Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

“ONCE UPON A TIME…I WAS…. Posting all the states’ (and some major cities’) CAFRs at my other blog Cold,HardFact$.

[Scroll down, links on the sidebar under “FIND A State CAFR,” I attempted to locate the CAFR for the City of Baltimore (not just State of Maryland) CAFR for 2011. So far I haven’t, but while looking but did find a good selection of some of the various government enterprises under the City Government simply by running across a Department of Audits “Recently Issued Audits” Site.

Two of them caught my eye by simply having long titles and strange wording, like “Baltimore Rising.”  After enough years of this, instinct counts, and my instinct said look further.  First of all, it shouldn’t be hard to find a city’s current CAFRs, and on this Recent Audits, for some reason they’d been led to audit their own comprehensive annual financial reports. Then I found THIS audit (see post title) of an HHS three-year grant which began in the Mayor’s Office of Children, Youth and Families.  “MOCYF”

This link has to be read through to be believed, though I put some summaries below (it’s a very short report, actually).

 PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT – MENTORING CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS GRANT 90CV0215

AWARDED TO THE MAYOR’s OFFICE FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES

(BALTIMORE RISING, INC.) FROM THE US DEPT. OF HHS:  FOLLOW-UP REVIEW MAY, 2010 

[Note — that’s not what HHS called it, but simply “Baltimore City Mayor’s Office.” not “Mayor’s Office of Children Youth and Families”]

(click on the Grantee Name link in chart below, for what else it’s into.Of interest:  This first grant was 8/19/2004.  On 6/30/2004, it got $994,100 for “interim methadone treatment.”  On 8/19/2004, it got this grant. on 9/17/2004 (one month later) the $994,100 grant was removed from HHS records….). etc. From “TAGGS.hhs.gov”  Note they didn’t even bother to “name” the grant, it simply adopted the CFDA-assigned name, which is identical.

  THIS IS FOR THE AUDITED GRANT (but didn’t pass), 90CV0215

[[2013 December archives around Christmastime post clean-up and re-ran the 90CV grants), since referenced this; my html smarts weren’t so hot at this time]]

Right away — why switch DUNS#s mid-stream?  Also the “**” may be by “Baltimore City” I later learned, because Baltimore does not fall under any county – it is separate from “Baltimore County.”  The topic there was the UBaltimore School of law:

It is clear this grantee switched DUNS# in a certain year (2007) and that the larger and bulk of grants center around drug treatment and incarceration issues, for example:

(I just did a run of this category of “mentoring children of prisoners/CFDA 93616” in Maryland — there are 57 grants altogether, many of them in Baltimore.  Interesting).. After reading the audits below and looking up this grant, I decided to look up Principal Investigator Ms. Ariano.  Apparently she administered this grant.  However the City of Baltimore CPA said, in essence, questions the entire viability of the $900,000 federal grant, based on lousy administration of it.  So naturally I was curious about the principal investigator. On the web, a pretty thorough Speakers Bio on-line shows that the negative audit didn’t exactly slow her down much — she’s now in charge of the Jericho Project under Episcopal Services, as of about May 2007.   (approaching the end of this grant, by which time it was probably under scrutiny for misappropriation). She’s hanging with “Faith-Based” organizations, and has a background in helping vulnerable populations (by overseeing the theft of federal grants??).  Hate to say this, but I’ve been telling us to watch out for that category in particular! (the image is the link)

Bonnie Ariano

Director of The Jericho Program Bonnie Ariano currently serves as the Director of The Jericho Program, which is a non-profit ex-offender re-entry program under the auspices of Episcopal Community Services of Maryland. In this capacity, Ms. Ariano supervises a staff of nine, which include three Case Managers, two Job Developers, a Recruitment Specialist and a Training and Mentoring Coordinator and is responsible for monitoring the Federal Prisoner Re-entry Initiative grant which supports the Jericho program model of job readiness training, skills assessment and job placement. It is a true second chance for most of the participants and they continue to receive assistance and support throughout their year of enrollment. Ms. Ariano began in this position in May 2007, bringing with her over 32 years of experience in the human service field, 25 of which were in the non-profit sector.

