Whistle-blowers "removed" from Executive Committee, Mpls NAACP Branch | Ron Edwards: NAACP branch "misplaced" $86,000 in 2001-2002 | The $86,000 Question (Minneapolis NAACP branch) | The $86,000 Question, Part 2
Whistle-blowers "removed" from Executive Committee, Mpls NAACP Branch
Whistle-blowers "removed" from Executive Committee, Mpls NAACP Branch.
Date: 3/26/2005 5:16:34 PM Central Standard Time
From: Socialist2001
To: mpls@mnforum.org
by Doug Mann (one of the whistle-blowers)
On March 25, 2005, the Minneapolis NAACP Branch Executive Committee received letters which accused Carol White and I (Doug Mann) of conduct inimical (hostile) to the best interests of the Minneapolis NAACP Branch and announced our removal from the EC. The text of the letter to me, and my response are pasted below.
Ms. White and I called two special Executive Committee meetings (Feb. 25 & March 17, 2005) to address matters related to the financial books and records of the Minneapolis NAACP Branch and Parent Info Centers. I wrote the report that was approved at the March 17, 2005 EC meeting.
I am also demanding an accounting for more than a million dollars that branch officers have taken in and spent within the past several years (and don't have much to show for it). The Minneapolis NAACP branch has not had a full audit since 1998. There was a "cash review" presented to the membership in January 2003, but never a report about the promised audit for 2001-2002.
The branch membership has never received documentation related to $86,266 in investment funds that went missing in 2001-2002 (Confirmed by the acting treasurer in May-June 2003). A full audit for 2001-2002 might be required to determine what happened to the missing $86,000. Ms. White and I have tracked down several sources of a rumor concerning a "loan" of about $85,000 made to a branch officer in 2001-2002 (without a repayment agreement).
As members of the Branch EC, Ms. White and I have the formal right to inspect the branch's financial books and records. NAACP members and others who support the NAACP and its mission, financially and otherwise, have an absolute right to know how their money is being spent.
[on Minneapolis Branch NAACP letterhead]
Douglas Mann
3619 Grand Ave. S.
Dear Douglas Mann:
When an individual becomes a member of the NAACP, that individual pledges to abide by the rules and policies of the Association and the decisions of the Board of Directors.
The NAACP Board of Directors appointed an administrator for the Minneapolis Branch NAACP and you have disregarded the Directions, Instructions, and the authority of the administrator.
Consequently, I have determined that your conduct has been inimical to the best interests of the Minneapolis Branch NAACP and effective 12:01 AM, March 25, 2005, I am removing you, Douglas Mann, from the Executive Committee of the Minneapolis Branch NAACP. The at-large position which you occupied has been declared vacant.
[signed]
Carl L. Breeding, Level II administrator
1124 South Milwaukee Street
Jackson, Michigan 49203
cc: Minneapolis Branch NAACP Executive Committee
Response by Doug Mann
I reject the allegation that my (unspecified) conduct has been inimical to the best interests of the Minneapolis NAACP branch.
I request a full hearing.
Mr. Carl L. Breeding has no independent authority to carry out disciplinary action against any member the NAACP. Only one person, the National President and CEO "may order an officer or member suspended pending a full hearing if requested by the respondent. (Article X, paragraph 4)"
In the first paragraph of his March 24, 2005 letter, Mr. Breeding quotes out of context from the constitution and bylaws of the NAACP, article X, paragraph 2. The full paragraph reads (emphaisis added),
"When an individual becomes a member of the NAACP, that individual pledges to abide by the rules and policies of the Association and the decisions of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors, upon satisfactory evidence that an officer or member of the Association, or of a subsidiary Unit of the Association is guilty of conduct not in accord with the principles, aims, and purposes of the National Association for the advancement of Colored People, may order suspension, expulsion, or other disciplinary action against such officer or member, after a full hearing if requested by the respondent in accord with the provisions of this Constitution. Any member of the association who files litigation against the National NAACP or against any of its units without having pursued the remedies within the framework of the Association, shall be deemed as exhibiting behavior not in accord with the principles, aims, and purposes of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, meriting suspension, expulsion, or other disciplinary actions" - Article X, paragraph 2.