While other folks are building up their neighborhoods, here is what happens on the negro side of town QUOTE: Reason for scrutiny But the fact that any relationship exists at all may be reason for scrutiny—on paper, the Next Generation CDC ceased to exist long ago. Morris did not know until he was informed by AxisPhilly that the Next Generation CDC has been defunct as a nonprofit organization for nearly 10 years. Next Generation CDC itself hasn’t filed required annual tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service since 2005. It isn’t listed in a state database of active nonprofits. The organization has no website, no apparent phone number, and has left virtually no trace of its existence on the Web. It has appeared only briefly in news accounts in the 15 years since it was founded. A 2005 article by Daily News gossip columnist Dan Gross suggested that Mondesire was considering moving into a house on Phil Ellena street “owned by his Next Generation CDC.” The nonprofit briefly reappeared in the public light again in 2010, when a grand jury report led the state’s attorney general to charge a Philadelphia woman, Harriet Garrett, and her daughter with misappropriating hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars from a state contract via a different nonprofit, Creative Urban Educational Systems (C.U.E.S.), with close ties to Next Generation CDC. Garrett had been the treasurer of Next Generation CDC, which initially had been awarded the contract, and Mondesire had been a board member of C.U.E.S. It was around this time that Next Generation stopped filing federal tax forms. In 2010, the state of Pennsylvania officially revoked its nonprofit designation in state databases. But the organization still has several properties under its name, several of which have close ties to Mondesire himself. According to city records and old tax filings, Next Generation CDC owns five properties in Philadelphia, three of which were sold to Next Generation by the city’s Redevelopment Authority for the nominal price of $1 each. Among them: 1619 Cecil B. Moore Ave.—the headquarters of the local NAACP branch (which the letter to Mondesire claims has been without heat). Another is 213 Phil Ellena St., in which Mondesire appears to have lived himself at least for some time. A 2006 lawsuit over voting rights issues lists as a plaintiff Mondesire, “who resides at 213 E. Phil Ellena.” The defunct CDC also owns 6661 Germantown Ave., the building which houses the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, a (for-profit) newspaper owned and published by Mondesire. (Among the outstanding debts listed Next Generation’s decade-old tax filings is a $3,000 loan to the Philadelphia Sunday Sun). Two of these properties, still under the title of the defunct CDC, have enjoyed considerable tax breaks under city laws exempting nonprofit organizations from real estate taxes. Michael Piper of the city’s Office of Property Assessment said that the properties had enjoyed a tax exemption for nonprofit status, but that the city was re-examining that exemption status since AxisPhilly brought the nonprofit’s status to the office’s attention. City spokesman Mark McDonald points out that the city has adopted a new rule that goes into effect next year, which requires nonprofits to prove their nonprofit status upfront. axisphilly.org/article/local-naacp-officers-question-president-over-finances/
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 01:06:03 +0000