In short, ACORN or not, the 2010 census will be an organizing tool for the American Left.

Here is a partial list of other census partners, according to the Census website:

AARP

A. Phillip Randolph Institute

AFL-CIO

American Federation of Government Employees

AFSCME

American Federation of Teachers

Coalition of Labor Union Women

Coalition of Black Trade Unionists

Community Action Partnership

Families USA

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Labor Council for the Latin American Advancement

League of Women Voters of the United States

National Black Justice Coalition

National Council of La Raza

National Education Association

Pride at Work

Rainbow Push Coalition

Service Employees International Union

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

United Workers

My problem all along is that overtly political organizations, say SEIU or ACORN, would be out collecting sensitive information on Americans.  What would stop them from zapping off one copy of personal information for themselves as they submit it to the Census Bureau?  The federal government We will essentially be paying organized labor and “social justice” organizations to recruit new members.

With such a tight grip on the Census by the Obama administration and its allies, one wonders what the end result will be and if it can be trusted.

Workforce Alliance

But, she has also picked up the support of the DailyKos, not a traditionally deep well of support for Republicans. Oh, and ACORN’s Working Families Party. Below is a memo Big Government obtained circulating among leaders of the conservative movement. It is from New York State Conservative Party Chair, Mike Long:

Donors to the Republican National Congressional Committee have a right to expect their support will help candidates who are broadly in accord with the Republican Party’s fundamental principles. 

There is little doubt, in these lean times, Americans who make contributions to the NRCC would be shocked to learn their dollars are actually supporting the campaign of an unrepentant liberal who opposes the central achievements of today’s Republican Congressional delegation.

Yet that is exactly to sad a state of affairs we now confront.  The NRCC is using the contributions of loyal Republicans across the country to fund the Congressional bid of Liberal New York State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava. 

Assemblywoman Scozzafava supports the Obama tax-and-spend Stimulus Package – - the same package the Republicans now in Congress unanimously rejected.  She defends the kind of earmarked pork-barrel spending that cost Republicans so much credibility in the last election.  She supports Big Labor’s card check attack on the secret ballot.  And she twice voted to legalize gay marriage.

Assemblywoman Scozzafava wasn’t picked by the voters.  Party bosses selected her, reportedly with the guidance and direction of the NRCC. 

So, what is at stake here is more than the risk of electing yet another Arlen Specter-style liberal Republican.  This is a battle about the soul and future of the Republican Party.

Some think the way to win elections is to mimic the Democrats, to offer the voters “liberal-lite” in hopes of finding accommodation with the Democrats and success at the polls.

The NRCC’s support for liberal Assemblywoman Scozzafava is a disturbing indication that the NRCC is test marketing a campaign message blurring the differences between the parties instead of principled opposition to the liberal Democrats’ agenda.  

The “me-to” approach is both sure to fail politically and deeply dishonest to the NRCC’s core financial supporters.  The donors who sacrifice to write checks to the NRCC don’t expect their efforts to be diverted to liberals like Assemblywoman Scozzafava.

Accordingly, while we are all friends of the NRCC, we reluctantly call for a moratorium on any financial contributions to the NRCC until that organization ceases support for Assemblywoman Scozzafava and clarifies its plans for candidate recruitment and support going forward.

There are great opportunities ahead for the Republicans in Congress.  Those opportunities cannot be squandered by political miscalculations and a lack of faith in the central values of the Republican Party.

Sincerely,

Mike Long

Chairman, New York State Conservative Party

It isn’t mentioned in the memo, but Scozzafava has run for the state Assembly repeatedly with the endorsement of ACORN’s Working Families Party. The WFP was formed for the express purpose of pushing the Democratic party to the left. The principle-bending gymnastics involved for a Republican to seek out their endorsement are positively mind-boggling.

Count us as big believers in the “big tent’ theory of political parties. No matter how large you want to build your tent, though, it still has to be built on a solid foundation. You’d think Republicans could agree that ACORN’s Working Families party–based on what we know right now–wouldn’t have a place there.

Those of you who think a GOP return to the majority in 2010 will right what ails us should keep this in mind.

It has been well-documented that last year Rathke “left” ACORN U.S. to head over to ACORN International and export ACORN’s brand of organizing and tactics.  He has since changed the group’s name to Community Organizations International.

