http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/02/18/2008-02-18_report_rips_head_of_disabled_nonprofit_f-2.html
Report rips head of disabled nonprofit for 'fraud, waste and abuse'
BY MATTHEW LYSIAKand ELIZABETH HAYS
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Monday, February 18th 2008, 4:00 AM
Adams for News
Tara Cernacek was fired when she charged nonprofit head Seibert Phillips splurged hundreds of thousands on iPods, TVs - and his salary.
A Brooklyn agency that's supposed to help the disabled spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on fancy cars, flat-panel TVs, business trips and a $100,000 no-show job for the director's close friend, a report charges.
Despite the scathing findings, the Sunset Park group's longtime executive director, Seibert Phillips - who lied about his education credentials and allegedly let his son, who lives in Atlanta, rack up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card - is still at the agency.
Most of the board members at the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need (SPIN) are also still in place - even though many are longtime Phillips cronies who failed for years to rein in the lavish spending.
"[Phillips] should not be there. He should be in prison," said Tara Cernacek, a former staffer who was fired after she blew the whistle on Phillips' alleged graft in 2006, sparking the investigation.
"I'm shocked, outraged that they received little more than a slap on the wrist," she said.
The report's findings, obtained exclusively by the Daily News, were sent to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes two weeks ago - although Cernacek first complained in the fall of 2006.
State officials have allowed Phillips and board members to stay on at the agency, which gets about $14 million in federal, state and city funds to run adult residential homes and children's programs for the developmentally disabled.
The report, issued by the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, charged that Phillips' conduct is "another example of fraud, waste and abuse in the mental hygiene system."
Phillips, who founded the group in 1996, said he was a certified social worker with a bachelor's degree from York College and a master's from Fordham - and both claims were found to be untrue.
Among the report's findings:
n In 2006, Phillips gave himself a salary of nearly $300,000 as the head of SPIN and its sister group, the Evelyn Douglin Center for Children's Services - far more than top managers earned at similar nonprofits.
n Phillips gave SPIN staffer Carlos Ortiz - with whom he was having a "personal relationship," the report stated - a $100,000-a-year, no-show job, a $51,000 company car and health and pension benefits. Reached by The News, Ortiz had no comment.
n On Staff Day 2005, the agency doled out more than $60,000 for 11 flat-panel TVs, 34 iPods and other gifts.
n A dozen top staffers got luxury cars - from Phillips' $51,475 GMC Denali to property manager Raymond Wynne's $62,370 Lincoln Navigator. "This appears to be well in excess of what is necessary and inconsistent with proper stewardship of taxpayer funding," investigators wrote.
n Phillips and two colleagues spent $11,634 on a two-day conference in Chicago, where they paid $3,502.73 for lodging, including room service.
n Phillips' son, who lives in Atlanta, allegedly racked up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card.
Phillips denied the findings.
SPIN's board said in a statement it was "extremely troubled" by the report and that Phillips had resigned in November. He is serving as a consultant to ease in the new executive director, Charles Archer - a longtime board member and friend of Phillips.
Phillips is slated to leave at the end of February.
The state office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities - which oversees SPIN and similar agencies - said it allowed board members and Phillips to stay so services "would not be disrupted."

from The Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/02/21/2008-02-21_report_cites_expert_fraud_by_ed_agency-1.html
Report cites expert fraud by ed agency

BY ELIZABETH HAYS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, February 21st 2008, 4:00 AM

An embattled Sunset Park agency for the mentally disabled used phony credentials to try to open a program for special-needs children, the Daily News has learned.

The finding was part of a blistering state report on the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need and its disgraced longtime executive director, Seibert Phillips, chronicled this week by The News.

In the report, state investigators found that in a 2004 application to the state Education Department, Evelyn Douglin administrators lied by submitting the names and certification numbers of five specialists they said would work with disabled kids in the new program.

When contacted by state officials, the specialists said they had never heard of the agency - and had never given permission to have their certification numbers included.

"The commission intends to refer this matter to [the state Education Department's] Office of Professional Discipline for whatever investigation or other action it deems appropriate," wrote the investigators from the Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities in the report.

The faulty application was submitted by Cliff Datys, who runs the Evelyn Douglin Center for Children's Services, the group's sister agency, also based in Sunset Park.

Datys could not be reached for comment yesterday. The agency's new executive director, Charles Archer, a longtime friend of Phillips' and former board member who was brought in to replace Phillips, did not return calls.

The finding is the latest black eye for the Evelyn Douglin Center, which is under joint investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney and the city attorney general for squandering hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars on fancy business trips, luxury cars and flat-panel TVs for a dozen staffers.

State officials said the school application in question was ultimately turned down. However, the group continues to run a preschool for about 60 developmentally disabled kids ages 3 to 5 on Leonard St. in Greenpoint, which also is overseen by Datys.

Among other new revelations from the report:

# Two of Phillips closest aides, Marcelle Bailey and Melvin Wynne, received 71% raises from 2004 to 2006 - from $70,000 to $120,000 - while other staffers got raises of 3% to 7%.

# Meanwhile, a lower-level employee was denied overtime even though he worked 93 supplemental hours one month.

# The agency spent $16,146 to send six employees to a two-day conference in Pittsburgh, though the same conference had been held three weeks earlier in New York City.

Phillips has vehemently denied the report's findings.