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THAP mess is funny in name only
© St. Petersburg Times, You generally want scandals to have a catchy name, like the XYZ Affair, Teapot Dome or Watergate. The current mess in Tampa does not have a good name yet, unless you make some sort of joke using the initials of one of the principal parties, the Tampa-Hillsborough Action Plan, or THAP. Q. Why is there no money left for housing assistance in Tampa? A. Because it's all THAPed out. Q. What does THAP stand for? A. Take Home A Payment. Q. What do you get when THAP meets HUD? A. THUD. And so on. THAP is the umbrella name for a network of non-profit corporations that take in government grants to help the needy. The group builds, renovates and restores housing. It provides housing for HIV patients and indigent veterans. It operates a clinic. The trouble is, as Times reporters Jeff Testerman and Christopher Goffard have been finding out these last few months, THAP's web of corporations and mutual back-scratching basically make it impossible to tell how well the group has been spending the taxpayers' money. The closer you look, the funnier things get. Incredibly, THAP's $78,000-a-year executive director, Chester M. Luney, also held an $80,000-a-year job at the Veterans Administration, from where he sent grant money back to THAP -- and wrote glowing evaluations of THAP's programs for the feds. Over the past four years, the VA gave $415,000 to THAP to provide free shelter and meals for homeless veterans. Veterans in the program told the Times they did not get meals and were required to pay $150 a month plus utilities -- in cash. This summer, THAP applied to the VA for $158,000 in grants to provide transportation for hundreds of homeless veterans it supposedly housed around the state. Most of these sites proved to be vacant. The city of Tampa now is withholding the next $522,000 for housing people with HIV until the nonprofit turns in an audit. The audit is three years overdue. Since last year, the city has given THAP $165,937 to rent a cluster of townhomes used in the program. But THAP has spent a large chunk of that money to renovate its properties, despite billing the city for "residential rent" costs. By the way, the landlord is an outfit called Coastal Bay Properties, another arm of THAP, run by Luney. A third of the units have been consistently vacant. THAP has been collecting rent on empty properties and then paying itself. Most interesting is the official cover for THAP provided by its relationship with the city of Tampa, under Mayor Dick Greco. Luney did a series of favors for Steve LaBrake, director of Tampa's Business and Community Service Department, and Lynne McCarter, LaBrake's top aide and fiancee. Luney signed a lease to help McCarter get a $230,000 mortgage. THAP bought $34,100 worth of gift baskets from her, and used THAP money to take her out of an auto lease and pay for new tires. Luney approved a $22,000 THAP contract to move a house from McCarter's lot, had a pool dug there and ordered THAP employees to remove debris. Wait, there's more. Last summer, THAP paid for the city's real estate director, Archie West, who has helped THAP on several occasions, and West's wife to take a week-long Carnival Cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, with THAP's board of directors. Even after most of these revelations, the city of Tampa was getting ready to fork over the next $522,000 when City Council members said, well, maybe we'd better hold up a little. Still, the council is wary of enacting tougher policies, not wanting to "overreact." As for the mayor, his defense of his staff in the face of all of this is touching. He will await a ruling from the state Ethics-Schmethics Commission, and the results of a federal investigation. Here's betting His Honor will never deliver as much as a thap on the wrist. - You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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Times columns today Robert Trigaux Howard Troxler Jan Glidewell Ernest Hooper From the Times Metro desk Howard Troxler |
