Safe and Sound votes to disband itself

The nonprofit agency that funnels city funds to, and oversees the operation of, several hundred community-based after-school and youth anti-violence programs has voted to go out of business, to the surprise of Philadelphia officials.

Philadelphia Safe and Sound's board of directors announced yesterday that it had voted Monday to cease operations on June 30.

Former Mayor John Street's wife, Naomi Post Street, ran the agency when it started in 1998, and Philadelphia Safe and Sound officials testified before City Council in February that the agency continued to be told what to do by the Street administration.

When Mayor Nutter came into office, he cut $21 million from Safe and Sound's budget, saying that Council last year had approved $54 million, not the $75 million that Street had pushed through shortly before leaving office. Nutter later restored $4 million.

Nutter also requested a study be done of Safe and Sound's management and financial practices by the state Department of Welfare and also by a local assessment team that he appointed.

The state report, issued last Thursday, concluded that Safe and Sound had lax financial controls and doled out money to community-based providers without first signing contracts with them.

Safe and Sound branded the state report unfair and disputed many of its assertions.

The local team said that one of the most troubling aspects found by an accounting firm hired by the state to examine Safe and Sound's books was "that numerous vendors had only post-office boxes and no physical addresses [and] that different vendors were listed at the same post-office box and different vendors had the same physical addresses."

The local assessment team is scheduled to release its full report later this week.

City Health Commissioner Donald F. Schwarz, deputy mayor for health and opportunity, said that the city contract with Safe and Sound was no-bid and that Nutter wanted services put out for bid. The city provides most of the funds to run Safe and Sound.

Schwarz added: "We had thought Safe and Sound would bid on that [continuing to provide the services] and we were a bit surprised by the board's action."

Safe and Sound board chairman Ernest Jones said that the decision to cease operation was influenced by the "negative" atmosphere surrounding the agency in recent months.

Jones said that Safe and Sound would have put in a bid to get its city contract back but, "I didn't think it [being selected] was a possibility."

He said that Safe and Sound would work with the city to provide a smooth transition.

A Safe and Sound spokeswoman says that the agency employs 65, provides help to 26,000 children and has more than 200 contracts with community-based organizations.

Jones testified before Council in February that the Street administration ran the show at Safe and Sound.

The local team suggested that the city take a "fresh look at whether this type of nonprofit entity is the most effective way to deliver child-welfare and delinquency-prevention services." *