March 19, 1986 April 1, 1986 April 7, 1986 April 14, 1986 May 9, 1986 May 19, 1986 May 28, 1986 May 30, 1986 June 13, 1986 June 16, 1986 June 17, 1986 June 17, 1986 June 18-19, 1986 June 20, 1986 June 23, 1986 June 24, 1986 June 25, 1986 June 26, 1986 Implementation Plan submitted to Office OJJDP staff learn of Honeywell sole-source contract for Sam Keker assumes Acting Presidency Board of Trustees Meeting OJJDP staff told of additional financial improprieties recommend full audit OJJDP directs the Partnership to take corrective action including the forced resignations of senior consultants Gerrish, Coursen, and Stover Porpotage and Neal Berg conduct limited financial review Findings and corrective action of review delineated to Partnership staff notified by Donahue and Porpotage that OJJDP Acting Administrator Verne Speirs has placed program in suspension status. ABC and CBS networks air story on national news regarding Assistant Attorney General Herrington given comprehensive briefing on Partnership activities by OJJDP staff. Porpotage, Jack Nadol, and Neal Berg visit Partnership and discuss financial review and program review methodology. Porpotage conducts program review by interviewing Division Verne Spiers, Charles Lauer, Frank Porpotage, and Herbert Ellingwood visit Robert Baldwin in New York City and discuss close-out of Partnership. Partnership staff given formal notice that program will formally end on July 31, 1986 and that government has claim of $81,971. Results of program review also shared with staff. Letter sent to Partnership delineating major activities to be undertaken during close out of the program. Partnership sends to OJJDP formal proposal to continue all staff through July 31, 1986. Partnership staff formally notified that their proposal is unacceptable. Phase out plan for staff is suggested by OJJDP. July 2, 1986 July 8, 1986 July 8, 1986 July 9, 1986 July 10, 1986 July 11, 1986 July 18, 1986 July 24, 1986 July 24, 1986 July 25, 1986 July 29, 1986 July 30, 1986 July 31, 1986 August | 14, 1986 August 28-29, 1986 August 29, 1986 OJJDP notifies Partnership by letter that government cannot approve charges for dissolution of Partnership. Formal response from Partnership on questioned costs is received by OJJDP. OJJJDP and OJP officials conduct inventory of all grant A close-out agreement drafted by OJJDP is delivered to Acting President Arkin tells Porpotage that Interim Chairman Baldwin will not authorize the signing of the agreement by the Acting President. First group of 5 staff members of Partnership leave employment status with the organization. Porpotage, Herbert Ellingwood and Associate General Landlord for Partnership offices takes possession of Partnership Board Chairman Robert Baldwin signs Close-Out 2nd group of Partnership staff end employment status with the organization. Landlord for Partnership offices agrees to allow government to take possession of Partnership furniture in return for "settlement" of lease for $46,856. Government takes possession of furniture and files of the Partnership grant formally ends. The last staff person of the Partnership, the financial officer Alexandra Rollins, works at OJJDP offices in closing-out activities of the grant program. Alexandra Rollins again works on close-out activities at OJJDP offices. Makes request to have government pay for formal dissolution of the Partnership corporation. OJJDP formally notifies Rollins and the Partnership that it will not authorize payment of any legal fees beyond the end date of the grant, July 31, 1986 and that the government cannot authorize federal grant funds to formally dissolve the corporation. National Partnership to Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Youth MANAGEMENT CHART Fiscal Year-1986 Mr. KILDEE. Our next witnesses will consist of a panel: Mr. Samuel J. Keker, former acting president, National Partnership to Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Washington, DC; Mr. William Butynski, executive director, National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, Washington, DC; and Mr. Ken Eaton, trustee of the National Partnership to Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Washington, DC. If they would come forward. STATEMENTS OF SAMUEL J. KEKER, FORMER ACTING PRESI- Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Keker, you will be our lead-off witness. Thank you, Chairman Kildee and members of your committee for the invitation to testify before the subcommittee regarding the National Partnership to Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse among youth. I will refer to the national partnership as-in the abbreviated form-the NP. I think the committee is to be commended for undertaking an inquiry into this particular aspect in the conduct of public business. There are important considerations, short term and long term. I cannot speak