SEANC Executive Director's spending decisions draw fire
Published February 8, 2015
by Joseph Neff, News and Observer, February 7, 2016.
In March 2014, the State Employees Association of North Carolina wrote a check for nearly $19,000 to Perspective Concepts LLC, a defunct computer company in Washington, D.C.
But the check was cashed by Perspective Landscape Concepts, a new Apex company that was also working at the home of Dana Cope, SEANC’s executive director.
Cope says the check was for emergency work for irrigation and drainage at the SEANC office.
SEANC’s own files suggest otherwise. A memo justified the check as computer work done by the D.C. company with a name very similar to the local landscaping company. The owner of the computer company said he closed the firm in 2003 and never worked in North Carolina. Cope and SEANC’s general counsel admit the memo is phony but will not explain beyond saying it’s a personnel matter.
There was irrigation work done at the SEANC building four months later. But that work cost $685.25 and was done by a long-established company in Garner, records show.
Since last March, Cope has directed SEANC to write checks totaling $109,078.50 to Perspective Landscape Concepts, the company also working on projects at Cope’s Raleigh home, or to its owner, Perry Pope.
The landscaping bills are one of several spending practices that are being questioned by some former members of SEANC’s executive committee. They question whether Cope has blurred the lines between his personal finances and the finances of an organization largely supported by dues from its members, 55,000 current and retired state employees.
SEANC, at Cope’s direction, has also:
• Hired Tree2Key, a division of the company that renovated Cope’s home in 2013, for $342,000 worth of work on the SEANC building, even though the company specializes in building and renovating private homes and has no apparent commercial experience.
• Spent at least $8,000 on flight lessons for Cope and has $13,000 on deposit with the same aviation training firm; Cope says it allows him to fly with a flight instructor and to travel cheaply and efficiently on SEANC business.
• Allowed Cope to put thousands of dollars of personal spending each year on SEANC credit cards. In a series of interviews, Cope has given contradictory accounts about how much of the money he has repaid but has said he has paid everything he owes.
In six interviews with The News & Observer, Cope said he has done nothing wrong. He said no SEANC money had gone to any work at his home, and he provided canceled personal checks showing payments exceeding $250,000 for landscaping and renovations.
Further, he said the SEANC executive committee had investigated and found no improprieties or misappropriation of funds.
“You can question how we spend money,” Cope said, “but we have a process, and the process has been followed.”
He blames his troubles on political enemies inside and outside of SEANC.
“The politics in this organization are brutal,” he said.
SEANC is a private nonprofit organization, and most of its records are not public. Many of the documents for The N&O’s investigation were provided by a former SEANC treasurer, Betty Jones, who works in Raleigh as a Medicaid analyst in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Jones, a Lumberton native whose license plate reads “PSALMS 37:5,” said she’s bringing Cope’s behavior to light in an attempt to save the organization.
“SEANC is needed by state employees,” Jones said. “We need a voice. We don’t need a leader that’s self-serving.”
Searching the records
Cope, 45, has been SEANC’s executive director for 15 years; he was paid $97,300 in 2011, according to the most recent records available. He is known as a pugnacious leader who has taken on powerful politicians.
He also has experienced difficult times personally. He filed for personal bankruptcy in 2011, financial problems he blamed on maintaining multiple residences while trying to establish his sons in a sought-after school district.
The bankruptcy proceeding, which ended in 2014, wiped out $109,000 in credit card debt. In the past two years, he’s had a complete remodeling of his home with extensive landscaping and is currently building a backyard swimming pool.
He says the financial turnaround is the result of a substantial inheritance his wife, Melinda, received after her mother’s death in 2013.
“I don’t have to use SEANC money for my own purposes,” Cope said.
February 8, 2015 at 11:51 am
Norm Kelly says:
Before going any further, let me put some lib minds at ease. Yes, I have belonged to a union. Which is where my attitude towards unions came from. I did everything I could at the time to be forcefully thrown out of the union, and stop paying dues! I could not voluntarily drop from the union and keep my job, but if they tossed me out I would continue to work. Funny how that works! There was nothing I liked about belonging to the union, there was nothing tangible they offered to me as a union member. Union stewards & management, however, were enjoying life on my dues (and the dues of all other members who saw no benefit!). I knew that the union held monthly meetings where food and beverage were provided for all attendees. And there were hundreds of union stewards who attended these monthly boondoggles. At my expense. When I left the company, I was offered to buy a union-withdrawal card that would let me join the union at any future date without paying initiation fees. Of course I declined to purchase said card because I will never be forced to join a union again. I am biased against unions for very good reason.
That being said, I would not allow any immediate family member to belong to SEANC. My opposition to SEANC grew when they associated themselves with the communist SEIU. Everyone who sends money to SEANC should seriously look at dropping membership in favor of anything else. Now that questionable spending by their leader has popped up, in all places the N&D, there should be no doubt about the desire to drop membership by everyone involved. Of course, the lib response will be that it is simply NOT possible for there to be any sort of conflict or misuse of funds. The leader of SEANC is a die-hard lib, demon supporter, and therefore not capable of doing anything wrong. Libs tell us every time that it's Republicans who are dishonest. It was a lib who told us that the APPEARANCE of misdeeds was enough to get a Republican removed or investigated. It takes actual proof to convict or even suspect a lib. And since libs refuse to accept the premise that there even could be misdeeds, they fight to prevent investigations at all costs. Therefore, without proof, misdeeds don't exist. Proof can't be found if the investigation is prevented. Libs circle the wagons and protect their own.
How does a person who earns almost $100,000 per year file bankruptcy? How does someone who filed bankruptcy spend as much as SEANC leader did on LANDSCAPING? If he filed bankruptcy and THEN spent that much on landscaping, he did not learn his lesson. And what's the deal with mixing association funds and personal funds. Even if he paid it back, which is highly questionable, isn't it illegal to mix funds? Haven't some very intelligent individuals been brought down for this very act? Yet, somehow, when SEANCs leader says that he paid back everything he owes, that's supposed to be the end of the story?!
Something is definitely fishy in the union biz! It would be appropriate for union members to demand a full/complete audit of every expense by SEANC since this guy took leadership. Nothing less than FULL disclosure is required at this point. Do I expect this? Not for an instant. Libs will protect libs. SEANC leader can fume against the way retirement funds are managed by the state official, but no one can question the way SEANC leadership manages their own house. This guy will now go in full hiding mode to prevent any further investigation. And if, somehow, he is forced out of leadership, he'll get a hefty severance package from the managing board. He'll never have to worry about bankruptcy again. And he probably won't have to worry about landscaping bills at any of his residences for life! (apparently he doesn't worry about paying for landscaping now, so that part won't change!)
February 10, 2015 at 3:24 pm
Frank Burns says:
The NC General Assembly should use this incident to investigate the SEANC from top to bottom. It is a conflict of interest to have public employee unions. Democrats keep promising more and more benefits and pay so that the unions support them. The poor taxpayer takes the hit every time. Nobody is representing the taxpayers.
May 30, 2015 at 1:03 am
Samantha Muzacz says:
My husband recently canceled his membership. And was told that he NEEDED to send a letter. The way I see it, no one should be told they need to do anything when it comes to their hard earned money, that is going into people's pockets for their own personal gain. What a sad joke for an organization!
