By JOHN W. ALLMAN and JOSE PATINO GIRONA The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Each week, the hole grew deeper. Morale sank lower. And questions piled higher.

But the board of directors of the Tampa-Hillsborough Urban League never took the next logical step, especially for a group charged with protecting the public interest and public dollars of a national charity’s local chapter.

The Urban League has no idea, more than two years after uncovering widespread financial problems, just how severe those problems were, how much money may have been involved or exactly what happened.

Why?

Its finances were in such disrepair in early 2004 that the board could not pay for a forensic audit, the most in-depth accounting examination available, to determine whether anything improper had occurred.

“We were struggling to meet payroll week to week,” said former board secretary Kristine DiGiovanni. “We still don’t know how bad it was, when it started and who did what when.”

Many of the organization’s problems are being linked to Joanna Tokley, the league’s 20-year chief executive officer, who retired in April 2004 after the board’s discovery of financial questions.

Tokley issued a prepared statement Thursday wishing the charity well and blaming much of its current financial situation on a restoration project for its new offices. She said that during her tenure the organization received an unqualified financial audit every year, meaning no questions were raised. She said the last audit before her exit showed a deficit of $600,000. Today that debt is $3.1 million.

Tokley later addressed specific criticisms, including allegations of financial discrepancies.

“Prove it,” she said. “Where’s the documentation? Why after all this time are people bringing up stuff?”

Tokley singled one person out - Alonda Vaughan, the charity’s former chief financial officer. She said Vaughan was responsible for sending tax withholdings from employee paychecks to the Internal Revenue Service. Those deposits were not made for some time, resulting in more than $216,000 in federal tax liens.

Vaughan, who left the charity at the same time as Tokley, could not be reached for comment.

League In Limbo

It was only a matter of time until Tampa’s Urban League reached critical mass. Program funding has been cut. The office has been on probation with the National Urban League since 2004.

Today, the league’s future is uncertain. It recently transferred two state-funded programs to another nonprofit agency. Board Chairwoman Lois Davis said last week a decision is expected sometime in July, but she has declined to comment further.

As recently as May 2005, the state attorney general’s office said more accountability was necessary for the league to continue receiving funding.

A May 17, 2005, assessment by the AG’s director of auditing demanded a number of steps be taken, including an audit of the office from 1999 to 2003 and a stipulation that no money was to be handed out until the charity paid off remaining federal liens and was taken off probation.

The assessment said more than $50,000 was owed in back membership dues to the National Urban League in New York, in addition to a $52,820 federal lien and a $40,859 circuit court judgment for delinquent health benefits.

‘They’re Done’

“I think they are done,” Tampa City Council member Kevin White said Thursday. “I think it’s a terrible travesty that they will be closing their doors.”

The charity, now in its 84th year, has meant much to Tampa. It has provided resources for minority residents, as well as the public at large, ranging from education and crime prevention to neighborhood beautification.

West Tampa resident Geraldine Barnes compared the loss, if it happens, to the death of a relative. She said she faults community leaders, particularly black leaders, for not doing anything in 2004.

“When Joanna Tokley retired and left the Urban League, there were problems then,” Barnes said. “And it should have been addressed thoroughly, even if it required an investigation to find out the problem.”

The Urban League has not lacked for leadership or professional knowledge. Its board and staff historically have included prominent residents ranging from state politicians to city officials. The most recent board lists nine people, including state Sen. Les Miller and his wife, Tampa Councilwoman Gwen Miller, as well as three lawyers and an accountant.

Les Miller said this week he basically gave up on the organization after repeatedly feeling he was being denied information.

“When we were given figures about the financial status of the Urban League, there was some questions,” he said, adding many questions dealt with the league’s restoration of a historical building on north Howard Avenue to be its new office. “There were times we got frustrated about the answers we received.”

Eventually, Miller said, his legislative duties took priority.

“The mere fact is, my wife and I basically felt there were things we were trying to find out … with the league and we didn’t get that information,” he said. “I have better things to do.”

Tokley said she never heard any complaints from board members about not receiving information.

The Money Pit

DiGiovanni said she got an inside glimpse at the day-to-day operation after agreeing to serve as a consultant on the restoration project of the historical Central Espanol building. The league bought the building from the city for $1 in 1999, with a plan to restore it as its new headquarters. The project became a financial nightmare as renovation work ballooned to $5 million.

“The organizational style was very autocratic,” she said, adding that Tokley and Vaughan “controlled the flow of information very closely.”

Tokley disputed that Thursday night, saying she provided detailed program service and finance reports at each board meeting.

In early 2004, National Urban League officials arrived to perform an audit, and the audit revealed no problems.

“They didn’t raise any red flags,” DiGiovanni said.

Three months later, however, everyone was caught off guard. Bills were adding up, federal payments were being called into question and the charity was struggling to pay its employees. Board members would arrive, only to hear that another problem had been uncovered.

“It was like going to a funeral every board meeting. The morale on the board was unbelievable,” DiGiovanni said. “How deep does this hole get?”

Tokley retired. Vaughan left. The office hired a new financial expert, Frank Galindo, on a part-time basis to help get its bills in order.

Former board Chairman Thomas Huggins, reached Thursday night, said he did not remember specifics of that period. He said the league, in addition to hiring Galindo, also sought another audit to determine if anything improper had occurred. Nothing appeared out of sorts, he said.

The audit, however, was a program audit, which Huggins acknowledged is different from a financial audit or the more-detailed forensic audit.

“Forensic or fraud audits, you’re looking beyond the financial statement. You’re looking at the details behind everything,” said Lee Huffstutler, chief accountant for Tampa. “Like a medical examiner, when you’re talking about forensic accounting, they’re trying to find out the cause of death.”

Shortly after Tokley retired, the national office got involved. “We needed an expert to come in and say, ‘Here’s how we fix this,’” DiGiovanni said.

Instead, she said, Annelle Lewis, the National Urban League’s senior vice president of affiliate services, came to Tampa with a message.

She “basically told us we were incompetent, we should be ashamed of ourselves,” DiGiovanni recalled. “That’s when they went back and said, ‘OK, we’re going to put you on probation.’ They never gave us any help.”

Lewis did not return a call for comment Thursday.

Reporter Jose Patino Girona contributed to this report. Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib.com.

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