By Matthew Lysiak and Elizabeth Hays
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Monday, February 18th 2008, 1:57 AM
A Brooklyn agency that’s supposed to help the disabled spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on fancy cars, flat-panel TVs, business trips and a $100,000 no-show job for the director’s close friend, a report charges.
Despite the scathing findings, the Sunset Park group’s longtime executive director, Seibert Phillips – who lied about his education credentials and allegedly let his son, who lives in Atlanta, rack up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card – is still at the agency.
Most of the board members at the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need (SPIN) are also still in place – even though many are longtime Phillips cronies who failed for years to rein in the lavish spending.
“[Phillips] should not be there. He should be in prison,” said Tara Cernacek, a former staffer who was fired after she blew the whistle on Phillips’ alleged graft in 2006, sparking the investigation.
“I’m shocked, outraged that they received little more than a slap on the wrist,” she said.
The report’s findings, obtained exclusively by the Daily News, were sent to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes two weeks ago – although Cernacek first complained in the fall of 2006.
State officials have allowed Phillips and board members to stay on at the agency, which gets about $14 million in federal, state and city funds to run adult residential homes and children’s programs for the developmentally disabled.
The report, issued by the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, charged that Phillips’ conduct is “another example of fraud, waste and abuse in the mental hygiene system.”
Phillips, who founded the group in 1996, said he was a certified social worker with a bachelor’s degree from York College and a master’s from Fordham – and both claims were found to be untrue.
Among the report’s findings:
n In 2006, Phillips gave himself a salary of nearly $300,000 as the head of SPIN and its sister group, the Evelyn Douglin Center for Children’s Services – far more than top managers earned at similar nonprofits.
n Phillips gave SPIN staffer Carlos Ortiz – with whom he was having a “personal relationship,” the report stated – a $100,000-a-year, no-show job, a $51,000 company car and health and pension benefits. Reached by The News, Ortiz had no comment.
n On Staff Day 2005, the agency doled out more than $60,000 for 11 flat-panel TVs, 34 iPods and other gifts.
n A dozen top staffers got luxury cars – from Phillips’ $51,475 GMC Denali to property manager Raymond Wynne’s $62,370 Lincoln Navigator. “This appears to be well in excess of what is necessary and inconsistent with proper stewardship of taxpayer funding,” investigators wrote.
n Phillips and two colleagues spent $11,634 on a two-day conference in Chicago, where they paid $3,502.73 for lodging, including room service.
n Phillips’ son, who lives in Atlanta, allegedly racked up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card.
Phillips denied the findings.
SPIN’s board said in a statement it was “extremely troubled” by the report and that Phillips had resigned in November. He is serving as a consultant to ease in the new executive director, Charles Archer – a longtime board member and friend of Phillips.
Phillips is slated to leave at the end of February.
The state office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities – which oversees SPIN and similar agencies – said it allowed board members and Phillips to stay so services “would not be disrupted.”