He's been called the Poverty Pimp and Prince of Poor. I was told a long time ago that he tools around in a red Jaguar convertible and pulls down a hefty salary.I'm speaking, of course, about CACLV Executive Director Alan Jennings. I took him to task yesterday for suggesting, in a case about which he only knows what a Plaintiff's lawyer has told him, that Northampton County Bulldog Ron Angle should be prosecuted for forgery. He did so in a telephone conversation with reporters and during a RenewLV board meeting.
One thing I did not do was attack him personally. I respect his work for low and no income people at CACLV. His group helps people start businesses, provides home ownership counseling, helps people find work and runs food banks and homeless shelters.
Alan himself is a feisty, in-your-face advocate for whatever he happens to think is important at the moment. Nothing wrong with that. He cares. On a cold winter day last year, he and Bethlehem Attorney Don Miles, armed with sledge hammers and plastic explosives, were ready to blow their way into an Allentown apartment house. Their mission? To help a freezing family with a three year-old daughter who had been illegally locked out, even though they had faithfully paid their rent. Jennings and Miles were prepared to go to jail.
Unfortunately, some bastard walked by and produced a key.
Jennings has often locked horns with another feisty, in-your-face advocate for whatever he happens to think is important at the moment. Ron Angle. Jennings once stormed out of a radio show when Angle and host Bobby Gunther Walsh began taunting him. "I'm over that," he told me yesterday.
Still, he has no love for Ron Angle, and I suspect that has more to do with his outrage over Ron Angle's Will controversy than anything else. Jennings is smart enough to know that there is more than one side to just about every issue and let his personal feelings get in the way of good sense.
Funny thing. Jennings and Angle have more in common than either would like to admit. Both are controversial. Both are regularly reviled. Both stand up for the little guy. Many of the slings and arrows directed at both are wide of the mark.
When I told you about Jennings yesterday, some of you raked him over the coals. (1) "[T]ry interviewing some former female employees of CACLV and ask them about Alan Jennings." (2) "[T]he man has devoted his whole life to helping the poor (at 6 figures a year...)". (3) "If Alan Jennings has been at his post for years and folks are in need more than ever, has he really done a good job?"
With regard to charges that Alan is a little too friendly with female staffers, here's what he tells me. "This is just a smear; I have no idea what they are talking about. Feel free to talk to any of my Board members – I have nothing to hide." He did acknowledge that one former worker has sued him for racial discrimination.
Alan's salary? It's not quite 6 figures. It's $92,000 per year, much lower than the salary paid to someone like the State Theatre's Shelley Brown. Even Sam Bennett made more than him, and he actually does things with a staff of over one hundred workers.
Jennings told me yesterday that he lives in a twin home in Allentown. He has no Jaguar. He drives a Honda with 150,000 miles. Seven per cent of his salary is deducted for his 401k.
Do we still have poverty? Yes. Does that mean Alan has failed? Yes. Does that mean he does a poor job? No. Certainly no more so than Salvation Army or other religious movements that have tried to help people.
We're lucky to have Alan ... and Ron, even if they dislike each other.
19 comments:
What's the combined payroll of the director and staff and a hundred people? Are they attempting to solve homelessness by simply hiring them all? Sounds like a lot of administration (read: waste).
You compare Alan and Angle. Alan cares about people and Angle uses people. So I guess they have "people" in common.
You complain he commented on something without getting both sides of the argument. Funny Ohare, that sounds like most of your blog postings. You regularly attack good people and allow smears as long as they are directed at your targets. If someone questions you or your favored politician, you delete and censor.
Please, anyone who has been around and knows both Angle and Jennings knows Jennings is a true believer who at times may be over exuberant in his passion for the poor. Ron Angle is a selfish self-promoter who would walk over a baby to grab another dollar.
Help the "little guy", I think most folks who know both guys history would pick Alan.
Anon 12:58 you are so right. Alan truly cares about all people. His salary is based on performance and his record speakes for itself. But then again Angle's record speaks for itself as well.
Alan does a great job. Thanks for saying nice things about a good man who works tirelessly for the benefit of others. If anything, he just needs more people to pitch in and help him. He is a true visionary in the Lehigh Valley. Does he deserve a professional salary? You bet! Your headline and picture are in poor taste, though. Anything to grab attention, Bernie.
Alan is grossly underpaid, but he's always insisted it be that way. According to Guidestar, the median salary for a male executive director of a nonprofit organization with a budget of approximately $10-12 million is $138,000. Or rather, that's what it was in 2002, which is the data used in the most recent guidestar report I could find.
