[Mpls] Anatomy of a cover-up (Minneapolis NAACP Parent Information Centers)

[Socialist2001 at cs.com]

In a previous message, I posed the question, "Why fake an NAACP membership 
meeting?" - see http://www.educationright.com/id429.htm

As I have shown, what was advertised as an annual membership meeting of the 
Minneapolis NAACP branch on 11 December 2004, where elected branch officers 
were sworn in, was not a properly convened branch membership meeting. The 
principal officers of the branch were not present. At that meeting, a resolution was 
voted upon that expressed support of the establishment of the Minneapolis 
Parent Information Center, Inc., and transference "...of the MN Voluntary School 
Choice grant contract from the Minneapolis Branch of the NAACP to the newly 
incorporated Minneapolis Parent Information Centers."

The Parent Information Centers Inc. needed the NAACP branch to formally 
approve of its incorporation and transference of the MN Voluntary School Choice 
grant contract in order to get a $400,000 grant from the state of MN.  That's 
what most, or at any rate, a large majority of those who voted for and against 
the PIC resolution didn't know. The person who introduced the resolution, 
Beverly Propes, was presented as the branch education committee chair. Eight days 
later, the same Beverly Propes signed a contract with the state of MN for a 
$400,000 grant contract in the capacity of "chair" of the PIC board of directors.  

With no more than a few exceptions, the officers and executive committee 
members at-large elected by the membership in 2004 had opposed the PIC project 
before it got off the ground in 2003. On June 28, 2003 a two-thirds majority of 
active members of the Minneapolis NAACP branch passed a motion to instruct the 
branch president to take no steps toward opening any "Parent Information 
Centers" and to return the $152,400 (plus interest) he received from the Minnesota 
Department of Education to set up two Parent Information Centers. - see "Open 
Letter to the CEO and Board of Directors of the NAACP" 
http://www.educationright.com/id262.htm

QUID PRO QUO

Administrator Carl Breeding was in a position to help Duane Reed and his 
slate get a majority of votes for branch president, first vice president, 
secretary, and assistant secretary. It was just a matter of delivering the votes of 
NAACP members who were part of or supported the outgoing leadership. Reed and 
his slate didn't have right to inspect the books and records of the branch and 
Parent Information Centers prior to taking office in 2005. And according to my 
sources, the new officers of the branch didn't have access to PIC records 
until after the first executive and branch meetings in late January.

However, a curious thing happened at the first executive committee meeting of 
2005.  Duane Reed recommended the appointment of Booker Hodges as second vice 
president, and seven others. As I have just been informed, Reed and Hodges 
have helped each other out with campaigns for public office, and Hodges is kin 
to suspended NAACP member Al Flowers, who is related to 3 principle officers of 
the branch (as son, husband, and uncle). Al Flowers is also the employer of 
some of his extended family members who serve on the Minneapolis NAACP branch 
executive committee. Other appointments include Melvin Williams, whose name 
appears on the $400,000 grant contract (PIC and state of MN) for 2005, and Karen 
Blanchard, who played the role of recording secretary at the bogus NAACP 
membership meeting 11 December 2004. 

Doug Mann, Zach Metoyer, and Carol White were also nominated and elected to 
the executive committee at the first executive committee meeting of 2005, 
without any opposition. 

Also at the January 2005 branch executive committee meeting, Duane Reed and 
Jesse Overton were authorized to negotiate the close out of the Parent 
Information Centers with the state, and promised to review the books and records of 
the branch and PIC, then report their findings to the executive committee and 
branch before finalizing an agreement with the state and returning over $50,000 
in unspent funds from the PIC account.

On February 8, 2005 there was an improperly called meeting of the executive 
committee to hear a report from the branch's consultant from the Management 
Assistance Program, according to several sources who place each other at the 
meeting. The meeting was improper because no written notice was sent to executive 
committee members. And there was not a report about that meeting or the 
findings of the MAP consultant at the executive committee meeting on Feb. 11 and the 
branch membership meeting on February 12. - See "Minneapolis NAACP Parent 
Information Centers hit the fan" by Doug Mann, 15 Feb 2005 - 
http://www.educationright.com/id420.htm

-Doug Mann, King Field
member-at-large, Minneapolis NAACP branch executive committee
www.educationright.com