ACORN Community Organizing Model is not the type of document ACORN would wish to have on the Internet.  For ACORN, is tantamount to Eisenhower’s plan for D-Day being printed on the front page of the Washington Post.  Not a good thing for the ultra-secretive group.

Consider this frank section of “SETTING UP THE ORGANIZING DRIVE:”

2.  Contacts:  The whole process of making contacts is built on a pyramid theory.  Make one that leads to others.  The purpose of contacts is to gather information and resources, and to build power.  There are three types:  hot, warm, cold.  The hot contacts are people we have met before at some point in the organization’s history.  Check the biographical file in the state office.  Warm contacts are those we have not met but know something about in order to build an edge, i.e. we have an opener or a handle for the conversation – something they did, someone they know who we know, some reason to believe we can hit the core.  The cold contacts are those people we must meet for some reason, yet we have no lead to them.  The only edge there is simply an organizer’s skill in prying information and setting up his/her ego in order to loosen her/his tongue in person or on the phone.  It’s a skill to be perfected, if you’re greasy, you are in the hole. 

Groups such as Leaders and Organizers of Community Organizations in Asia clearly didn’t nor don’t understand the pressure and scrutiny ACORN has faced over the last several months.  But their foolishness or naivete is the ACORN’s researcher’s gain.

For whatever reason, the LOCOA site doesn’t create a direct link to the individual page.  If you wish to see it for yourself on the LOCOA site, go here, then click on Program in the menu bar.  Then, go to the second page of documents and click on ACORN Community Organizing Model.  Or, to save yourself time (not to mention if and when the document disappears from the website), you can visit ACORNcracked.com for a PDF.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis and Former Enron CEO Ken Lay

Substitute Bertha Lewis for Ken Lay and ACORN for Enron, in this hypothetical situation, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what was asked of us at Lewis’ tour-de-force theatrical performance at the National Press Club earlier this week. She alternated between attacking her critics, expressing disgust with the actions of her employees caught on tape by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles and vowing to pursue a lawsuit against the filmmakers for capturing on film her employees’ misdeeds. Oh, and by the way, she really, really—she means it this time—intends to “clean house” at ACORN.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank captured the surreal tableau best:

But Lewis, in playing the victim, is her own worst enemy. Forget the film of the pimp and prostitute: Watching a film of Lewis’s performance yesterday would probably be enough to cause lawmakers to cut off ACORN’s federal funding.

Which raises a question: Why does Bertha Lewis get to “clean house” at ACORN? Even today, actions have consequences. The fact that the employee behavior exposed by O’Keefe and Giles happened on her watch—and she has been less than forthcoming about it, by the way—would alone be enough to get most CEO’s booted. Worse, though, is the implication that Lewis has been complicit in ACORN’s missteps for a long time. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Bertha Lewis isn’t the solution to ACORN’s problems. Bertha Lewis is the problem.”

Bertha Lewis has been a long-time leader of ACORN. She became CEO—“Chief Organizer” in the ACORN vernacular—in June, 2008. Around that time, an attorney hired by ACORN, Elizabeth Kingsley, delivered a detailed, 15-page memo to ACORN’s board, highlighting actual and potential problems with ACORN’s operations. Kingsley made a series of very specific recommendations to “clean house” within ACORN. In the 15 months since the memo was delivered, I’m not aware of any efforts ACORN has made to implement these reforms.

Also in 2008, ACORN’s board appointed a special committee to investigate a long-covered up embezzlement scandal. (Ms. Lewis was part of the cover-up.) The embezzlement had been recently revealed by the New York Times. This special committee, and other ACORN leaders, pressed for a full forensic audit of the organization. For this transgression, under the leadership of Bertha Lewis, they were booted out of ACORN. No audit of ACORN has ever been released to the public.

Last week, Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN and victim of Lewis’ 2008 palace coup, made a rare appearance in DC to promote his recent book. Big Government contributor Maura Flynn attended, filmed his talk and asked questions. The interview is interesting. Rathke said they decided to cover-up the embezzlement because ACORN leadership feared its enemies would “weaponize” the scandal against them. He also conjectured that, based on the recent scandal engulfing ACORN, that decision looks to have been the right one.

