion but when Doris’ response mirrored my recommendations executive committee members summarily dismissed her input. I then requested that board president Teresa Schmitz seek the advice of other United Way’s which she agreed to do but only until she learned that all area offices operated under very similar procedures.

During a corresponding executive committee meetings committee members elected to disregard the input offered by me and other regional directors regarding financial procedures including best practices from Price Waterhouse supplied by Doris Pagelkopf at the state office. After back logging the MCUW office with a 4 months shutdown executive committee members reaffirmed their decision to maintaining redundant financial procedures. Board President Teresa Schmitz said that they were “re instituting old unused policies that existed but were never written down.” This essentially meant that executive committee members planned to ad lib even if it included the use of decoder rings and invisible ink. She said that she took the liberty of writing the unwritten, unused policies then stated that the executive committee would not seek the approval of the full board in implementing them even though they hadn’t been used. President Schmitz of course knew that I would challenge the implementation of redundant policies should they go before the full board and the measure could have easily failed. Circumventing full board approval assured that the terms of the executive committee would be met regardless of my recommendations and regardless of the will of the full board of directors.

During the 2008 audit Gary Paulson posted 98,000.00 in adjustment to MCUW’s books. Essentially the board of directors had spent the last year looking at erroneous figures on financial reports due to accounting inaccuracies and apparently no one noticed anything was amiss. In an effort to find cause to dismiss me Executive Committee members began going over my work with a fine-toothed comb which included my accounting but found no faults in my bookkeeping. Had this caliber of attention to detail been an ongoing act of necessary organizational oversight it is likely that the previous errors would have been noted, instead thorough oversight was merely applied after it was apparent that the board was displeased with my objections.

When I was first hired Curt Hanson and Teresa Schmitz told me repeatedly that the executive directors job “wasn’t really a full-time job”, despite a 30 thousand dollar revenue shortfall, the lack of oversight of federal emergency dollars, the need for additional funding for the Imagination Library and failure to comply with national UW mandates, I was repeatedly told to slow down, to take baby steps regardless of the needs of community and the organization.

It was made clear to me that if I pushed to get the organization on track as soon as realistically possible that I was risking the security of my job and the closer I came to accomplishing necessary organizational objectives the more MCUW executive committee members looped me out of communication. Teresa Schmitz even threatened to close the office and past board President Curt Hanson warned that he was trying to mediate between me and executive committee members to prevent me from being dismissed. I said, “I have to slow down? And he said “yes.” Despite making outstanding strides with regard to fortifying the organization the executive committee showed no interest in the improvements being made. The only conclusion I am able to draw from these very circumstances is that the more successful I was as a brand new director the more it illustrated what could have and should have been accomplished all along. Executive committee members very deliberately and constructively interfered with competent administrative decisions.

I have no doubt that my job would have been safe if I had done as they suggested, I could have worked a little,  played golf and remained employed. The more effective I was at moving the organization towards efficient thriving operations the more ridiculous executive committee demands became. Board president Teresa Schmitz wanted me write and edit her email communications to board members because she said I was a better writer and she didn’t want to feel “dumb”. She was mad when amidst working with the auditor that I failed to find time to edit her email Given what the organization was paying for the audit I almost couldn’t believe that she remained angry even after I told her what I was working on. She complained that she had to send the email without review and that now she felt “dumb.” I apologized and was sorry that she was so upset but found myself almost in a state of disbelief over the entire conversation. She also asked me to file 2 page cost benefit analysis reports on saving the organization money and the report had to include a spreadsheet and be presented for approval at a board meeting.

A specific example is that MCUW was using AT&T’s most expensive long distance calling plan. I closed the account and bundled the organizations long distance with its existing local phone service with Qwest. This move saved MCUW about 200.00 a month having secured unlimited long distances for about 30.00 a month. When Teresa asked me to file a cost benefit analysis report on the savings and requested board approval I refused. The organization was in the middle of it audit and there wasn’t time. I left her the option to either move the organization back to its expensive, existing calling plan or wait until I had time to compile the report. She said if I didn’t cooperate that there simply wouldn’t be a MCUW office. I maintained that there were so many matters of urgency that taking a section of my work day to assemble such a report would be negligent and it was not procedurally required. I did suggest however that the organization consider drafting a policy that established an ongoing reviews of all vendor accounts to ensure that the organization was getting the best price and using the most current technology.

