With less than a week left before Election Day, a candidate for Port Arthur’s Position 7 at-large City Council seat is under scrutiny for the way she handled Hurricane Rita recovery funds going on 10 years ago.

In 2006 Charlotte Moses was administrator of the Love At Work Academy, also known as LAW Academy, a non-profit group originally started in November 2004 that catered to at-risk children.

The group was awarded $440,095 in hurricane recovery dollars, but after allegations of mismanagement, the contract was revoked.

Moses denied that the grant monies were mismanaged, but does admit she made mistakes while serving as administrator, learned from those mistakes and in no way did anything criminally wrong.

“It was a good learning experience for me. It taught me some things. I learned from that,” Moses told The News in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Moses’ experience with the grant funding started in 2006 when her husband, Albert Moses Jr., listed himself as Law Academy’s CEO/Administrator while applying a Social Service Block Grant for Emergency Disaster Relief Funds for Hurricane Rita. The Academy, according to a copy of the application supplied to The News, provided support service to individuals affected by Hurricane Rita.

The application stated it was LAW Academy’s mission to provide research-based social intervention services to adolescents who are at-risk becoming part of the juvenile justice system.

In his application, Albert Moses stated the services would be provided to youth 13 to 17 and their families. Because of those displaced by the hurricane, the numbers of at-risk youth had increased, according to the application.

At the time, the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission administered the grant funding. The SETRPC hired Beaumont CPA firm Charles E. Reed and Associates to review applications for the grant funding.

Of the 15 applications, L.A.W. was considered “high risk” because personnel associated with the organization did not have experience dealing with federal funds and lacked funding depth other than donations.

LAW Academy was the only grant applicant deemed “high risk.”

In spite of the cautionary designation, the SETRPC board granted L.A.W. Academy close to a half-million in hurricane recovery dollars. The grant was to be on a reimbursement basis, meaning LAW Academy would be responsible for paying its operational expenses upfront, and would be reimbursed by SETRPC for those expenses directly related to the Academy’s operation.

In May 2007, Charles Reed’s group conducted an on-site fiscal monitoring review of LAW Academy and found numerous deficiencies.

By this time, Charlotte Moses had been named LAW Academy’s administrator and was paid for her services. The Academy also rented space from Christian Faith Baptist Church, where Albert Moses Jr. serves as pastor. Albert Moses also provided counseling services to the youth and drove a L.A.W. van, both of which he was compensated for.

 

As are result of the on-site monitoring Charles Reed found there had not been a governing board meeting since Sept. 10, 2005, no evidence that a finance committee had been established, or a CPA firm retained to prepare periodic financial reports as required by the IRS.

There was also a lack of documented operating policies and procedures.

The CPA firm also found problems with financial records, and the fact that the operation was solely controlled by one family: the Moses.

Additionally, LAW bank statements indicated payments were being made that were unrelated to the organization’s purpose, such as tuition payments to Kelly High School, payments to Gulf Credit Union and Port Arthur Teachers Credit Union.

Some items purchased by LAW Academy were to be shipped to an address at 217 Live Oak Lane in Port Arthur, rather than the church’s address.

Client sign-in sheets did not match specific programs, times, numbers of encounters, counseling sessions, etc., the monitoring report indicated.

There were also inconsistencies with time sheets, and the fact that all employees, including Charlotte Moses, were listed as contract labor, when some should have been employees.

In June 2007, LAW Academy was monitored a second time, with similar findings, though some of the discrepancies had been corrected.

Among the findings from the second on-site visit, the monitoring report indicated LAW purchased a current version of QuickBooks, and Charlotte Moses had attended a training class at Farris Computer School.

“It appears that she (Charlotte Moses) does not possess the necessary knowledge or training to properly identify transactions and classify them resulting in a proper accounting of the organization’s revenues and expenses,” the report noted.

The report also stated there was evidence that checks were being “kited,” and that in one instance the LAW bank account was overdrawn by $975. That same month there were Academy checks made out to Sartins Seafood, Cheddar’s Geico, Modica Brothers, Walgreens’ Kelly High School and Raceway.

John Dubose, a SETRPC board member at the time the contract was awarded, told The News Wednesday that he did not believe there was any wrongdoing, rather the Moses did not understand the grant was one that would reimburse expenditures.

Though considered “high risk” Dubose said the LAW Academy did meet all the criteria required for grant recipients.

In the end, the SETRPC cancelled the contract with LAW Academy, Dubose said.

The vote to terminate the contract was not unanimous, he said.

“I think it is more of a misunderstanding of how grant funding was supposed to work. I think their intentions were good, they just did not understand it was a reimbursement type grant,” Dubose said. “I do know there was money spent on tuition for a child. It was not something they should have spent the money for, because that was not part of the grant that they could get reimbursed.”

DuBose said no criminal charges were filed. He declined to characterize the program’s administration as mismanagement.

In a telephone interview with Charlotte Moses Wednesday, she said she had explained her management procedures to the SETRPC board in 2007.

Since then, she has remained in business and still has a 5013C.

When the contract with the Regional Planning Commission was cancelled, LAW Academy had only spent a fraction of the grant money.

In the ensuing years, Moses said she returned to school, and started a drug testing business which is still in operation.

“I did not know how to manage a 5013. There were some mistakes made,” she said of her time as LAW administrator.

Today the LAW Academy is still going strong, and sees about 90 to 100 kids a year that are having problems with truancy.

“I have educated myself, took classes on 5013C, went back and learned from that mistake,” she said.

With only two days left of early voting, Moses said she believes the attack on her character is politically motivated.

“This is an attack. I can attack other candidates, but choose not to. Evidently they feel like they have to tear somebody down, but I don’t run my campaign like that,” she said.

“It was a good learning experience for me, it taught me some things. I learned from that. That experience helped me in life. It helped me know how to better do things,” Charlotte Moses said.

E-mail: sherry.koonce@panews.com

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