Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002 | 10:57 a.m.
A Community College of Southern Nevada task force has decided to sever its relationship with a black religious organization after questions arose about a $15,000 loan the group received from CCSN, sources said Tuesday.
CCSN had formed a partnership with the Ministers Alliance Association of Southern Nevada to create a nonprofit group, the Alliance Collegiums Association of Nevada (ACAN), which was to be the recipient of the loan.
The Ministers Alliance is a nonprofit group made up of representatives from dozens of churches in the Las Vegas area, many in North Las Vegas and West Las Vegas. It offers a variety of services, including family counseling and help for people seeking jobs.
The Ministers Alliance was supposed to run ACAN, obtain grant money and set up a halfway house in Las Vegas to transition newly released prisoners into society. In exchange, CCSN would provide office space, education support, and later, scholarship and grant money.
Currently Reno is the only area in the state with such a program to help with prison recidivism, but the task force's decision places the program in jeopardy.
The trouble began after the Ministers Alliance used its ties with CCSN to secure a $15,000 loan from CCSN last month, officials said.
CCSN officials immediately quashed the loan after realizing that the money was not going directly to scholarships, but was meant to pay an outstanding debt incurred by ACAN.
"When the expenditure came to our attention, we quickly realized that the procedures and policies were not followed and immediately issued a stop order on the check," said CCSN's John Cummings, counsel to the president on government and public affairs. "CCSN is not, nor has it ever been, a lending institution."
The matter has caused critics to question how CCSN could have approved the loan in the first place, and how Ministers Alliance members working at the college were able to obtain funds to benefit their organization.
The alliance's actions prompted CCSN's president to distance himself from the group. They also caused a local judge to file a police report alleging his signature was forged on a document linked to the group.
"I think what's happened is, obviously there's been some outside influence with some decisions that have been made at that campus," University Regent Mark Alden said.
But the Rev. Willie Davis, president of the Ministers Alliance and ACAN, says that the allegations of forgery and undue influence are false, and that the controversy is being caused by two disgruntled employees.
The request for the $15,000 loan was made after funds from an expected federal grant never came through. Members of the Ministers Alliance had applied for a $423,000 Department of Justice federal appropriation grant under the ACAN name.
While the federal grant request was pending, ACAN hired Cecil Davis as an employment consultant and Victoria Coleman as executive director to get the program up and running.
Coleman and Davis say they began operating out of CCSN offices in March of this year with the understanding that the grant would come through the following month, and that they would be paid retroactively.
Records show, however, that the grant application was not even submitted until June 3.
By August, an estimated $41,750 in back pay was owed to Davis and Coleman, they said.
"The (organization's) consultant kept telling us we were going to get paid," Davis said. "I was so sure it was going to happen that unfortunately I went on vacation and spent $1,800 that I shouldn't have."
To pay Coleman and Davis, the Ministers Alliance turned to CCSN for help via the $15,000 loan request, officials said.
In a July 30 letter, Willie Davis asked a CCSN vice president for money to "facilitate start-up of programmatic services."
"At Sen. (Harry) Reid's office's request, we attempted to obtain monies from our partner, CCSN, to resolve the matter without negative publicity to pay for the work completed that was assigned on May 11, but is yet to be (completed) either by Dr. Coleman or Cecil Davis," Willie Davis told the Sun in a letter.
McTheron Jones, a CCSN employee and a Ministers Alliance board member, helped coordinate the $15,000 request from the community college.
Jones said he was expecting to get a $12,000 fee for writing the grant. Department of Justice officials rejected his request for that sum, delaying the grant even further.
In the meantime, the $15,000 loan from CCSN was authorized by Al Daniels, dean of continuing education at the college, according to a document obtained by the Sun.
Daniels said he was asked by the Ministers Alliance to approve the expenditure. While this type of transaction is not normal, Daniels said he made an exception because it appeared to be for a good cause.
"I'm assuming it's a matter of judgment and my judgment was this was for a good cause," Daniels said. "This is kind of a unique situation. Although it is not in writing that we couldn't do this, I know personally, I wouldn't do this as a matter of practice."
Details surrounding the incorporation of ACAN are now in question as well.
When ACAN officials filed their Articles of Incorporation with the state last Oct. 4, they named Judge Warren VanLandschoot of North Las Vegas Municipal Court as their director.
VanLandschoot filed a police report earlier this month alleging that the signature that appears on the document is not his.
"Somebody signed his name and then scribbled through it," said Susan Forti, VanLandschoot's executive assistant. "But that is not the judge's signature. (The Ministers Alliance) met with the judge several months ago and asked him to be on the board and he told them no."
The judicial code of ethics prevents any judge from sponsoring a profit or nonprofit organization, Forti said.
Willie Davis denied any wrongdoing.
"No one in the organization has ever signed Judge VanLandschoot's signature to any public or private document known to me or the Board of Directors," he wrote in the letter.
VanLandschoot was also listed on ACAN stationery as an advisory board member. His name has since been removed.
Daniels' name also appeared on ACAN stationery without his approval, listing him as another advisory board member.
"I didn't know I was on the board," Daniels said. Jones said Daniels' name will be removed as well.
The Ministers Alliance's relationship with CCSN goes back farther than the controversial $15,000 loan. According to an August 1999 letter obtained by the Sun, Willie Davis sent a list of seven Ministers Alliance members to Richard Moore, then president of the college, asking CCSN to hire the seven.
At least five of the seven members on the list have since been hired by CCSN, including McTheron Jones.
In that letter, Willie Davis let Moore know he was unhappy with CCSN's hiring process.
"(I)t is sad that you have chosen to take the position of ignoring myself and the Ministerial Alliance ..." he wrote.
Cummings said it is important to note that current CCSN President Ron Remington's relationship with the Ministers Alliance is not the same as that of previous administrations.
"Let me state emphatically that Dr. Remington has never engaged in corresponding with the alliance or any group that would either recommend or demand that his administration hire any individual or group of individuals -- nor will he ever," Cummings said.
Jones said that he did not misuse his position at CCSN to get money for the alliance.
"I only used my position by the authority of the (alliance's) board of director to ask CCSN to pay those people off until we get our money from the (federal government)," Jones said.
But Regent Linda Howard said that CCSN officials should be culpable in this matter because they approved the funds.
"If anyone should be held responsible it is CCSN, because all ACAN did was to ask to borrow money to pay for the employees until their grant was approved," Howard said.
Howard and Alden said it's unfortunate that the group's effort to develop a halfway house has been lost in the controversy.
"I do think that the program that CCSN is partnering with is a very worthwhile program," Howard said. "We need something like this."
Daniels said he regrets the trouble caused by the $15,000 loan.
"In 20 years of being here, this is probably the most unfortunate thing that has happened," Daniels said. "I hope we don't pull out of this grant because of it."
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