For example the postage meter from Pitney Bowes was expensive and the equipment leased was so out dated that it was being taken out of circulation. Stacks of returned mail could have been avoided had the account been updated with current technology that screens addresses for accuracy. Such a change would have improved efficiently and saved the organization money on leasing, wasted postage and address labels and also the time spent labeling mailers. Also, the Qwest phone account had not been updated since the office was opened in the 1960’s.

Ted Pfohl told local radio announcer Rod Grams that as executive director, he golfed in as many as 30 tournaments in a summer. While the organization justified such indulgences as “fundraising and PR” there was no indication that such activity netted any financial benefit to the organization. It is unclear as to who paid for his participation although I do recall seeing mileage reimbursement for what appeared to be a golf trip so it is likely that some if not all of the golf events were paid for by MCUW. I believe that as part of Ted’s contract that MCUW also paid for an annual membership to an area country club and remember, he was not expected to work full time and often didn’t.

Regardless of who paid for golf involvements the working hours spent alone is an issue given the lack of oversight to programs like the EF program. Also Ted indicated that if he used the UW office at all that he always left early afternoon therefore he turned down the board’s offer to purchase an air conditioner for the office.

That having been said, the MCUW office is located in a historic building and its office is located beneath the clock tower in the courthouse. The office has 6 -10 foot windows on 2 sides of the tower which in the summer is equal to being shut in a glass box in the sunshine. As the summer grew hot the inside of the office spiked on some days registering temperatures in excess of 110 degrees. Despite dollars for office expenses pre-approved in the 2008 budget, MCUW executive committee refused to allow the purchase of an air conditioning unit without full board approval. While awaiting said approval I was forced to either work in temperatures similar to shutting the family dog in the car on a hot day or shut down early. On one day when trying to complete reporting requirement for United Way of America I became very ill from the heat, after that I was left no option but to do as Ted had done , which was to leave early or to stay and try to work in conditions that violated OSHA standards. I argued that an air conditioner was not optional due to OSHA standards and causing further shut downs and slow downs to the flow of MCUW work was causing unnecessary delays to items that were already inexcusably over due.

The first request for approval of an air conditioner failed because it was put to a vote over email and apparently number of board members simply didn’t vote while still others contended it was unnecessary because they knew people who didn’t have air conditioning at home despite the obvious differences between the structure of a home and the structure of a glassed clock tower. Teresa Schmitz attempted to commiserate with me regarding the extreme conditions citing that her air conditioner at Morey’s Seafood didn’t work properly. I pointed out that Morey’s was a packing plant with existing extreme temperatures certified by OSHA and that our office circumstances could not be compared since her health was not being placed at risk.

President Schmitz was so offended that I referenced Morey’s as a packing plant that she said she nearly resigned as board president. Curt Hanson, according to her, talked her out of the resignation. I apologized sincerely not having intended to offend her but to this day have no idea what part she found so upsetting. Morey’s is a packing plant, it wasn’t an insult but a mere statement of fact. I spent another hour reassuring her that I meant no disrespect.

In the end the office was shut down repeatedly and an air conditioning unit was not approved until the end of July. I found it staggering that MCUW would pay for Ted’s time away from the office to golf without board approval or regard to the cost to the organization and his time away but my request to be provided with the barest of necessities with which to complete a full day’s work was summarily denied for a period of months.

Much of the board’s activity took place via email from each board members place of employment. As executive director I was often excluded from communications, denied information as to how board members voted. Executive Committee members circumvented me as the organizations executive director. I was the only individual with previous non profit administration experience and I understood that MCUW could not be administered as a corporation or an institution yet my input and that of other non profit administrators was ignored completely.

I was informed at the August 2008 board meeting that a quorum had been changed from 8 but 5. President Teresa Schmitz again said it was an old unused, probably once again unwritten policy that she was reinstating despite the fact that 8 had previously been the quorum for some time. To my knowledge this change also never came to a full board vote. When I later asked for board minutes I was summarily denied on more than once occasion. I believe the state minimum for a quorum for MCUW is 6 but even changing the definition of a quorum to a legal minimum should at least be voted on. Changing a quorum to 5 would mean that votes could be carried by the executive committee alone..

MCUW breached the Gift in Kind contracts taking 7 thousand dollars a month in durable goods away from the community. (See Gifts In Kind Website)

I question whether MCUW followed proper procedures in requesting my resignation.

Request by me and members of the community and news media to obtain copies of board documents have also been denied.

The separation agreements provided mandates the secrecy of information that should be public within the non profit sector. Acceptance of severance pay would have prevented me from alerting proper authorities. Tax exemption is provided in exchange for transparency, their dealing have been anything but transparent.

