THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504230039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
As Pasquotank County's fledgling Smart Start program gathers steam, a tense relationship between the local agency and its very first contractor is heating up.
State officials are reviewing a contract between the Pasquotank County Partnership for Children, which oversees local Smart Start funds, and the Elizabeth City-based River City Community Development Corp.
At issue are concerns the partnership has raised over the management of River City's contract to run an outreach and information-gathering project called ``Family Ties.''
Partnership officials, who asked this month that the contract be canceled, said they suspect no wrongdoing and are merely seeking more details on how the project has been run.
But River City officials said they have been bypassed in the process and have not received formal requests about the concerns from local partnership officials.
Smart Start is a state program targeting children up to age 5. The program is intended to make sure all kids begin school ``healthy and ready to learn.''
One of Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s major initiatives, Smart Start now operates in 24 counties, bringing together community child-serving elements to keep kids from falling through the cracks. The governor is struggling with a frugal General Assembly for money to expand the project next year.
Last year, in the state's second round of funding the program, Pasquotank County was selected and has spent the bulk of the $700,000 in start-up funds it received.
Beginning in July, more than $1.2 million will be available to the Pasquotank partnership to spend annually on a host of services from day care and transportation to health care and immunizations.
The partnership is overseen by a 30-member board of parents and a range of child-service agency representatives. Just last week, it finished a long-term plan to guide its efforts as the program goes into full swing.
But an early project that surveyed potential clients on their needs and wishes has caused some consternation between the partnership and River City, the nonprofit community development organization hired to carry out the project for about $46,540.
In an April 13 letter to state Smart Start officials, Pasquotank partnership Executive Director Donna James-Whidbee asked the state to look into several concerns over the ``financial management'' of the Family Ties project.
Partnership officials went to the state for assistance because of the structure of Smart Start contracts: Although local agencies determine what projects to fund and who to hire, the contracts themselves are between the contractor and the state office.
The partnership's letter to Karen Ponder, Smart Start manager for the Division of Child Development in the state's Human Resources Department, raises concerns over whether some Family Ties outreach workers had been doing unrelated work for River City, and over some funds that had been budgeted but had not been used.
The project's front-end work was finished, successfully, earlier than expected, and partnership officials said they want to be sure that unused money is returned to the state.
The letter asks that the state ``immediately'' cancel the contract, which was to run through May 1, and calls on state officials to get answers to the local concerns. It also asks for an audit ``to determine if monies were utilized solely for the Family Ties project.''
Partnership officials said this week that they did not believe money was mishandled by River City but that they did want answers to their questions.
``We're just trying to be very vigilant about how our money's spent,'' said partnership Chairman Randy Keaton, also the Pasquotank County manager. Keaton said all contractors working with the partnership will fall under the same scrutiny. ``We're not picking on River City. It just happened to be our first contract.''
River City officials on Friday declined to comment on the specifics of the letter but said they would provide the requested information and were sure they had done nothing improper. They said they had planned to submit a full financial report when they are completely through with the project next month.
River City President and CEO Lenora Jarvis-Mackey and board member Earl Brown said the letter, which had been faxed to them by state officials Friday, had caught them by surprise. The partnership had not formally requested any of that information from River City, they said.
``To this date we have had no formal requests,'' Brown said. ``We have referred the matter to our legal adviser. . . . We will respond.''
Jarvis-Mackey had informally addressed some of the partnership's concerns during a partnership board meeting on Tuesday, officials said. Keaton said assurances that unused money would go back to the state had resolved some of the agency's questions.
Jarvis-Mackey also wrote Keaton a letter dated April 21 responding to unapproved partnership board minutes from an April 10 meeting. Those minutes reflect concerns similar to those raised in the partnership's April 13 letter to the state.
``To suggest or imply that there has been some misuse of funds without any substantiated facts and to further request that the RCCDC contract be terminated is simply unacceptable,'' Jarvis-Mackey's letter to Keaton says.
``By listing, so called, discrepancies and raising questions which have not been documented, you have impugned the integrity of RCCDC and its management of this project.''
River City officials insisted, and partnership members agreed, that the Family Ties project had accomplished what it set out to do.
About 400 people were interviewed in the process, James-Whidbee, the partnership's executive director, said Thursday. A report compiling data about residents' attitudes and experiences with child and health services is being prepared at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
``That project has had high regard in terms of the other Family Ties projects'' in the state, Smart Start manager Ponder agreed. ``I think this is probably just a misunderstanding.''
Still, Ponder said, the letter from the Pasquotank partnership was unusual. ``We haven't been asked, for example, to cancel a contract before,'' Ponder said.
She said her office will not terminate the contract until it reviews the situation.
``All the parties have been cooperative with our office,'' Ponder said. ``We have asked Lenora Mackey to respond to the concerns that the partnership has raised. . . . I've been assured by Lenora that they have followed the terms of the contract.''
Local officials on both sides of the dispute attributed some of their problems to the contract system itself. Since the contractor's legal agreement is with the state agency, communication between River City and the local partnership was not defined as well as it should have been, they said.
While the partnership has some oversight, ``the level of those oversight responsibilities are not very clear, are not spelled out,'' Brown said. ``I'm sure this is going to be a common theme.''
James-Whidbee said it will take some experience to work out the bugs in the process.
``This is all new to everybody,'' James-Whidbee said. ``River City was green to procedures just as the partnership was green to procedures.
``Because it's so new, none of the parties have any protocol. There is no protocol.'' by CNB