Greed, mismanagement and questionable financial practices are so severe at the Stanislaus Community Assistance Project that its board of directors voted Wednesday night to disband the agency.
The Modesto nonprofit — which has received more than $20 million in government grants in the past eight years — will be dissolved within six months.
SCAP's programs, properties, more than200 clients and about14 staff members will be shifted to a different charity, five directors decided on a split vote.
"SCAP is a horrible, tangled web of really bad ethical practices," the agency's spokesman, Leo Briones, told The Bee on Wednesday. "SCAP is unfixable. We believe the best thing to do is to shut it down because it's never going to change."
The board's president, Daniel Malakauskas, lined up the votes to take the surprise action in a closed-door meeting, convincing at least two other directors to follow his lead.
"We believe this is necessary, given the culture of SCAP," said Malakauskas, who joined the board in June. "It will be our preference to keep (SCAP's numerous programs) run by a local nonprofit with highly ethical standards."
Which agency that will be has not been decided, and SCAP may hire a consultant to search for the best fit.
SCAP's board also voted Wednesday to immediately suspend its acting executive director and former financial officer, Kathy Lee.
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