NE agency for African Americans in upheaval as state auditor steps in and accusations fly • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — A Nebraska advocacy commission devoted to African Americans is in upheaval following a state auditor’s missive taking aim at the trustworthiness of a founding commissioner who recently served as the group’s top paid staffer.
Weighing in also was the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, which pointed to “substantial defects” in the way the Commission on African American Affairs had appointed Commissioner John Carter to be interim executive director until a permanent day-to-day manager could be found.
The upshot, so far, is a leadership shakeup: Carter and three other commissioners have resigned in the last several days from the 14-member entity, which was created by the Legislature in 2020.
For the third time in three years, the position of executive director again is vacant.
In addition, the state auditor has urged government officials to look into taking back roughly $13,000 that was paid to Carter while he served as interim executive director, challenging the propriety of those payroll disbursements.
Carter, a former police chief who lives in Benkelman and who is at the center of the commotion, fired off a Feb. 23 resignation letter to Gov. Jim Pillen, defending himself and raising his own concerns about what he views as a “toxic” environment caused by certain members of the commission and also inappropriate government “interference” in its operations.
Among Carter’s charges was that the governor’s staff was “weakening” the commission’s independence and mission by appointing “hand-picked” members whose outside jobs rely on state funding.
Carter made it clear that he was not going away silently.
“This Commission was formed to guard against the very Jim Crow tactics that are being used to hinder, delay, or destroy the rise and effectiveness of black leadership in the State of Nebraska,” Carter said in his two-page letter.
He said he hoped his “scripted and directed removal” from commission leadership won’t diminish the forward momentum of economic and social growth of African Americans who “remain true to who they are.”
Shines light on little known state agency
The dustup shines a light on a little known agency funded by the state to advocate for an underrepresented population. Like similar and longer-standing sister agencies created for Nebraska Latinos and Native Americans, the newest commission is governed by a board of statewide representatives who receive no salary, although they are to receive $50 for each meeting day and reimbursement for expenses.
A movement had started in the Legislature to add another commission, for Asian Americans. Under state law, each of the entities is to have a paid executive director and an operational budget. The state has allocated $287,760 for the African American commission for the next fiscal year.
State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, who sponsored enacting legislation for the African-American commission, said prior to the latest turnover that “growing pains” are to be expected.
“It’s a new organization coming together with the weight of an entire community on it,” Wayne said, noting the diversity of political thought and allegiances among any minority group. “They’re trying to figure things out, develop structure — and it doesn’t help that this commission was created at the end of another (gubernatorial) administration.”
Wayne said he’s known Carter since law school and that he’s been a “straight up guy.”
Much of the recent strife followed Carter’s rise within the commission and after he made remarks about wanting to step up the commission’s activity and amplify the voice of Nebraska’s roughly 92,000 African Americans in towns small, big, rural and urban.
In a Jan. 15 Nebraska Examiner story, he said that as the new interim director, he’d like the commission to go as far as to assume oversight of certain state economic development funds to help ensure that dollars intended for Black populations reach and impact them.
Carter organized the commission’s first community forum, in North Omaha.
He also put an agenda item on the commission’s Jan. 17 meeting to discuss a “lack of response” from the Governor’s Office — a characterization that some board members did not agree with.
Commissioner Toni Clarke, who has since resigned, said at the January meeting that some board members have relationships with the governor. She urged taking a path that does not “create enemies.”
“Let’s play in the sand together well,” said Clarke, executive director of an Omaha-based women’s center.
Commissioner Connie Edmond of Lincoln, a former tax auditor for the Nebraska Department of Revenue, said it “came as a shock” to her to see the agenda item.
“The governor has always been pretty responsive to us,” she said.
“To you,” rebutted Commissioner Gwendolyn Easter, another inaugural board member, who owns an Omaha child care business and who supported Carter’s direction.
‘Important financial matter’
Two weeks later, on Jan. 30, State Auditor Mike Foley penned a letter to Pillen regarding an “important financial matter” pertaining to the commission. He encouraged the state to suspend payroll payments to Carter, who at the time had been serving as interim director for a couple of months.
Foley’s five-page letter contended that Carter had not been properly hired for the interim director job. A majority vote of the board to put him there took place in closed session, not in public, as required by the state’s Open Meetings Act.
“Particularly disquieting,” Foley wrote, is that Carter appeared to have appointed himself “as the sole handler of all the Commission’s invoices, obligations, debts, and services, demanding that any communications regarding them be directed to him alone.”
Loose financial controls and flimsy excuses.
– State Auditor Mike Foley
The Governor’s Office, when asked about Foley’s recommendation to look into recapturing two payroll disbursements to Carter as interim director, declined to comment.
“This touches on a legal issue we will not comment on,” a Pillen spokesperson said on behalf of the governor, who also declined to respond to remarks Carter made in his resignation letter.
Foley, in his letter, pointed to “certain peculiarities” in Carter’s handling of public funds while serving previously as police chief in Crofton, Neb.
And he noted that Carter — appointed to the African American commission in 2021 by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts — had been disbarred from the practice of law in Nebraska in 2011, and three years later in Iowa.
