Back in early October the Toledo Journal wrote about the resignation of five of the Equal Opportunity Planning Association Board members. It pointed out some of the problems and I was surprised that no other media outlet covered this, especially with as contentious as it was described:
The agency, which oversees the local Head Start program, has been wracked by turmoil and a power struggle has been going on since the November 2007 death of its longtime executive director, Dr. Oscar B. Griffith Jr. One board member, Norman Bell, said he hopes the resignations help bring about an end to bickering and infighting.
”I want to move forward and leave all this negativism behind us,” Mr. Bell told The Journal last week. ”I wouldn’t be part of the board if I didn’t think we could arrive at a higher level of efficiency and accountability.”
The board recently hired attorney David A. Cole to review EOPA’s by-laws and code of regulations, which in sections had conflicting language, to determine whether Ms. Gabriel and Dr. Jones Terry had exceeded the allowable 10 years of consecutive service on the board. They resigned soon after he submitted a report that indicates they had.
Their resignation letters suggest they were targets of persons with bad intentions.
There have also been problems related to people trying to get assistance through HEAP, which is also controlled by EOPA with issues with delays in being able to schedule an appointment which resulted in more than one family being without electricity or heat because the appointments available by phone were filled and the limited amount of walk in emergency appointments available daily.
Today’s Blade mentions the resignations, but also points out some of the financial problems that are affecting how programs are being ran. What I wonder that is not clear in the article is since the program the grant that is being paid back over was never implemented, where was that money spent and where is the money to repay this supposed to come from given the limited funding options that EOPA works under.
The debt stems from a grant the agency applied for, but did not receive, several years ago. The agency had received $654,292 in start-up funds for an early learning initiative, but then did not receive a competitive grant to administer the program and had to pay back the funds, a spokesman for the state department of education said.
It was originally supposed to repay the funds within two years, but that deadline has been extended to 10 years.