As for the question of staff size, the ASAE's "policies and procedures" benchmarking guide notes that the median staff size for a similarly-budgeted organization is 91. In my personal experience, I have seen nonprofits operating with the same level of staffing with the half the budget, which is obscene, and also organizations with much slimmer staff. However, since CACLV is both an advocacy organization AND a direct service provider, their staffing needs are heavier than those of nonprofits who do not directly serve a population. CACLV has several direct-service programs that must require heavy staffing, including the regional food bank that provides dry goods to dozens of food pantrys around the area - I imagine the food bank alone requires 20 staff. Plus throw in several homeless shelters which require round-the-clock staffing, and you can see how the numbers start adding up. If an organization that size had more than 15 or 20 administrative-side staff, that would be "wasteful" as the midnight ANON put it, but I have never gotten that impression from CACLV. Their staff are caseworkers and counselors who work directly with the clients they serve.
Anonymous said...
What's the combined payroll of the director and staff and a hundred people? Are they attempting to solve homelessness by simply hiring them all? Sounds like a lot of administration (read: waste).
12:10 AM
If Mr. Jennings’s has nothing to hide, as you proclaim, let him
share all CACLV salaries and the rate of small business start-ups one of his sub-agencies sponsor to
report how many are actually functioning in business two to three years after initial funding.
Smear, Smear, Smear. Alan devotes his lives to making the lives of his neighbors better. Angle devotes his life to making his life better at the expense of his neighbors. The facts remain that the Registrar of Wills found Angle to have filed a phony Will. Ron, Sr., Sharon and Ron, Jr., need to be investigated for conspiracy, forgery and perjury.
Bernie,
Did you find out why Mr. Jenning's
spoke out against Ron Angle and his father's will?
Alan and I disagree over a number of things but we always find common ground. I will always call him a friend, even when he tells me that I'm not holding true to my Christian values to help the poor or feed the hungry (sadly, he's right).
It is very clear that people are attacking him with lies. If you want to know how he lives his life, ask him how long it took him to migrate from a car phone to a cell phone (I think he held out until 2009).
Frankly, the world could use a few more people like Alan Jennings. They hate poverty and will call anybody out for policies that allow it to stand unquestioned. He, like many other anti-poverty advocates, will readily admit that they fail to eliminate poverty. But failure to achieve should never stop those who are truly committed.
Geoff
"Did you find out why Mr. Jenning's spoke out against Ron Angle and his father's will?
Yes, I did. He spoke to Janet Jackson. He was also honest enough to tell me who first spoke to him about this matter, but I promised confidentiality.
"Your headline and picture are in poor taste, though."
Don't you have a sense of humor? I'm writing about Alan Jennings, not God. Lighten up.
why doesn't allen just stick to his good works and let the system stick it to angle if all this is true?
lashing out at angle serves no purpose for the "poor"
Alan has a right to speak as an American citizen. Who made Angle King? Oh yea, Angle and Bernie made Angle King.
Alan knows Angle is no friend of the poor. He just takes their property for pennies on the dollar!
The corruption in Northampton County is so very widespread. Top of the list is the Prosecutor's Office. O'Hare does attack good people and he's up the bottom feeders asses.
The Stoffa Administration with the silence of the Press has kept a lid on the corruption within the county for years.
The 3 AM troll strikes, with his irrational and OT hatred of John Stoffa.
Even Jesus said, "The poor will always be with us."
I don't think Alan really believes poverty will ever be eradicated, but his work has put a dent in codified social inequities, increased access to affordable occupant-owner housing, supported hundreds of hard-working, low-income residents as they launch their own businesses, and shamed our Valley's banks into finally opening branches in poorer neighborhoods.
Six years ago, Alan began battling the exploitative loan market that convinced poor people to purchase mortgages they couldn't afford. His work on this issue in the Lehigh Valley may be a key reason why the Valley's foreclosure rate is, relatively, much lower than other regions similar to ours.
Alan's Executive Director salary is lower than a teacher with less experience working in Parkland. He drives a mid-price car with more than a 100,000 miles and lives in half-a-double with his wife in Allentown. He is a Christian who walks in the true spirit of Jesus.
Compare Alen Jennings to Ron Angle? Sure. They are philosophical and ethical opposites.
They are both in your face, both passionate abd both stand up for what they believe in. And they both believe in the little guy, so their philosophical differences should be viewed as just that - philosophy. As far as ethics go, I have no reason to dount Alan's integrity, and you have no reason to doubt Ron's, other than the smears that are posted here and there, by people who want to hurt him.
if you don't put your name under what you believe, do you really believe?
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