The University of Southern Mississippi, to borrow one of the great expressions of our time, was trying to “put lipstick on a pig” with its offer to make good on the phony lease that got its volleyball arena built.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services, under different leadership than the one that had collaborated in diverting $5 million in welfare money to the volleyball project, wasn’t fooled.
Nor was Tom Duff, a wealthy USM alum and the president of the state College Board, which oversees USM.
On the same day that USM announced it was working on a plan to allow the state’s welfare agency to use space on campus to provide programming to the poor and underserved, Duff was telling Mississippi Today that USM should just repay the $5 million to the state, since it was obtained under false pretenses.
Duff’s comments were the most candid from the College Board so far about the controversy, which has tangled USM and its athletic foundation into one of the biggest spending scandals in state history. He said that when the College Board approved the lease, it wasn’t aware that it was also signing off on using the proceeds to build the volleyball facility. Duff said the matter was tucked into the consent agenda of a 2017 meeting of the College Board, that time-saving procedure some boards use to dispense quickly with what are normally routine matters.
This was hardly routine.
One defendant in the welfare scandal, Zach New, pled guilty earlier this year to facilitating the volleyball project by concocting a scheme to bypass federal regulations on how welfare block grants to the states are used. Those Temporary Assistance for Needy Families regulations are open to some interpretation, but they are clear on this point: The funding cannot be used for brick-and-mortar construction.
To try to hide the real intent, USM signed a lease with its athletic foundation, which then subleased the space for $5 million to the nonprofit New operated with his mother, Nancy New, to supposedly provided a place on USM’s campus where self-help classes and other programming could be provided to the clients the nonprofit claimed to serve. Even if that part of the bargain had been carried out at the time, which it wasn’t, it would have been a waste of the public’s money.
For USM to think it can smooth things over by trying to now fulfill the lease agreement is ludicrous. It’s also illegal, according to the state Department of Human Services.
There have been questions raised as to why the Department of Human Services has not so far demanded repayment of the $5 million. When a lawyer it had hired to pursue misspent or stolen welfare money began to scrutinize the volleyball deal, he got canned. One theory was that Gov. Tate Reeves, to whom the DHS director reports, didn’t want to rile any of his powerful Republican friends with strong USM connections, such as Duff.
Duff’s comments, though, would indicate otherwise. He said the lease was dumb and done improperly, and he suggested that USM’s efforts so far to keep from returning the money are also stupid
USM or its athletic foundation had better listen and pay the money back. If they continue to refuse, the state should sue them.
