a few observations by Hathaway on MLKHDA
and $1.2 million in unaccounted
for funds
The Martin Luther King Housing Development
Association (MLKHDA) has
decided they can
no longer afford to run
the Tacoma Avenue
MLK Homeless Shelter despite
a signed a contract
with the City of Tacoma
and having freely
accepted state, county
and city funding to
do so.
MLKHDA board member and former Tacoma City
Council member Kevin Phelps
claims MLKHDA
has spent untold thousands
from their core
mission of providing low
income housing to
keep the shelter running
since 2001.
But if MLKHDA’s core mission is to provide
housing for Tacoma’s less
fortunate and underserved
and to get the best bang
for their buck,
why did Upper Tacoma Business
Development
LLC (UTBD), a State registered
Limited Liability
Corporation buy property
in the 10th and South J Street area for $1,088,000 in
2005 and 2007 and then
sell it to MLKHDA
in October of 2007 for
$2.3 million when
the managing partner of
UTBD is MLKHDA?
In other words why did MLKHDA pay $1,212,000
more for property than
they had to?
And the real question Dear Readers is who
profited from these perfectly
legal (so we’re
told) land transactions?
It certainly wasn’t
a Mr. Rashid and his children
who were evicted
from his MLKHDA housing
when MLKHDA failed
to pay their mortgage on
the property to
Washington Mutual Bank.
So here is the crux of the situation Dear
Readers. How can the public
know, let alone
the city department funders
know, MLKHDA’s
real community function
and financial worthiness
when:
1) MLKHDA’s paid Community Relations Director,
former Speaker of the Washington
State House
of Representatives and
City of Tacoma Mayor
Brian Ebersole refused
to discuss these real
estate transactions or
their current state
of affairs with this or
any other publication.
Five phone calls and five
hang ups do not
bode well for Ebersole’s
people skills or
the credibility of MKLHDA.
2) When MLKHDA Executive Director Felix Flannigan
was asked about this series
of land acquisitions
for their mega project
at 11th and MLK Street, which he acknowledged took
place and then could only
stutter when asked
as to why. Then he claim
his cell phone was
on bad reception mode and
would call this
publication back on a land
line.
3) When we got the call back some 15 minutes
later it was on Flannigan’s
cell phone advising
we call MLKHDA’s attorney
Jim Tomlinson.
4) During phone call number three with Ebersole,
he admitted he told Flannigan
to tell us
to call their attorney.
5) When we called MLKHDA’s attorney, he also
acknowledged he knew about
the land acquisitions
but felt he’d been blindsided
by the MLKHDA
folks and could give no
more ready answers
than Flannigan as to why
$1.2 million more
was paid for the property
than necessary.
6) And last but not least both Joe King and
Ebersole have filed with
the Washington State
Public Disclosure Commission
as paid lobbyist
for MLKHDA. Yet MLKHDA’s
990 Form filed with
the IRS show no lobbying
expenditures. An
error of omission that
could cost MLKHDA
their 501C3 non-profit
tax reporting status.
Further tainting MLKHDA’s now shaky credibility
is the fact that MLKHDA
Tacoma lawyer and
board member Jack Connley
claims he knows
nothing of these dubious
transactions nor
could he shed any light
on the situation. “I missed the last board meeting”, Connley
said.
An obviously attentive MLKHDA participant
as these transactions took
place in 2005
and 2007.
The City of Tacoma has now taken notice of these questionable real
estate deals.
According to one high level city source,
when it comes to any further
Tacoma Community
Development funding MLKHDA
can bend over
and kiss the city’s funding
goodbye.
Until the City of Tacoma assigns a forensic
accountant to inspect “all”
of MLKHDA’s books,
from top to bottom, they
shouldn’t even come
close to consider allocating
any further
funds to MLKHDA to run
the Tacoma Avenue
Homeless Shelter; it would only be to the
detriment to those in need.
To view the land acquisition documentation
Click Here, Here and Here
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