Board members did not represent the interests of their constituents or their own mission statement.The MCUW Board had no strategic plan with which to accomplish its stated mission and policies were non existent or went unused.

Executive committee members circumvented the full board on issue of critical importance that should have been voted on, such as financial procedures.

Board did not ensure compliance with national UW or with regard to conflicts of interest issues.

Grant reports were not filed with Bremer Foundation, Initiative Foundation and those due for the federal emergency funds. These circumstances can effect future funding and could prevent Morrison County from obtaining federal emergency dollars for next year.

In the past 11 months MCUW office has only been open for 4 months.

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Since the layout of the original blog wasn’t conducive to the posting of documents, and given the number of documents that are forthcoming, I’ve elected to incorporate a new website design. I sincerely hope this enhances public access to information regarding this ongoing dispute.

A very special thanks to Rod Grams for inviting me as a guest on his radio program Up-Front with Rod Grams. It was a pleasure to be interviewed by someone who understood the issues, lead with questions that struck at the heart of sound non profit administration and board governance and who shares my willingness to discuss a local public issue in a public forum without being influenced by fear of reprisal.  What is most impressive is that Rod Grams was well aware of the Cease and Desist letter I received and was willing to proceed, as was I,  despite their threats.

To date there has been no subsequent action regarding the Cease and Desist letter, again a defamation claims requires that MCUW state that something I’ve said isn’t true. They are wise to approach taking a position on such a question with great caution. Accusing me of defamation is to say that I have lied, yet no one is willing to go so far as to say anything regarding which part of my statements were not entirely true. To accuse me of lying is defamation because it is not true,  publicly stating truthful facts regardless of how unflattering is not defamation. If they want to be held in a good and credible light then they must conduct business accordingly, not merely attempt to make the appearance of doing so. While MCUW can go through the actions of hauling me into court doing so would require them to go on record denying my allegations… so far no body seems to want to touch that powder keg and they would be foolish to do so.

For the purpose of posting, complaints to the Minnesota Attorney General have been divided into topic sections. A post regarding mismanagement is forthcoming. 

Re: Morrison County United Way

 Conflict of interest Policies Issues:

      Morrison County United Way moved its funds from US Bank to Pine Country, former director Ted Pfohl later left MCUW and took a job with the same bank. Current board member Rob Ronning also works for Pine Country as does Gina Vetter’s husband.  After conflict of interest issues were raised regarding the number of board affiliations to Pine County Bank I elected to update the organizations documentation by circulating the conflict of interest form to all board members. Despite knowing that board affiliation to Pine Country was an issue raised, none of the board members with affiliations to the bank listed the institution on the conflict of form and Rob Ronning who was the most affronted by the complaint made a point of defiantly tossing the signed document back across the table to me, leaving the form completely blank. Forms went unsigned altogether or they were turned without conflicts. Past President Curt Hansen stated at an executive committee meeting that he thought avoiding conflicts of interest in a small town was difficult and he too left off conflicts. I reported this to the board president Teresa Schmitz in June and as of the date as I was asked to resign no attempt was made to rectify the situation. Out of 16 board members I believe I got 5 forms back that were signed but not filled out properly, remaining board members ignored the document despite its necessity.

Youth as Resources (YAR)

      Youth as Resources (YAR) is a youth lead board program that is overseen by Morrison County United Way. YAR provides grant funding to local youth projects and is intended to foster the development of youth leaders and volunteerism. All funding dollars available to the community ended up being given to projects that YAR board members themselves were affiliated with. Program Coordinator Mary Kenna’s daughter was on the YAR Board and funding was given to her girl scout troop, Kenna’s other daughters school was funded  (this school is also board members Curt Hansen’s church, Curt’ wife Mary Beth served as a YAR Board member) and Kenna’s other youth program was given funding. While I have no argument with the use, or that some affiliations existed I could only account for 500.00 out of 13,000.00 that a relationship could not be established. Since YAR is geared towards educating local youth on how boards like MCUW’s operate I thought the fact that the dollars remained within their own pet projects was appalling especially since there is already too little funding in the community for young people. Since there was only a few thousand dollars left by the time I was hired I recommended that the UW board refer the most recent funding requests back to the YAR board along with the organizations conflict of interest policy requesting that they review the policy and reauthorize their ruling. Naturally, I was ignored which wasn’t surprising since most UW board members refused to recognize the organizations conflict of interest policy themselves.

