The president and board chairman of the city-funded nonprofit Philadelphia Safe and Sound yesterday testified that former Mayor John F. Street and his senior aides directed them to spend - over their objections - $21 million on after-school programs and other anti-truancy initiatives.
They had no choice but to follow those instructions, even though they knew that the money didn't exist in the city budget, they said. Those expenditures have landed Safe and Sound in the predicament of taking an ax to dozens of programs in recent weeks, and shoving Safe and Sound into the middle of a political firestorm.
"Up until the end of the Street administration, Safe and Sound submitted revised budgets, but was told not to initiate any program cutbacks," said Anne Shenberger, the nonprofit's president during a five-hour hearing before City Council's Committee on Public Health and Human Services.
"It is important to set the record straight as to precisely what transpired - not to blame others or absolve Safe and Sound, but to help you understand the dynamics of the past several months and, possibly, suggest procedures that could avoid future occurrences," testified Safe and Sound's board chairman, Ernest Jones.
Committee chairwoman Marian Tasco didn't hesitate to offer Safe and Sound her own advice: "Don't trust outgoing mayors!"
The problems began last year when Street made the $21 million in extra cash available to Safe and Sound even after Council turned down the request.
The result of that action played out this month, with the social-services community being upended by first learning that many programs would be greatly expanded, then being told that some of them would have to be scaled back, and finally being told that some programs will still be eliminated and others will be restored.
Street has not returned several recent requests for comments to explain what happened.
Yesterday, Nutter administration officials as well as Safe and Sound traced the confusion back to December, when Street directed Arthur Evans, his commissioner for the Department of Human Services, to reduce 200 foster-care and placement-related contracts and send the money saved by those cutbacks to Safe and Sound.
Evans - who is now Mayor Nutter's acting DHS commissioner - said he was aware at the time that the city simply could not cut those contracts. When asked Tuesday why he did so anyway, Evans responded: "When you work for an administration, you take direction from the chief executive officer."
Mayor Nutter recently ordered that those contract dollars be restored.
Shenberger said yesterday that she was aware that the extra $21 million could be troublesome, and she tried to slow down the spending. In the end, about $9 million was spent or committed.
For the most part, Safe and Sound acts as a fiscal intermediary for the city, passing on millions of dollars to hundreds of providers. Perhaps best well-known for issuing the annual children's report card, it also manages the city's curfew centers.
Street's former managing director, Loree Jones, was one of those who directed Safe and Sound to go ahead and begin expanding services, such as opening 11 curfew centers and after-school programs.
"Our sense was, the money was there," Jones said in an interview. She explained that the administration was hopeful that the state would help make up the gap. In addition, she said, the city had surplus dollars in its general fund that could have been allocated.
Nutter, however, has his own budget priorities and has largely chosen not to do so. He has preserved some of the programs that were slated to close by March 1, including after-school programs managed by "beacon" community centers, as well as those operating as part of the Adolescent Violence Reduction Partnership, and Families and Schools Together programs.
Scrutiny of Safe and Sounds' operation and finances will continue today in a new arena. Beginning today, the nonprofit will undergo an extensive evaluation by the state Department of Public Welfare.
That evaluation is being done at Nutter's request, and will be the first time that the state has conducted any such audit in Safe and Sound's decade-long existence.
