New
Evidence Uncovered By NHSA Links Head Start Bureau Chief
To Financial Abuses, Aggressive Cover-Up"Coup" Attempt
New Documents
Show Failed Cover-up Was Orchestrated By Hill After Taking Office;
National Head Start Association Renews Call for Resignation, HHS
OIG Investigation.
To hear the May 27, 2004 news event, click here.
WASHINGTON, D.C.///May 27, 2004/// After taking office
in early 2002, Windy Hill - the associate commissioner in charge of the
Head Start Bureau - attempted to install a "rogue" board of
directors at her former Head Start agency in Texas in order to kill an
investigation into her own financial mismanagement and other abuses there,
according to new evidence uncovered by the National Head Start Association
(NHSA). The Association also provided new documentation that squarely
refutes Hill's denial of the abuses first
made public by NHSA on April 13, 2004.
In view of the growing evidence fueling the Hill scandal, the National
Head Start Association (NHSA) renewed its calls for Hill's resignation
as the top Head Start official in the federal government. NHSA also joined
the chorus of voices calling for a full and fair Health and Human Services
(HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation of the Windy Hill
abuses. If such an investigation already has been launched in secret,
NHSA said, it should be made public, in exactly the same manner that
Windy Hill has sought out national and local headlines every time any
investigation has been launched of a local Head Start grantee.
NHSA President Sarah Greene said: "The new
evidence of Windy Hill's abuses now make it clear that she was engaged
in a range of misconduct both at a Head Start agency and later at HHS
that goes far beyond anything for which she has ever persecuted any
Head Start grantee. The fact that Windy Hill attempted to use her office
in Washington to orchestrate a cover-up to kill the investigation of
her misdeeds in Texas is all that should be required to trigger her
resignation, whether on a voluntary or a forced basis. If HHS already
is investigating her, they need to let the world know that, rather
than continuing the agency's policy of giving Hill special hush-hush
treatment. No Head Start grantee would ever be permitted to remain
in operation after committing these kind of abuses and they certainly
would not be getting the kind of kid-glove, keep-it-all-under-wraps
treatment that HHS is reserving for Windy Hill."
NHSA Director Ron Herndon said: "NHSA now
has brought forward not one -- but multiple -- 'smoking guns' proving
that Windy Hill committed financial abuses and then tried to cover
them up. This evidence goes way beyond anything that I have ever seen
Windy Hill cite in attacking a Head Start grantee in a local newspaper
or on a local television station. In fact, if this was about someone
other than herself, Hill already would have led the charge to ride
that party out of town on a rail and then have them publicly investigated
by the FBI. It is time to end the Hill/HHS double standard that allows
her to remain in office while hard-working men and women have their
reputations destroyed. It is time to end this embarrassment and to
restore faith and confidence in the national administration of the
Head Start program."
On April 13, 2004, the National Head Start Association (NHSA) made
public an initial round of documents detailing Hill's responsibility
for serious financial misconduct in her capacity as the executive director
of Cen Tex Family Services, a Bastrop, Texas-based Head Start grantee that she
headed before taking over the top job at the federal Head Start program
on January 7, 2002. The
HHS review findings released by NHSA were confirmed
in an independent
outside audit, which also was made public for the first
time by the Association. Those documents implicated Hill in awarding
improper bonuses to herself, cashing out multiple months of unauthorized
vacation pay, improper reimbursement of undocumented expenses and illicit
income that was not properly reported to the IRS for income tax purposes.
Since leaving Cen-Tex, Hill has repeatedly sought out media attention
and been openly critical of local Head Start grantees implicated in far
less serious problems than those in which she herself was involved. For
example, Hill has suggested that lesser violations are "criminal" in
nature and should be used as grounds to cut off federal funds to particular
Head Start grantees and remove their executive directors and/or boards.
NEW EVIDENCE: THE HILL "COUP" COVER-UP CAMPAIGN
In the wake of the original April 13, 2004 news event, NHSA has uncovered
documentation showing the following: Faced with a possible HHS investigation
into her abuses at Cen-Tex, Windy Hill, while associate commissioner
at the Federal Head Start Bureau, violated ethics rules and other laws
by attempting to overthrow the Cen-Tex board and replace it with individuals
(including her sister) who were unlikely to press for an investigation
of her misconduct.
The Hill "coup" attempt was triggered when those who took
over Cen-Tex in her absence went to the Dallas office of HHS to report
her misconduct as executive director. In late February 2002, the Cen-Tex
board of directors met with the Region VI HHS office to discuss
governance matters as well as program mismanagement issues that took
place during Hill's tenure at Cen-Tex.
In early March 2002, on the heels of Cen-Tex's meeting with Region VI,
Hill enlisted her sister, Robie Brown, and others to assist her in orchestrating
a takeover of Cen-Tex. Specifically, she
directed a member of the board of directors to take steps to assume control
of Cen-Tex and switch over its bank accounts to a new set of signatories,
one of which was her sister.
Additionally, the new "rogue" board of director appointed Hill's
friend, Sandy Scott, as the new executive director. At this point, litigation
ensued to determine whether the post-Hill or Hill-run board of directors
was valid.
In April 2002, the proof emerged on the public record that the "rogue" board
was a creation of Windy Hill. During that month, the attorney for the "rogue" board/faction
stated
at a judicial hearing that "orders" to form new board
of directors came from Washington D.C. and specifically from the "former
executive director, who is now assistant commissioner . . . to the entire
program." However, Hill's cover-up attempt was not to prove successful.
