Well, Well isn’t that something?

Last weekend my blog Black Political Buzz was deleted without warning by Google from Blogger.

Instead of my waiting around I just decided to move on over to WordPress however I kept the same domain name.

Mysteriously this morning my blog suddenly reappeared back on the Blogger platform.

Should I just manually delete it completely and blog totally only on WordPress?

No, instead I’m going to stick with both of them.

Why?

Let’s just say I won’t be burned twice.

In the event it ever happens again, I’ll definitely be better prepared.

So all you haters who falsely reported my blog as being a Spam site didn’t win.

Black Political Buzz is definitely going places and it won’t be stopped by jealous haters.

To my loyal readers, thanks for your prayers and for sticking with me.

I truly appreciate you:)

Laurel

A probe of misspending at a Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services Christmas charity has widened across the agency, and officials now say they are unable to say how much money may have disappeared over the years.

The county’s second-largest agency, often a first stop for the community’s poor or neglected, has recently been reorganized. Director Mary Wilson, hired last summer, ordered audits following reports of suspicious spending.

The audits looked at several spending programs and financial practices throughout the department.

Among the findings:

Mecklenburg County officials cannot account for $162,000 in donations meant to buy gifts for needy children. That includes a $10,000 check made out to an employee.

Of the 840 receipts inspected for that program, 799 had problems, including receipts that were altered, whited out or omitted in photocopying.

In a separate year-round program, auditors said, money meant to help foster families buy clothes and other necessities for children was spent on office supplies.

The audits cover July 2007 through this past March, but officials say they don’t know whether problems started earlier because the last departmentwide audit of DSS was in 1996. Some findings have been turned over to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Officials briefed county commissioners earlier this month about the audits.

But new details are emerging since officials gave a fuller account last week to the commission’s audit review committee.

Committee members told county administrators they did not understand how the department failed to adhere to basic financial practices, such as requiring two signatures on checks – a standard spelled out in N.C. law.

Some asked how managers could have allowed such behavior to go unnoticed. The audit committee also appeared surprised that receipts for the department had not been checked for so many years.

Such a review was planned for next year, said Chris Waddell of the county’s Internal Audit department, who said he thinks the problems cited in recent audits would have been uncovered.

When panel members asked county auditors and administrators to find out who is responsible for the problems, or how long they persisted, officials cast doubt on whether they could comply.

“There’s a lot of missing documentation,” county Finance Director Dena Diorio told the committee.

On Friday, County Manager Harry Jones said officials would respond to problems laid out in the audits.

Overall, Jones said, DSS has been “well-managed,” especially in light of numerous changes in top management in recent years.

But with “an operation of that size it is difficult to be immune from problems,” he said. “We’re going to address it and fix it. Hopefully, it won’t be recurring.”

‘Feel-good’ programs

Officials said charity and emergency spending programs went unchecked by supervisors. Asked why, Wilson said people grew very trusting about “feel-good” programs. Diorio said the longtime programs simply escaped scrutiny.

County officials said some DSS programs were audited annually, but not smaller programs like the Giving Tree.

DSS spends more than $176million annually and employs about 1,200 workers.

Problems surfaced publicly this year when Wilson said she learned about irregular spending patterns in the agency’s programs for poor families and foster children.

Wilson said an employee raised questions about money in the Giving Tree program. Wilson said she herself pointed to a need to audit the broader programs.

Since then, leaders have ordered multiple financial audits and suspended two workers suspected of taking $110,000 from the Giving Tree program, which solicits money to buy the holiday gifts.

Officials say they have asked Charlotte-Mecklenburg police to help investigate. One of the suspended workers has been cleared of wrongdoing and reinstated, while the other is now on medical leave. The county has not publicly identified the employees.

County officials say they are trying to determine whether there was criminal activity or just sloppy accounting.

In either case, commissioner Bill James said the findings show the county needs to re-examine how it keeps tabs on taxpayer money. James described the fiscal controls at DSS as “nonexistent.”

“There is a fundamental management control deficiency,” James said. “We have to find out why this lasted as long as it did.”

Ward Simmons, another member of the county audit committee, said there should be two goals. “Fix this for the future, and then this has to do with public confidence in the county: (identify) who’s responsible for what happened in the past.”

But county administrators say they are not sure who should be held accountable.

A series of DSS Directors

DSS has had four directors in recent years.

Longtime director Richard “Jake” Jacobsen took a medical leave in 2004 and was briefly replaced in the interim by then-deputy director Brenda Jackson. Jacobsen returned in 2005, only to be reassigned as an executive-in-residence at UNC Charlotte, where he started work in January 2008.

