CITY PULLS FUNDING FOR DRUG PROGRAM

Accountant Questions PRIDE's Finances

TUSCALOOSA | The City Council will not give PRIDE of Tuscaloosa, a drug
prevention program administered through city schools, its usual $30,000
this year.

While some council members said they felt the organization's large reserves
didn't warrant the city's help, a letter from PRIDE's accountant raises
deeper questions about the organization's finances.

In her May 2003 management report to PRIDE's volunteer board of directors,
accountant Mary Gail Yeargan said she discovered that no formal set of
books exists for the 2001-02 fiscal year. The records that do exist, she
said, show errors in banking that were not properly corrected and checks
that cleared for different amounts than were posted.

"The remaining issue is still the timely depositing of funds and timely
payment of bills," the letter states. "It appears that some bit of time
went by without proper attention to these important matters during part of
the last year."

After questions were raised at an Aug. 28 meeting of the city finance
committee, Finance Director Mike Wright wrote a letter to PRIDE executive
director June Springer asking about the accountant's findings and what
steps the organization was taking to correct the matter.

Also in the letter, Wright questioned the $109,734 in unrestricted assets
that showed up in the organization's latest audit. PRIDE, which spent
$108,308 last year, is largely funded through government grants, including
$30,000 it receives annually from the City Council through pass-through
money given to Tuscaloosa City Schools.

Both Tuscaloosa city and county schools systems donate a portion of their
federal at-risk monies to operate Club PRIDE in local schools. The city
school system also donates part of its Title IV Drug Free money to PRIDE
for printing and supplies costs associated with the DARE program, in
addition to office space, a computer and telephone line at its central
office on 21st Avenue, said schools Finance Director Pat Conner.

Springer said this week that PRIDE decided several years ago to maintain a
"safety net" of reserve money that could keep programs operating in the
event of lost funding. She said the money given annually by the City
Council has always been earmarked for salaries and is not part of that reserve.

As for the questions raised by the accountant's management letter, Springer
said PRIDE has since hired a professional bookkeeper.

"To my knowledge, there was no problem with the actual books, although it
wasn't in line with what our accountant would have liked," she said.

Councilman Lee Garrison, who chairs the city's finance committee, said the
council was not satisfied, either. As part of its budgeting process for the
2003-04 fiscal year that began Wednesday, the council voted unanimously to
cut funding for PRIDE.

"I think the feeling was, 'Get this in check and come back next year,'"
Garrison said.

Springer said it is too soon to tell how the loss of the city's funding --
about 30 percent of the organization's total revenues -- will effect
PRIDE's programs.

"It will certainly impact the amount of staff time we are able to devote to
the daily operation of the organization, and I see that as having an
eventual trickle-down effect on the services we provide to the school
systems and the community," she said.

Founded in 1984, PRIDE is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization affiliated
with PRIDE USA in Atlanta. It's goal is to prevent drug use through parent
training and education, peer leadership, community and school programs,
assessments of drug use in schools and communities, a resource center and
reference service, youth alternative programs, family intervention,
high-risk youth education and the Family and Schools Together sessions.