Said Foley: “During the course of the (Crofton) city audit, my office’s staff became aware of additional information that called further into question Mr. Carter’s trustworthiness to handle public funds — whether in his former law enforcement role or, for that matter, any other capacity. Specifically, Mr. Carter, who began practicing law in 2007, had his licenses revoked … for mishandling client money.”
Carter, in his letter to the governor, called Foley’s audit report for Crofton “false and misleading.” He accused Edmond and others of “weaponizing” the State Auditor’s Office to cause him “great social and economic harm.”
Foley, in an interview, called that “nonsense” and said Carter had been on the auditor’s radar since the state’s earlier audit on Crofton.
Foley had previously flagged the governor about Carter’s background and said he felt the need to escalate his alarm after learning that Carter since November had been serving as the commission’s interim director.
“I was quite surprised, not to mention more than slightly disconcerted,” Foley wrote.
‘Questionable charges’
Among the “peculiarities” in Carter’s past, according to Foley, was that Carter provided “conflicting and misleading” information regarding “questionable charges” made on the City of Crofton’s credit card.
By all accounts, the roughly $850 in question reflected hospitality-related expenses incurred by an Omaha-based Hayes & Associates accountant while performing work for Crofton. Carter told the Examiner that Crofton’s mayor had asked him to arrange accommodations for the man, who stayed in a South Dakota border town near Crofton, and that Carter used the city credit card to pay the bill.
The state auditor said Carter “denied” knowledge of the charge when his office asked about it. But Carter said in an interview that the confusion stemmed from the auditor asking about a Texas hotel bill. He said he did not make an association with the accountant’s stay until later, after he learned that the hotel reservation company was based in Texas.
State auditors said Carter had chances to clarify the information but didn’t — something Carter disputes.
Another concern raised by Foley’s team was Carter’s “problematic handling” of funds while administering Crofton’s “Shop with a Cop” program.
The community contributions appear to have been spent as intended. But Carter’s deputy initially opened a program account in a bank other than the one authorized by the city. The auditor said officials were met with resistance when trying to straighten out the program accounts.
“Loose financial controls and flimsy excuses,” Foley said.
Crofton’s new mayor chose not to retain Carter as police chief in 2023, Foley’s letter said. That led Carter to pursue a wrongful termination lawsuit. Carter said the mayor did not like him.
Omaha attorney David Domina confirmed that he has been retained by Carter to investigate his Crofton dismissal, adding there is “certainly sound reason” to probe.
Regarding Carter’s disbarment, Foley’s letter included statements from the Nebraska Supreme Court, which said, in part: “Carter’s conduct indicates a lack of concern for the protection of the public, the profession, and the administration of justice.”
Asked to respond, Carter said: “That happened 13 years ago.”
This Commission was formed to guard against the very Jim Crow tactics that are being used to hinder, delay, or destroy the rise and effectiveness of black leadership in the State of Nebraska.
– John Carter, who resigned from the commission
According to a separate correspondence around that time, an assistant attorney general opined that Carter’s law enforcement credentials should not be revoked based on the disbarment. The official said Carter had commingled his funds with those of clients but said the clients in the case were repaid and “did not lose any money,” and that Carter was not charged with a crime.
In the more recent letter, the AG’s Office agreed with Foley that the commission’s hiring of Carter as interim director was not done according to proper procedure. It said the defects could be “cured” by holding a new vote. However, the AG said, Carter could not serve as executive director and still hold his seat on the commission.
‘It was unbelievable’
In the end, Carter said he felt forced to resign as executive director during a Feb. 6 special meeting of the commission.
Commissioners subsequently voted to remove Carter from the position of commission chair, 9-2.
Carter decided to resign altogether last week. So did Omaha attorney LaShawn Young of Omaha and Clarke. DeMoine Adams of Lincoln, an executive at Teammates Mentoring, told commissioners he also has resigned.
Objecting to Carter’s ouster, Commissioner Gwendolyn Easter identified three other commissioners who she said should be removed based on statutory law guiding too many absences or inappropriate behavior toward other commissioners.
The Rev. Robert Gould Sr. of Zion Baptist Church in Omaha was among a handful of audience members at the Feb. 6 special meeting.
Prior to attending, he said, he didn’t know who was on the commission but, as an activist and business owner, he wanted to better understand the commission’s role.
His impression, he said, was that a portion of the group was intent on removing Carter and wasn’t allowing others to speak freely.
“I’ve been in a lot of community meetings. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “The professionalism of this group that night, it was not there. It was unbelievable.”
State Sen. Terrell McKinney of North Omaha, which has the state’s largest concentration of African Americans, said his hope has always been for the commission to actively engage in legislative efforts that affect the Black community.
He said he’d also like commissioners to hold more community forums and to become more visible.
“Right now, they don’t have a presence,” said McKinney.
Seth Riek, a volunteer and founder of the Midwestern African Museum of Arts in Lincoln, said he had just recently become aware of the commission and was interested in engaging.
He said Carter reached out to his group.
“I wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for John.”
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