State Rep. Russell Capps, a Raleigh Republican, has asked State Auditor Ralph Campbell to investigate the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Wilson, a nonprofit organization largely funded by the state.
In a Feb. 17 letter to Campbell, Capps cited reports by the Wilson Daily Times and Carolina Journal that documented OIC’s role in a 10,000-piece mailing for the Wilson County Democratic Party. A letter in the mailing package asked the recipient to vote a straight Democratic ticket for the partisan races, and for the Democrats in the nonpartisan races. A sample ballot was included and marked accordingly.
Some nonprofit organizations such as labor unions are permitted to participate in political activities as long as the activities and expenditures are reported. According to the IRS Code, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization such as the Wilson OIC “will lose its tax-exempt status if it engages in political activity.”
According to the Daily Times, three former students of the OIC claim that as students, they helped OIC staff members prepare the mailing Oct. 31, 2002 just before the general election. The students were let out of class early and paid to help with the project.
After the Daily Times story was published, CJ interviewed Rep. Joe Tolson, whose district includes Edgecombe and Wilson counties, about the mailing project. He confirmed OIC’s involvement.
“I helped carry it around from the party headquarters to the OIC. We were working on it at Democratic headquarters at the mall, but we needed more space and more help where we had more space and people to work on it,” Tolson said. He also acknowledged that students and OIC staff were involved in the mailing.
“These reports are indications of clearly illegal activities within the center and participated in by the center staff members. The allegations raise very serious concerns,” said Capps in his letter to Campbell. “I respectfully request that your office initiate an immediate investigation into this matter and provide me with a full report of your findings as early as possible.”
The Wilson OIC, a tax-exempt nonprofit organization with an annual budget of more than $2 million, receives state, local, and federal funds. The organization’s main activities include job training for low-income and socially troubled individuals, AIDS education and testing, food distribution, youth counseling, and alternative education.
OIC President Howard Jones told CJhat he was not aware of Capps’ letter
Dennis Patterson, a spokesman for the State Auditor’s Office, acknowledged that the office has received the request from Capps, but the office’s policy was to not comment on current or potential investigations.
Jones originally told the Wilson newspaper that OIC employees were not used to stuff envelopes and that OIC did not pay the students, even though one student said that Jones is the one who paid them $20 each. Later, in a Feb. 13 letter to the Daily Times, and copied to CJ, he claimed the students belonged to Wilson Technical Community College even though the class they were attending was being held at the OIC.
Carrington is associate publisher of Carolina Journal.