Which raises several questions for Lewis, since she was a co-conspirator in the embezzlement cover-up: Are you going to truly “clean house” in ACORN or only in those areas that have been publically revealed? Are you focused on rooting out actual corruption or only the corruption the public knows about? Do you see your employees’ transgressions as potential “weapons” your opponents will use against you or actual misdeeds that need to be expunged from ACORN? Can I remind you that several of your offices believed they were assisting an underage sex-trafficking ring? And, they were happy to do so.

Lewis makes a nod to public sentiment in acknowledging the potential criminal activity, yet continues to devote a considerable amount of her time to attacking O’Keefe and Giles and some vast conspiracy against ACORN. (The most devastating take-downs of ACORN have been produced by Jon Stewart and Jay Leno, both absent from my vast right-wing conspiracy membership database.) Worse than this, though; she hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about the videos we have all seen. She continues to claim the videos are doctored, but it has been almost a month since we released the first video. I haven’t seen any evidence from you that these were doctored. Surely, roughly thirty days is enough time to build that case. We released the full audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews.

Second, we initially released videos from Baltimore and Washington, DC. Lewis said then that the filmmakers were thrown out of ACORN offices in “San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Philadelphia.” We have so far released videos from two of those cities. Was she lying? Or, simply misled by her staff?

The most troubling reservation, however, has to do with the “independent” panel Lewis appointed to guide ACORN through its current troubles. All are long-time ideological allies of ACORN. It asks too much of us to consider them independent. John Podesta is a long-time ally of ACORN. He was instrumental in the creation of Media Matters (for Bulgaria), who is currently exhausting any credibility it ever had spinning for ACORN. Andy Stern, as head of SEIU, has shoveled millions of dollars to ACORN over the years. His own organization has publically stated that they have “cut ties to ACORN,” yet there Stern remains deep in ACORN’s inner circle. Former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, the newly appointed “ACORN Czar,” is a kindred fellow-traveler. His thirst for political power may even exceed Lewis’, as he seems to have been willing to put an innocent man behind bars for two decades to further his own political career. Much more about all of these individuals will be revealed soon. (No, we haven’t begun to release all the information we have.)

So, is Bertha serious about wanting to “clean house?” Has she had a genuine “road to Damascus” moment and is now committed to reform. Color me skeptical, but here are three quick things she could do to begin to restore the public’s trust:

Disclose all of ACORN’s affiliates. Publically reveal the names of every entity that is part of the ACORN ‘family.” I’ve heard there are 100, 200 and even 400 different organizations. Please give the public the full list.

Order full audits of every ACORN affiliate. ACORN has been entrusted with millions of dollars of local, state and federal funds. Reassure the public that these funds haven’t been misspent. If they have been misspent, admit it and discipline the offenders. Release the audits to the public, with proprietary or personal information redacted.

Appoint a real independent panel. A review panel made up of your political allies is not independent. It is akin to appointing the foxes to review the henhouse. It has become accepted in recent years that boards of directors need a lot of “outside” directors to oversee operations. No institution would benefit as much from this as ACORN.

 Three simple steps, but, giant leaps to restoring any integrity ACORN may have once enjoyed. Lewis, you can pick the high road or the low road. If she continues on her current path–the low road–then she’s gotta go.

With all the unpleasantness that’s been in the news lately (ACORN, Polanski, Jaycee Lee Dugard, etc.), I was reminded of a book titled “The Last Undercover” by my friend, fellow Marine, and Big Hollywood contributor, Bob Hamer.  Bob spent twenty-six years in the FBI, all as a special agent working the streets, many of those years in an undercover capacity. He was the undercover agent in twenty administratively approved operations. Some of those assignments lasted a day or two others more than three years. He played such diverse roles as a drug dealer, contract killer, international arms merchant, degenerate gambler, and white collar criminal. By his own admission his most difficult role was playing a pedophile for three years as he infiltrated the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

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First, let me say that “The Last Undercover” is absolutely riveting.  Seeing inside an organization like NAMBLA, one that preys on children, through Bob’s eyes is enough to keep you up at night.  However, as things have transpired over the last few weeks, I couldn’t help but wonder about the people on the periphery of such groups and individuals.  For instance, I remembered the travel agent in Bob’s book that was more than happy to set up the NAMBLA members’ trip to have sex with children.  Sure, he didn’t have sex with kids but, if he could make a few bucks off of others doing it, he was pretty okay with the idea.  How about the lovely folks at ACORN?  Setting up a brothel for underage prostitutes?  Okay, let’s figure out the tax ramifications for such a venture.  Then, of course, we have the folks that are defending the talented Mr. Polanski.

