CAHI employees say they saw troubles coming long ago

By Karel Ancona-Henry

For the Appeal

Long before its demise, Citizens for Affordable Homes employees tried to share their concerns about former Executive Director Ron Trunk's dealings with Al Kramer, who initially served as chairman and then board member of CAHI's board of directors. They say they were portrayed to the other members as nothing more than "disgruntled employees."

Trunk is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the Carson City Sheriff's Office for alleged misappropriation of funds to keep the organization afloat. The Sheriff's Office began the investigation after being approached by CAHI officials. If criminal activity is determined, the matter will be referred to the district attorney for charges.

Trunk denies any wrongdoing.

The organization has helped dozens of families obtain their first homes in the past 11 years. The nine homes under construction now will be completed by Nevada Rural Housing Authority, which took over after CAHI shut down last month for lack of funds.

"Three years ago I started wondering about Ron Trunk's management style and went to Al Kramer who was then president of CAHI's board," said Tom Finch, former development director of CAHI. "I thought they were legitimate concerns and (Al) chose not to address them."

Kramer denies that, saying "we responded as a complete board," to staff complaints.

"I took everything that was brought to me seriously and (the board) had been concerned for a long time and were trying to make things work," Kramer said.

Trunk claimed CAHI's complaints were retaliation against him for "complaints and grievances I filed against (CAHI) because I have still not been paid."

Trunk warned that CAHI "had best be careful" in their claims. Trunk said he believed "the board thought they could pull it together and when they couldn't, (they) started looking for a scapegoat."

Perry Comeaux, who has served as CAHI's interim executive director since Trunk's termination, denies the claim.

"The board has done what we have to do, as there is obviously some inappropriate activity there," Comeaux said.

The board did not take the action lightly, but discussed the issue many times before going to law enforcement, Comeaux said.

"If there's an issue, (law enforcement) will pursue it and if not, they won't," Comeaux said. "We'll have to see what they come up with, I guess."

This is a last step toward dissolving an organization whose financial situation had grown increasing more difficult.

With projects in Dayton and Pahrump, as well as property purchases in Hawthorne, CAHI had overextended itself financially.

"We had no operating capital as of October 2006," Finch said. "At that point we were $60,000 in the hole.

When Cindy Day was hired in October 2006 as family coordinator and loan processor, she discovered that there were issues with meeting payroll.

With concerns mounting, Day said she contacted Kramer.

"In March I called Al Kramer about the Carson City Town Homes project and the documents Ron was presenting (to the federal Housing Assistance Council, which provided loans to CAHI )and (Al) said 'things at HAC (Housing Assistance Council) are wink-wink, pat-pat,'" she said. "We (staff) were presented to the board, by way of Al as disgruntled employees, and we had been told by Ron that we were not to talk with other board members.

"I believe now, that whenever Ron said he had 'board approval,' that he meant he had Al's approval," Finch said.

"We still had to work with Ron and it became unbearable," Day said.

Finch finally approached board member Tim Angello with his concerns in September 2007.

"Tim was very interested in what I was saying, that the financials were a mess, it wasn't looking good and it didn't look like things were on the up and up," Finch said. "Having a financial background, (Tim) started looking into it."

At this point, Perry Comeaux and Greg Nixon of Irwin Union Bank had recently been seated on CAHI's board.

"They had the financial background to ask the questions, and it became apparent things were bad," Finch said.

In addition to the criminal complaint filed in Carson City, Trunk's use of the company credit card has raised concerns, though the board has chosen not to pursue legal action for misuse. Finch said Trunk is claiming CAHI owes him $85,000, which includes $65,000 in educational expenses for online classes he started prior to joining CAHI.

Additional charges on the card reportedly included payment of school fees, as well as airfare for Trunk and his wife to Minnesota where the online college was headquartered. Trunk claimed these were CAHI-related expenses, when it was a vacation, Finch said.

"There was a trip to Hawaii for a 'conference' and he had taken his wife with him," Day said. "I believe he had a two-hour meeting and was there for a week."

Finch, who had helped found CAHI, said it's painful to watch the demise of CAHI.

"For 11 years, this has been a labor of love and it hurts to see it go away," Finch said. "We thought maybe we could save CAHI, but as we've realized how deep this goes, there's no hope for that.

"I want the public to know that CAHI's employees, we thought we could do our parts of the job right and ethically, in spite of our concerns," he said. "There's nothing else I can do. I just hope all this leads to something better."