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| Charity begins at Meeks' home |
| 2010-06-14 |
| A nonprofit founded by Rep. Gregory Meeks took in more than $1.2 million in taxpayer money over the past 15 years with little to no oversight as to how it was spent, The Post has found. Meeks funneled pork-barrel money to the Rockaway Peninsula Civic Association as a state assemblyman in the 1990s. He incorporated the charity, which was once based at his parents' house in Far Rockaway, in 1983. It is the second suspicious nonprofit linked to the Queens Democrat. The organization had grand plans for a comprehensive after-school program for "at risk" students, similar to the successful Jackie Robinson program in Brooklyn. But its David N. Dinkins Center for Physical Culture fizzled by 2005, leaving only a skeleton program for seniors. That program continued to receive city money until 2008, although it is not clear how it spent the cash since the association has no offices or staff. It supposedly organizes activities at a city-run community center, but purchases no materials. Mildred Kenchen, 82, the lone senior at the program Friday morning, said about 12 members meet to do arts and crafts, knit or play games with occasional trips for lunch or to the movies. Hilda Gross, the president of the association -- and a friend of Meeks' late mother -- usually shows up, but wasn't there Friday. Kenchen said the seniors have always paid their own way for big trips, saving up for out-of-town jaunts. "Each month we put so much aside," she said. City Councilman James Sanders, who routinely sent money for the senior program, stopped the cash last year because the nonprofit's paperwork was in disarray, according to his office. Payments to Rockaway Peninsula were criticized by the good-government group Change-NY in the 1990s as an example of a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the group escaped scrutiny by routinely refusing to file nonprofit reports. The organization's tax filings from 1996 to 2001 were not filed until February 2003, a violation of charity laws. The documents were slipshod and handwritten, and did not fully detail how the taxpayer money it received was spent. The returns for 1996, 1997 and 1998 make vague reference to the "acquisition" of a community-center site for the Dinkins program. But the headquarters for the program, which did its work in local schools, was the second floor of a dilapidated house on Beach Channel Drive in Far Rockaway. The group did not purchase the apartment, according to property records. The organization spent just over $1.1 million on the Dinkins program from 1996 to 2005, according to its tax forms. But the forms lack details on who received salaries and stipends. Joel Zuller, the Brooklyn accountant who prepared the form, did not respond to requests for comment. Gross said she took no salary and when the city money stopped, the group funded itself. "My work is done out of the goodness of my heart," she said. Meeks refused to answer any questions about the charity Friday. Dinkins, whose name was used for the program but who does not appear to have been involved, did not return calls. Meeks was subpoenaed in April as part of a federal probe into the New Direction Local Development Corp., a Queens charity he founded with state Sen. Malcolm Smith. Smith is also under investigation. The Post revealed that the group took in hundreds of thousands of dollars, including taxpayer money, with little accountability for its spending. A Hurricane Katrina relief fund set up by the charity spent only a fraction of its collected money for victims. |
| Posted by:Fred |