Just weeks before the NFL draft, the Downtown Neighbors Alliance has cut ties with its executive director and may be folding up its tent altogether.
The long-standing organization dedicated to boosting Downtown Pittsburgh severed ties last month with its executive director, John Valentine, after an investigation found the organization lacked all financial controls.
Right now, board members say there’s no one in charge, its employees haven’t received their last paychecks and the organization has only $1,000 in the kitty. Pittsburgh City Council President Daniel Lavelle is the chairman of the board.
KDKA’s Andy Sheehan asked, “Is this organization going to survive?”
“To be determined,” Lavelle said.
Valentine has long been the face of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, which, along with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, has been a primary booster of the Golden Triangle. It promotes business development and residential living Downtown, hosts events, and is funded by grants and donations. But sources say after a board-ordered review of the finances found the organization was near broke and had virtually no accounting of expenditures, it voted last month to end its relationship with Valentine.
“I can confirm that John Valentine is no longer associated with the DNA,” Lavelle said.
Valentine declined to be interviewed on camera, but he told KDKA on the phone that he has retired from the Downtown Neighbors Alliance and left on his own accord. But he conceded the organization’s finances were in disarray, saying, “The books were a mess. Finances have never been my forte. I’m not a financial guy. I didn’t know what I was doing, All right?”
A tax form lists him as president and secretary, but Valentine told KDKA he was a consultant to the organization and not in charge of finances. The form shows he worked 40 hours a week, but shows no salary. Valentine declined to say how he was paid, but he denied any financial impropriety, saying, “There’s no missing money, no pocketing of funds. It’s all documented.”
For the upcoming NFL draft, the Downtown Neighbors Alliance is set to hold the so-called Blitzburgh Bounty Treasure Hunt later this month. The event is apparently still on, but the organization may not be around much longer.
“We will be preparing a statement to put out very soon,” Lavelle said.
Sources on the board say it has no choice but to try to pay the remaining employees and wind operations down.