This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Cold Hard Cash, Corruption and Greed, Favorite Nevada Blogs, Fleecing the Taxpayers, transparency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Putting the E!! in ConsErvativE blogging in Nevada and nationally
On the subject of lining one’s own pockets under the pretense of helping needy kids:
The Las Vegas Sun reports that Willa Chaney, a candidate for the State Board of Education, owes the Nevada Education Department more than half a million bucks for funds she misused while running a program to provide aid to needy students.
The NV Education Dept. sued Willia Chaney’s company and in August a District Court judge ordered Chaney to pay back the money. The Sun reports:
“From 1993 to 1999 Chaney operated a federally funded program to provide meals to poor children during summer vacations and other school breaks. The state shut down the Smart Start Summer Food Service Program in 1999 after the inspector general identified $1.01 million in questionable expenses.”
Apparently investigators found that Smart Start was serving far fewer children than it claimed in its reports of meals delivered to 13 apartment buildings in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Also among the investigator’s audit findings (quoted from the Sun):
• More than $250,000 in salaries was paid to 15 Smart Start employees, “even though they apparently did little or no work” and no time cards were maintained. Chaney’s husband, James, served as the program’s director and her son and daughter were on the payroll.
• Federal money was used to purchase five vehicles. The titles were in the Chaneys’ names rather than in the name of the Smart Start program.
• The program’s costs included $2,000 a month paid to Chaney’s day-care center, Smart Start Daycare, for use of its kitchen and parking spaces. Investigators determined the food program’s facility had ample parking, and the child-care center was paying $1 a year to lease its entire location.
Chaney is running for the District 3 seat on the State Board of Education, which sets policy for the Nevada Education Department and the state’s school districts. She denies any wrongdoing.
2 Responses to “Willa Chaney: Smart Start Operator Not Too Smart”
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
it seems noone cares about anything until something happens. everybody is talking about money owed to the dept.of ed but what about what happened to the employees when smart start closed. the building was rented out to acelero for headstart, none of the employees were good enough to stay employed anad many of the kids attending had no where to go. was there anyone doing a story on that? again the chaneys made out like fat rabbits renting a building as you said was one dollar a year. I wonder what they are renting out the building for now? im pretty sure its not for a dollar. after all the complaints about money the state is still giving it to them. they cant be as bad as peope say can they? then again, apersons wrongdoings do not come up until election time. if it wasnt for election would you really care?
September 24th, 2008 at 12:16 am
If you have info from the fallout of this situation, feel free to post or send me names, places, dates, and details and I’ll be glad to cover it. The election has little bearing on MY timing as I’m willing to cover wrongdoing anytime, but PolitickerNV and the Sun may have printed their stories for that reason.
Elizabeth Crum - “E”’s last blog post..Brilliant