An HIV/AIDS advocacy organization long under suspicion of misusing funds has been ordered to return a $500,000 grant it received from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.Let's Talk, Let's Test Foundation ( LTLTF ) has also been asked to give back more than $500,000 it received from the Illinois Department of Public Health, and is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The announcement comes after suggestions, first reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, that LTLTF's leadership had mismanaged funds, including paying out large bonuses to staff members, the purchase of skybox tickets to a football game and questionable campaign contributions to Democratic state Rep. Connie Howard.
Suspicion surrounding LTLTF's spending is not new; in September 2008, Windy City Times reported that the Illinois Department of Public Health ( IDPH ) was withholding funding to the organization while it investigated how the money was spent.
Let's Talk, Let's Test Executive Director Lloyd Kelly denies wrongdoing. Although Kelly had no comment at press time, he said that he planned a press release and hold a possible press conference later in the week.
Calls to Howard's office seeking comment were not returned by press time.
Howard, who has served in the Illinois legislature since 1995, co-founded Let's Talk, Let's Test with Kelly in 2002; Kelly previously had been a volunteer legislative aid in Howard's office. In August 2005, Howard shepherded a bill through the legislature that gave the group a large boost in fundinga financial infusion of which the spending is now under widespread suspicion.
That money came out of the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Act, which was co-authored by Howard and state Sen. Kimberly Lightford. Signed into law by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and enacted in 2006, the Response Act was heralded as a pioneering piece of legislation that would address the widespread problem of HIV/AIDS in African-American populations.
Among other provisions, the act called for the creation of "response officers" in four state agencies: the Office of the Governor, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Department of Human Services and the Illinois Department of Corrections ( IDOC ) . It provided for the voluntary testing of any Illinois prison inmate who requested it, and mandated steps to control the spread of HIV in prison.
In the wake of the act's passage, Howard was named one of "10 Black AIDS Warriors to Watch" by POZ magazine, which described the legislation as "packed with truly innovative provisions." The magazine Utne Reader counted Howard as one of "50 visionaries who are changing your world."
In addition to changes in public health bureaucracy, the act also created a "response fund," to be administered through the state, that would fund non-profit agencies working to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community. Out of the $3 million funddispersed among 79 organizationsLTLTF was awarded more than $1 million.
According to an interview that Kelly gave to the Chicago Reporter in January 2009, the organization began to experience difficulties with state funding as soon as the money was dispersed. Kelly told the Reporter that the first check LTLT received from the state was eight months late, giving the organization only the few months left in that fiscal year to adjust its spending plan and provide expense reports to the state.
Though LTLTF ended up receiving continued funding, Kelly's failure to report expenses to the state raised suspicions about the group's spending. In September 2008, IDPH said that it was withholding funds while it investigated how its grants to the organization were spent. At the time, an IDPH spokesperson told Windy City Times that such investigations were a routine part of the grant-making process.
But by April 2009, the Illinois Attorney General's Office revoked the organization's ability to solicit donations, saying that it had failed to file an expense report for the previous year. And in September 2009, the Sun-Times revealed a number of questionable expenses made by LTLTF, including the skybox tickets and employee bonuses. Kelly reportedly received a $50,000 bonus, and another employee allegedly received a $30,000 bonus. Kelly has said that the payments were back pay owed to LTLTF staffers.
IDPH is now seeking the return of $523,545 from Let's Talk, Let's Testpart of $1.2 million the organization received.
Separately, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity ( DCEO ) is seeking a refund of its $500,000 grant to the organization. The grant was made for LTLTF to purchase and rehabilitate a building on the South Side; the group planned to rent out apartments in the building and use the income to fund its HIV/AIDS programming.
According to Marcelyn Love, a spokesperson for the DCEO, the time period of the grant given to LTLTF was April 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2008. Love told Windy City Times that the money was a "member grant," meaning that the executive officer of the project "works in consultation with the governor's office and the respective legislative caucus."
That project reportedly went over budget and remains incomplete. When LTLTF did not respond to an August request from the DCEO asking for its money back, the department forwarded the matter to the Illinois Attorney General's office.
Kelly has said that LTLTF is nearly a million dollars in debt, and cannot afford to hire an accountant or lawyer to help straighten out its finances.
Due to the sensitive nature of the controversy, few activists involved in HIV/AIDS services in Chicago were willing to speak on record about their reaction to the legal steps taken against LTLTF. Amy Maggio, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist and service provider, e-mailed, "Although politics always comes into play when money is on the table and votes are in need of counting, HIV/AIDS continues to destroy lives."
Apparently alluding to the money allegedly misspent by LTLTF, Maggio said, "I can't help but think how many lives would be saved by over $1 million for quality testing and information programs."