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YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC January 7, 2008
Diaz
claims conflict of interest by Migrant Council board chair
Before he was fired as chief executive, Carlos Diaz says he planned to recommend that the Washington State Migrant Council comply with new federal conflict rules that in his view either required the agency's board chairman to quit or the agency to break off its banking relationship with the chairman's employer, US Bank. In an interview, Diaz said board chairman Rodolfo Mendoza has a conflict of interest because he is an employee of US Bank in the Tri-Cities. US Bank handles the accounts of the Migrant Council, a private, nonprofit agency with a total budget of $30 million. The Sunnyside-based agency operates several Head Start programs for low-income preschool children in 11 counties up and down Central Washington. Diaz, 63, said his Yakima lawyer, Blaine Tamaki, will file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Migrant Council if he is not reinstated by the end of this week. Mendoza did not return several calls for comment or respond to e-mail messages relayed to him by the interim chief executive of the Migrant Council. He has said he is a customer relationship manager at US Bank. A spokeswoman for Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, parent of the retail US Bank branches, said the company hasn't been able to contact Mendoza regarding Diaz's allegations. The acting chief executive of the agency, Luana Lumley, has repeatedly declined to comment. Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which administers Head Start, said they couldn't immediately comment on whether Mendoza has a financial conflict of interest. The recently reauthorized Head Start program, which President Bush signed into law in mid-December, makes a number of changes in the rules governing Head Start grantees like the Migrant Council. Among the changes is a provision that board members "shall not have a financial conflict of interest with the Head Start Agency." Asked why he didn't anticipate Mendoza's possible conflict earlier this year when the new Head Start bill was being drafted and widely discussed, Diaz said he couldn't devise a policy to address conflict of interest until the proposed legislative language became law. Board's actions illegal? Tamaki contended in a recent letter to board members that not only is Mendoza in violation of the law but they, as a board, have violated "numerous state and federal laws." For starters, Tamaki said, the board failed to seek approval from three Migrant Council committees to fire Diaz. These "policy committees" are composed of parents whose children receive Head Start services, and they are supposed to enjoy what the federal government calls "shared governance" with the board over Head Start programs. Tamaki also asserted that any actions taken by the board since the new federal law took effect on Dec. 12 -- including its decision to fire Diaz and several of his aides on Dec. 15 -- are illegal because the makeup of the board itself doesn't meet the new regulations. Head Start agency boards are now required to include members with professional backgrounds in law, auditing and early childhood education. If the agency can't find board members with expertise in those three areas, then it must hire outside consultants with the required professional background. Mendoza was named chairman in October, and Diaz expressed support for him at the time, noting his private sector experience. But Diaz has since accused Mendoza and Lumley, chief financial officer and now acting chief executive, of orchestrating his ouster. Other members of Diaz's executive office, including his top aide, chief programs officer Norberto Espindola, also were either fired or demoted. The dismantling of the executive office, Diaz said, threatens the internal controls that he says he recently put into place to bring the agency into full compliance with various regulations. For a decade or more, the agency had a rocky history of being in and out of compliance on rules governing nepotism, spending and children's safety. Diaz said all the turmoil could jeopardize the Migrant Council's $28 million in federal funding -- nearly its total budget. "Nobody there has the expertise to monitor and sustain the agency long term," Diaz said.
Disputes termination memo Diaz had worked for the Migrant Council and its predecessor organizations since the late 1960s. In the interview, Diaz disputed the reasons for his firing, which are outlined in a "termination memo" signed by Mendoza. The memo cited "unsatisfactory job performance" over the past four years, including excessive absenteeism or tardiness, insubordination, and gross misconduct and mismanagement on a kitchen remodeling project. Diaz said he hadn't received job evaluations for the last two years and was only presented with 2006 and 2007 evaluations at the time of his dismissal. He said the board rated his performance "acceptable" in 2006 and "needs improvement" in 2007. Contrary to the termination memo, Diaz said, the kitchen-remodeling project at a Head Start center in College Place did not require approval from Head Start officials in Washington, D.C. He produced a copy of an e-mail to that effect written by Sandra Carton, chief of migrant and seasonal programs in the Head Start Bureau.
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