So, what is it with these people?  Why the indifference to the idea of adults having sex with children? In what universe is this behavior acceptable?

I decided to talk to my buddy, Bob, to get his take on it.

————————–

J.R. Head:  Bob, you spent a lot of time and energy taking down the folks at NAMBLA.  As a father, hell, as a human being, I’d like to thank you for that.  Right now, though, I’m trying to look at the bigger picture.  What are your thoughts about these folks on the periphery of such activity, the facilitators and enablers of sex with children?

Bob Hamer:  Wow!  No softball questions from you right out of the chute.

JRH:  Not today.

BH:  Well, I have never met a capitalist pacifist who owned gun store.  I believe fundamentally, the pacifist does not want to encourage what he perceives as a potential for violence, even if it might be profitable to own a gun store.  I’m a gun owner so don’t jump on me for that illustration but those I met while working undercover who helped facilitate sex with children saw nothing wrong with what they believed to be “consensual” sex with a child.  In fact, most believed an “enlightened” society would see the benefits of encouraging sex between consenting individuals of any age.  No one satisfactorily identified to me what those benefits were but “boy-lovers” as NAMBLA members refer to themselves often cite the ancient Greeks as an enlightened society.  The travel agent had no objection to putting together overseas trips even though he claimed not to be sexually attracted to boys.

JRH:  So, it was about the money?

BH: Certainly there was a profit motive for him but he saw nothing wrong with men having sex with boys and told me so.  Had he found the actions abhorrent I would hope he would never facilitate such conduct.

A Chicago psychologist we arrested who had a PhD told me of seeing a five-year-old operating out of a boy-bar in Thailand.  The psychologist said he did not have sex with that particular boy because the child “didn’t do anything for me, but I can’t be…a hypocrite and say, you know, ‘don’t do that…’” The psychologist told me his age of preference was “ten to twelve” and saw nothing wrong with his conduct. In fact, he bragged about his conquests.

JRH:  So, in his mind, having sex with kids is okay but God forbid he gets called a hypocrite.  Those are some messed up priorities, man.  Give me some info on NAMBLA.  What’s their story?

BH:  NAMBLA was formed in 1978.  Ostensibly its purpose was to abolish age-of-consent laws.  As my three-year infiltration demonstrated, the organization made no effort whatsoever to change the law.  Its sole purpose was to allow like-minded men, sexually attracted to boys, to legally congregate under the protection of the 1^st Amendment.  Even their definition of “consensual” differed from mine and I hope all of our readers.  They essentially defined “consensual” as “not bringing physical harm.”  I sat through a discussion where men believed it permissible to have oral sex with an eighteen-month-old boy as long as the boy wasn’t physically harmed.

JRH:  You’re kidding me.  How the hell do they justify that?

BH:  They justified the action because a child, while exploring his own body, might like the gentle touch of fondling himself.  Since the men believed they were in essence bringing pleasure to the child, their actions were permissible, even proper.  When that is your worldview, when you support men who believe those actions to be proper, it is easy to justify a lot of actions the rest of society deems illegal, even evil.

Most NAMBLA members with whom I interacted believe the boy-lover philosophy will be mainstreamed within their lifetimes.  I would have never thought that even remotely possible until recently.

JRH:  That’s the vibe I’ve been getting lately, too.  While reading “The Last Undercover,” I was filled with feelings of revulsion and anger about what these predators do.  I was especially disturbed to hear how they “profile” their potential prey and engage in the “grooming” of the target and the target’s family.  On the other hand, an understanding that the vast majority of people in the country would feel the same way about it comforted me.  However, the Polanski situation has kind of made me reevaluate my worldview.  Is the moral outrage over having sex with children eroding before our very eyes?

BH:  After investigating organized crime, drugs, terrorism, and child exploitation for two and a half decades, little shocks me but I am appalled at the Roman Polanski apologists.  Since when does being a “brilliant, fantastic genius” excuse anyone from heinous criminal conduct?  He admitted guilt.  He drugged, raped, and sodomized a thirteen-year-old girl.  Are we to excuse him only because his talent brought him riches and therefore he was wealthy enough to flee punishment?  Does Hollywood creativity allow one an alternative moral universe?

