Director exits and state investigates NC domestic violence shelter in disarray
The executive director of a publicly funded domestic violence program in disarray has left the organization. And state officials are investigating the outfit’s operations and finances.
Tammie McCarter left Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E. weeks after The News & Observer reported problems ranging from a hidden camera standing in for staff at its overnight shelter and the IRS revoking its tax exempt status, a board member confirmed.
The state Department of Administration will not fund the eastern North Carolina’s organization during the current fiscal year. On top of that, the Governor’s Crime Commission has filed a misuse of state funds report with the State Bureau of Investigation, which is now looking into Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E.
“The GCC is committed to ensuring that recipients of grant programs it administers satisfy all program eligibility requirements and will not award funds to entities that cannot establish their eligibility,” Diane Barber-Whitaker, the commission’s interim director, wrote in an email message.
The SBI, meanwhile, has communicated with the U.S. Department of Justice about the funding questions, since money awarded by state agencies originally came from the federal government, SBI spokeswoman Anjanette Grube said in an email message.
McCarter’s LinkedIn page showed she led Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E., which stands for Services for Abused Families with Emergencies, for roughly a decade. A tax document from the organization showed she had been paid $65,000 last year.
McCarter could not be reached by phone this week. A woman who took a reporter’s call for Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E. on Thursday declined to comment on McCarter’s status or whether the program was providing any services.
Vital mission
Chowan S.A.F.E. is supposed to help people living in a four-county area in one of the state’s poorest regions. Headquartered in Ahoskie, Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E. serves Bertie, Gates, Hertford and Northampton counties.
Financial records reviewed by the N&O shows Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E. had received at least $2.2 million over the past five years.
Shelters operated by other nonprofits appear to be roughly an hour away from Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E.’s shelter in Ahoskie, according to a list maintained by the state. State officials did not respond to a reporter’s questions about what other resources could be available to local residents if the Ahoskie shelter is closed.
The N&O learned about problems in the program when a shelter manager said McCarter had contacted her to return to the shelter to kick out a man who was hiding under a blanket the night of April 4.
A woman staying overnight at the shelter had accused that man of misdemeanor assault on a female three days earlier, court records showed. McCarter knew he was there because she saw him and the woman on a hidden camera inside the shelter.
The state requires shelters to be staffed when people seek refuge there and doesn’t allow the use of hidden cameras.
The N&O also discovered the organization had been on the IRS’ revocation list since 2012 for failing to file income tax returns. That would mean it is not considered a nonprofit eligible to receive state funds.
Two websites that publish nonprofits’ tax returns had none for Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E. in more than a decade.
Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E. had provided copies of federal tax returns, called Form 990s, to the Governor’s Crime Commission and the state Department of Administration to show it was eligible for state funding. But the tax returns for the fiscal 2019 year that each agency received were different when they should have been identical.
That is why the state is not funding the organization, said Danielle Carman, the new executive director for the state Council for Women and Youth Involvement.
“While they have now filed an application for tax exemption as a nonprofit, they cannot substantiate their nonprofit status at this time and have had significant turnover in recent weeks,” Carman wrote in an email. Her council is part of the state Department of Administration.
Multiple problems
The N&O identified more problems at Roanoke Chowan S.A.F.E.
McCarter and other staff were signing the names of other staff on financial documents, Chris Farmer, a board member, told the N&O. He said McCarter was disciplined for that but didn’t provide details.
Lisa Beamon, a notary public who McCarter fired in November, told the N&O that McCarter had borrowed her notary stamp. The N.C. Secretary of State, which oversees notary public regulation, is investigating that claim, a spokesman said.
Farmer confirmed this week that McCarter had departed the agency but would not say why.
Three employees had complained about financial and management issues to the board and were subsequently fired, according to Donise Harris, a former board member, who resigned after disagreeing with the firings. Farmer said one of them had been let go after funding ran out.
That employee, LaVern Coulton-Harrell, said if her and former colleagues’ claims are shown to have merit, state officials should see the firings as retaliation.
“If what we were saying wasn’t true, shouldn’t she still be there?” Coulton-Harrell said. “And if what we were saying was true why were we terminated? It’s not fair. We were done wrong.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 5:40 PM.