Report questions SCLC leader's charities

By Associated Press

For the AJC

DAYTON, Ohio — Ohio charities operated by a national civil rights leader have received thousands of tax dollars with little government oversight, a newspaper reported Sunday.

A battered women's shelter and a food pantry associated with the Rev. Raleigh Trammell both received government money last year even though they had closed, according to the Dayton Daily News, which reviewed public financial documents.

Trammell is chairman of the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which has been trying to remove him over allegations that he and another official embezzled $596,000 from the group. Trammell has denied the allegations.

FBI agents on Thursday raided the SCLC's Dayton office and the homes of Trammell and his daughter. No charges were announced.

The SCLC and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, which Trammell also serves as chairman, have received about $3.7 million in public money since 1999. The Daily News said it found incomplete and contradictory financial accounting.

For example, the closed women's shelter owned by Trammell's church got $11,500 in stimulus money last year, on top of $23,000 for the shelter given by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I think it is unconscionable that they did not contact us when they closed," said Jayne Klose, senior vice president of United Way of Greater Dayton, which administers the money.

The Daily News also reported that government and civic leaders failed to scrutinize what Trammell's charities were doing.

In one case, a program that provides counseling services to poor families had no oversight in 2008 and 2009, when it received $184,260. As a result, the SCLC has little proof that it provided the service, Montgomery County administrator Deborah Feldman said.

Feldman said the SCLC will be dropped from the program, and the Dayton Urban League, which oversaw the taxpayer money, will not be paid for monitoring activities until it develops a new oversight plan.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Sunday at Trammell's home.

Feldman defended the county's decision to fund programs headed by Trammell, who was convicted of stealing from the county welfare department when he was deputy director in the 1970s.

"He went to jail. He served his time," Feldman said. "He has since then been a very active member of the community representing an extremely important organization in this community and this country."

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders in 1957, claims about 10,000 members in nearly 80 chapters in 17 states from Georgia to California.