Does Keith Ellison have a Feeding Our Futures problem?

There's no doubt that Tim Walz hasn't handled the Feeding Our Futures scandal well. In fact, Gov. Walz's handling of the scandal fits the description of mishandling the scandal. Jim Schultz, the Republican-endorsed candidate for Attorney General, thinks that Keith Ellison has some questions to answer about the FOF scandal, too.

For instance, Schultz is asking some rather pointed questions in this statement. The question that jumped out at me the most was "How did campaign contributions to Keith Ellison’s campaign, the campaign of his son, Jeremiah Ellison, and other DFL officials made by individuals connected to FOF affect the decision not to pursue the case and to continue payments?" That's a totally legitimate question. How did campaign contributions from FOF find its way into the Ellisons' campaign accounts?

Another question asked by Schultz is "Why did massive payments continue to FOF despite no judicial order to do so and despite overwhelming evidence—evidence so significant that the Department of Education notified the FBI—of wrongdoing, including the fraud being known as an 'open-secret' in the Minneapolis community?" Then there's this:

While in Congress, Ellison served on the board of directors of Community Action for Minneapolis (CAM), a prominent local human services charity that assisted low-income residents with basic needs. A 2014 audit and subsequent FBI investigation uncovered that while Ellison was on CAM’s board, its CEO Bill Davis and Davis’s family members had embezzled more than $500,000 from the charity.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services audit that initially triggered the federal investigation largely blamed CAM’s board of directors on which Ellison served, saying, "poor oversight by the board contributed to a culture of excessive spending on administrative costs, including unallowable personal benefits to board members, senior management and Community Action of Minneapolis staff."

According to federal investigators, some of the embezzled money was spent by Davis to attend the Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama and to travel to other Democratic political events.

Davis eventually pled guilty to 16 federal counts and his son, a Minneapolis police officer who had held a "no-show" job in an ice cream store funded by CAM, received a two-year federal prison sentence.

Ellison claimed that he had not attended any of CAM’s board meetings or been involved in its management, having named a proxy to serve in his place.

Then there's this:

These excerpts from the audit are useful insights into the management practices of Community Action of Minneapolis, covering the period of June 30, 2011 through July 1, 2013. The first finding related to the functions of Rubio and his colleagues:

• "Board management does not provide independent and objective oversight of senior management or program operations."
• "We found no evidence the board has ever been fully staffed at the minimum level of 15 board members. Currently, the board has four positions that are vacant, and has had at least two vacant positions every year since 2000. In addition, the board chair and three other board members have all served consecutive terms ranging from 11-13 years on the board, thereby violating the by-laws which limit each position to a maximum of two consecutive three year terms. The consecutive terms served by the board chair and three other board members also exceed the ten-year limit as allowed in statute."
• "We believe poor oversight by the board contributed to a culture of excessive spending on administrative costs, including unallowable personal benefits to board members, senior management and Community Action of Minneapolis staff for two weekend retreats at Arrowwood Resort Hotel and Conference Center in Alexandria…In addition, program budgets and actual expenses were not sufficiently scrutinized by the board, and projected outcomes were not monitored and compared frequently to actual reports of the diminished number of clients served."

In short, Ellison didn't take his job on the board seriously. Community Action of Minneapolis doesn't exist anymore. They shut down when these things came to light. Finally, this is how serious the board took its responsibilities: "

[An] example of a lack of oversight occurred when Community Action of Minneapolis submitted its 2012-2013 allocation to the Office of Economic Opportunity. Community Action of Minneapolis proposed to eliminate the second year of program outcomes in the 2012-2013 allocation in its entirety and allocate 100% of funds to administrative costs. The proposal was designed to increase administrative costs (i.e., travel and training) available for Community Action of Minneapolis staff expenses and eliminate program funds that would provide services to clients. The 2012-2013 proposal was submitted by senior management and approved by the board…"

This is KSTP's report on CAM shutting down: