Community Action Organization of WNY hires new CEO

“The person has some details to work out on their end before we reveal their identity,” said Kevin Jolly, director of communications and media relations for the anti-poverty agency. “I can tell you that this is an exceptional external candidate with extensive experience in providing human services.”

The person is already here in Western New York and not someone coming from outside the area, Jolly added.

The new CEO will inherit the top job of an organization that has had its share of controversies over the past two decades, but is also expected to play a crucial role in Buffalo, a city where nearly three in ten residents live in the poverty, according to the U.S. Census. The Bureau’s figures show this. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s child poverty rate is nearly 40 percent, ranking it seventh among large U.S. cities, according to a recent report from the state comptroller.

And taxpayers have a vested interest in the new CEO’s performance, given that WNY CAO derives about 86 percent of its annual revenue from government grants, runs local after-school programs and employs hundreds of Western New Yorkers .

The new CEO will succeed Thomas U. Kim, who stepped down as chairman and CEO on Jan. 7 seeking “roles with a broader scope of influence and impact, more closely aligned with my personal aspirations and professionals,” Kim said in a statement. statement issued by the CAO. Kim served in the role for three years, during which CAO restructured its business processes, brought in a national audit firm and received two consecutive clean audits, his statement said.

Ulysees O. Wingo Sr., the agency’s director of operations and outreach and former member of the Buffalo Common Council, became interim president and CEO and led the agency in its search for a permanent CEO.

During Wingo’s tenure as interim CEO, there were also anonymous allegations of an erosion of the organization’s culture — claims that were sent to the CAO board in late March, The Buffalo News.

A whistleblower sent an anonymous email to the board claiming Wingo played a significant role in hiring a longtime friend for a high-level CAO position in August – while Kim was still CEO – and had also hired Jolly, although members of the agency’s board of directors’ management team told him the agency did not have the funds to support the position.

Jolly, a former Buffalo TV reporter who started at OAC in February, said the claims were “thoroughly investigated and found to be irrelevant and without merit.”

Jolly said neither Wingo nor Craig D. Hannah, chairman of the agency’s board of directors and a judge in the state Supreme Court’s appellate division, would comment publicly on the claims.

“The Board supports and appreciates the leadership of Interim CEO Ulysees O. Wingo during the search for the new CEO,” Jolly said.

It was unclear whether Wingo was a candidate for the permanent CEO position.

The anonymous email arrived on March 27 at 7 a.m. to members of the CAO board of directors.

The sender attached a four-page memorandum stating that agency employees shared information with the board out of concern for the organization’s future. The anonymous employees, who wrote that they were protected by the agency’s whistleblower policy, claimed in their memo that Wingo showed a “blatant disregard for policy, procedure and compliance” in his interim role.

The email was enough to get Hannah’s attention.

At 9:38 a.m. that day, Hannah sent an email – titled “CONFIDENTIAL” – to board members, advising them not to share the anonymous communication or discuss it with anyone outside the board of administration.

“I am speaking with legal counsel and we are engaging in a process to review and address any legitimate concerns,” Hannah said in the email obtained by The Buffalo News. “I will inform the Council as soon as possible of the process.”

Hannah copied two Hodgson Russ attorneys: Patricia Sandison and Adam Perry, the latter of whom was a close confidant of Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown and who helped resolve past controversies at the WNY CAO – of which there are had a lot over the last decade. more.

“The board takes every complaint and/or concern seriously,” Jolly said.

Several board members contacted for this story declined to comment or referred questions to Hannah, who then referred an inquiry to Jolly. Several elected officials also sit on the CAO board of directors. Among them, Common Council member Zeneta Everhart, who represents Masten’s district, did not respond to requests for comment, Erie County Legislator Frank Todaro declined to comment and Leah Halton-Pope, member of the Common Council, which represents the Ellicott district, referred comments to Hannah. .

Wingo, senior pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Buffalo, announced in February 2023 that he would not run for his seat on the Council because he had “received an offer from an organization to do the work that I’m currently doing on a more personal level.

Three months later, on May 2, 2023, the WNY CAO announced Wingo’s appointment as the agency’s top executive. When Kim left, the board appointed Wingo as interim president and CEO to ensure “a seamless and efficient transition for the organization.”

Staffing difficulties after school

When the new CEO takes the helm, one issue that could be at the top of his to-do list involves staffing some of the agency’s 21st Century Community Learning Center after-school sites.

While 21st Century Community Learning Centers is a federally funded program, the New York State Department of Education manages the statewide competition for funding, provides financial and programmatic oversight and supervises and tracks organizations that obtain funding.

CAO, through the Department of Education, received grants to operate four 21st Century after-school programs in Buffalo Public Schools, at PS17, PS 54, PS 61 and PS 99.

But this year, OAC had difficulty staffing 21st Century after-school programs at PS 61 and PS 99, Buffalo Public Schools confirmed in a statement. After-school programs at those two schools continued because the schools were able to provide the necessary staffing and supervision, the district said.

State Education Department spokeswoman Erica Conley-Komoroske said the state has not canceled any OAC funding.

“The Department, along with our Technical Assistance Resource Center, have been working with the organization to help address staffing shortages to ensure all sites are operational,” she said.

State contract data, available through Open Book New York, shows the WNY CAO has two active contracts for grant funds under the 21st Century Program.

One, which runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2027, is valued at $4.2 million. Of this amount, $746,410 has been spent to date.

The second contract, which runs from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2027, is valued at $588,000. Of this amount, $39,732 has been spent so far.

The Western New York CAO, launched in 1965 during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, today operates programs to help poor people find jobs or housing, helping people get off drugs and educating preschoolers.

In 2022, the organization employed 589 people and reported net income of about $471,000 on revenue of nearly $37 million, according to its most recent publicly available annual filing with the IRS.

More than $32 million, or about 86%, of this revenue came from government grants in 2022.

Despite this heavy reliance on public funds, the organization’s board meetings are closed to the public.

Former CEO L. Nathan Hare took the helm of the OAC in 2002, more than doubling the organization’s revenue and headcount during a nearly two-decade tenure as CEO.

But his tenure also sparked much controversy.

As early as 2003, it was found that CAO employees had embezzled hundreds of kilos of food donations intended for children; defrauded the organization by charging tens of thousands of dollars to “ghost” employees; and hit and pushed children at CAO Head Start centers, accumulating six citations for corporal punishment between 2016 and 2018.

And when in October 2018, a majority of CAO board members voted to fire Hare because of the way he had handled financial matters, Perry – the agency’s lawyer – said determined that the board’s vote to fire Hare was illegal.

Hare was back on the stand the next working day. Additionally, Perry’s office wrote a report revealing that six of the board members had been inappropriately appointed — and those members subsequently received termination letters.