      When initial issues arose regarding YAR I held off on issuing grant payment until an evaluation could be made and issues discussed by the executive committee and or the full MCUW board. Curt Hanson, who works for the Initiative Foundation (Initiative Foundation funds YAR) called to tell me that MCUW didn’t have oversight responsibility for YAR that MCUW was just a “flow through” and that my job was to just cut the checks but that we didn’t supervise its operations, he went on to instruct me to issue the held grant payments. Given his affiliation with the programs funder I assumed Curt provided this information on good authority but since his assertion didn’t jive with previous information I searched until I located the actual signed contracts so I would know how to proceed. The contracts showed that the information Curt gave me was false and that MCUW was indeed fully responsible for the YAR program. Shortly thereafter, I discovered that Hanson’s wife was an adult member of the YAR board and one of the checks I was holding was destine for a project at his church. Curt deliberately provided false information to expedite a payment to his church using his position at the Initiative Foundation to make the information he was providing appear legitimate. While I was under the impression that Curt was gathering his information Jana Shortall at the Initiative Foundation who oversees YAR funding it is unclear as to whether or not he spoke with Jana at that time or not. This was gravely concerning since the YAR contacts were expired at the time and in order to spend the remaining grant dollars the organization first needed to vote on whether or not to request a grant extension from the Initiative Foundation. Had I sent the payments as instructed by Curt the organization would have spent dollars that we had no authority to do so. It would have also presumed a desire to continue the program  without allowing the full board to decide whether or not it wished to do so. Curt was invested in seeing YAR continue and the improper issuance of grant funding would have forced the board to extend the program whether they wanted too or not.

Given the volume of information I’ve broken the complaints into sections. Below is the formal complaint regarding the EF program and the issue regarding Morrison County United Way’s audit reports.

Oct. 3, 2008

Minnesota Attorney General’s Office 

Re: Morrison County United Way

Federal Emergency Funds Program Key Issues:

·               After I raised issues during the 2008 audit, auditor Gary Paulson, acknowledged that a lack financial control over the EF program was a material weakness. He later admitted during the August 2008 MCUW board meeting to withholding identification of areas of material weakness from the audit  2007 to protect the public profile of his friend and previous executive director, Ted Pfohl.

·               The auditor said he discussed all material weaknesses with previous director as well as “key board members” but withheld that data from written records submitted to the Attorney General and the IRS.

·               MCUW approved the 2007 audit with at least some board members knowing data concerning material weakness was being withheld. According to Gary’s admission, previous director, Ted Pfohl knew that data was being omitted on the understanding that appropriate changes be made in coming year.

·               MCUW director Ted Pfohl requested that the MCUW board hire Gary Paulson to conduct the organizations 2008 audit and that decision was approved by the full board.

·               While I can’t say how many board members knew of the omission, Ted’s close personal relationship with Gary Paulson was substantially apparent and should have raised questions as to Paulson’s ability to conduct a truly “independent” audit.

·               Auditor only noted material weaknesses after I raised questions during the 2008 audit, the only areas to appear on the audit are areas I questioned and nothing else. Additional weaknesses could very well exist and may have been left off simply because I didn’t notice them.

·               Despite questions as to whether or not some of the EF program dollars were misused, Gary Paulson never audited EF 2008.

·               My report of the potential misuse of funds was ignored by the executive committee so I discussed my concerns with the auditor. While the auditor did ask Ted Pfohl about a specific incident of potential misuse, Ted’s reply was summarily accepted without further investigation as to the accuracy of the information he provided.

·               Board Secretary Steve Reger said that program had been running the same way for over a year and that he didn’t see its compromised state as serious enough to warrant immediate action or attention.

·               Past president Curt Hanson told me that he was sure the program funds were fine because Gregg Valentine, Morrison County’s Chaplain who managed the dollars was a good guy and that I shouldn’t worry about it. While I agreed with Hanson’s character assessment, establishing appropriate procedures and financial controls isn’t a character assassination but sound administration, reigning in the program was discouraged if not summarily rejected by key executive committee members.

·               Auditor admitted during the MCUW August 2008 board meeting to “softening the language” from his preliminary audit report. This statement was made after executive committee members became abruptly unaccommodating after Gary Paulson issued his preliminary audit report. There conduct struck me as odd since the purpose of the audit is to provide a blueprint to strengthening the organizations financial controls. While I viewed the audit as good information and items to work on in the coming year, I’m not sure I’ve ever before worked with a board who had such evident expectations as to the final results. With constant changes to non profit law…being affronted struck me as strange and made me wonder about terms of the audit arrangements.

