Posted on 10/28/2003 5:56:47 PM PST by opinionator
By Norberto Santana Jr.
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 28, 2003
Efforts by local Red Cross officials to present a new face for fund-raising and disaster support were stymied yesterday when national officials rejected a plan to earmark donations solely for victims of the wildfires charring many areas of San Diego County.
Chief executive Veronica "Ronne" Froman had hoped to heighten accountability over disaster donations since the local Red Cross board and former CEO were fired last year amid scandals involving the administration of donations and government contracts.
The day after the San Diego Red Cross assured San Diegans that fire relief donations could go to a separate account to aid only the victims of the "October Fires," local officials backed away from that pledge under pressure from the national American Red Cross.
Instead, chapter officials are asking donors to contribute to the local disaster relief fund, which finances relief operations for all disasters in San Diego and Imperial counties.
Local chapter officials said they erred Sunday when they established a separate account for the fire. That action violated national board policies, they said.
County Supervisor Dianne Jacob called the national officials' action unacceptable and threatened to establish a local fund.
Froman has promised that the chapter will begin providing weekly updates to the public on how donations were helping victims.
Last night, chapter officials said they had received $300,000 in donations and were processing more.
Froman announced yesterday that the chapter was training hundreds of new volunteers and quickly turning emergency shelters into family service centers ready to identify victims' long-term needs. Efforts to recruit doctors and mental health specialists also were under way.
"Right now, today, we're all about disaster response," said Froman as she busily monitored the deployment of shelters Sunday from the chapter's Hillcrest headquarters. "This is kind of what everybody has been waiting for, a chance to prove our stuff."
The chapter is rebounding after the 2001 Alpine fire when people protested that the officials mishandled $400,000 in donations and that little of the money went to victims in the fire's wake. A national audit later found that the chapter had used some of the money for overhead expenses.
A national spokeswoman declined comment on the rejection of Froman's October fires fund.
Jacob, a vocal critic of national Red Cross policies, said she was concerned about the change but said accountability is the key.
"People want to know that their donations are going to help the victims of this disaster," Jacob said.
Jeff Wiemann, the chapter's chief financial officer, said periodic updates on how disaster donations are spent will keep donors informed.
The handling of donations was just a slice of what Froman and her revamped chapter confronted Sunday. At the disaster operations center, a dozen volunteer organizers and staffers scrambled to coordinate the efforts of nearly 500 Red Cross volunteers across the county.
With the fire moving so rapidly Sunday, volunteers had to keep assembling and moving shelters throughout the day.
Susy Turnbull headed many of the shelter operations, advising volunteers where to place shelters and keeping tabs on locations.
Turnbull, the chapter's disaster operations manager, said months of reorganizing and training had paid off with more shelters, volunteers and emergency vehicles.
"We're just much more prepared," she said.
Wiemann said the chapter had been so inundated with walk-in volunteers that it had established a link on the chapter's Web site for online volunteer registration. With victims' needs easily extending into the next several weeks, chapter officials were using the online registration to send volunteers into the field.
The national office's rejection of a local fund yesterday thwarted an urgent effort Sunday by Froman and local Red Cross officials.
With the national Red Cross taking over the administration of relief operations for the wildfires across Southern California, San Diego officials were told Sunday to steer donations to the national disaster relief fund.
Froman, who took over as CEO in April, said the dispute with the national office had put her "between a rock and a hard place."
Because national leaders have never disclosed a full accounting of the national disaster relief fund, local officials were wary of steering contributions there.
"I said, that's unacceptable," Jacob said. "And if you do that, you will force us to set up a local fund so San Diegans will know their money will stay here in San Diego and will be accounted for."
While one national executive was telling Froman that the donations had to go into the national disaster relief fund, the chief of staff to Red Cross President Marty Evans was telling her to do whatever she thought was right.
"I'm just trying not to confuse anybody," Froman said while working with two staffers on clear fund-raising language.
Yet by 1 p.m. Sunday, there still was no clear direction.
"There is no way I'll be able to sell the national disaster fund to my politicians here," Froman told National Red Cross executive Michael Farley on the phone. "There's no trust here."
Yet both officials kept telling Froman they trusted her.
After taking a few aspirins, Froman looked at her staff and asked, "What are we going to call the fund?"
First, there was the "San Diego October Wildfire Fund." That turned into the "October Fires" fund.
After another call to Jacob, Froman was on the phone with Farley again.
"I'm going to have to do what I have to do," she said. "It's going to have to be a separate fund here in San Diego. I have no other choice."
