NAACP leaders in Sacramento are suspected of using personal businesses to manage a county-sponsored food delivery program that operated from March 2022 to June 2023.
The Sacramento Bee obtained financial filings that appear to indicate that the currently suspended Greater Sacramento NAACP President Betty Williams and the Sacramento NAACP branch education chair Salena Pryor listed their organizations as independent contractors.
As part of Sacramento County’s food insecurity pilot program, 1Solution LLC, an outreach and staffing firm run by Williams, and Pryor Consulting, run by Pryor, each were paid as part of the $2.5 million contract.
Dine-In 2, as the program was known, was a joint project between the Sacramento NAACP and Family Meals Sacramento, which delivered meals
to residents during the pandemic. According to county documents, $225,000 in salary was paid out to the two companies. Pryor and Williams also allegedly personally benefited from the arrangement. Pryor was paid $8,000 a month or $120,000 for a year’s worth of work as a business compliance officer. Williams, listed as both an executive director and an administrative assistant, received $21,600 and $48,000, respectively, for each role she was listed in.The national NAACP’s auditors informed Williams that they suspected her of financial impropriety a month after the Greater Sacramento NAACP submitted their annual financial report in April 2023.
By October, the NAACP suspended her membership, and in a letter, the national NAACP President/CEO Derrick Johnson wrote, “I am satisfied that your continued membership in the Association presents a danger of harm to the NAACP and the Sacramento Branch NAACP. Action is necessary to prevent or mitigate that harm.”
Some Sacramento County NAACP members have alleged that Johnson’s suspension of Williams is political in nature because she was gearing up to challenge for the California NAACP presidency in October. Some of Williams’ supporters even protested outside of a Burlingame hotel where the NAACP California/Hawaii state convention took place a few days after Williams and other members were asked to step down.
The national NAACP is still investigating allegations of financial mismanagement while Sacramento County officials have requested records pertaining to the Dine-In 2 program while Williams was over the Sacramento County NAACP.
Additionally, some local restaurant owners have said they were frustrated with how the program was being run. One restaurant owner, who spoke to the Sacramento Bee
on condition of anonymity due to an NDA signed with Williams, said that some compensation payments were late and as a result, they had questions about where the money was going. According to the restaurant owner, some owners waited months to receive checks for meals and deliveries prepared under the program.Bobby Bivens, a former national NAACP board member and longtime Stockton NAACP branch president, is now an administrator with Sacramento County NAACP. Bivens is one of several leadership shuffles that the Sacramento County NAACP has instituted after the departure of Williams and other leaders in the Sacramento County NAACP branch.
Bivens told the news outlet that he is hoping for a quick resolution.
“It takes time,” he said. “The board wants to be fair to everybody. I’m looking forward to (national officials) quickly reaching a conclusion to this. What we do, no one else does. We’re not stopping the services that are being provided. We want to make sure they keep going as they’ve been going.”
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