Added 2013:  I see I didn’t look up the corporation status of “Episcopal Community Services of Maryland,” so here is that lookup:

Interesting, it was incorporated in 1939, right before WWII (well, in 1939) and not long after religious groups were granted special exceptions under the IRS.  Street address 1014 West 36th Street is now labeled “REBUILDING TOGETHER BALTIMORE” A NATIONAL GROUP, FORMERLY CALLED “CHRISTMAS IN APRIL.”

Rebuilding Together

The Baltimore affiliate was founded in 1989 as Christmas in April Baltimore. Since then, more than 20,000 volunteers have repaired 1,070 homes, 29 non-profit facilities, completed dozens of community projects, and..

…In 1988, with the help of Steve Winchell, John McMeel and Bobby Trimble, a national program, Christmas in April, USA, was formed to help spread the program throughout the United States. Patty Johnson, former Executive Director of the Washington, D.C. program, was hired as the first Executive Director for Christmas in April, USA. Thirteen cities were involved that first year.

Christmas in April  Baltimore was founded in 1989 by Joanna von Briesen, Howard Hunt, Thomas Jaudon, and Geoffrey Krug. Since its first Rebuilding Day in 1990, the Baltimore affiliate has organized more than 19,400 volunteers to perform repairs valued at over $6.1 million on more than 966 homes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Maryland.

From those early days, the idea has spread to include more than 235 local affiliates in communities from all 50 states. The work of more than 2,700,000 volunteers, in over 1,880 cities and towns throughout America, has resulted in the repair and rehabilitation of more than 105,000 houses and non-profit facilities involving more than 27,000,000 volunteer hours.

Rebuilding Together is now the largest volunteer organization preserving and revitalizing low-income houses and communities in the nation.

WHAT A WONDERFUL IDEA.  TOO BAD, HOWEVER, EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES (SAME ADDRESS) HIRED OR ACCEPTED A WOMAN WHO WAS KNOWN, FROM A 2009 AUDIT — TO HAVE PRESIDED OVER (OR BEEN P.I. FOR) THE DISGRACEFUL THEFT OF NEARLY $1,000,000 OF HHS FUNDING, and a duplicate vendor receipt of $25,000, etc.

The umbrella organization was registered (in MD, at least) only in spring 2013) and is a stock corp. (not a nonprofit?).  Maryland shows many, named by county, within the state.

It was formed in 1989, NON-Stock, at the same address, with the name-change from “Christmas-in-April-Baltimore” happening in 2001, and (see pdf)  The former street address (600 Baltimore Avenue #205, TOWSON, MD) is now home to a Title Company.  I’m wondering if this Ron Deutsch is any relationship to THIS Robin Deutsch (also prominent AFCC leadership, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, etc.), Although I guess Maryland isn’t close enough to Massachusetts..

Massachusetts links right TO “AFCC” on their state site:  http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges/courts/probateandfamilycourt/afccsharedparenting.pdf

[[These later lookups after I became more aware of how many HHS-grantee programs are run right out of church addresses, which can get complicated when it comes to tracking the finances).

Here are 501(c)3’s with the word “EPISCOPAL” in them, listed in Baltimore; those for which contributions are tax-deductibel anyhow, as you can see some are “Services” and some relate to Housing, and one is the convention.

EIN	Legal Name (Doing Business As)	City	State	Country	Deductibility Status
52-1686012	Christian Vocation Project of Memorial Episcopal Church Inc.	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
52-0591545	Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Diocese of Md	Baltimore	MD	United States	GROUP
52-0591564	Episcopal Community Services of Maryland Inc.	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
20-3499496	Episcopal Housing Community Development Corporation	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
52-1939344	Episcopal Housing Corporation	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC
23-7439344	Waters Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of Ba	Baltimore	MD	United States	PC

This has the same man signing the tax return and the same street address as the one below, with program purpose:

“Episcopal Housing Corporation missioni s to respond to God’s call to establish justice for those most in need by building affordable housing and creating the foundations for healthy and sustainable communities.”

