16436: (hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Haitian council leader admits steering clients to relat (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitian council leader admits steering clients to relatives



By Leon Fooksman
Staff Writer

August 20, 2003

This article was not complete as published in Tuesday's edition.


The director of the Haitian American Community Council has admitted to
steering AIDS clients into relatives' rental homes, West Palm Beach
officials said Monday.

Daniella Henry said in an Aug. 6 letter to West Palm Beach officials that in
2000 her Delray Beach social services agency placed an AIDS family in a home
co-owned by her mother. She also admitted in the letter that another AIDS
family was placed that same year into a home owned by her half-sister.

Henry told West Palm Beach officials that she turned to her family members
because there was nowhere else to house the AIDS patients and their
families.

The city oversees a federally funded housing program for AIDS clients.

In July, Henry signed a city affidavit saying she has no conflicts of
interest involving landlords who house her agency's AIDS clients.

"These possible conflicts might have existed, partly for the best interest
of the clients and the children. They have been corrected months ago," Henry
said in the letter.

Steve Hoffmann, West Palm Beach's finance grants compliance officer, said it
had not been determined what action, if any, might be taken against the
Haitian council.

Letter of warning

But he said the city would write a "letter of warning" to Henry's agency
regarding conflicts of interest.

Hoffmann also said advice will be sought from the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development about possible penalties and sanctions.

HUD pays West Palm Beach $3.9 million to run the AIDS housing program
through agencies such as the Haitian council.

HUD rules prohibit employees who run the program from benefiting financially
from it, but it also allows exceptions if employees disclose a conflict. HUD
guidelines don't identify penalties for conflict of interest violations
because they vary depending on the case, said spokeswoman Gloria Shanahan.

Henry and her agency also have been under scrutiny this summer by Palm Beach
County's Department of Community Services and the Children's Services
Council of Palm Beach County for having a weak board of directors and for
another potential conflict of interest involving Henry. She and former
Haitian council supervisor Gethro Louis Jean bought a house together in West
Palm Beach while they were co-workers.

Hoffmann said the city also would investigate whether there was a conflict
of interest in the council's payment of $150 a month to maintenance
supervisor Jack Kelly while his wife, Carolyn Zimmerman, served as the
council's board president.

The council's nine board members, including Zimmerman, have signed
affidavits saying they didn't have conflicts of interest involving the
council's operations. HUD's conflict of interest rules apply to board
members as well as the staff.

Kelly died last week, and Hoffmann said the city would delay its inquiry
into his payments while his family grieves.

Zimmerman said her late husband cut the grass and cleaned a house for the
Haitian council's AIDS clients. She wouldn't say how long he worked there.
She said he also picked up donated items and delivered them to the council's
clients.

"Nobody should do anything for free," she said.

Zimmerman said Henry didn't do anything wrong in placing AIDS families into
her mother's and half-sister's properties. She said many landlords don't
want to house AIDS patients.

Woman, six children

Henry said in a letter to West Palm Beach that her agency placed a homeless
woman with AIDS and six children in a Delray Beach house owned by her
half-sister because there was nowhere else to place them. She said her
agency placed another woman with two children in a Delray Beach house
co-owned by Henry's mother for the same reason. She said her mother had
taken care of the woman's children at no cost.

Henry didn't identify her half-sister or mother in the letter. But a former
council employee identified Aline Jean Baptiste as Henry's half-sister and
Germaine Filsaime as her mother, according to an internal memo circulated
last week among West Palm Beach officials.

Other West Palm Beach records show that Baptiste was a landlord in the AIDS
program and earned $20,400 for housing clients from October 2000 to May
2002.

Filsaime once co-owned a house with Arnaud Andre, property records show.
West Palm Beach records show that Andre earned $20,250 for housing clients
from October 2000 to February 2003.

Henry wasn't available on Monday for comment, her assistant said.



Leon Fooksman can be reached at lfooksman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6647.


Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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with Dominican President Hipolito Mejia to ask that he lift a 5 percent tax
on cross-border shipments.

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