[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 55 (Wednesday, May 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2929-H2930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE AIDS ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT
(Mr. COBURN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. COBURN. Mr. Speaker, with the availability of powerful new drug
therapies, many with HIV infection now have hope. The cost of that hope
is anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 a year. I believe it is
unconscionable to deny drugs to this group of people who are living
with HIV, and I commend this body for the money that we have raised and
allocated for this purpose.
However, I have been shocked to learn that many AIDS organizations
pay their executives excessive salaries at the expense of those living
with HIV. Medically necessary care is being severely curtailed while
these executives line their pockets with Federal dollars.
I would advise the Members of this body and the public in general to
look at www.accountabilityproject.com. to look at how this money is
spent. I welcome AIDS patients to discuss this with this body.
Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record the following article from the
April 26 San Francisco Examiner about the accountability project.
[From the San Francisco Examiner, April 26, 1998]
Tracking the Funds for AIDS
(By Erin McCormick)
Michael Petrelis wants to know what happened to the $1.5
billion the United States spent on AIDS last year.
The 39-year-old AIDS patient, and a growing number of
activists like him, have been willing to bang on locked
boardroom doors, rifle through file cabinets and generally
raise hell to make sure money raised for AIDS goes to fight
the deadly disease and not to overhead expenses and high
salaries for charity executives.
Now they are taking their crusade public with an Internet
Web site that will allow donors and people with AIDS to
follow the money that goes to the dozens of charity relief
efforts around the country.
``There's a new phenomenon of people with AIDS living
longer, which means we're asking more questions about
services,'' Sid Petrelis, who said since he started prodding
organizations for financial information he has been banned
from receiving full services at three Bay Area AIDS
charities.
``We're now questioning where the money goes from the AIDS
Walk, the AIDs Ride and the AIDS Dance-athon because we would
like to have services like hot meals and housing,'' he said.
The Accountability Project Web site
(www.accountabilityproject.com), which reveals IRS tax
filings and other financial information about major U.S. AIDS
charities and other nonprofits, makes it possible for
internet surfers to get instant information about how they
spend their money.
The project, an offshoot of the in-your-face AIDS activist
group, ACT UP Golden Gate, is also pushing for laws to
require open board meetings, democratic management and
greater financial scrutiny for the nation's rapidly growing
nonprofit sector.
``Nonprofits are a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S.,''
said project member Jeff Getty, who has lobbied to get City
Hall to pass laws requiring more public accountability from
nonprofits that get city funds. ``Our country is creating a
[p.8] huge sector that's sometimes replacing government and
is spending government money, but has no elected officials
and no taxpayer accountability.''
tax returns in public eye
So far, the Accountability Project Web site has published
the tax returns of 28 nonprofits from around the nation,
ranging from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and New York's
Gay Men's Health Crisis to Walden House, a substance abuse
recovery program that devotes only a portion of its resources
to people with AIDS.
And while, on the whole, the documents show a vast array of
lifesaving work being done on behalf of AIDs patients,
Petrelis says, they also raise questions about some
charities' priorities.
For instance, the reports show that 21 executives who
worked at 10 of the charities, had pay packages exceeding
$100,000.
The highest salary and benefits package went to Walden
House Executive Director Alfonso Acamporo, who made $186,000
in 1996. Jerome Radwin, a director of the American Foundation
for AIDS Research in New York, received the second highest,
$181,000, followed by Pat Christen of the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation, whose total compensation was $162,000.
The tax information also shows some executives getting
large pay increases at a time when, Petrelis says government
funding for AIDS is increasingly scarce.
In the case of the Washington, D.C., meal program, Food and
Friends, tax returns show that Executive Director Craig
Schniderman got a 62 percent raise in 1996, from $63,000 to
$102,000.
judging the compensation
Dan Langen of the National Charities Information Bureau,
which monitors tax-exempt organizations, said the issue of
how much they should pay their executives is often
controversial.
On one hand, he said, if a multimillion-dollar charity
hires a manager who doesn't know how to handle money, it may
see revenues--and services--disappear fast. But ``there
should be a difference between for-profit compensation and
nonprofit. These people might be able to make a lot of money
on Wall Street, but when they choose to work for a charity,
they have chosen a different lifestyle.''
The National Charities Bureau says nonprofits should spend
at least half of their budgets on the charity mission, not on
fund raising or administrative costs. It's a goal exceeded by
all groups on the Web site.