·               Whether Gary Paulson would now admit it or not, I believe that given the public profile of key MCUW board members that Gary Paulson felt pressured by executive committee members which also influenced to his decision to “soften the language” in the 2008 report.

Narrative Federal Emergency Funds Program 

Shortly after I was hired former director Ted Pfohl told me that he used some of the Federal Emergency (EF) funds to help a friend. He said that if people I knew, who were “good people” and ended up needing help that I could cut a check from my office, even though the EF are handled through Gregg Valentine, Morrison Counties Chaplain. This statement caused me to question the income eligibility of the people Ted helped not understanding why he didn’t refer these individual through proper channels. While, at the time, I considered it unlikely that Ted would have done anything improper, I knew based on his statement that the financial controls surrounding the EF program should be carefully reviewed. This discussion and my concerns were shared with President Teresa Schmitz and past president, Curt Hanson weeks if not days after I began employment.

I later found a questionable email regarding an EF request that came from Mary Jo Morgan former administrator for Little Falls School district. I knew Ms. Morgan earned over 100,000.00 per year so I thought it unlikely that the funds were for her personally. What struck me as off was why Ms. Morgan wasn’t referred directly to Gregg Valentine and why Ted handled a request for a program he didn’t administer. The email was also oddly cryptic, saying something about one check for about $800 and another check for $200 “for H….”  While I no longer recall the exact dollars and cents the fact that the request never went through proper channels was a concern and more alarming was why it said things like “for H…”

Ted’s explanation was that Little Falls school district has its own emergency funds program and those dollars were collected and held by MCUW. He said that Mary Jo Morgan was requesting a disbursement of those funds. While this was the type of answer I expected to hear I didn’t understand why Little Falls school’s emergency funds would be sent to the Morrison County Chaplain and if they were why Mary Jo Morgan didn’t go through Gregg Valentine herself to request the disbursement. Also, when I took over I was never told to forward Little Falls school district emergency funds to the Chaplain’s office so I’m not sure if the funds disbursed were actually that of schools emergency program or if they were federal emergency dollars. 

MCUW board hired Gary Paulson to conduct the organizations audit in 2007 and 2008.  Gary only noted EF program as material weakness on to the 2007 audit after I raised questions about financial controls over the EF program and discussed my concern about that program. All accounting issues I raised did ended up being added to Gary’s preliminary audit report but nothing else.

While it was my initial assumption that these items were simply missed last year, Paulson’s admission during the August board meeting clearly indicated that the organizations former director and one or more board member were aware of the omissions and MCUW proceeded to hire the same auditor the following year.  

Despite Paulson’s awareness of the concerns surrounding the EF program and whether or not funds were misused he never audited the EF.  He did ask Ted during one of our meetings about the dollars requested by Dr. Mary Jo Morgan but after Ted offered a plausible explanation the subject was considered closed and the information that was provided was never verified. 

Since MCUW had fiduciary oversight responsibility over the EF program, I recommended that MCUW immediately reign in on the program either by taking direct control or by establishing policies and reporting procedures between my office and that of Morrison County Chaplin Gregg Valentine.

Steve Reger very specifically said that the circumstances didn’t constitute an “emergency” and that the program had been run the same way for a couple years. He saw no need for immediate action.

I had recommended on more than one occasion that the organization out source data entry level work rather than a program that we were required to provide oversight for. It seemed remiss to pay and an executive director to do Imagination Library data entry while completely ignoring all oversight responsibility for a federally funded program. While this seemed like glaring logic to me, I again met adamant resistance in particular from Curt Hanson who said the program was too much work and that we “didn’t want to get into that”. He said Gregg Valentine was a “good guy” and he was sure it (the program) was fine. Also, Steve Reger said during the August board meeting that he thought transferring the data EF data back to our office might constitute a breach of data privacy laws. I pointed out that it seemed more likely that a data privacy breach occurred in the outsourcing of the programs administration to a third party rather than the later as he suggested.

Despite the issues of financial control and the potential for compromise of funds MCUW’s Executive Committee discouraged me from taking any action or from establishing accounting and obtaining records.

 I was asked to resign before I had the chance to meet with Gregg Valentine and obtain EF’s financial records.