The county appointed another interim DSS director, Janice Allen Jackson, who was also one of the county’s general managers.

Director Mary Wilson replaced her last July. Allen Jackson resigned in May for personal reasons.

As a general manager Allen Jackson was responsible for helping oversee DSS for four years. She also was interim director for six months.

Allen Jackson said she was not aware of any accounting failures during her tenure with the county. “No issues were brought to me,” she told the Observer before declining further comment.

Jacobsen worked for 13 years as head of the DSS. Through a county spokesman, Jacobsen declined to comment.

Jacobsen had named a senior-level administrator to oversee DSS finances during his tenure, but county leaders said the post later was vacated. Earlier this year, Wilson recreated the post, naming Angela Hurlburt as the department’s director of financial management.

Jones praised Wilson for initiating the financial audit and said she had “clearly inherited this situation.”

“These are programs deliberately designed to operate outside the traditional DSS systems,” Jones said. He said Friday the emergency nature of the charity programs may have led to mistakes. Social workers often must act quickly to address such needs as clothing, housing and medicine..

A lax culture of accounting

County officials described a lax culture at DSS about accounting procedures.

In some cases, Wilson said, social workers made expenditures without their supervisor’s approval. Other times, she said, supervisors did not document approvals for expenses.

Officials say they are unsure whether employees were trained to properly carry out the department’s financial policies.

“People who work anywhere need to know what the expectations are,” said John McGillicuddy, county general manager. “And when you know that they’ve been given those expectations and clear terms … you can hold them accountable. Part of our challenge is going to be who should have known that these were their responsibility.”

McGillicuddy said county management and DSS directors bear some responsibility in making sure the county is effectively managing the public’s money. But he said he thinks that if any of the previous DSS directors knew a problem was occurring, that it would have been addressed.

Officials said they have already addressed issues in the audits, including the need to process all checks through the county finance department and new training for DSS workers on accounting procedures. But the audit panel and county staff said they’d like more investigation.

Commissioner Dan Murrey said the challenge will be infusing the agency with a new culture.

“There are policies and procedures and the way we’ve always done things,” he said. “In a sound organization those two things are closer together.”

Samara Foxx Resigns From DSS Job Amid Controversy

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx’s wife, Samara, has resigned from a high-paying DSS job that was one of three sparking concerns about nepotism last year.

Reached at her home Sunday morning, Foxx said she resigned from the Mecklenburg Department of Social Services effective Dec. 31 to “focus more time and energy” on her family. The couple have a 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

Her husband was a councilman and mayoral candidate when she was hired for the job – with an annual salary of $100,000 – which was posted for just a day.

The agency hired two other relatives of high-ranking government officials early last year: the daughter of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe and the daughter of Resident Superior Court Judge Yvonne Mims Evans.

The hires prompted a public debate about hiring practices and perceptions of favoritism in local government.

Officials said the three hires were made in accordance with county policy and without regard to family ties. Commissioners examined resumes from the three during a lengthy closed session and concluded the hirings were proper. But County Manager Harry Jones soon changed the minimum time that most available jobs would be posted to six days.

Samara Foxx, a lawyer, was hired in summer 2008 as a special assistant to newly assigned DSS Director Mary Wilson. Foxx later headed DSS business affairs, one of six divisions in the agency. Wilson could not be reached Sunday.

Wilson had said in the spring that Foxx won the job over other candidates because of her experience, including work in legislative affairs.

Hollye Monroe was hired early last year as a management analyst with social services for a $46,613 annual salary. Tracey Evans was hired as a social services manager at a salary of $57,380.

DSS is the county’s second-largest department and has an annual budget of $180 million. It employs 1,200 employees.

Sources:  WCNC, Youtube

Newark’s murder rate is down. Kudos to Mayor Corey Booker!

While Charlotte, NC’s murder rate continues to rise.

Let’s see Newark is in the North, while Charlotte is in the South with less than 1 million people.

Could it be that Mayor Booker actually knows what’s doing?

Hey,  I’m just saying

Check out the articles and video below.

For the first time in more than 40 years, an entire calendar month has come and gone without a homicide in the state’s largest city.

It’s been 32 days since a homicide took place in Newark, NJ marking the first time there has been a slay-free calendar month in the city since 1966.