Whoopi Goldberg said on The View it wasn’t “rape-rape.”  No, it was non-consensual anal intercourse of a child.  Are we so perverted we will excuse such conduct because the perpetrator is an “artist?”  How can any parent or a person with a conscience condone such behavior?  Imagine the outrage of these same apologists had this been a TV evangelist or a priest.

I admire the victim who has forgiven Polanski but criminal charges are brought by the state.  A criminal indictment does not read “victim vs. defendant.”  It is the state or the federal government versus the accused.  Society is harmed by criminal conduct.  Apparently Polanski’s harm was greater than I first thought and not just to the child victim. It has infected a certain segment of society which condones the behavior and believes he should go unpunished.  Read the charges!  Read his admissions!  He deserves to be punished.

Polanski’s status as a Holocaust survivor has been cited as a reason excusing his criminal actions. As horrible as that experience must have been I can’t help but remember another survivor, Tibor Rubin. He wanted to pay back America for liberating him from the Mauthausen concentration camp in May 1945. Rubin joined the Army, fought in Korea, and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

JRH:  I’ve met Mr. Rubin.  He struck me as an extremely humble and unassuming man.  He has an incredible story and I encourage my readers to look him up on the web.  That being said, Polanski is just one part of this.  The folks at ACORN who turned a blind eye to what they believed to be a brothel for child prostitutes also bothered me.  Now, I’m hearing about this Jennings fellow.  Do you have any insight into that?

BH:  Kevin Jennings is President Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education.  His history and beliefs are well documented in the numerous books he has authored and edited.  There is some dispute as to the legality of his conduct while working as a teacher but by Jennings’ own admission the only counseling he gave a male high school student, who admitted having sex with a man he met in a public restroom, was to use a condom.  Jennings also has high praise for Harry Hay.  If NAMBLA had a Hall of Fame, Hay would be a member.  Hay fought for NAMBLA’s inclusion in the International Lesbian and Gay Association and once carried a sign proclaiming “NAMBLA Walks With Me.”  Although Hay died before I was invited to attend any of NAMBLA’s secret, underground meetings, Hay was a featured speaker at several NAMBLA conferences and at forums on man/boy love.  When members of the Administration admit to admiring a NAMBLA icon it gives me cause for concern and is at the very least a reason for further inquiry.

JRH:  I agree.  Do you feel like this is part of an inevitable coarsening of society in regards to the sexualization of children?

BH: What struck me about NAMBLA was how many men I encountered were high functioning members of our society…doctors, lawyers, ministers, teachers.  Yet these men looked upon boys as sexual objects and had no desire to change their behavior.  In the case of Polanski, “artists” are apologists for child rape.  As to ACORN, let me say I have the highest regard for the work of James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.  The ACORN tapes reinforce the idea that a segment of this society is unable to discern evil.  How can you label oral sex on infants or rape of a thirteen-year-old girl or promoting childhood prostitution as anything but evil?  We as a society must remain vigilant and maintain our moral compass.  I fear too many have lost theirs or never had one.

JRH:  I fear you may be right.  Thank you, Bob, for your service, your courage and for taking some time to talk with me, today.

Political scientists lobbying Congress for federal subsidies

The National Science Foundation spends about $8 million annually to support political science research

Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force attempts to predict individuals’ political affiliation based on Facebook profiles

Congress earmarks $3 million to a company owned by Goldman Sachs and two private equity funds

Congress raids the military’s maintenance budget to pay for $5 million earmark for digital scrapbooks

The Federal Aviation Administration has spent more than $270 million in federal stimulus grants on projects that scored poorly on the agency’s own national priority rating system

Department of Homeland Security steers nearly $1 million in federal funding, typically distributed to fire departments, to ACORN

The activist group, which has long worked with criminals as it preys on the weak and the troubled, is on the verge of yet another public relations catastrophe. 

That’s because a cross-dressing Ohio male escort whom ACORN registered multiple times to vote was convicted of full-fledged vote fraud in addition to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud. A spokesman for Cleveland prosecutor Bill Mason (an elected Democrat) confirmed yesterday that a local investigation of ACORN remains wide open.

