NEW ALLEGATIONS HIT: Troubled non-profit group

COLUMBIA, 12/22/09 (Beat Byte) -- The subject of a recent financial audit that found numerous trouble spots, the non-profit Columbia/Boone County Community Partnership (BCCP) -- which annually receives about $1.2 million from taxpayers and donors -- filed a false 2009 report with Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, claim new allegations forwarded to the Columbia Heart Beat.

 

The report was allegedly designed to show a BCCP bylaw-required quorum of five board members, when at the time only three persons were actively serving.  

 

But BCCP board member Brian Colwell, an MU sociology professor, had resigned well before the August 27, 2009 annual report filing date, and only three persons are currently listed as active "board officers" on the BCCP website:  Chair Khesha Duncan; Vice-Chair William McKee, Jr.; and Secretary/Treasurer William Crum.  

 

Signed by BCCP Executive Director W. Lolita Lucas on 8/27/09, the 2009 Annual Registration Report also includes Colwell on a "revised list" of BCCP directors as of August 10, 2009.   Colwell said he resigned in July.  A second board member, MU law professor S. David Mitchell, said he resigned in September, though the written complaint delivered to the Heart Beat claims Mitchell also resigned prior to the August filing. 

 

"The undersigned understands that false statements made in this report are punishable for the crime of making a false declaration under Section 575.060 RsMo," reads a disclaimer above Lucas' signature.

 

RELATED:

http://www.booneccp.org/