That doesn't satisfy Petrelis.
He questions spending by Visual Aid, a small charity that
helps artists suffering from devastating diseases by
providing art supplies and organizing exhibitions. Petrelis
noted that the group reported spending only 21 percent of its
$159,000 budget on grants for artists' supplies, while much
of the rest went to salaries and overhead.
Visual Aid Executive Director Jim Fisher said without its
two staff members, the organization would be unable to put on
exhibits, solicit donations of supplies or do any fund
raising.
``We're about motivating people with illnesses to start
working again,'' he said. ``The Michael Petrelises of the
world like to yell at us tiny people, who are just trying to
build a base.''
Petrelis said his pet peeve is the campaign for a $3.7
million Memorial AIDS Grove in Gold Gate Park, which
solicited donors to pay $10,000 to sponsor a boulder and
$15,000 for a park bench.
Petrelis said he doesn't understand how, at a time when
people are still dying of AIDS, groups can be raising $10,000
for a boulder.
But project director Tom Weyand said the grove serves a
vital purpose for those who have lost loved ones to AIDS and
is not meant to compete with programs helping those fighting
the disease. ``It's about memories,'' he said.
While no nonprofit groups protest having their IRS reports
on the Accountability Project Web site, some recoil at the
group's efforts to get them to make public all financial
records and board meetings.
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation said it's happy to have
its tax filings posted but opposes measures that would
require additional paperwork.
Petrelis said the cooperative treatment program run by the
AIDS Foundation, the San Francisco AIDS Health Project and
the Shanti Project barred him from group therapy sessions and
group events after he got another piece of information and
put it on the Web site; a transcript of an AIDS Foundation
focus group in which patients were interviewed about the
quality of services.
Petrelis said the foundation charged he had stolen the
transcripts and banished him from group sessions as
punishment for compromising the confidentiality of survey
participants.
[[Page H2930]]
The AIDS Foundation and the Shanti Project said
confidentiality rules barred them from commenting on
Petrelis' status as a client.
But, while Petrelis and other Accountability advocates are
criticized for being confrontational, the movement to require
more scrutiny of nonprofits has caught fire.
``The bigger nonprofits get, the more chance they get out
of touch with their constituencies,'' said Supervisor Tom
Ammiano, who plans to introduce legislation Monday requiring
more openness from nonprofits getting city money.
``We need to make sure the accountability is there so we
aren't kept in the dark about what these organizations are
doing to earn their keep,'' Ammiano said.
Top-Earning Charity Executives
These executives earned the highest compensation packages
of the 28 AIDS charities and other nonprofits that have so
far provided IRS information to Project Accountability.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation-Los Angeles, $30 million annual
budget: Michael Weinstein, President, $126,548.
AIDS Project Los Angeles, $16 million annual budget: James
Earl Loyce Jr., Executive director, $144,227; William
Misenhimer, Chief financial officer, $114,321; Allen Carrier,
Director, $109,915.
American Foundation for AIDS Research-New York, $17 million
annual budget: Jerome Radwin, Chief operating officer,
$181,443; John Logan, General counsel, $104,391; Ellen
Cooper, MD MPH, Vice president, $157,597; Sally Morrison,
Vice president, $100,186.
Food and Friends, Washington DC meal program, $4 million
annual budget: Craig Shniderman, Executive director,
$102,125.
Gay Men's Health crisis-New York, $28 million annual
budget: Mark Robinson, Executive director, $153,565; Addie
Guttag, Deputy director, $139,337; Michael Isbel, Deputy
director, $139,337.
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund-New York, $4
million annual budget: Kevin Cathcart, Executive director,
$138,591.
Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services, $17 million
annual budget: Name not provided, Executive director,
$127,803.
San Francisco AIDS Foundation, $16 million annual budget:
Pat Christen, Executive director, $162,294; Jane Breyer,
Development director, $117,633; Lance Henderson, Finance
director, $110,465; Rene Durazzo, Program director, $100,362.
Walden House-San Francisco substance abuse program, $14
million annual budget: Alfonso Acampora, Chief executive
officer, $185,810.
Whitman-Walker Clinic-Washington DC, $16 million annual
budget: James Graham, Executive director, $141,548; Harold
Hawley, Medical director, $117,860.
Source: summaries of charities' most recent IRS 990 forms
posted on the Accountability Project Web site. Some
charities' reports cover the fiscal year 1995-96, while
others cover calendar year 1996.
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