Recent news stories have implied that NEON was arbitrarily defunding programs at Carver. The time line that Executive Director Joe Mann posted at the NEON web site shows a different story.

From 2005 until May of 2007, NEON provided the same level of funding even though it was absolutely clear that the amount far exceeded what we should have been providing. In May 2007, as a result of our intense efforts to get our financial house in order, because of a now recognized deficit that had been discovered through our last Audit and because of inquiries from our funding source as to how we were utilizing certain funds, we were compelled to re-visit the situation with the Carver and try to bring a resolution to the matter of these unallocated and unbudgeted expenditures. We sent a letter to the Carver Executive Director to inform her and the Carver Board that the situation had to be resolved and we identified a process of resolving it. We indicated that we were going to end the payments at the end of June. We spoke to and met with the Carver about the situation and they requested that we give them another month or so and we did.

Better yet, links to the actual documents sent to Carver are also posted. This is a great effort in transparency and clarification. The big question about this is why the Carver didn’t want to submit to reporting requirements in order to maintain the funding.

The Carver decided that the reporting requirements and eligibility guidelines were not consistent with how they wanted to conduct their operations and chose not to accept our proposed arrangements. (1.) Everything that was included in the proposed agreement merely represented the requirements that we operate under every day and are our funding source’s requirements and not our own; (2.) It was the Carver Executive Director’s expressed opinion that it would make better sense for her to write grants to replace NEON funding rather than have to meet the requirements attached to the funding.