The Let's Talk, Let's Test Foundation ( LTLTF ) , currently under investigation for misspending state funds, received over a million dollars in grants in 2007 from the Illinois Department of Public Health ( IDPH ) . As reported two weeks ago in Windy City Times, IDPH is now asking for over $500,000 of that money back.
The grants came from a legislative initiative called the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Fund, which established a pool of state money, under the administration of IDPH, to fund organizations doing work to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community.
The fund was legislated as a follow-up to the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Act, and signed into law by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Authored by state Rep. Constance "Connie" Howard and state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, the Response Act was initially hailed as innovative, if not visionary—POZ Magazine named Howard one of "ten black AIDS warriors to watch." And AIDS Foundation of Chicago President Mark Ishaug said recently that the Response Act "was and is a very important idea.
"We need to bring attention to the epidemic in communities of color," said Ishaug. Indeed, the statistics are stark: though Black people account for just 15 percent of Illinois' population, the same demographic accounts for half of all new HIV infections.
Among other provisions, the act called for the creation of "Response Officers" in four state agencies: IDPH, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Corrections and the governor's office. It focused particularly on the problem of HIV in prisons, allowing for inmates to receive confidential testing upon request and mandating a study of the link between incarceration and HIV infection. Aiming to make HIV/AIDS-prevention resources widespread, the act called for high-traffic state agencies, such as motor-vehicle bureaus, to double as HIV testing and counseling sites.
The act also mandated the creation of a panel that would include two ex-offenders, a representative of the governor and officials from HIV/AIDS organizations to review the progress made in implementing the legislation.
In a press release issued by the governor's office, LTLTF Executive Director Lloyd Kelly said, "Given the urgency in the African-American community to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I am encouraged by the progressive action by the Governor and lawmakers to openly and honestly address this problem." Kelly, who had been an unpaid aide to Rep. Howard before co-founding Let's Talk, Let's Test with her, helped Howard draft the legislation.
Kelly also helped to conceive the Response Fund, which was enacted the following year to put dollars behind intention. Initially allocated $3 million, the fund was to provide money to organizations doing work to combat HIV infection in Black communities.
Although the Response Fund, signed by Blagojevich in May 2006, was supposed to go into effect January 2007, IDPH appears to have lagged in the time that it took to establish rules for the grant. A press release from the governor's office in April 2007 said that the state was "in the process of adopting the rules," which are a requirement of the granting process.
According to an interview that Kelly gave the the Chicago Reporter in early 2009, the delay in funding made it difficult for LTLTF to implement its planned HIV-prevention programs; the organization would have had to spend the $1.05 million it received in August 2007 by the end of its contract—Jan. 1, 2008.
Some of this money is part of the spending under scrutiny. During this period, Kelly purchased skybox tickets to the Chicago Football Classic, and paid out $50,000 to himself and $30,000 to LTLTF employee Carlos Estes. ( Kelly has said that the money was back pay. ) Details of this spending were publicized after an anonymous individual forwarded a packet of financial records to investigators and various media outlets, including Windy City Times.
Though LTLTF received more than a third of the initial money allocated to the fund, the rest was dispersed among 79 organizations. Windy City Times has filed a request for and is currently awaiting a list of grantees awarded money from the Response Fund.
One HIV/AIDS service provider, who works in Chicago's Black community and asked not to be identified, said that she has not experienced the trouble with IDPH that Kelly alleges, although she was unclear if her organization received money specifically from the Response Fund.
A state auditor general's report of IDPH's practices during that period said that 99.1 percent of the entire Response Fund was paid out in the "lapse period" of fiscal year 2007. The lapse period is the two-month window past the state's fiscal year—which ends June 30—in which it can still spend money budgeted for that year. The auditor general tracks state departments which have "significant" lapse period spending. "Significant" is defined as spending beyond twenty percent of the entire sum.
Having spent the first disbursement of state money, Kelly requested another at the beginning of 2008—his organization was broke. IDPH had questions over the spending of the money, however, and in May Kelly learned that he was being audited by the department. In September 2008, IDPH announced that LTLTF would not receive any more grant money and in November, the state legislature, mired in an economic crisis, decided not to appropriate any more money to the Response Fund.
According to Kelly's account to the Chicago Reporter—he declined to speak on record to Windy City Times pending retention of a lawyer—miscommunication and poor organization on the part of IDPH led to his organization's struggles. Through the state Freedom of Information Act, Windy City Times has also requested records of meetings between IDPH representatives and Kelly during the time period in question.
If the initiative were to have been poorly implemented by the state, it would hardly have stood alone: major parts of the Response Act were not enacted.
Certainly, some were. The legislation mandated, for instance, that a study be undertaken by Chicago State University's HIV/AIDS Policy and Research Institute to examine the correlation between HIV infection and incarceration. Information about that study is available online at CSU.edu/collegeofhealthsciences/hivaidsinstitute. ( LTLTF's offices were located at CSU. According to its Web site, the Policy and Research Institute "established an ongoing collaboration with [ LTLTF ] from its inception." )
No state department apparently hired an African-American HIV/AIDS response officer, as was mandated in the legislation. The required review panel, designed to oversee the act's implementation, never materialized: According to a 2007 report from the state auditor general, Blagojevich did not appoint anybody. The governor's office said then that it "requires time" to fill vacant boards.
The extent to which troubles within the Response Act and the Response Fund can be traced back to the former governor is unclear: State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz said that under Blagojevich's administration, "a lot of the [ grant ] management was no longer overseen by the department, it was overseen by the Governor's office. … They just never kept up with the grants."
"We have to be more vigilant," Feigenholtz said, adding "how dear those dollars are."
"It's sad, it's depressing," said Ishaug. "And the need for funds targeting the African-American community is more critical than ever.
"The [ Response Fund ] was and remains an important idea," Ishaug said. "It has to remain a reality."
