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Niccolo Machiavelli “The Prince”

A leader must appear to be virtuous, but to maintain power, the leader sometimes has to lie, steal, and cheat. You must do whatever it takes to maintain control of your kingdom. You must appear to be honest and respectful, but you can’t let morals and ethical behavior undercut your power.

Lies, hypocrisy, entitlement. Politicians routinely act like the rules just don’t apply to them. The Attorney General’s Office, The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, The Lincoln/Lancaster County Joint Budget Committee and the Lincoln City Council are all standing in the way of justice. And for what? The protection racket needs to stop. The bad guys need to be exposed and rooted out. For every $1 in wasted donations, there is literally $1 being stolen from the people that money was intended to help.

About the Joint Budget Committee (in their own words)

Government is one of the key players in the important provision of human services for Lincoln and Lancaster County. Often times the nonprofit sector can provide these services at less cost and with greater expertice. The City and County formed the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), which oversees the distribution of City and County tax dollars for this purpose.

What an absolute joke. Case in point. Exibit A.

Executive Order 093607

 – Grant Contract between the City of Lincoln and Salvation Army to provide a grant of Joint Budget Committee funds in the amount of $10,350, for the Utility Assistance Program. (SEE JBC GRANT IN SIDEBAR)

The contracts budget?

$10,350 to the Case Worker’s Salary

$0.00 for direct assistance to individuals.

Scope of services – Serve, 1,400 people in need.

Actual service of the program = 65 LES bills paid for the entire fiscal year. Grand total $9,202.66 or $1,147.34 less than this grant alone. (DETAILED LEDGER SIDEBAR)

But wait, there’s more. The federal government also gives the Salvation Army $3,000.00 for their Utility Program through FEMA. So, the government alone funds the total amount in direct assistance for this one program by almost 150%. (SEE FEMA GRANT IN SIDEBAR)

Keep in mind, The United Way of Lincoln and Lancaster County writes the Salvation Army’s Utility Program another $33,634.00 or 365% of the amount of assistance given out. (SEE UNITED WAY GRANT IN SIDEBAR)

These three grants alone equal $46,984 or 5.1X the assistance received by Salvation Army clients seeking Utility Assistance for LES (Lincoln Electrical System)

And what about all that Red Kettle Income or donations through the mail that The Salvation Army receives? None of that is used to help with Utilities. So, the Joint Budget Committee is completely wasting every single dollar they give the Salvation Army for Utility Assistance.

Or is there another reason this is happening?

In an email obtained from the former Salvation Army Business Administrators files, dated August 2, 2016 (SEE WINK WINK IN SIDEBAR)

The following reads.

BA:  Do you recall any JBC city/county grant this year? I see utility assistance and food. No after school.

Major James Pennington TSA Lincoln:  Yes. It is technically supposed to be used for that and not after school. It’s kind of one of those wink wink things in that we kind of get the money to be used for food and utility assistance but the reason we get it is because we help the kids. But they ran out of money to help the kids so they help us in other ways. But yes. needs to be spent on utility assistance and food. Is that clear as mud?

Now don’t get me wrong, that may sound all good but what about the unintended consiquences of all of this?

According to a former Salvation Army Social Services Director and a former Pathway of Hope Director. They had a mother come into their offices asking for Heat Assistance in the winter because her and her kids had to sleep in their car on cold nights in order to stay warm. That assistance was “supposed” to be funded by Black Hills Energy Cares and the Salvation Army Heat Share program which is also a joke. 

When the Salvation Army, the Joint Budget Committee, Black Hills Energy, the United Way and the Lincoln Community Center are allowed to dictate where taxpayer money and donations go without any supervision from the Attorney Generals office problems spill over into other areas causing unintended consequences. Period, full stop. If a grant contract or restricted donations spells out that a charity uses that money for XYZ, then that charity has no business saying…..no, we don’t like that, we’re going to use it on ABC instead.

This also creates a huge problem in tracking down where that money is spent. Plus, with the above case. That JBC Utility grant going to help another program is whack. I can promise you this. The Salvation Army of Lincoln, NE does not use their own money to help anyone. If it isn’t granted they ain’t doing it. The After School program is in no danger of stopping. So where is the money?

Fiscal Year 2010 is the earliest I have records of. That year the Salvation Army’s Lincoln Corps lost $237,051. Theie Church’s Expense that year (Dept 302) was $276,428 and their income that year was $30,300 (for the chuch). So, the church lost $246,128. Just a fun fact I’ll throw in there for you to chew on. The Program Director and Music Director for Department 302 (the Church) cost the Salvation Army of Lincoln $78,126.00 that year. For fiscal year 2019 they cost Department 302 (the Church) $0.00 – They are still positions in Lincoln, they are now just expensed to other departments like (412) Utility Assistance. 

The Attorney General has been aware of this problem going as far back as 2018, probably later. (ATTORNEY GENERAL LETTER SIDEBAR)

The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission refuses to give whistleblowers a trial.

The Joint Budget Committee doesn’t require grant contracts to be enforced.

What it looks like to me is a classic Protection Racket similar to that of the old school Mafia.

Then again, the Government has become similar to the mob here in Nebraska, and the bad guys are loving every minute of it. 

Free money.