Feds end probe of Operation REACH
23rd July 2012 · 0 Comments
By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer
Federal authorities have ended an investigation into a New Orleans nonprofit serving area youths following widely publicized allegations of financial misconduct, sexual harassment and inflated salaries. But the three-sentence letter, closing the case, from the inspector general’s office of the agency in charge of the so-called “domestic Peace Corps” raises more questions than it settles about the government’s findings and fails to address the ongoing audit of the local group.
Investigators for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) have closed the criminal probe into Operation REACH, a once-lauded youth services organization, but an evaluation of the group’s handling of federal funds – once the backbone of its multi-million dollar budget – continues.
CNCS is the federal agency that oversees federally subsidized community service, including the popular AmeriCorps program that enlists thousands of workers nationwide to work on projects and for nonprofits that target underserved communities. The agency’s inspector general, in a letter dated June 14, notes: “The case involving Operation REACH, Inc., New Orleans, LA has been closed.” Investigators also returned materials seized during the investigation.
Operation REACH founder and chief executive, Kyshun Webster, points to the CNCS letter as proof that his organization did nothing wrong in the years leading up to staff departures and accusations of extravagant spending, outsized compensation and sexual impropriety.
The brouhaha over Operation REACH – a tutoring program Webster started as a youth in his family’s garage – began following a news report by the investigative journalism nonprofit The Lens about the group’s dealings after a former top lieutenant of Webster’s left the group and made charges of misconduct. The Lens’ reporting uncovered concerns by some who had worked closely with Webster about his handling of an expense account, the level of his compensation and payments made to an aide who was not an Operation REACH employee, but a personal assistant to Webster. Webster’s brother has also been accused of harassing a former AmeriCorps worker who was assigned to Operation REACH.
Webster goes into great detail, in an e-mail blast sent to supporters, refuting each of the accusations that have battered his group’s reputation, including the oft-repeated assertion that AmeriCorps yanked funding from the group in the wake of the allegations of misconduct. But Webster says Operation REACH decided to wean itself off of federal dollars because the funding was not stable.
“[L]et me state a few things clearly and unequivocally,” he writes. “Operation REACH decided to stop receiving grant support from AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service…of our own accord.” Webster states the relationship between grantees nationwide and the federal government had become intolerable due to insufficient funding to comply with federal requirements and delayed reimbursements for expenses. Cuts to the AmeriCorps program in Congress also led to budget shortfalls, Webster adds.
Cris Ros Dukler, chief operating officer of the Milwaukee-based youth services group Public Allies, confirms Webster’s emphasis on the shaky nature of funding from AmeriCorps. Groups like Public Allies were profiled by public policy experts to highlight how congressional and state spending cuts can lead to budget irregularities for the organizations that rely on taxpayer funding.
Because of the cuts, Dukler notes, “there are winners and losers” in the race to grab federal and state dollars. “The process has become extremely competitive. I would say about one in five applicants actually receive funding.” Dukler adds that the new realities of public funding have also impacted her group, which lost its pitch to maintain state-based grants in a recent round of bidding.
Webster goes on, in his e-mail, to counter further charges and lament human nature by saying, “The public has grown cynical. Any allegation of wrong-doing these days seems to trigger an automatic presumption of guilt—not a presumption of innocence—in the minds of many people.”
He says an employee who raised concerns about his expense account “had no right to question her boss,” declined to shed light on payments made to a personal aide, calls questions about his brother “unfair” and states that detailed discussion of the allegations against him and the investigation that followed would violate an employee’s right to privacy. Webster’s brother no longer works for Operation REACH.
But Webster saves particular scorn for the news media, which he says “distorted” his group’s travails at the height of the allegations and produced “sensational” stories that sullied a two-decades old “track record of successfully transforming the lives of vulnerable children.” The initial television and print news stories surrounding the scandal, including reporting done by The Louisiana Weekly, were not accurate and simply parroted previous accounts, Webster charges.
The Lens, he insists, failed to properly vet the accusations of “disgruntled” former workers, approached the story with the view that he and his group were guilty of malfeasance and used leaked materials from federal authorities to buttress its reporting of events. Webster is mulling whether to take legal action against the philanthropic funders of The Lens.
Steve Beatty, who spearheads editorial content for The Lens, would not comment on potential litigation, but says his organization stands by its reporting and has met with Webster to air his concerns. Should federal investigators reveal more information about the probe into Operation REACH and the group is exonerated, “We’ll sing it from the rooftops,” Beatty adds.
But Webster insists the inspector general’s closing of the case should, in fact, lift the cloud of suspicion that has engulfed his group. The CNCS letter, however, provides no clue as to what the government’s findings are and a spokesperson for the agency referred all questions to investigators. Calls to the CNCS inspector general’s office seeking more information were not returned at press time.
Webster regrets the impact the scandal and federal budget constraints have had on his group’s ability to serve underprivileged youths. Operation REACH, which once boasted offices in three states, served more than 10,000 students at its height and employed hundreds of workers. “Today, that organizational heft is mostly gone,” Webster notes in the e-mail.
“We’re…sorry for all the kids we can’t tutor right now. We hope not a single child falls through the cracks and drops out of school because we weren’t there to help spark a learning breakthrough one afternoon or to just help somebody get through one day’s daunting homework.”
Webster is also “sorry for all the people who have lost their jobs with our organization. We know the economy is extremely tough these days and meaningful jobs are harder to come by.”
Tougher still, may be the task of rehabilitating the reputation of Operation REACH. When asked how he would go about burnishing the group’s image in the wake of the scandal and the continuing financial probe, Webster says, “We’re going to start by telling the truth.”
This article originally published in the July 23, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
