The financial state of a program designed to stop domestic violence and the employment status of the woman who ran it has been the topic of board meetings of Mercy Ministries Inc., according to minutes acquired by The Cheraw Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act.

In a letter regarding a HUD grant update dated May 12, former Fourth Circuit Solicitor and current President of Mercy Ministries, Jay Hodge, told board members of the nonprofit group that it did not have a grant from HUD.

According to the May 21 minutes, Hodge had contacted HUD’s Margaret Gibson to tell her that Mercy Ministries Executive Director Barbara Bullard had quit her position and that Mercy Ministries had six weeks remaining on the HUD grant. In the letter, Hodge also alerted board members that the last grant ended in June 2008 and was allegedly “unsatisfactorily performed”, according to Gibson.

Hodge said in the letter that this is the grant that Bullard had repeatedly told board members paid for her expenses for the Mercy Ministries, Inc. rental building on Second Street. The letter also states that after checking and reviewing the Wachovia Bank statements, Hodge advised Board members that it was clear that Mercy Ministries had paid the rent, utilities, building repair, and Internet service for the Second Street location. A copy of the memorandum of the conversation with Gibson from HUD was also attached to the minutes for board members to review.

After several attempts to reach Bullard for comment on Tuesday, she did say last week that she has done nothing wrong.

“I can assure everyone that I’ve done nothing wrong. I have assisted the investigators in every way and will continue to assist them until justice is done,” Bullard said.

Last Friday Hodge said, “I should have been more on top of things, but I trusted Barbara implicitly. I had a job to do as the solicitor that involved me focusing on four counties. Barbara has run Mercy Ministries for eight years, so I never questioned what she was doing.”

Prior to May 12, Hodge sent Bullard a letter on April 29, requesting that she deliver a copy of the HUD grant to a local accountant by May 5. According to the minutes, Bullard provided no such information.

Hodge then went further to add that he had asked Bullard to present three specific items to the board, which he cited in two recent letters to her. The first request was that Bullard was to deliver a copy of the HUD grant, together with full financial information as to receipt and disbursement of the grant monies to the accountant by May 5. Hodge said he also made a second request to Bullard following the last Mercy Ministries board meeting and told her that it appears that Mercy Ministries had been paying the utilities on her building on Second Street. He also told Bullard that he thought the grant money should be taking care of those expenses. Hodge also instructed Bullard to provide a copy of the grant or the utilities would be terminated on May 15.

The third request was for Bullard to prepare a proposed budget based on present income for presentation to the board. According to the April 16 minutes, this and other issues were discussed via an attached memo to Bullard, in which no proposed budget was presented.

Ann Weston of DSS would not comment when reached by telephone on Tuesday.

According to the letter by Hodge, Bullard did not provide any information whatsoever to the accountant. He also said that the board had also learned that there was no grant to pay her utilities or rent on the building of Mercy Ministries, Inc. on Second Street.

Before the May 12 letter, according to Mercy Ministries Board minutes dated May 7, it is stated that it the board voted unanimously to ask the accountant to review the records of all expenditures for the house on the shelter property as well and the stalls that were built onto the four-bay garage on the old car lot property, which is located on S.C. 52. Bullard was also asked to deliver those records to the accountant by noon on May 5.

Also in the minutes, via two emails, Bullard said that the records would be delivered to the board meeting on that day, however, it is also stated that Bullard reported to a board member that a federal agent had picked up all of the financial records from the year 2000 forward to Apr. 30, 2009, a date prior to her receiving Hodge’s request. The minutes also include that a copy of the subpoena that was attached to Bullard’s letter, together with copies of other memos she said were also sent to Board members.

During the May 7 Board meeting, the minutes said that Hodge also advised the board that he had made a copier available to Bullard if she wished to retain copies of any records, but that she had not utilized that offer.

A few weeks prior to the investigation of the Fourth Circuit Solicitor’s Office and Mercy Ministries, Inc., the board of directors had decided to launch its own investigation into the financial records of Mercy Ministries, Inc.

Hodge said on Friday that he is still focusing on getting as many of the financial records as possible from Mercy Ministries, Inc., due to Bullard’s quitting during the April 16 board meeting.

According to the April 16 minutes, Bullard was teaching Batterers Treatment classes in Marlboro, Darlington and Chesterfield Counties. Through this program, the Magistrate for participants to take the treatment classes during the Criminal Domestic Violence (CDV) Treatment Courts makes the referrals. Each participant pays $20 per class for 26 classes, totaling $520.

After a long discussion with the board, Bullard advised them that she did not want to continue teaching those classes. Following continuing dialogue between Hodge and Bullard, she advised the board that she quit and left the room.

In the May 7 minutes, further discussion continued by the board members regarding Bullard’s letter to them dated May 5, in which Bullard wrote that she is still working.

After a thorough discussion and considering the long-standing relationships of the members of the board with Bullard, board members Mary Anderson, Vice-President of the board Rev. Diane Charles and Hodge concluded that the board considered Bullard’s employment to have ended when she quit at the April 16 Board meeting. Minutes say that a vote by Newsom was not recorded on her behalf in light of the close friendship with Bullard. The board requested that Hodge inform Bullard of the board’s decision regarding the matter by letter.

In addition, according to the May 21 minutes, board member Carol Newsom delivered a copy of a letter from Bullard responding to the letter she received from Hodge on May 7 notifying her of the board’s decision that her employment with Mercy Ministries had ended when she quit during the April 16 Board of Directors meeting.

In Bullard’s letter, board minutes reveal that Bullard mentions among other things, that Mercy Ministries Board of Directors were not entitled to any accounting for the thousands of dollars she has received in teaching the Project Intercept classes, because she claims that the program is hers.

The question is, “Who does Project Intercept belong to and what has happened to the monies she has received? Not one cent was deposited to the Mercy Ministries bank account, which she controlled,” said Hodge.

Hodge said that Project Intercept is a creation of Mercy Ministries. However, Bullard said that the two groups are not affiliated with each other. Hodge added that Mercy Ministries paid for Bullard’s training and also funds the building Bullard operates.

Bullard said that this is not true and that Project Intercept was partially funded through a HUD grant and other local grants.

Following discussion of that meeting, the board requested that Hodge contact the appropriate person at the Department of Social Services and furnish them with whatever was necessary to establish the ownership of the Project Intercept Program by Mercy Ministries

On June 2, Hodge said that the licensing agency of Batterers Programs, (DSS) had determined that Project Intercept is under the umbrella of its founding corporation, Mercy Ministries and that it does not belong to Bullard.

Other financial concerns at the May 7 Board meeting, the minutes included a discussion that Bullard had increased her payroll three times between January 2008 and April 2008. According to the minutes, Bullard was paid $1,615 bi-weekly in January 2008 and $1,923 in April 2009, without the authority of the board. Minutes also say that Bullard also purchased her own Blue Cross insurance policy, again without permission.

According to the reports, the monthly premium of $559 was deducted from the Mercy Ministries account. It also stated that Bullard received reimbursements during the 16-month period totaling $11,365.96.

The checks for those expenses are referenced for mileage, credit card payments and “San Francisco”. The board asked that all of this information be passed on to the accountant who is reviewing the records.