Charity officials 'circle the wagons'
Jeffry Scott / Staff
Impassioned plea: United Way board member Grace Carroll fiercely defended agency management Thursday.
Standing ovation: Hank Roraback, front, chief operating officer for Tucson's United Way, joins audience members in applauding board member Grace Carroll's impassioned defense of agency management and her criticism of Star articles during a board meeting Thursday.
Backers rally behind longtime president
By Carol Ann Alaimo
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
United Way's board of directors and advisers rallied behind the local agency's longtime president yesterday and dismissed any suggestion that the organization has management problems.
One board member drew a standing ovation after urging United Way leaders to defend United Way President Ed Parker and his staff.
"I think it's time for this agency to circle the wagons and support the CEO and the staff," said Grace Carroll, a United Way community advisory board member at a meeting of United Way's board of directors.
It was the board's first meeting since the Arizona Daily Star ran a three-day series of stories this week that raised questions about some United Way business practices. Carroll was one of several board leaders who criticized the newspaper yesterday and praised the efforts of Parker, who has been at the local United Way since 1976.
Carroll also chastised representatives from some member agencies, who were quoted in the Star's stories saying they thought United Way had been misleading the public.
"I'm thoroughly disgusted with the agencies and people with private agendas," Carroll said. "I resent that (United Way) has been put in a spotlight."
After Carroll finished speaking, several United Way senior staff members and others in the audience rose to their feet applauding.
Rita Weatherholt, who represents member agencies on the United Way board, said after the meeting that she was saddened by Carroll's comments. Weatherholt is a member of a committee that was recently set up in an attempt to heal a rift between member agencies and United Way President Parker.
"What I heard today - the 'circle the wagons' sentiment expressed - really leads me to question how much willingness there is on the part of United Way to explore and effect changes," she said.
Tom Roof, new chair of United Way's board of directors, opened Thursday's meeting by saying "I strongly believe in the agency and its management."
Roof said in an interview after the meeting that while United Way may have some problems, "I don't think that they are to the magnitude that (the Star) portrayed."
The newspaper's three-month investigation found, among other things, that more than $2 million raised by United Way left town last year or went to causes that do not serve the needy. The money was designated by donors to charities worldwide because Tucson's United Way does not put any limits on where donor-choice dollars can go.
The Star also found that United Way does not follow several nationally-recommended charity standards for financial reporting and public disclosure. As a result, United Way has at times overstated by hundreds of thousands of dollars the amount of money it gave to local agencies.
As well, United Way did not disclose until recently that nearly $1 million of the money it counted toward last year's local campaign was actually raised at a company in California and was never intended to stay in Tucson. And United Way also had not told the public about its practice of charging some donors more than others to cover the agency's stated 13 percent administrative overhead costs.
Board chair Roof said three United Way committees are now working to improve in several areas.
One committee will look at how United Way reports its finances to the public and how administrative fees are structured. Another will try to "better educate the community and agencies" about donor choice and local needs.
The third committee - the one already formed to improve the working relationship between Parker and member agencies - will also look at possible restrictions on donor choice to keep donated dollars from leaving town, said Neal Eckel, a former United Way board member who is leading that committee.
United Way's board also approved an upcoming advertisement to run in local media in response to the Star's findings.
The ad, which will run in the form of a letter to the community, defends some United Way practices and promises changes in others.
At one point, the letter contends that the media omitted important information about a $1.9 million discrepancy in the amount of money member agencies received in 1999.
In Star interviews with Parker and finance staff members, no specific explanation was given for the discrepancy other than it was the result of timing differences in how the money was collected and disbursed.
The letter to the public offers a new explanation, which says most of the $1.9 million went to the United Way's internal programs and to the United Way of Santa Cruz County and Cochise County.
The letter makes no mention of a $700,000 discrepancy in payments to member agencies that occurred in 1998.
United Way board members also received several letters Thursday, most critical of the Star and supportive of Parker.
"Our Board supports Ed as executive director of United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona," said a letter from Robert A. Berg, president of University Physicians Inc., where Parker is vice president of the board of directors.
"We find the recent articles in the local newspapers to be unfair and misrepresentations of the performance of the United Way and Ed's integrity, skill and commitment to Tucson," Berg's letter said.
Kenneth Ryan, a doctor who sits on Univeristy Physicians' board, said in a separate letter: "I endorse the leadership of Ed Parker in the strongest possible terms."
Another letter, from a former United Way official in Colorado who now lives in Tucson, said the Star's findings amount to evidence of "gross incompetence" at United Way.
"It is incumbent on the board of directors to take action swiftly and firmly to remove management from active involvment with the agency until a thorough audit and report can be conducted," said Elise Collins-Shields, a former division chair with United Way in Colorado Springs.
* Contact Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or at caalaimo@azstarnet.com.
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