Scandal-Stricken Nonprofit Faces More Scrutiny

State and county officials are investigating how the nonprofit Tampa-Hillsborough Action Plan (THAP) spent $2.3 million in grants for AIDS patients. The two audits come as local officials are voicing their reluctance to renew THAP's contracts as long as Executive Director Chet Luney oversees its day-to-day operations. The Tampa City Council's vote on awarding a $522,227 grant to THAP, which had been scheduled for tomorrow, has been postponed. "I have reservations about moving forward at this point until the investigation is complete," said Councilmember Bob Buckhorn. But Warren Hope Dawson, THAP's lawyer and spokesperson, said the organization, which had a $450,000 city contract last year for AIDS-related services, has done a good job.

Luney and THAP were drawn into the state and federal criminal investigations of Steve LaBrake, who is on leave as director of the city's Business and Community Services Department, and Lynne McCarter, who is LaBrake's assistant and girlfriend. Luney told the Tampa Tribune he was ordered to give more construction contracts to the couple's personal home builder, Dean Ryan, and to pay Ryan more than THAP paid other builders. He also admitted using THAP money to move a house for the couple; to buy McCarter's car; and to pay her more than $31,000 for providing gift bags to new homeowners. THAP collects more than $2 million a year in state, federal and private grants for its AIDS services. The Florida Department of Health last week sent auditors from its Bureau of HIV/AIDS to inspect THAP's records, and Hillsborough County's Health and Social Services Department is conducting a follow-up to its annual audit.

THAP and Luney are also being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General for Veterans Affairs. Luney has been a full-time VA employee since 1974, but he abruptly resigned that $80,000-a-year job this month. He still earns $78,000 as executive director of THAP's 14 corporations. The VA pays THAP hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to provide housing for homeless veterans in Tampa and at least three other Florida cities. Retired registered nurse practitioner Barbara Kroll, who worked for 27 years at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, said it was common knowledge that Luney, who is a clinical psychologist, was also working somewhere else. "I had to cover for him all the time. We all did," she said. Luney could not be reached for comment. Dawson said there had been no change in Luney's status at THAP.

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