I said that I would address the remaining allegations made by Morrison County United Way’s attorney Susan Fitzke. For those who have yet to read the initial post or would like to view the cease and desist letter sent by Morrison County United Way’s attorney click here —-> MCUW’s Attorney Issues a Cease and Desist Letter

The opening of Fitzke’s letter states, “as you are further well aware, your employment with Morrison County United Way (MCUW) was terminated.” Fitzke is incorrect, what I know is that MCUW asked me to voluntarily resign which I refused to do. Since the dismissal of a director typically requires a board vote I asked board President Teresa Schmitz for the board minutes that such a vote took place, a request that was denied. Also, days before the request for my resignation Teresa Schmitz announced during the August board meeting that a quorum was suddenly 5 as opposed to the long standing body of 8. Schmitz stated during that meeting that a quorum was previous 5 but was apparently unused…she decided to put it back into practice…without a board vote. This would mean that a majority vote could be carried exclusively by the executive committee. It is yet another procedural disaster. Plus, I’m pretty sure Farm to School went a board vote which was later rejected because there wasn’t a quorum of eight…there was certainly at least 5 voting members that day. Issues like these are very reason you don’t run a board in this manner.

The letter goes on to that “you essentially cloned the official MCUW website.” MCUW’s website is currently set up on a WordPress blog. When I took over the office their old website information was outdated and the organization paid a third party for updates. Since there wasn’t time to build a new site, I did the next best thing. Their site is a free WordPress blog which I set up to function like a website, to deliver updates and content quickly until a more permanent site could be developed. The design is not owned by me or the MCUW, it is a template owned by WordPress and available to anyone world wide for free.

Fitzke’s letter states, “I understand that you have removed much, but not all of the MCUW content,” which is amusing because there is no MCUW content on the Live-United site therefore nothing has been removed…at all, so saying that I’ve removed content is a complete fabrication.  Perhaps they are confused, MCUW’s 990 is linked to this website but it was uploaded to GuideStar by Ted Pfohl last year…in case the MCUW board is once again completely in the dark..most nonprofits upload financials to GuideStar to make them available to potential donors…and often mandated by funders.   Which is precisely why Ted uploaded the document. MCUW’s financial records are public documents because they’re a non profit, not a corporation. This typically means that they don’t pay taxes but in exchange must operate with financial transparency. Often this means voluntarily making board activities and minutes available upon request along with their financial statements.

Fitzke refers to the use of the url www.live-untied.com as a “clear instance of typo-squatting, and an obvious effort to mislead members of the public and potential donors…”

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “typo-squatting,” it refers to companies or individual who purchase url’s similar to a major website in hopes of picking up traffic generated by typing mistakes. Had I purchased the url liveuntied.com, Fitzke would have a point my site would indeed pick up traffic intended for United Way of America if someone misspelled united but under the circumstance there is no way for anyone typing liveunited.org to end up at this website. The only way this could happen would be if the web surfer formed both an exactly matched misspelling coupled with an accidentally placed hyphen…anyone who can accidentally hit the hyphen key will without a doubt find themselves in many, many unexpected places on the internet. It should also be noted that the United Way of America already owns over 200 url’s in every misspelled combination to prevent typo-squatting, if my url was of legitimate concern UWA would have purchased it themselves along with the long list they are already in possession of.

The letter demands that copyrighted material be taken down but there is nothing on this site that is owned by the MCUW or any other United Way. It says my site displays the United Way logo…but it doesn’t. They are obviously clicking links listed under the ”Links” heading. Just for the record, “Links” or a  ”Blog Roll” always lead to websites belonging to other individuals. I have posted links to the MCUW Board page and the MCUW website. Obviously, Board President and her attorney are clicking links that lead to pages on MCUW’s site. To aid them in understanding that anything listed under “Links” leads to someone elses website, I have added large “mouse-over” notes so readers understand that clicking those particular links will bring the reader a different website. Of course this is also obvious if you take the time to look at the url or even better, look at the web page header…does it say Morrison County United Way? Or does it say Live Untied A Blog by Jody Scott-Olson. These are typically the best indicators.

 I’ve already posted ny reply to the whole ”…unsupported allegation.”  Really, if an admission by their own auditor doesn’t qualify I’m not certain what benchmark I’ll have to clear to satisfy this law firm.

Next question, how much money is Morrison County United Way wasting on paying a Civil Rights lawyer to send letters pertaining primarily to Intellectual Property Rights? Or did they think that I would be so daunted by the legal jargon that I might not notice the lack of content? MCUW continues to bash around behaving as though they are the writer of rules and required to follow none. While they have demonstrated that they have the local media too intimidate to do anything short of kiss up we will see how much influence they have over the Attorney Generals office…which will more than likely be off my desk by the end of today. I’ll have it posted here by Friday.