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COLUMBUS — A pot of money intended to help the poor was used to buy two giant flat-screen televisions, pay for two $125-a-month parking spots for a state contractor and purchase a $6,000 study that heaped praise on the state government office that made it all possible.

On top of that, the contractor hired to administer the money — We Care America — is paid about $3,500 a day, including a 15 percent charge for "overhead." And the 50-inch televisions, which cost $15,229 to buy and install, plus 15 percent, aren't fully functional, according to Keith Dailey, press secretary for Gov. Ted Strickland. One is in Columbus while the other is in We Care America's offices in Virginia, he said.

Under the Taft administration, the Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives paid one-page monthly invoices from We Care America with apparently few questions.

Concerns about the financial management of the office led Strickland this week to ask state Inspector General Tom Charles to investigate and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to conduct an audit, Dailey said. Strickland replaced the office staff in January.

"Basically, yes, we've opened an investigation and we'll be reviewing their contracts," Charles said Friday.

Krista Sisterhen, the office director under Taft, did not respond to written questions.

The Dayton Daily News has reviewed hundreds of pages of contracts, purchase orders, invoices, internal e-mails, reports and other data supplied by the Strickland administration through public records requests and by the Ohio Historical Society.

In September 2005, the state hired We Care America, a nonprofit based in northern Virginia, to administer $22 million in federal welfare money being doled out over two years to faith-based and community-based groups.

The bid was structured so that bidders had to have experience in three specific areas: helping prisoners re-enter society, mentoring vulnerable youth and counseling couples. Bidders needed experience developing a Web portal and helping faith-based and community organizations.

One bidder, Young Williams, wrote: "We realize that there is probably no firm in the country that can deliver the full range of programmatic and technological services required by this RFP (request for proposals.)"

The Taft administration invited 114 vendors to bid. Seven responded on time. Three bidders — a major accounting firm that conducted the state's Tom Noe audit, a national grants administrator and Indiana University — were tossed out for lacking experience with prisoners, couples and troubled youth, according to rejection letters issued by the state to these bidders. The fourth — Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies —lacked experience developing a Web site, according to its rejection letter.

"It almost seems like they knocked out the folks who would've been stronger competitors," said John Corlett, senior fellow at the Center for Community Solutions in Cleveland.

The three remaining bidders were Young Williams, a Jackson, Miss.-based child support collection firm, the Nehemiah Foundation in Springfield, and We Care America of Lansdowne, Va., which has ties to the Bush administration.

When five state employees scored the proposals, We Care America blew the two competitors away, according to score sheets. A month later, We Care America was awarded a $1.7 million, 20-month contract.

The deal was later increased more than 20 percent to $2.14 million, or about $3,500 a day. Even before the amendments, We Care America was the highest bidder among the three considered.

Phil Cole, executive director of Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, said he was very disappointed his agency was disqualified for lack of Web development experience, yet We Care America was allowed to subcontract the work.

"We had experience in all those other parts and we're in Ohio. The governor of Ohio should not be sending money out of state," Cole said. His agency put in the lowest bid — one that was 8.9 percent less than We Care America's.

"The only comment I would make to you is that there was a very well-developed Ohio competitive bidding process. We Care America bid on the work, just like other people did," said David Mills, who left last week as the group's vice president of grants and program development. He had been a primary contact for Ohio officials.

State Rep. John White, R-Kettering, shepherded the bill through the General Assembly that created the Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives in 2003. White, an evangelical Christian and former Montgomery County GOP chairman, heads the office's advisory council but said he had nothing to do with day-to-day operations.

"I don't know what to think about it because it was a bidded-out process. That's supposed to be nonbias and transparent," White said. "I didn't know who We Care America was until they won the bid."

We Care America's involvement didn't stop at the $2.1 million contract. It was later tapped to be the fiscal agent for part of the Ohio Compassion Capital Project, a program aimed at bolstering small organizations serving the needy. We Care America promised to do this at no charge, but internal e-mails show We Care America was chided for charging 15 percent on one invoice for that project.

And We Care America was lining up to do more work for the Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives. Last fall, Ohio won a federal grant to focus on strengthening black marriages, and the office dubbed the program "Turning the Tide on Black Marriages." We Care America was seeking a $108,900 unbid contract to help with the new grant — a deal that could be renewed for two more years at $125,000 a year.

Founded in 2000, We Care America quickly grew from $300,000 in revenue to $3.2 million in 2004, according to its most recent IRS 990 forms.

We Care America Chief Executive Dave Donaldson is a co-chairman of President Bush's presidential prayer team and We Care America's Ohio project director, Kelly Cowles, worked in the Bush administration's faith-based programs. We Care America paid $25,000 for brochure development to Chris Gersten, another former Bush administration official who is now an advocate for government money going toward strengthening marriage programs.

We Care America shares a Virginia address with an evangelical organization founded by Nixon aide Chuck Colson called Prison Fellowship Ministries, according to IRS 990 forms for both groups. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has sued to stop a government-funded Prison Fellowship program in Iowa.

Americans United also has requested a slew of public records from the Ohio Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives but is waiting to see how Strickland structures the programs before deciding whether to take legal action, Americans United spokesman Rob Boston said.

Few of these details about We Care America were shared with the advisory board to the Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives, according to one member.

Advisory Board member Lisa Hamler-Fugitt said the decision to hire We Care America was "never disclosed, never discussed, never vetted by the advisory committee."

White said he is "pretty confident" the office spent welfare money with the proper oversight and assessments.

He said, "I hope and pray everything was as transparent as everyone thought because clearly this office has done some good."

Funding sources for Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives

• $312,500 in state funds for administrative costs.

• $1 million a year federal grant for the Ohio Compassion Capital Project through June 2007. The program focuses on helping small organizations grow stronger.

• $544,140 a year federal grant for the African American Health Marriage Initiative through September 2011. The program aims to reduce divorce rates and encourage marriage among black couples.

• $22 million over two years in welfare money for the Ohio Strengthening Families Initiative through June 2007. The program focuses on mentoring youth, helping prisoners and counseling couples. Of this, $2.1 million over 20 months goes to the Virginia-based We Care America.

 

Timeline

July 2003: Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives established by law.

October 2003: Krista Sisterhen is hired as director.

August 2004: Ohio is awarded a $1 million federal grant for the Ohio Compassion Capital Project. Half is allocated for technical assistance and training and half is for mini-grants to small organizations.

Winter 2005: Staff is added to the office. Compassion Capital Project grants and training sessions start.

July 2005: State budget earmarks $11 million a year in welfare money for the Ohio Strengthening Families Initiative.

September 2005: We Care America hired to administer the Strengthening Families Initiative.

April 2006: Grants are awarded.

September 2006: Ohio receives a federal Health Marriage Initiative grant.

January 2006: Sisterhen resigns, and new Gov. Ted Strickland replaces staff and begins reviewing grants and contracts.

March 2006: Strickland asks state Inspector General Tom Charles to investigate, and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to audit the office.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1624 or lbischoff@DaytonDailyNews.com.