As she walked out of her office toward the disaster operations center, Froman stopped and looked up at the blood-red sun.
"We have to manage the chaos," she said.
AFAIK, non-profits are required to abide by donor instructions, or to send the money back to the donor.
On the morning of Sept. 11, Red Cross President and CEO Bernadine Healy was
set to fire San Diego Red Cross chief Dodie Rotherham for her handling of
the Alpine fire victims' fund.
But the events of that day intervened. By the next month, it was Healy, not
Rotherham, who had lost her job.
Healy's firing shows the uncertain control national officials have over
local chapters.
She had decided to dismiss Rotherham as the chapter's CEO after reading an
audit by the national organization that substantiated criticisms from
Alpine fire victims and San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob. Its chief
finding: Rotherham and senior chapter officials charged 65 percent of the
$185,000 Alpine fire victims' fund to overhead expenses such as telephone
upgrades and vehicle repairs.
Chapter officials had also resisted for 10 months public calls to disclose
how they spent the funds.
Healy knew firing Rotherham "was the right thing to do," said one former
national office employee who, like many interviewed for this story, feared
office reprisals and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The audit clearly shows that vulnerable people were let down," Healy said
in an interview. She declined to specifically say what action she had
planned to take against Rotherham.
"The chapters must be accountable to the communities they serve and their
representatives like Supervisor Jacob," Healy said. "But they also must be
accountable to the organization itself, which is one national corporation
and one congressional charter. And, in this situation, there appears to
have been a breakdown in both areas."
Before Healy had a chance to act against Rotherham, she was herself under
fire from local chapters, who control the national board of governors.
Healy, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, was an
outsider who challenged an entrenched bureaucracy. It's clear that a major
source of contention was Healy's creation of the Liberty Fund, which she
set up to collect donations following the Sept. 11 attack.
But another was her handling of the San Diego County situation.
Though 3,000 miles apart, the two controversies provide a behind-the-scenes
glimpse into internal Red Cross politics.
Small vs. big
While no one is questioning the organization's commitment to help victims,
critics, both locally and nationally, say it's unaccountable.
Sources close to the national board said Healy's decision to keep the
Liberty Fund separate from the charity's national disaster relief fund was
motivated by a fundamental distrust of local chapters' accounting of
donations. Many national officials privately call the national disaster
fund "a leaky bucket" because local chapters can tap into it.
In setting up the Liberty Fund, Healy wanted to head off the problems she
saw in the Alpine fire situation.
Mindful of the vague and misleading accounting the San Diego chapter gave
for its Alpine fire response, Healy stressed that the Liberty Fund would be
an open book. According to the minutes of a Sept. 14 national executive
board meeting, Healy said that "the Red Cross will be forthcoming on how it
is using the moneys following these events and fully accountable to the
public for every penny."
Two days later, Healy warned local chapters in writing that the national
office was "putting in place stringent accounting measures" to accurately
track donations.
Before Healy could implement those measures, she was forced out by a
faction of the national board. And shortly before she announced her
resignation, National Board Chairman David McLaughlin took the San Diego
matter out of her hands.
Red Cross insiders consider national involvement in chapter affairs to be
meddling. Yet during her two-year tenure, Healy spoke of one Red Cross, one
that had to function in unison. Sources said those attempts to strengthen
the national office and heighten accountability at local chapters triggered
a backlash.
"There were chapters that were clearly letting their board of governors
know about issues with Dr. Healy," Philadelphia Chapter CEO Frank Donaghue
said during a question-and-answer session with The San Diego Union-Tribune
editorial board attended by editors and reporters from the newsroom.
Red Cross officials insist the national board of governors requires
chapters to follow strict guidelines. But national policy is largely
influenced by local chapters, because they nominate two-thirds of the
50-member national board.
Red Cross critics say because of that structure, chapters are able to
operate in a semi-autonomous fashion with little oversight from the
national office.
"The Red Cross is made up of a bunch of tribes," said former San Francisco
Mayor Art Agnos, who battled the charity over the spending and disclosure
of 1989 earthquake relief funds. "It's like Afghanistan."
Former national executives agree with Agnos, saying the nationwide charity
group is fragmented, with smaller chapters lined up against big chapters,
who in turn are resistant to control from the national office.
Smaller chapters fear being consolidated with larger ones. Over the past
decade, the Red Cross has cut the number of chapters in half. Large
chapters complain the national office steals away big local donors with
national fund-raising drives and spends too much of the organization's
resources on blood services.
