Urban League taps assemblyman to right its ship

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, April 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

State officials are hoping that Las Vegas Clark County Urban League’s choice of Assemblyman Morse Arberry as interim CEO will lead to more answers about how the organization is spending public money.

His hiring Thursday is the latest episode in the chaotic reinvention of the valley’s largest nonprofit group dedicated to fighting poverty.

Arberry, a Las Vegas Democrat, takes the place of architect Clifton Marshall, who resigned this week after only a month on the job. Other recent Urban League resignations included the top finance staffer and a board member charged with overseeing a large grant.

Meanwhile, the state Commission on Economic Development has sent two unanswered requests to the Urban League in recent weeks seeking documentation on how $110,000 in grant money was spent. The nonprofit group also missed an April 15 deadline for a final quarterly report on the $350,000 grant, according to Joe Locurto, a director from the state commission.

The choice of Arberry seems a strategic move aimed at reversing ailing finances and cementing relationships with state funding agencies. Arberry has been in the state Legislature for 24 years, 14 of them as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Term limits are forcing the mortgage company president out of his seat in Carson City.

Arberry said he wants “to bring some credibility, some transparency and restore trust” in the Urban League.

He may need some help. Stephanie Gitter had been hired as controller to help steer the Urban League’s $4.5 million budget, but she has bailed out.

And board member Bob Paisano said he recently resigned because he was at odds with board Chairman Stephen Brooks’ “management by intimidation.”

Paisano was president of the board overseeing Revive Inc., a parallel organization the Urban League created to run the $350,000 commission grant. The grant was supposed to help former felons and the hard-to-hire unemployed.

Paisano said Brooks, who is also a community liaison for Las Vegas City Councilman Ricki Barlow, tried to control that grant by changing Revive’s bylaws, something Paisano opposed. Paisano also objected to the way the board, led by Brooks, pushed out the Urban League’s previous CEO, Ray Clarke.

Brooks declined to comment Thursday. He said in March that Clarke simply resigned after two years on the job.

The Revive project that Paisano was overseeing has fallen apart and the grant is due to end in June. But Locurto said it is unclear what happened to $91,000 the state gave the Urban League to purchase an auto repair shop intended for training. He also wants to know exactly what the Urban League did with an $18,000 contract for public relations and a Web site.

And state official Mary Liveratti, who attends Urban League board meetings to help monitor $2.8 million in federal pass-through funds, said she continues to be concerned about the organization’s financial situation and the stability of the board and the staff.

Arberry, she said, is known to be “credible and reliable.” He also “has connections that can make some things happen,” she noted.

Arberry wants to start his new job in a month by bringing in pro bono accountants and others who can evaluate the organization’s troubles. Then he wants “to start afresh.” He also wants to become the Urban League’s permanent CEO.

“I know everyone’s having some tough times” in the Las Vegas Valley, he said. “I feel like I bring a lot to the table.”