Police Director Garry McCarthy said he hopes to best a 43-day period from March to April of 2008, the longest span of time without a slaying in the city since 1961. Ten homicides have occurred in Newark since Jan. 1, and none have taken place in the South Ward, long believed to be Newark’s most dangerous section.

The first-quarter homicide total is the same as last year’s, and the second-lowest in Newark since 1941. There were only eight reported shootings in Newark in March, and aggravated assaults, robberies, carjackings and other major crime rates are all down for the first-quarter of 2010 compared to their 2009 totals.

The statistical quarter, which spans the first thirteen weeks of the year, officially ended on March 28th.

Sources: E!Online, Fox News, Youtube

LL Cool J, who had a hit called “Mamma Said Knock You Out,” may be thinking the same about the folks behind Sarah Palin‘s inspirational new show for the Fox News Channel.

Less than 24 hours after Fox announced the launch  of  Palin’s series “Real American Stories,”  LL Cool J, now starring in CBS‘ “NCIS: Los Angeles, ” was claiming people were being mislead.

The network’s release for the show, included a line reading:  “Additionally, rapper and actor, LL Cool J, and the former  chairman and CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, will both speak about their success in this country in a segment entitled,  ‘ In Their Own Words.’”

What wasn’t said, however, was that the LL Cool J moment was taken from an interview done with Fox in 2008, where he talks fondly  about  his grandfather.

“Fox lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else  and  are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palin’s  show. WOW,” he wrote on Twitter.

The clip of LL Cool J intended for the show was a minute and eight seconds long. After hearing of his dissatisfaction, Fox programmers pulled the moment from the show.

“‘Real American Stories’ features uplifting tales about overcoming adversity and we believe Mr. Smith’s interview fit that criteria,” FNC head of programming Bill Shine said in a statement.  “However, as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an inspiration to others, we are cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best with his fledgling acting career.”

The series, which will air Thursday at 10, includes an interview with a stockbroker who donates much of his money to help kids go to college, and country singer Toby Keith.

The LL Cool J kerfuffle is the latest twist in Palin’s rise in the media world. She became a contributor to the Fox News Channel earlier this year and as part of that deal, got an occasional series called “Real American Stories.”

Outside of Fox she recently signed a deal with Discovery Networks to be part of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” an eight-part documentary produced by Mark Burnett that will air on TLC.

Discovery paid just under $1 million an episode for the show, which will mean Palin, and Kate Gosselin, two media and blogger lightning rods, will appear on the same cable network.
Of course, the flap over LL Cool J’s interview clip will also generate more interest — negative and positive — in Palin’s new show launching Thursday.
Sources: NY Daily News, Fox News, Twitter

Some Clergy are calling on Illegal Immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census. “This is a matter of moral principle,” Miguel Rivera, leader of the boycott, says.

Here are excerpts from a letter Rivera sent out this morning:

“The Census boycott is on. This is a matter of moral principle and pastoral care.

Congress will not move forward with legalization, there is no moratorium on executing raids and deportations.

It is in the best interests and the welfare of millions of undocumented immigrants, to exercise their right to free expression maintaining themselves silent and not exposing themselves further…

… We recognize that the Census is important, but its own importance and accuracy, converts itself into a weapon of families destruction.”

…Only a Cease and Desist on Raids and Deportations would move us to call the boycott effort to stop.

Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, NY Daily News, 2010 Census

Pay no attention to Charlotte’s footsteps.

Atlanta is still the capital of the South, Mayor Kasim Reed said Wednesday at a meeting of the Hungry Club.

Reed conceded that Charlotte has made gains – especially in the realm of high-speed rail. In January, North Carolina’s commercial center received a $545 million slice of federal stimulus money for rail.

“They had a good day,” the mayor said, according to my AJC colleague Eric Stirgus.

Meanwhile, Atlanta got chump change, and then saw its application for federal funding of a downtown streetcar system rejected.

But laying braggadocio aside, Reed said Atlanta was, in fact, in danger falling behind Charlotte if the city and state don’t make strides on transportation, education, water and the arts.

Reed compared the situation to the early 1960s when Birmingham was the southern leader in commerce, but lost that title to Atlanta because of its attitude on civil rights. See: Alabama Gov. George Wallace and Birmingham police Chief Eugene “Bull” Connor.

Atlanta, the mayor noted, was more progressive. “Birmingham has never caught up since,” Reed said.

You have to wonder if the mayor hasn’t been spending some quality time with former Gov. Roy Barnes. Because that’s one of his favorite lines.

Sources: AJC.omc, McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Charmeck.org, Youtube