The largest chapters have set up a private suborganization called the Metro
30, which focuses on issues unique to chapters in large metropolitan areas.
National officers are allowed to attend its meetings by invitation only.
Donaghue confirmed such tensions exist, but also insisted they are healthy
for the organization, comparing them to the relationship between the
federal and state governments.
Yet that tension can make it difficult for national oversight.
Stormed out?
Healy and Rotherham publicly clashed at the organization's national
headquarters in Washington, D.C., last spring during a meeting of the
Chapter Council, a special forum Healy set up to interact with chapter
CEOs.
As Healy detailed the national organization's latest fund-raising drive,
people at the meeting said, Rotherham objected, arguing the campaign would
steal donors from local chapters. While Healy said she wanted input from
the local chapters, Rotherham complained it seemed the decision had already
been made.
Some said Rotherham stormed out. Rotherham said she didn't recall if she
did.
The two also clashed when Rotherham asked the national office for a loan to
buy a $4.5 million property for the local chapter's transportation program.
Healy opposed the request. The national board subsequently granted it.
Neither national nor local officials responded to requests for details of
the loan.
The run-in with Rotherham was Healy's second this year with a chapter head.
In April, she ordered that Joseph Lecowitch, a New Jersey chapter head, be
fired for mismanagement of funds.
This month a Hudson County grand jury issued an indictment of Lecowitch and
the chapter's bookkeeper that accused them of embezzling $1 million from
the Red Cross chapter.
Yet sources said that when Healy took action, some national board members
thought it premature.
Accountability
The more than 1,000 Red Cross chapters throughout the country operate under
one national charter and one federal mandate to provide disaster services.
This means there is only one Internal Revenue Service file on the Red
Cross, and spending by all chapters is reported as one amount, rather than
1,000.
Therefore communities must rely on their local chapters to tell them how
donations are spent. Elected officials in San Francisco, Minnesota, New
York and San Diego say that can be a frustrating process.
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area, Agnos accused the
Red Cross of diverting donations earmarked for earthquake relief to its
general relief fund.
"They were arrogant and insensitive," Agnos said of his interaction with
Red Cross officials. "It was only the force of public opinion that forced
them to reconsider their position that `we don't have to give you anything
because of who we are.' "
The Red Cross collected $52.5 million in donations after the earthquake but
initially planned on spending just less than half that amount on local
quake relief. In response to protests, the agency later agreed to spend all
of the funds on earthquake relief.
In 1998, Minnesota's attorney general criticized the agency for not
spending $4 million in donations earmarked for flood victims in Minnesota
and North Dakota. The organization distributed the remaining funds by the
end of 1999.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer echoed
similar concerns, aimed at Healy herself, about a lack of disclosure
regarding victims and donated funds. The congressional hearings that
resulted centered on the Liberty Fund but shed little light on the Red
Cross structure.
The hearings heightened interest in the work of several analysts at the
General Accounting Office, who had already begun their own study on how the
IRS regulates charities. A senior Republican aide confirmed that the House
Ways and Means Committee has asked for its own investigation.
Back in San Diego, Supervisor Jacob is still trying to figure out just who
runs the Red Cross.
In recent weeks, she spoke to Healy's successor as CEO, Harold Decker.
Jacob said he assured her that the Alpine issue would be investigated, and
that he was coming to San Diego.
But days after Rotherham and two of the members of her chapter's board
visited Decker in Washington, D.C., a national spokesman told a reporter
that headquarters stood squarely behind San Diego officials and that the
matter was closed.
Jacob said Decker is not returning her calls. She wrote him on Dec. 14,
complaining, "You promised to personally come to San Diego in December with
representatives of the national board to get to bottom of the problems in
San Diego."
Decker did not return calls requesting interviews.
While Red Cross officials have announced an internal investigation into how
the national audit of the San Diego chapter was leaked to the
Union-Tribune, they said there will be no investigation into how that
document was altered by local officials and released to the public without
national approval.
Jacob said that is the most telling indication of how the national charity
works.
"The national Red Cross is part of the problem, not part of the solution."
Published on Friday, October 10, 2003 by Reuters
Red Cross Criticizes US for Guantanamo Bay Detentions by Jonathan Wright
WASHINGTON - The International Red Cross say it is unacceptable that the United States continues to detain more than 600 people at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba without charges or prospect of a timely trial.
The idea that American executive branch personnel, particularly military personnel, can detain people beyond the reach of habeas corpus is just repugnant to the rule of law. snip
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