Minneapolis audit: Nonprofit double billed 80-hour weeks for violence prevention

Audit accuses Mpls violence prevention worker of double billing city

Jamil Jackson with Change Equals Opportunity is defending his bookkeeping after an audit accuses him of double-billing the City of Minneapolis as a violence prevention worker.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The FOX 9 Investigators obtained an internal audit detailing concerns about the potential "misuse of funds" by a nonprofit group that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide violence intervention work in Minneapolis.

Violence intervention contractor under more scrutiny

What we know:

The audit recommends withholding final payment to Change Equals Opportunity until all expenses can be examined and verified. 

Jamil Jackson said he was unaware of the allegations involving his organization until the FOX 9 Investigators asked him about the audit earlier this week. 

"I'm kind of confused as to who, if anybody, would come up with these accusations," Jackson said. 

Change Equals Opportunity received $704,000 in city contracts over the last few years to work with some of Minneapolis’ most troubled youth. 

Jackson insists his organization is available around the clock to help kids, including those accused of murder, the KIA carjackers and the then-10-year-old child who took a joyride through a school playground last fall.

"If you ask me, I am not getting paid enough," Jackson said.

By the numbers:

Jackson is accused of billing 80 to 90 hours per week to both the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, where he also has a contract. 

"Considering his other business ventures and his role as a high school head basketball coach, we question the accuracy in time submitted to the City and County for contractual work," the audit stated.

Jackson said he "technically" works that many hours, but added that this is considered salary work and that he never agreed to work for an hourly rate.

Dig deeper:

Jackson is also accused of handing out stipends to kids through untraceable cash payments involving checks he wrote to himself.

He defended the practice because many of the kids he works with do not have their own bank accounts and the cash gives them a lift when they come from troubled backgrounds with little resources. 

"I write the checks to myself, I put their names on the subject line… and then I submit that information to the city," Jackson said. "So, the city sees it, and it matches up and reflects with my bookkeeping."

But Jackson’s bookkeeping was also questioned in the audit.

He was accused of providing "insufficient documentation."

Jackson showed the FOX 9 Investigators progress reports, staff salaries and expenses that he submitted as required. 

"By no means do I think I am a super genius, but I do think I do a great job of organizing my bills and my money to make sure that everything is on the up and up," Jackson said.

The backstory:

The audit was required as part of a legal settlement reached last year after the city was accused in a lawsuit of mismanaging millions of dollars in violence prevention funding.

The FOX 9 Investigators spent months reviewing invoices, receipts and timecards that raised even more questions about how contracted violence prevention work that goes beyond traditional policing was being monitored by the city.

"The audit is part of the settlement agreement, so that has to happen, but I am in a position where I want to just move forward," Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette told the FOX 9 Investigators earlier this year.

Commissioner Barnette and his office declined to comment on the internal audit, but Jackson maintains his nonprofit is being blamed for the city’s issues.

"It is just about the incompetence of the way that they have gone about doing things," stated Jackson.  "And now they are trying to come back on us and make it seem like it is our organizations who have not done things the right way when, frankly, they just have not required this."

What's next:

Jackson claims Minneapolis still owes him approximately $175,000 from his most recent contract. He was not selected in this latest round of violence prevention funding the city is doling out for youth intervention programming. But he still holds a contract to work with at-risk kids in Hennepin County.