Veil over scholarship finances
Legislative group mum on gala details
The offices of the New York Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators are located on South Swan Street, close to the state Capitol. On Tuesday, a woman who answered the association’s locked door told a reporter she did not work there, but was only waiting for someone.
Then she closed the door, locked it and pulled down the blinds.
The odd exchange was emblematic of recent attempts to seek information about the association’s finances just days after it wrapped up its gala Caucus Weekend celebration in Albany.
The group is the nonprofit arm of the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. Its primary focus is supporting education and leadership opportunities for minority youth, according to its mission statement.
Among the unanswered questions: How much money did the group raise last year at its scholarship gala during the 2018 Caucus Weekend? Did this year’s event, which sold out with tickets starting at $225, raise enough money to cover the costs of the party while funding scholarships for minority students? And why hasn’t the association, a registered charity, managed to file its required paperwork with the state attorney general’s office?
On Wednesday, Attorney General Letitia James’ office acknowledged sending the association a Jan. 4 “notice of delinquency” stating that it has for the past two years failed to file its annual reports with the attorney general’s Charities Bureau.
The bureau received the delinquent filings — including 990 forms also required by the IRS — within the 30-day window specified by the letter, but went back to the association with questions. The bureau is currently in discussions with the group in an attempt to get its filings into satisfactory shape.
James’ spokeswoman Delaney Kempner said the office has “been in touch with the Association regarding some concerns with their filings and are actively working with them to resolve those concerns — a standard practice used with many charities. We will continue to monitor this situation and will take further action if necessary.”
She said it is unclear when the filings will be complete and available to the public. Kempner could not immediately say whether this is the first time the group has received a delinquency letter.
The most recently available filings by the group show that hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations go to fund Caucus Weekend and associated events, and not to scholarships.
The group’s treasurer, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, said in December he did not remember signing a check for a scholarship in 2018. He also did not remember how much the group had awarded in scholarships.
The group’s chair, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, implied that the association was struggling to carry out its mission in a December 2018 statement to the New York Post.
“When I became chair of the organization in October 2017, there were many financial deficits, but I am proud to say that after alternative protocols and procedures were put in place, the organization is fiscally sound,” Walker told the Post.
The Brooklyn Democrat refused to talk with a reporter after an event at last weekend’s caucus gathering in Albany. Instead, she led a Times Union reporter across a lobby at the Hilton Albany hotel to one of her communication staffers and walked away. The staffer did not answer any questions either.
Walker and her chief of staff did not return calls for comment left Tuesday and Wednesday; her Albany office was locked Wednesday morning.
Spokespeople for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-cousins did not respond to requests for comment.
A 2017 Times Union investigation raised questions about how the 34-year-old charity spends the money it raises. In that report, the group vowed to increase the percentage of its revenues that it spends on scholarships.
In the nonprofit’s official program for its 2015 retreat, then-chairwoman Crystal Peoples-stokes, an Assemblywoman from Buffalo, stated that “we intend to double the amount of scholarship funds given to students in their respective districts.”
Charities are generally supposed to spend at least a third of their revenue on their stated mission, according to Charity Navigator, a watchdog group.
From 2011 to 2015, the group took in more than $2.7 million, the vast majority through its annual weekend retreat, according to its IRS filings.
In its 2016 federal filing, the group spent nothing on scholarships. That year, the association took in $513,819. The previous year, it handed out $35,745 in scholarships after taking in $564,677 in revenue.
Instead, the group’s funds went to support the annual weekend gathering, including expenses such as “limo services,” pricey concerts and well-paid speakers. For its 2015 retreat, the association reported $565,000 in revenue. Of that, just $36,000 (6.3 percent) went to grants for “education/ scholarships.”
Charities are required to make their 990 forms available
to the public for examination.
The association’s caucus weekend is a major draw for other elected politicians, lobbyists and union leaders.
This year’s Caucus Weekend sponsors included health care, retail and education unions, gaming companies — Pretlow, the association’s treasurer, is the chair of the Assembly’s Racing and Wagering Committee — and utilities. The scholarship gala dinner was hosted by reigning Miss America Nia Franklin and included a speech by U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a former Assemblyman.
Although the group’s paperwork problems persist, Walker has made some changes: The group used a new website and social media accounts for this year’s gathering, including an online donation portal run by Act Blue, which provides fundraising software for Democrats and progressive groups.
It’s unclear who received past scholarships, when they received them, how they applied for the scholarship or who selected the recipients.
The association’s website says there is a selection panel that chooses scholarship winners based on criteria set by the panel.
It’s unclear what those criteria are.
The most recently available filings by the group show that hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations go to fund Caucus Weekend and associated events, and not to scholarships.