State and federal law enforcement have opened investigations into Community Resource Collaborative and what became of $1.1 million that Monroe County provided it to pass along to about a dozen neighborhood nonprofits.
Gary Walker, a spokesperson for Monroe County, confirmed the state and federal investigations late last week, although he declined to comment on the specific agencies. Meanwhile, the county is continuing to perform a forensic audit of the organization’s finances, and CRC has retained attorney Langston McFadden to investigate the chain of events within the organization.
Monroe County tapped the nonprofit Community Resource Collaborative in May 2023 to serve as the “fiscal agent” for the Neighborhood Collaborative Project, a network of about a dozen neighborhood nonprofits working in areas ranging from food pantries to homeless outreach and workforce development. The organization was set to administer $7.2 million in federal COVID relief funds over four years. The organization handled $1.1 million in total. But in late summer and early autumn, the nonprofits stopped getting their checks, according to leaders of the organizations.
Both McFadden and the community organizations have pointed their fingers at Tina Paradiso, CRC’s former chief executive officer and, later, chief operating officer. Paradiso was fired by CEO Anthony Hall in late January after a brief suspension.
Hall, the former director of the city’s Pathways to Peace antiviolence initiative, took over as CEO of CRC in July 2023.
“It became known to Mr. Hall that there were a lot of discrepancies in payments that should have gone out to community partners, and a lot of inquiries from community partners as to where funds were that they were waiting on,” McFadden said. “He called an emergency board meeting, and during that board meeting, questions were asked of Ms. Paradiso that adequate answers were not provided for.”
McFadden said there were also conversations with banks at which Paradiso had set up accounts. He alleged that Paradiso was the only person who had access to those bank accounts. McFadden confirmed that all roughly one dozen employees of CRC have been furloughed as the investigations continue. He also said Paradiso had declined all requests for comment in his investigation.
On Tuesday, a WXXI News reporter visited a house registered to Paradiso in CRC’s nonprofit paperwork. A woman who answered the home’s Ring doorbell told the reporter to “get the (expletive) off my porch or I’m calling the police.”
Questions remain regarding the chain of events that led to Paradiso’s termination. Among the more prominent rumors is the purchase of two Jeep Grand Wagoneers. McFadden acknowledged that the Jeep purchases are part of the investigation, but he declined to comment on the “validity or questionability” of those purchases.
One Jeep Grand Wagoneer was parked in the parking lot of CRC’s headquarters on College Avenue on Tuesday. A search of the car’s vehicle identification number shows it was purchased on March 30, 2023, for $95,210, about a month before CRC was awarded the county contract.
McFadden also declined to comment on the Aug. 23 purchase of a building on Dewey Avenue. City records show CRC paid $168,000 for the building, which currently houses a barbershop.
In a press conference at CRC’s headquarters that day, attended by state Assemblymembers Sarah Clark and Harry Bronson, Hall gave the deed to the building to Devon Reynolds. City property records still show the owner as the CRC.
Reynolds, a barber, was also an employee of the CRC, serving as a “gun violence prevention navigator.” The building purchase is also a subject of CRC’s internal investigation.
McFadden said the investigation is still in the very early stages. Meanwhile, CRC is not operating in any capacity.
“All actions by CRC and all funds have been paused or frozen until this investigation is concluded until we can figure out exactly what was going on and the extent of the problem,” McFadden said.
The halt in promised funding for the organizations involved in the Neighborhood Collaborative Project has thrown a wrench into their operations. On Friday, leaders from those organizations gathered at Frost and Jefferson avenues to call for community support as their funds remain frozen.
Some have paused programs launched as part of the project, while others have begun laying off staff to survive.
Olivia Kassoum-Amadou of Cameron Community Ministries, which runs workforce development, barber apprenticeship, and street outreach programs, among others, described her organization as in “crisis mode.”
“Trauma and retraumatization are real, and this is what we’re all faced with when we have to tell our clients and students enrolled in our programs that we can no longer operate the programs,” Kassoum-Amadou said. “And we don’t want to get to that point.”
