By Dean Narciso
The Columbus Dispatch
The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police amassed almost $3 million in questionable payroll spending and its executive director likely overpaid himself by at least $800,000, according to an independent accounting review of federal anti-terrorism grants administered by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.
The Ohio Department of Public Safety, which oversees the EMA, is working to clean up the mess.
From 2004 to 2006, the agency handled more than $21 million in grants from the Law Enforcement Terrorist Prevention Program to the association.
It is the Public Safety Department’s responsibility to recoup any misspent money for the state or federal government, said Tom Hunter, the department’s spokesman. The state is negotiating with association attorneys to resolve the issues, he said.
In addition, dozens of vendors hired by the association to build a statewide information network to prevent terrorist attacks were never paid and are pressuring the state and the association for compensation.
“These are companies, good local companies, that have been suffering through all this,” Hunter said.
Data Management Consulting, for instance, is owed $200,000, said Michael McBride, a partner with the Dublin-based firm.
“We’ve been assured by (the chiefs association) we’re going to be paid. We’re just not sure when,” McBride said.
Others have been less patient. Precise Resource of Westerville sued the association for $43,000 it was owed. “I’m tired of waiting,” said Janis Mitchell, company president.
Because of the scope of federal funds, the state commissioned Crowe Horwath, a Columbus accounting firm to determine whether the association met qualifying guidelines for the grant money. The yearlong review was completed earlier this year. The report was released Tuesday.
Questioned expenses include the printing of a lavish book about the history of law enforcement and communications in Ohio, along with T-shirts, brochures and pens that Crowe Horwath could not justify as benefiting the terrorist-prevention grant program.
In 2006 alone, 93 percent of the organization’s $3.4 million payroll was unsupported by time sheets, as required by federal grant rules. Other years had no supporting paperwork.
Among the more extravagant costs was the salary of Todd Wurschmidt, the organization’s long-term director. Because his contract with the association entitled him to bonuses tied to the group’s revenue, his salary grew as federal money poured in.
The review tallied $862,002 of salary and benefits for Wurschmidt charged to the grants that were inappropriate and unreasonable.
Wurschmidt could not be reached for comment yesterday.
His Web site states, “The increase in gross revenues for the (chiefs’) Association from $500K in 1985 to $3 (million) per annum demonstrates Dr. Wurschmidt’s fund-raising prowess.”
Arthur Weber, an attorney for the chiefs association, would not answer questions about the review, citing negotiations with state officials.
The report raises, but doesn’t answer, the question of how the nonprofit Dublin-based chiefs association qualified for the grant money intended solely for “local government units.”
A 2004 legal opinion by James Canepa, then-chief deputy attorney general for criminal justice, stated that the group — which trains and educates law-enforcement officials — qualified because it acted as a “regional planning commission.”
Copyright 2009 The Columbus Dispatch