The conviction of Darnell Nash (shown in photo above), apparently known by several aliases including Serina “Sexy Slay” Gibbs, is hugely significant for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that ACORN has long maintained that vote fraud, as opposed to the lesser crime of voter registration fraud, essentially never happens.

It appears to be another historic first for ACORN.

ACORN’s Ohio chapter had a run-in with another alleged prostitute last fall.

A woman named Shari Bell who was allegedly a crack cocaine user, prostitute, and ACORN worker, was arrested on drug and prostitution charges in October. Bell was arrested by Cincinnati police after she allegedly offered an undercover cop sex for money. Police found a crack pipe in the pocket of her coat.

Real the full story at American Spectator.

This week, I wanted to make you aware of a growing concern about the U.S. Census and illegal aliens and how the two could drastically affect congressional apportionment and possibly your own state’s congressional representation. 

In the past, some states have included illegal aliens in the collection of census data, and this has often resulted in the allocation of additional congressional seats to those states – at the expense of other states that lose seats because of the skewed data. 

Illegal aliens shouldn’t be included for the purposes of determining representation in Congress.  I don’t believe that this is what our founding fathers had in mind when they laid out our current system of representation.

Illegal immigration is a very real and significant concern for our country.  We shouldn’t let these states be rewarded for skirting our federal laws.

That’s why this week, I introduced an amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill that would require questions in the census regarding citizenship and immigration status. The amendment is, of course, designed to help us identify illegal aliens, primarily to prevent states from counting them for the purposes of determining population levels and other data associated with the census.

The data collected during the census is used by Congress to determine multiple issues of importance beyond apportionment, including government program spending levels.  Essentially, my amendment would prevent funding from being used to collect census data that does not include a question regarding United States citizenship and immigration status.

It’s a very simple and direct amendment that can help us bring about a very positive change.  It obviously won’t help us identify all illegal aliens, but it’s a step in the right direction.

More than two years before an ersatz pimp and prostitute raised troubling questions about Acorn Housing Corp.’s financial advice, Louisiana officials criticized the organization’s bookkeeping as it denied the group tens of thousands of dollars from a potential $1.5 million state contract.

The office overseeing the contract recommended against rehiring Acorn Housing in part because it couldn’t document its work.  The contract was designed to inform low-income residents about the Road Home program and help them apply for post-hurricane benefits.

A much smaller $53,000 contract that Acorn Community Land Association had with the state attorney general’s office also was criticized for thin financial justification, though the group got its full payment and was recommended for future work. The contract was to tell hurricane victims of non-discriminatory housing policies as they sought temporary rentals.

In both contracts, the state files contain promotional materials extolling the virtues of paying for an ACORN membership – a solicitation expressly forbidden under the contracts.

“If you are not rich, you need to join your ACORN community group and work on the problems affecting you,” reads one flier in the attorney general’s file.

Several governors, including Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, have frozen payments to ACORN or its hundreds of affiliated groups. The state has no current contracts, but records revealed the two expired contracts that paid the organizations more than $700,000.

ACORN officials did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

In the larger of the two state contracts, Acorn Housing was paid $671,000. However, it asked for much more: $801,000.

In the final evaluation of the contract, the state said Acorn Housing achieved the goal of reaching some of the targeted potential Road Home applicants, but it recommended that the state not rehire Acorn Housing.

That’s mainly because Acorn Housing kept lousy records, said Belinda Kennedy, who monitored the contract for the state’s Office of Community Development.

In the end, she rated Acorn Housing as being in “marginal compliance” with the state contract.

“There were items they were billing that we couldn’t account for,” she said in an interview this week.

Overall, the state said the invoices on file in the Acorn Housing office didn’t always match what was submitted to the state, some travel expenses couldn’t be confirmed or justified, and that the hours worked by employees weren’t always properly billed.

The final review of the contract said that Acorn Housing worked face-to-face with 629 households and another 159 over the phone in the 10 months between December 2006 and September 2007. Its subcontractor, working in rural western Louisiana parishes more affected by Hurricane Rita, reached more people, for a total of 2,099 households served by the contract.

Kennedy worked with Acorn Housing officials to try to clear up the bookkeeping problems, visiting the New Orleans office four months after the contract ended. She said she encouraged agency officials to work to justify some of the questionable billing.

 “We never heard back from them,” Kennedy said.

More background on this story can be found here.