= = = = = =

**EHC is weird — (I just looked at three tax returns), they received program service income including government contracts of about $20K to $30K/year, have NO activity and NO contributions, the forms are scrabbledy.  yet their assets base is going up.  Finally one said:

•Episcopal Housing Community Development Corporation 20-3499496

990EZ Line 26; Episcopal_Housinq Community_Development Corporation has reciev_ed a loan to-acquire and renovate 3401 OakfleldAve._  Baltimore,_MD 21207 and operate the proPerty as affordable housing per our mission statement and organizational documents’

The street address looks like St. Mary’s Episcopal – Parrish House and I see a few more (probably 501(c)3s) in operation out of the same place.

• http://hampdenfamilycenter.org/resources.shtml   (see A.I.M. — “Action in Maturity” 3900 Roland Avenue.

• The third church building was built in 1873 and still stands today. The parish was decommissioned in 2002 and the building was turned into an outreach center for the Hampden community. In 1964 the congregation tore down its rectory, which stood just south of the 1873 church, and the Roland towers assisted living complex was erected. The chapel at the northern boundary of the parcel is still standing but is vacant. The building was previously occupied by a separate congregation.

  The Victorian graveyard is one of a few remaining in the city that is still physically connected to the church of its origin. Founded around the same time as the episcopal parish, Saint Mary’s Cemetery has graves dating back to the late 19th Century. The park is open from from dawn until dusk and is worth visiting for the view alone. A tour of Hampden is not complete without a trip to Saint Mary’s.

• Here is some of the history:

ANYHOW, ENOUGH OF THAT.  THERE’S NO KNOWN CONNECTION BETWEEN THOSE HOUSING CORPORATIONS AND EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES; I was just browsing….

Where the money is, esp. if it can get hooked up with government…. More, on Ms. Ariano and the conference she was attending, at the bottom of this post…..

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NOTE:  This blog was intended to expand upon a NRFC solicitation grant I found. It’s significant.

However in the process of giving a “for-example” I was reminded of Homeboy Industries as another prominent group which had some “staying incorporated” problems which seemed not to stem the flow of federal funds (if anything, the opposite — after being warned several times about delinquency, and it has not filed its California Returns recently, this group got about $1.4 million MORE grants.  )

ERGO — this post has interesting and relevant content, but is waiting to be split into two parts, and both further developed.

• The solicitation grant (top part) and/or fatherhood PEERTA collaborations…
• The Homeboy Phenomenon (second part)

But, I’m going to publish it anyhow, as interesting and relevant to what HHS (the USGovernment) is doing with our money. Also soliciting any other information people may have on this.  It seems clear to me that Homeboy Industries is a good project — but that still doesn’t excuse not filing tax returns, or (ideally) posting the Articles of Incorporation up on the California’s OAG page.

This material is eyeopening for me on how the systems are being set up.   Enjoy!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

A solicitation put up very briefly by HHS asking for more help in promoting more of its (not our collective) personal media campaign to promote marriage and fatherhood.  They will also fund similar promotion campaigns to promote “Domestic Violence Awareness” (“no problem”) and even combine two for one, sometimes.

I wonder if the DV groups are doing what I see the FR groups doing — sucking up to this and sucking the air out of the one source we need temporarily, when separating — which is a little help!

I wish I’d gotten out of my own relationship before welfare reform passed; unfortunately, it takes some help to leave.  I am stunned and offended at this entire matter.  And the engineers of this system no VERY well that abusers tend to control economics making it hard  — or “plunging her into poverty” by a variety of cruel, but easy to manage ways, so she just doens’t get out.

And that’s even before the family court fun and games begin.

