Midnight misstep
While scrolling through the sad remains of Twitter last night, I came across a post that stopped me in my tracks.
Now, we all know that Twitter, formally known as "X," frequently contains vulgarity and incivility – more often than not, it sometimes seems. But in this case, the author of the post, Juan C. Chavez, is a member of the Oregon State Bar, and what he's writing about is connected to his practice as a lawyer. That being the case, the post is unprofessional in the extreme.
He works for a nonprofit called the Oregon Justice Resource Center, which is one of the area's biggest mouthpieces for abolishing the police, closing the prisons, ending mass incarceration, yada yada yada. Hey, I was a middle-aged liberal myself for many years, and I try to ignore these guys as just part of the political landscape – background noise from well-meaning but misguided extremists. Some of the stuff they do is good. But the more I see of this particular outfit, the more I worry that something's not quite right there.
The head honcho of the outfit has been criticized recently for allegedly directing the work of lawyers when he is not one himself, having flunked the bar exam a couple of times. And when you poke around in the public record to see who's getting paid what at the "Center," as I did after reading the Chavez tweet, more questions are raised.
First of all, wow, in the most recent available report they filed with the IRS, they say they had more than $6.4 million coming in in a single year.
They say they shelled out more than $2.8 million in salaries and compensation, and when you look at their website, it sure does look like they have an army of people working there.
But when you get to the part of the IRS form where they're supposed to name all their directors, officers, and key employees and tell what they're getting paid, there's nothing there but three unpaid directors and an unpaid president who they say works four hours a week for them.
Maybe it's just me, but if I were working a deal like these guys have going, I wouldn't be sending out "fuck you" posts late at night. If nothing else, it's not good for the cause. And if I were one of the people shelling out the $6.4 million, it wouldn't reflect well on me.
There's something a little fishy on p. 9 of that 990 form. Notice that it says that it gets ZERO dollars from government grants. But, in fact, it gets a nice chunk of change from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. See, for example, HB 4050 ("The commission shall carry out the purposes ... by granting to the Oregon Justice Resource Center an amount sufficient for the center to employ three attorneys and to provide necessary support for the attorneys’ work.").
ReplyDeleteMaybe there's some side organization that they're not talking about in the form? I don't know. But nonprofit shenanigans with the money are an Oregon trademark. Remember the "Bus Project"? Ha! Ha!
Deletehttp://bojack.org/2011/09/jefferson_smith_paper_trail_le.html
I always said I wanted to be a 501c3 before I died! It’s sure seems as tho it’s a great way to get some significant $ to play with and not pay any taxes.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like real money. Real money gets paid out when a real person makes the decision to distribute it. The real person has a name and probably a “business card”. Who is that person and what bank account does that person control.
ReplyDeletePeople like Juan are the reason this city is now such a f***ing mess
ReplyDeleteI would have trouble arguing with that.
DeleteSaw him on the news this evening. Total Dick.
DeleteYou beat me to it. It's like he never matured beyond adolescence. Don't go away mad just go away.
Delete$2.5M of that $6.4M in 2021 came from Jack Dorsey's #startsmall (the original Twitter guy). https://startsmall.llc/ check it out under "Grantees" And a smaller but still substantial $200K from Meyer Memorial Trust, a multiple year funder. You could look it up in their awardee database...
ReplyDeleteThe entity must list the salaries of its five highest-paid employees only if they are paid $100,000 or more. Page 10 of the form states that the total compensation of its officers, directors, and key employees totals $95,000, which implies that Mr. Chavez is the only key employee and is paid $95,000. It's possible but not likely that the entity has two key employees who are paid, say, $50,000 and $45,000.
ReplyDelete