jeffpaulsen

So there’s the Americorps program, which is part of the “Corporation for National and Community Service”. It is a government-sponsored system in which grant money is distributed to nonprofit corporations, created by the “National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993”, under Clinton.

To audit this program, and keep corruption down, there’s an Inspector General for it: http://www.cncsig.gov . IGs are appointed by the President but confirmed by the Senate.

The IG (Walpin) investigated St Hope Academy, a nonprofit education group headed by the Mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson. Johnson is a former basketball player (Phoenix Suns) and current Obama supporter. IG Walpin found that Johnson had used grant money to pay volunteers to engage in school board political activities, run personal errands for him, and so forth. He referred the matter to the local US attorney’s office.

US Attorney Brown declined to act, saying the investigation was flawed, in fairly strong terms.

Walpin’s office made repeated public comments on the matter in the leadup to the Sacramento mayoral election. The US attorney’s office stated publicly that there was no intent to file criminal charges.

The attorney’s office reached a settlement with St Hope Academy under which they promise to repay nearly half of the $850,000 they got from CNCS grants. The CEO (Mayor Johnson) and ED of St Hope also had to take grant administration classes. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae/press_releases/docs/2009/04-09-09JohnsonSettlement.pdf

Walpin questioned the propriety of this settlement, in fairly strong terms.

My opinion on this: nobody is happy about the outcome – Mayor Johnson and US Attorney Brown clearly would have preferred nothing whatsoever to happen. Walpin wanted the program shut down, the Mayor out of office, and charges filed. The settlement is something like an admission that there were improprieties (or at least systemic errors) – but nobody really expects St Hope to pay back the full $425,000. I would be surprised if CNSC sees anything beyond the $75,000 that Johnson himself is on the hook for.

Now, Obama has fired IG Walpin.

There are a few ways you can take this:

• Walpin is being punished for pushing on an Obama supporter
• Obama is getting rid of Bush appointees whenever it is convenient to do so
• Walpin is overzealous, because he overstepped his bounds by pushing back when the US attorney dissed his investigation

My take: some combination of all three.
Next step: Obama will appoint a new IG for CNCS, who knows which way the political wind is blowing. This new IG will certainly shut up about the St Hope settlement. This new IG will probably also dial down the investigation the Teaching Fellows Program run by RFCUNY, where Walpin had questioned over $16 million.