Leaders of the African American Cultural Center have met face-to-face with the Erie County Comptroller, following announcement by other county officials that they are asking state offices to investigate accounting practices by the Buffalo-based cultural non-profit institution.
“The meeting was productive and clarifying,” said Thembi Duncan, the current chair of the center’s board. “As far as takeaways, we all seemed to agree that we should work together to uncover what happened with the funds.”
On January 9, Erie County Legislator Lindsay Lorigo confirmed she had written State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asking that his office get involved. The same day, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz stated that the county had referred the matter of the center’s accounting to the State Attorney General’s Office.
At issue, the African American Cultural Center’s failure to come up with records explaining what happened to more than $350,000 in overpaid cultural grant funding from the years 2020 through 2022. The county audit acknowledges the accounting in question happened under the center’s previous leadership. County Comptroller Kevin Hardwick said he’s willing to give the new leadership more time to figure out how they may get their hands on missing records.
“I think they understand where we're coming from, and I know we understand where they're coming from and the problems that they're having,” Hardwick said. “We're going to support them in their efforts to get these records back. I think they know that in the end, we need to have those costs substantiated.”
Since 2023, the center has been led by executive director Dr. Leah Angel Daniel. Duncan, who became board chair in 2024, told BTPM the board offers its full support to Dr. Daniel.
The center has been closed for renovations since last spring and only re-opened last month with a skeleton staff.
Duncan said current center leaders do not know whether excess grant funds were spent illegally. But she told BTPM the board is of the opinion that current leadership should not be responsible for repaying missing funds.
"Really, the responsibility is on the people who distributed the money,” she said.
The overpayment is rooted in Erie County's own policies for the Cultural Grant Funding program, which stipulate the county may not provide more than 20% of an organization's operating budget in funding. The county comptroller's findings indicate this is not an isolated issue. For example the Black Rock Historical Society, based on audit reports, received $30,000 over the county cap between 2020 and 2022.
While county audits recommend any organization paid more than the 20% return the funds, Hardwick said if the county legislature votes to change that cap, he's willing to drop his recommendation under some conditions.
"If that were the call of the legislature and the executive that, you know, this was money that was given in excess of perhaps what they should have under the 20% rule, this would be problem not of the organization's making, but of the legislature and executives making for giving them too much in the first place," said Hardwick. "As long as that money was spent appropriately and didn't end up in somebody's pocket, then I would have no problem with that call to waive the policy."
