No place for kids
Ex-director: Pueblo doesn't grasp how Boys and Girls Club is funded

Fred Vallo, the director of the Acoma Boys and Girls Club, stands in the empty gym at the organization's headquarters in Acoma. The club closed it's doors on Dec. 31 due to a lack of funding, but Vallo hopes that funding will come through that allow them to keep the doors open. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

PUEBLO OF ACOMA — A former Acoma Boys and Girls Club executive director takes issue with comments made by Pueblo of Acoma Lt. Gov. Mark Thompson.

The Boys and Girls Club has been shut down and is no longer serving the 310 enrolled students, ages 6-18, because the tribe has canceled $100,000 in annual funding.

Robyn Kelley, executive director of the club between May 2003 and November 2005, said Thompson should read the original memo of understanding between the tribal council and the club, learn the facts and listen to what the club’s directors are saying before he starts making comments that are inaccurate.

Thompson told the Independent that the $100,000 provided to the club by the tribal council was never intended by the tribe to be used for operations of the club.

“That was seed money, and the administration of the club has not been aggressive about going out and getting grants to provide additional funding for operations and programs,” he said.

Thompson also said the club’s administration has had years to get funding and hasn’t done it.

Information secured by the Independent shows the club’s administrators have generated grants exceeding the tribe’s funding by $379,895. Funding from 2000 to Jan. 1, 2009, to the Boys and Girls Club, was: $1,050,000. The amount generated by other sources as reimbursable grants was, $1,429,895.

“When I go out and try to get funding, I am asked by every organization, ‘Doesn’t your tribe have a casino?’ and when I say yes, they deny the funding,” Fred S. Vallo Sr., former pueblo governor and executive director of the club at the time of its closing, said.

“Where did the word ‘seed’ Mr. Thompson is talking about come from?” Kelley asks. “That word was never used while I was executive director, is not written anywhere in any correspondence.”

On the face of it, the club being able to generate some funding is true, she said,

But, that is where it stops and apparently, no one on the council, or Thompson, understands how the club generates funding or what it is used for, she said.

Spend money to make money

“The club needs up front money to spend on programs and services. That is what the funding from the tribe is,” she said.

“The grants the club applies for an receives, are ‘reimbursable’ grants. That means the club gets no money until money is spent, period.

“If the club does not have money to spend on programs and services, then there are no grants that will be approved,” she said.

“How can the club’s administration go out and get grants, which are ‘reimbursable,’ when there is nothing to reimburse?” she asks.

Kelley questioned why this very basic scenario has escaped Thompson. She also said every year for several years, the club was able to generate far more in grants than the tribe provided, being able to not only pay the utilities and insurance, but provide additional educational programs to the members of the club.

Vallo said Friday he sees no more grants coming in, is slightly hopeful some money can be found for the youth for summer.

But, he said, he is afraid that it will not come through and the doors are now shut, period. He said he and a bookkeeper are volunteering their time, with no pay, to inventory items, finish the year’s end taxes and books, and the doors will soon be locked permanently.

“I hope the kids do not get into trouble, especially this summer,” he said.

“When the kids have nothing but time on their hands, and nowhere to go or anything to do, that’s when they get into trouble,” he aid.

He said he has already noticed new graffiti appearing on signs in the area.

The end game

Vallo said the club has received a grant from the state of New Mexico for $250,000 for critical capital outlay to renovate the building where the club is located, which has a large gymnasium.

That money may not be used for any other purpose though, he said.

“I am hopeful hat some type of youth development program will be funded and operated through the new tribal Department of Education, which has just been created,” he said.

A new community center is also planned, but that will take millions and dollars and years to complete; meanwhile, the club is closed.

A letter sent to all parents and community members in November seeking support for the club at a general meeting of the tribal council was not successful. The council had minimal discussion of the budget, including cutting the funding to the club, before the budget was approved unanimously, a source close to the council said.

Information: (505) 552-7313.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 285-4560 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.