The executive director of the Upper Valley nonprofit accused of mismanaging state and federal grants responded on Friday to accusations made against her in two lawsuits, including one filed this week by Attorney General Bill Sorrell’s office.
Raymona Russell, director of Emerge Family Advocates, characterized as “rogue” the two board members who blew the whistle on her alleged mismanagement, and accused them of having ulterior motives for critiquing Emerge.
Russell said she had good reason to use company equipment for personal chores and did not inflate her salary or pay herself multiple times. Sorrell’s office made Emerge a “sacrificial lamb” during an election year, she said in a 2,000-word email to VTDigger, explaining her version of the story.
Emerge is a five-employee nonprofit funded with public money that oversees supervised visits between children and their parents and transfers of children between parents, as can be ordered by a court. It operates in Windsor County in Vermont and Grafton County in New Hampshire.
Sorrell’s office this week filed a petition to remove the board of Emerge Family Advocates, saying it had neglected its fiduciary duty under state law to act in the best interest of the nonprofit.
The two board members who alerted Sorrell’s office, Thomas Trunzo and Joanna Jaspersohn, also filed their own suit, alleging mismanagement of funds by Emerge’s executive director Raymona Russell and a failure by the rest of the board to hold Russell accountable.
“It’s been operating without a budget, without an audit, without any effective independent oversight, for years,” said Trunzo, who has been on the board for two years and said he was marginalized by the rest of the board when he started pushing for information about how Russell spent money.
Russell said she keeps excellent records of Emerge’s finances and granted access to the books to Trunzo in April.
“I have been nothing but transparent,” she said. She has asked the court for more time to respond to that complaint, she said Friday.
Russell said Jaspersohn is a disgruntled former client of Emerge and she and Trunzo, for whom Jaspersohn works, are out to get her.
“You either love me or you hate me,” she said.
Trunzo and Jaspersohn on Friday disputed Russell’s claims and said they are eager for the matter to play out in court. One point all sides agree on is that Emerge serves an important role in communities and they hope it can continue.
In her email to VTDigger, Russell responded point-by-point to some allegations in the lawsuits.
The “electronics” she is accused of taking was a basic cellphone that her terminally ill husband uses because she works between 55 and 60 hours a week. Since 2011, she said, the nonprofit has paid a set price of $139.99 for six phones; and rather than have a phone sit unused, the board allowed her to give it to her husband so he could easily contact her.
Russell said her husband for 18 years has provided free painting, roofing and security for Emerge. Although he is ill, he still provides security or helps supervise child visits or exchanges, she said.
Russell also offered an explanation for the extra money she was paid. She reimbursed herself for unused vacation, sick time and personal time, she said.
“Since I work so many hours each and every week of the year I never use it so if I am not reimbursed for it not only do I kill myself on time but also get no benefits at all,” she wrote in the email.
There is no record in board meeting minutes of her being authorized to take “unused” vacation pay on top of her salary, Jaspersohn said.
Russell said she has loaned Emerge money “over and over again” and she and the board believed this to be acceptable. During the economic recession, Emerge saw its funding cut and is short-staffed; she said that she performs not only administrative duties but oversees individual child visits and exchanges.
“I’m starting to doubt that she’s as busy as she said she is but there’s really no way of knowing that,” Trunzo said.
Trunzo said when Russell did give him access to her filing cabinet in April, a few weeks before he sent the whistleblower letter, it was for about an hour and he found incomplete bank statements and documents that raised more questions than answers.
“The actual fact is I’ve never been able to see the records,” he said.
Emerge received $54,000 last year from the state of Vermont, most of it via the Center for Crime Victim Services. The center cut off funding earlier this year because Emerge had failed to submit to annual audits.
Russell in her email said Emerge intended to perform an audit this year but the center cut off Emerge’s funding before it could do so.
Emerge receives $38,000 from the Center for Crime Victim Services every year but audits cost between $12,000 and $18,000, she said. The cost is why Emerge has never done audits in the past, she said.
Russell said she has never been asked for her side of the story or “the verifiable facts” and believes she will prevail in court.