In the ensuing months, the Hill-led attempt to take over the Cen-Tex
board was killed when a Texas state court invalidated the "rogue" board
of directors and the appointment of Scott as its executive director.
Hill's efforts to squelch the Cen-Tex/HHS investigation into her misconduct
failed and the subsequent HHS review and outside audit subsequently detailed
the abuses later made public by the National Head Start Association on
April 13, 2004.
NEW FACTS REFUTING HILL DENIAL
In April 2004, Windy Hill issued a public
statement denying the abuses
outlined in the HHS review and independent audit documents first made
public by NHSA on April 13, 2004. Since then, NHSA has acquired extensive
documentation that challenges the veracity of Hill's denial:
- Hill falsely denied receiving three bonus payments
that were provided to her without proper documentation and in violation
of Cen-Tex policies.
In her denial of the abuses made public by NHSA, Hill admitted receiving
two "performance enhancement incentives, sometimes called bonuses," though
she did not refute that the bonuses were in contravention of Cen-Tex
policies. The Hill statement ignored the existence of a
substantial third bonus in the amount of $6,644.25, which NHSA has
now been able to document.
In addition, all three bonuses were requested by Hill on Cen-Tex "Purchase
Requisition Forms," with the last request coming a few days
after she took her federal position. This is a form typically used
by Head Start grantees to pay vendors -- not employees -- and is
a further strong indication of the suspect nature of the Hill bonuses.
- Hill falsely claimed that the bonus payments
were properly reported for tax purposes. NHSA has since verified the findings of the review
that the improperly handled bonuses were processed through Cen-Tex's
general checking account in response to "Purchase Requisition" forms
submitted by Hill and not through its payroll account. No taxes were
withheld from the payments and they were not included in Hill's W-2.
In addition, NHSA has verified that Hill's bonuses were not reported
to the IRS through an alternative to a W-2, a form 1099. Whether Hill
sought to tidy up the record by paying the taxes after these issues
came to light is not the issue here; Hill was required to report the
income in the year in which it was earned, just as Cen-Tex was required
to do the same and pay employment taxes on the income. This did not
happen.
- Hill did not deny the independent audit finding
(reported by NHSA) that expense "disbursements were made (to
Hill) without proper support and authorization." In fact, Hill repeatedly submitted Purchase
Requisition Forms to Cen-Tex for reimbursement of items which had no
explanation or supporting documentation. For example, on January 11,
2002, just days after Hill took her federal office, she submitted a Cen-Tex
expense form for $500 for "Expenses" with no description,
explanation or supporting documentation. Another example: Hill submitted
reimbursement requests to pay bills of $655 and $732
for her personal cell phone for her personal cell phone, again without providing any
rationale or supporting documentation to justify the payment of these
bills with federal Head Start funds. These are just a few of the available
examples of how Hill abused her power while at Cen-Tex and later in
her federal office.
- Hill incorrectly denied her role in the improper
draw down of roughly $140,000 in Head Start funds for Cen-Tex. In
her statement, Hill noted
that, during the time period in question (January 8, 2002 to January
29, 2002), the Cen-Tex program no longer employed her. However, as
noted above, NHSA has found ample evidence that Hill sought to continue
directing operations at Cen-Tex after she took federal office. Phone
records indicate that on January 12, 2002, Hill placed calls to Cen-Tex
employees to "make
sure the money (the $140,000) was drawn down before January 31." More
proof that Hill sought to control Cen Tex after she left the program:
On January 10, 2002, a Cen Tex employee signed a
letter from Hill, at Hill's directions, reprimanding a Cen-Tex employee. On January 11, 2002,
Hill submitted a Cen-Tex
form for $500 for herself, for "Expenses" with
no supporting documentation. This amount was paid to her. Also on January
11, 2002, Hill submitted a
separate Cen Tex form for "Bonus/Transition" for
$7,155. The clearest evidence that Hill sought to remain in de facto
control of Cen Tex was her campaign to install a "rogue" board
in order to squelch an investigation into her misconduct. (See above.)
- Hill did not address the finding that she engaged
in nepotism -- a major violation of Head Start rules. While at Cen-Tex, Hill contracted with
family members to perform services for Cen-Tex in violation of Head Start
Act provisions prohibiting nepotism in all aspects of Head Start program
operations. Specifically, Hill
contracted, on behalf of Cen-Tex, with her sister and brother-in-law,
Robie and Charles Brown, on December 7, 2001 for car washing and landscaping
services. Moreover, as noted above,
Hill's sister was heavily involved on her behalf in an ill-fated attempt
to assume control of Cen-Tex.
ABOUT NHSA
The National Head Start Association is a private not-for-profit membership
organization dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of Head Start
children and their families. It represents more than 900,000 children,
190,000 staff and 2,500 Head Start programs in the United States. The
Association provides support for the entire Head Start community by advocating
for policies that strengthen services to Head Start children and their
families; by providing extensive training and professional development
to Head Start staff; and by developing and disseminating research, information
and resources that enrich Head Start program delivery.
CONTACT: Ailis Aaron, (703) 276-3265 or aaaron@hastingsgroup.com
EDITOR'S NOTE: A copy of the Windy Hill-related documents referred to
this news release are available online at http://www.saveheadstart.org/understand.html. |
