Sometimes its better to keep your mouth shut and not draw attention to possible corrpution

Back in September and October the Huntsville times ran a couple of stories about allegations of corruption regarding Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison.  The small north Huntsville periodical “Speakin’ Out News” also ran a story on the subject.  Now I’m a political addict – especially local politics – but the story just didn’t grab my attention.  It just didn’t seem like there was much meat on the bone, so to speak.

That was until I read this story in Tuesday’s Huntsville Times.

A meeting Monday that started with a birthday celebration ended with a heated confrontation between two Madison County commissioners and an accusation of racism.

The icy exchange began when Republican Faye Dyer raised questions about a nonprofit group overseen by Democrat Bob Harrison. His Northwest Huntsville Community Service Organization receives more than $100,000 in tax money annually to operate a senior center, a jobs program for ex-felons and programs to help low-income families.

…

Harrison shot back that Dyer was “consorting” with his political enemies. He called the audit a “hatchet job” and said the certified public accountant who prepared it refused to grant him the customary exit interview to talk about the findings.

“I think you’ve spoken enough,” Harrison angrily told Dyer. “I’ve had it with you.”

The commission’s lone black member was even more blunt after the meeting.

“Helping ex-felons and little poor black children, that’s not high on (Dyer’s) list of priorities,” Harrison said. “Folks who object to that, ain’t but one thing you can say about it: They’re racist.”

“I’m uppity and big and black and assertive, and she doesn’t like it.

There you have it.  Dyer, who has proven to be a strong watchdog of public funds, was right to challenge the wisdom of giving tax dollars to Harrison’s organization.  If Harrison backed down, hiding behind the guise of realizing that hard economic times justify belt tightening, I probably would have overlooked this story.  But he had to go and call Dyer a racist.  He basically said she hates “poor little black children.”  I’ve never seen any reason to think Dyer has one racist bone in her body so he left me no choice but to look into the matter.  And what is at the bottom of this story is pretty ugly.

Dyer’s criticism of his program, the “Northwest Huntsville Community Service Organization,” stems from an audit of the organization.  The audit, which you can read here (Kudos to Dale Jackson), shows that the organization was at best very poorly managed, at worst a slush fund for Harrison to distribute taxpayer money as he saw fit without any oversight or regard for what was appropriate.

Receipts were not kept.  Multiple checks with the same check number were written.  Multiple checks that were written never cleared.  Check request controls, which required two signatures, were not followed – often the same person requested and approved the check, although the individual signed two different names.  A federal tax return was not filed on time.  Madison County and NHCSO business was not appropriately separated.  And this is just a partial list!

Even more disturbing is the list of entities that Harrison funneled money to through this group.  It should be noted that the organization’s charter is to be an “outreach educational program providing tutoring, mentoring, and assisting in educational matters.”  Madison County stipulated in grants from 2005 and 2006 that the NHCSO should “provide services which confer a direct benefit of a reasonable general nature, that is, to a significant part of the public,” and that “these funds shall be used for educational purposes.”

The list of recipients – remember, Harrison’s group is funded with tax dollars – includes:

• Huntsville Bible College, Two donations totaling $1300
• Richard Showers, Sr. Retirement Banquet, $200 (Inexplicably showers is still a sitting HSV Council member)
• Master Cleaners, $90
• Life, Inc., Multiple donations totaling $1450, “No indication of reason for expense”
• Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
• Deniese Hyter, $600, Catering for 75 people
• Riversweet Citrus, $270, Invoiced to the County Commission
• AL Democratic Conference, Two donations totaling $490
• Progressive Union Church, $500
• Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, $100
• Cindy Cotton, $600, for “indigent food care,” lacked sufficient description

There are lots of areas of concern there.  Certainly the disbursements for these items don’t seem to directly help “poor black children” or “ex-felons.”  Maybe Harrison considers the AL Democratic Conference to be a group of ex-felons.  And I guess Master Cleaners must be in the business of cleaning “poor black children.”

What I don’t understand is how Harrison thinks it is appropriate to take tax dollars and give them to either a political party or a religious organization.  Based on the documentation the auditor could find there was no indication that the money was anything short of a regular old donation.  It seems as though Harrison simply used our money to purchase goodwill among his constituency.

I look forward to the County Commission and, hopefully, the Huntsville Times digging deeper into this.  There is a hell of a lot of smoke here – must be a fire there somewhere.

And just think, if Harrison had just kept his mouth shut I, and lots of other folks, probably wouldn’t even have noticed this story.