I want ABSOLUTELY EVERY UNITED STATES CITIZEN PAYING TAXES TO UNDERSTAND WHERE SOME OF THESE TAXES ARE GOING AND TO MAKE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THIS AND THE ONGOING MASS-MURDERS OCCURRING A SPAS, IN SALONS, IN HOMES AND AROUND SITUATIONS OF WOMEN WITH CHILDREN TRYING, BUT FAILING, TO GET UTTERLY FREE FROM ABUSE AND ONGOING VIOLENCE IN THEIR LIVES….

MAKE NO MISTAKE YOU SHOULD “HEAD THIS ONE OFF AT THE PASS,” GET IT DELETED FROM THE LEGISLATION, NEXT ROUND of APPROPRIATIONS, AS Women With Children WERE “HEADED OFF AT THE PASS” ON OUR ROUTE TO SAFETY, AFTER DOING THE RIGHT THING FOR OUR KIDS, OURSELVES, AND SOCIETY — SEPARATING OUR KIDS & SELVES FROM IN-HOME DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.  CAN WE SEPARATE, OR CAN WE NOT SEPARATE?  EITHER DEFUND FR FUNDING OR DEFUND DV FUNDING — THEY ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.  ONE CANCELS OUT THE OTHER, IN ACTION.

Solicitation Number:

11-233-SOL-00430

Notice Type:

Presolicitation

Synopsis:

Added: Jul 13, 2011 6:35 pm

The proposed acquisition listed herein is legislatively mandated for nationally recognized, nonprofit fatherhood promotion organizations. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) on behalf of the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) of HHS for the ongoing operation of the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NFRC). The RFP number is 11-233-SOL-00430. The NAICS code is 541611.

The proposed acquisition is to provide for the development of a clearinghouse, a media campaign, and the support of the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs and initiatives. The contractor shall work with OFA to modify and enhance the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NFRC), www.fatherhood.gov, to develop and maintain a dynamic national clearinghouse. The clearinghouse will promote and support responsible fatherhood, especially healthy marriage within the context of fatherhood, economic stability, and parenting.

Additionally, the clearinghouse will be designed to assist stakeholders in efforts to promote and support responsible fatherhood.

In accordance with any HHS policies and requirements, the contractor shall develop various forms of media and technology to engage and communicate with fathers and practitioners from the responsible fatherhood field directly across the country.

The contractor shall develop, promote and design a distribution strategy for a national responsible fatherhood media campaign. Also, the contractor will provide logistical support for up to five responsible fatherhood events and develop products and a virtual community for the responsible fatherhood field.

Contracting Office Address:

Parklawn Building Room 5-101
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20857

Primary Point of Contact.:

James J. Horkan

james.horkan@psc.hhs.gov

Phone: 3014431658

. . . .Notice that once this website got up and running — someone apparently let the legislation slip through the first round — they are not limiting it to ONLY nationally recognized nonprofit fatherhood promotion organizations.

Consider  – – why does it have to be national?

Answer — for centralized control and uniformity of practice, this is important if one is going towards a dictatorship, as opposed to local accountability and feedback looks.  It’s more efficient.

Why nonprofit?  The Feds have no problem doling out fatherhood/marriage promotion stuff to FOR-profits (like ICF International) although typically many are nonprofits.

Suggested Answer (my opinion) — Apart from it wouldn’t do to have a nationally recognized organization regarding reducing welfare (public debt burden) receiving millions of $$ OPENLY being a for-profit {{although the supporting contractors very often are — telecommunications firms, PR firms, Maximus (child support), etc}}, there’s also that matter that nonprofit registration (definitely on the state level) is very lax, and as I’ve seen in three years of blogging here — like AFCC originally (and come to think of, probably now — are they registered in every state of the union?) — a lot of the organizations simply don’t keep up with their filings.

When they are not registering in the states properly, that means people IN the states are having commerce (nonprofit commerce) taking place that they don’t have the source of, cannot see the incorporations of properly and may not really know whether it’s legitimate or not.