on behalf of the national partnership board of trustees, but I am pleased to offer observations from my own experience. Although my professional career has been mainly in the private sector, I have served on several public commissions and task forces. I retired from U.S. News & World Report in early 1984 as chairman of the board. I presently serve as chairman of the advisory council of the Maryland Department of Human Resources. My association with the NP covers the period July 1985 to July 1, 1986, and falls in two distinct periods. In July 1985, I was recruited by the National Executive Service Corps, acting in behalf of the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Delinquency, as a consultant to plan and help execute the mission of the soon-to-belaunched national partnership. The nonprofit corporation was formally organized and launched in October 1985. It was launched with a designated president and chief operating officer, no full-time staff, and with a chairman and chief executive officer still to be selected. The bylaws called for the secretary to be the interim chairman of a nonprofit organization. The chairman did not materialize all through the remaining 1985 and an interim chairman was elected in January 1986, so we could get on with the business of the corporation. My initial commitment was short term and limited. My responsibility was to recruit permanent staff for the communications and public affairs division and to act in a volunteer consultant capacity until the NP was off and operating. I reported to the president and served at his direction and pleasure. In mid-March, the president resigned. On April 1, 1986, I agreed to assume the responsibility of acting president until a successor could be recruited at the instance of Mr. Baldwin, the chairman at the time. I served in this capacity until June 1986 at the direction and pleasure of the interim chairman of the corporation. I resigned when I learned in mid-June that the operations of the NP were again being reviewed by a new administration of OJJDP and that a freeze on all program expenditures was directed pending his review-the second in less than 3 months. The partnership was formally launched on October 10, 1985. It was dissolved in July 1986. A central question before the committee must surely be how and why a unique public/private effort committed to a long range commitment to organize the country at the grass-roots level failed in its stated mission. Admittedly, many factors contributed to the demise of the NP. Some major, some minor, but all of them incident in the start up of any ambitious initiative of a new organization. I was surprised when I was approached to be associated with the national partnership that there had never been a coalition throughout the country of the various groups, alcohol, drugs, a caretaker, treatment centers, educators. They were all out there with their own turf battles, all fighting for the congressional private dollar. Again this country is one massive coalition, but the fact there was not a coalition to prevent alcohol and drug abuse among youth was mind boggling and the concept that you would have a small organization, get to the grass roots level, get people organized locally across all the boards, all the interests, the liquor interests, drug interests, youth interests, and do the thing locally. Everything has been done. For years we have been screaming about drug and alcohol abuse. We are talking about billions of dollars reallocated in the current program. The cry is, "Say no," but nobody has gotten down to the trench warfare that has to go on in this kind of program of doing it at a grass roots level and get people to stop wringing their hands and doing something about it in their own communities. I dedicated myself to this volunteer effort. Many things have contributed to the demise of the national partnership, so I will limit my testimony to one major factor, that the progress and ability of the partnership to function in a viable way was impaired from the beginning by raid changes in leadership and direction in the administration of the grant by the Office of Juvenile Delinquency. The fact that there was not in place a leadership, total leadership was a defect that had been promised would be taken care of in 2 to 3 weeks, but the fact that you started with an army, a crusade without a commander in chief is a defect right from the start. So it was impaired from the beginning. This took me a long time to make a decision in this connection, but whether this stemmed from lack of professionalism on the part of Government administrators, a different agenda from the partnership, or internecine warfare in various levels of the Justice Department, I can only surmise. All I got was rumors and back and forth. I am a bystander. I had the responsibility to recruit permanent staff, we were organized |