Consultant must conduct thorough review of MYCAP
For the next three months, the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership will be under the direction of a man who has a strong record of working for and with such agencies.
The hiring of John A. Wilson is the second good move by the MYCAP board of trustees aimed at restoring the credibility of the agency. The first was firing Richard Roller as the director.
Granted, the trustees had no choice but to get rid of Roller after the release of some of the findings from a probe conducted by the Ohio Department of Development.
The state investigation, which began late last year, is focused on misuse of funds, nepotism, conflict of interest and a number of other issues, including weatherization work done on Roller’s house.
MYCAP is a nonprofit agency that administers 11 programs in Mahoning County to help poor and disadvantaged people.
The final draft of DOD’s audit has been sent to the agency for comments, which must be submitted to the state by Dec. 15.
ABOUT INTERIM DIRECTOR
Wilson is president of Progress Resources Inc., a nonprofit training and technical assistance organization in Pennsylvania and is the former executive director of the Community Action Association of Pennsylvania. The $230,000 contract calls for his company to review MYCAP’s policies and procedures and to lead the search for a new permanent executive director.
But more importantly, Wilson must rebuild the credibility of the agency. To do that, he should conduct a top-to-bottom review of the staff, particularly the management team.
He also should determine whether the board of trustees was in any way complicit in what was taking place in the agency, especially with regard to the activities of the former director, Roller.
In commenting on the hiring of Wilson, board President Jamael Tito Brown said, “It is great news to get John on board to help get the agency back to serving the community and to maintain its integrity.”
The integrity of MYCAP has been all but destroyed and must be rebuilt. The word maintain, as used by Brown, does not reflect the seriousness of what has taken place.
For instance, Roller hired his brother, Jason, as food-service manager, and two of his cousins and his daughter were also on the payroll, as were other close family members.
LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED
As we asked in a previous editorial, how could a public entity that is funded by the taxpayers become an employment agency for members of one family?
That question goes to the heart of the agency’s credibility and demands an answer. We trust that Wilson will conduct a thorough investigation of the hiring practices.
Taxpayers have a right to know who is on the payroll, what qualifications and experience they possess and how they got their jobs.
Wilson must not leave any stone unturned. The public needs to be assured that MYCAP is worthy of their dollars.