For example:

I recall the three different EIN#s for one of the Northern California mediation-promo gropus (I think it was the Judith Wallerstein Center for the Family in Transition) had three different EIN#s and locations.  Janet Johnston, ?? Roseby, and others conferencing and writing together, referencing each other, were on one or more of these).

I still have not located the Fathers and Families Coalition of America  {“FFCA”} (another “nationally recognized group,” right?) nonprofit filing — I hope to eventually; it is not incidental, but common in the field.

Here’s an affiliate of the above FFCA group, a major one, based in Los Angeles:  Notice date of formation:

Are C0085636 (old) and C3365104 (2011) filing their charitable returns?  One is too early to tell, perhaps.  Do YOU feel like checking out all of these, or should every one take it on faith?

Why is there a new registration for this Children’s Institute, is there something wrong with the older one, at the same address?  Also (I’m looking at it’s tax return), the Principal Officer of the older one (formed in 1917) is Mary Emmons, who is the Agent for the newer one.  I look forward to reading those tax returns…

The “Children’s Institute, Inc.” “helps children who have been affected by abuse or violence.” (2009 tax return I’m viewing) Of four Program Service Accomplishments, the third (“4c” on page 2 of the return) shows up as a Leadership Institute running a Federally Funded Project Fatherhood, “a federally funded demonstration program that encourages fathers to become more active in raising their (THEIR, does this ownership pronoun include the mothers?) children.  CII (this group) also provides SEED FUNDING AND TRAINING FOR OTHER COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS THAT WANT TO ADOPT THE PROJECT FATHERHOOD MODEL – PROJECT ERIN.”   (the description really should be read).

Funding for the older group, by EIN# search (which is below):

Of these, it has been dumping this much into exclusively “fatherhood” grants, although the category I sorted on (for this institute), “CFDA 93086” is also for Healthy Marriage.  Do you see any of the below millions which seem to relate to healthy marriages?

Another field it’s into is Abandoned Infants, and healing children traumatized by violence, and Head Start  (Below, Ron Banks is the Principal Investigator, because Hershel K. Swinger is no longer with us in this life…).  This is a LOT of different grants for one organization that isn’t (for reasons I don’t see yet) filing its RRFs with California’s OAG, which surely the OAG must know by now.  It is listed as “vocational, training school” on HHS.

This group is listed (I believe) as an affiliate of another group whose nonprofit filing (locally OR nationally) I can’t locate, but who mothers should definitely be aware of, particularly as they are REAL good at the franchise system through HHS.  Click on the website and then click on the logo showing their Affiliates.  The United States has been divided up into regions, the Western Region being (as we speak) entirely California — 16 locales — and regionally coordinated by an Institution I’ve posted on here, and the post will show a huge colorful umbrella of little baby organizations under the main one.  This institute is not an affiliate, but clearly doing all-right by the field…..

Basically AZFFC is one huge “get us the grants, and set up trainings” system, and good at it too.  See Jeffrey Leving, Esq. (Chicago area), which doesn’t hurt.  Obama got his endorsement; Leving got a White House Appointment (faith-based, as I recall).

http://azffc.org/

ANYHOW, amazingly, the Domestic Violence (Industry) didn’t see fit to tell ITS clients (primarily women) about the existence of this industry AS an industry.  That would, of course, be biting the hand (HHS/DOJ) that feeds it, and contraindicated.

THE NEW CHILDREN’S INSTITUTE:

I decided to look up the NEW one (formed 03/2011), same registered agent address, same entity address, as to its state corporation history.  It’s absolutely amazing how many assets it has for a startup charity; If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone just transferred them to a new corporate name (and, why?)

(its details, then I’ll showthe other charity at the same address. distinguished here by background colors, but by other identifying numbers (and date of organization, etc.)

THE OLD (1917 INCORPORATION):

“NO RELATED DOCUMENTS” — is this organization exempt from showing its stuff to California residents, for example, an RRF showing what branches of government some of this money is coming from?   It is producing IRS forms and contributions to it are tax-deductible:

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