Oregon Housing investigators are at ORCCA offices now asking for payroll records and other documents. This was a surprise visit and Lehman is in Salem.
More to come
ORCCA receives funding to provide essential services like energy assistance, weatherization and housing assistance with dedicated grant funds administered by Oregon Housing & Community Services. Deficits in the South Coast Food Share operating budget have raised concerns that funds dedicated to essential services may have been misdirected to the food bank to cover cash shortfalls. Today, investigators asked for copies of personnel policies, lists of employees in all the divisions including the food bank, payroll actions (including recent raises) and complaints.
A complaint was filed with OHCS alleging that ORCCA may have knowingly violated internal policies and not properly vetted or supervised staff with access to confidential client information.
Coos County officials also have reason to be concerned about the food bank deficit. The county operated as the go between when the USDA awarded an $800K grant to pay for the construction of the new food bank facility. A condition of the grant is that the building operate as a food bank for a minimum of five years. Should the facility close its doors early, the county could be on the hook for the money. To make matters worse, the building which would have been debt free was used as part of the collateral for the financing of the new campus completed last year.
Investigators are expected to be at ORCCA offices again tomorrow.
TonyCapo not everyone has a smartphone don’t forget a portion of ORCCA’s board are low income,
What is the ORCCA Board thinking or not. Lehman has blatantly ignored the hiring and wage freeze the board had put in place. He schedules when and where the board meetings will take place, prepares the agenda to directly overwhelm and ware down the board, he manipulates each board member individually and they are allowing this to continue. The board as a whole is liable for the dysfunction that is going on. Indeed they are responsible for the rude, lying, manipulating person they hired to destroy ORCCA Mike Lehman. Let’s not forget his 6 month review is this month and the ORCCA board has basically promised him a $4,000 raise bring him to $84,000 a year. Not bad for ruling ORCCA with intimidation, manipulation and instilling fear in staff. Lehman has hand picked his yes people. Hired Deborah Ross from Arizona to be his development coordinator paying her roughly $3400 with a promise of a 5% raise January 2014. And this person doesn’t have grant writing experience. What are they thinking? Let’s insure grant writing has stopped as Ross doens’t have the experience and she is not even local. Wonder if the ORCCA board is aware of the promise of a 5% raise for Ross. I bet not as they would prefer to do nothing AT ALL. Carol Douglas has betrayed the very ethics of what a Human Resources should be and she is still employed by ORCCA as Lehman is her protector. Misterly cant fight his way out of a paper bag but boy he can run his month but runs the other way when it comes time to back his mouth up. Ya I can see why Laura Schmitt the now thanks to Misterly is the Food Share Director of operations wants him. NOT.
The board members have put their trust into Lehman. They have put their heads in the proverbial sand. He runs the meetings and takes the minutes. Do you really believe that he is going to record any dissenting opinion from the board – if there ever was one! They will sink with him; he is their responsibility and they have completely given the ship to Lehman.
Word in the ORCCA rumor mill is that things are far worse than when the last CEO was there. Head Start, energy, any funds that can be are used to pay for other things. Lehman says they can’t pay their bills but management staff and those in favor make more than they ever have. Their new Development Director doesn’t know how to write grants and of course there’s Douglas. The staff is at her mercy; any complaints or concerns go right to Lehman. Voice your concerns at the risk of being laid off.
Why did the local guys want control of ORCCA you ask? Because at one time, ORCCA was bringing in more grants, creating more jobs – actually brought in some solar stuff – than the Barton crowd ever thought of. But those days are gone; the folks that wrote those grants are gone. Lehman is not interested in anybody with any innovative thinking – too risky! He thinks ORCCA will survive off the federal dole.
What would be the point of recording a meeting? Do you really think that anything would be said that was worth recording? It looks to be that a recording isn’t needed since Mgx has documents to support what she is saying.
I have trouble believing that in this day and age a board member, or anyone else, would walk into a meeting without hitting the record button on their smartphone. Don’t you?
PS, anybody know WHY these local guys wanted control of ORCCA? What did they want from taking over? Specifically.
So Little Al and The Walrus aren’t makin a peep??? They put THEIR guy at ORCCA, because he has done such a stellar job at the Airport Board? When are folks going to wake up to these Job Messiahs??? It’s been put right in front of them, thanks to Wim and this blog. No excuse now. Shame on every single person who chortled and crowed as The World and Danny Stoddard(who got his first) and DB and The Job Messiahs as they took down ORCCA and the women who ran it. Obviously Lehman is as wood headed as he is at the Airport. Tax payers need to raise hell about these clowns and their spending habits. Talk about Welfare Queens, these pros show you how it’s done. My opinion only.
Going to read about this in The World? Ha! That’s a good one. The stenographers at The World are sharpening their pencils as I type, no doubt Barton The Walrus is dictating their responses. Trying to figure out how to swing this one. And they hitched their cart to the wrong horse again.
Will we ever read about this in The World?
The paper may write something soon, Lehman is probably already spinning the “disgruntled ex-employee” meme. Let’s cross our fingers and hope the paper focuses upon the substance of the investigation, (I promise, there is a story there), rather than shooting down complainants and mythologizing former staff.
As long as the approved board minutes and the voting record reflect the efforts of these board members they should be safe from liability
Good!! If something is found then maybe something can be done.. the board is always being bashed as a whole but not everyone on the board is a bad apple. Some board members have been fighting a uphill battle alone against the tide.. I hope in the end things will come out into the light..