From: MPetrelis@aol.com Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 01:13:53 EDT Subject: Kennedy took $1.4M from AIDS, Inc., pals; he must recuse himself on RW [Dear friends: Below is an introductory letter from activist Patrick Monette Shaw. Attached to this email is Patrick's lengthy report regarding Ted Kennedy accepting quite a bit of money from AIDS, Inc. and its allies. Patrick has pored over tons of FEC records to produce his report, which contains 9 sections and his resume. If you are the bit affected or interested in the Ryan White CARE Act and the reauthorization process before Congress, you owe it to yourself to read Patrick's report. --MP] * * * FROM: pmonette@slipnet.com Patrick Monette-Shaw 975 Sutter Street, Apartment 8 San Francisco, CA 94109 August 16, 2000 The Honorable Edward Kennedy United States Senate Washington, DC Dear Senator Kennedy: Re: RECUSE YOURSELF FROM HEARINGS DUE TO POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST - H.R. 4807, Ryan White CARE Act I hear you are impeding reaching consensus on equity in distribution of Ryan White CARE Act funds to jurisdictions with greater needs than San Francisco. I ask you immediately recuse yourself from Reauthorization joint conference committee meetings. This is not about "destablizing systems of care" in San Francisco, as your jesters whisper in your ear. As you will see, this is more approiately about destabilizng the flow of contributions to various and sundry politican's and legislator's coffers, to call a spade a spade. As you can see from the tables in the attachment, there are substantial questions concerning the sources of contributions made to you, your family members who are also members of Congress, and key legislators who have close ties to you. A modest percentage of the donations below may be "double counts," but it is important to include those contributions in their various contexts to see which sundry stakeholders - in particular, that creepy Tom Sheridan, whose firm, The Sheridan Group, and its clone he runs, American AIDS PAC, receives a $95,000 annual tithe from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), ostensibly for public policy "advocacy," but which is suspected is merely and purely adultered lobbying - are pushing you to prevent cuts in San Francisco's receipt of their inequitable share of CARE Act funds, a mere and modest $5 million annual cut. In the past five years, Sheridan has most likely collected a cool $500,000 in advocacy fees from SFAF alone; were I to allege a pyramind scheme, who knows how many other AIDS Service Organizations nationwide have been hoodwinked into paying him fees to lobby you and other members of Congress under the guise of "advocacy"? Surely, somewhere in California's $64 billion budget, or San Francisco's $1.2 billion budget, this petty $5 million cut (sorely needed elsewhere, I might add) could be found, allowing your Committe to cease and desist quibbling over San Francisco's modest $5 million "hold harmless." I'm positive a modest $5 million could be found across those two budgets' funding capacity, if by nothing else, by finding economies of scale; eliminating duplication of services in San Francisco (to modestly provide unduplicated services elsewhere); implementing proper billing for services rendered now unbilled; or eliminating mismanagement of scarce resources. Another Modest Proposal (al lá Swift's handbill on Ireland) might consider cutting the salary of SFAF's executive director, Pat Christen, from $201,000 annually - which I remind you is more than President Clinton's, California Governor Grey Davis', or San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's salaries, even though they manage $1,760, $64, and $1.2 billion budgets, respectively, while she's piddling mismanaging SFAFs modestly insignificant $17.3 million in actual-expenditures, despite SFAFs claims its budget is $19.6 million, (but I digress) - an obscene salary compared to the average income of people with AIDS in San Francisco, let alone Harlem or elsewhere. Another modest proposal: prohibit SFAF and other AIDS Service Organizations in San Francisco from slipping Tom Sheridan and the American AIDS PAC their annual "management" fees, and prohibit annual "dues" to the CAEAR Coalition (Cities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief) and they'd be well on their way towards recovery. Recovery, that is from any CARE Act formula cuts. What is particularly appalling is that, if you've bothered to read the GAO report entitled "Opportunities to Enhance [Ryan White CARE Act] Funding Equity Revisited" presented to the House Committee on Commerce on June 23, 2000, you would understand the 24 states without an EMA (Emergency Metropolitan Area) are in desperate need of equitable funding. Surprisingly, though you received $392,000 in contributions from individuals in those 24 states, you've been getting so much lobbying (err, "advocacy") pressure from Tom Sheridan, Pat Christen, and other registered federal AIDS lobbyists that you've apparently decided to ignore urgent unmet needs in those 24 states, relevant epidemiology (statistics) from the CDC for those areas notwithstanding. I am even more appalled, having heard your nephew, Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, being interviewed yesterday by Matt Lauer on the Today show. In reply to a question Mr. Lauer posed concerning campaign finance reform, your nephew, Patrick - whose name appears as a beneficiary, as well as a source of, contributions throughout the attached donor lists I've spent the better part of a modest five days downloading from the FEC Info (Federal Elections Commision) Internet site and then manipulating in an Access databas, - blithely acknowledged the Kennedy clan is well aware the entire campaign finance system is "corrupt" (his choice of words). I would suggest that after you review the attached donor and disbursement lists, you consider whether the Kennedy clan may be contributing to that particular problem rather than its being a paragon of equity, while modestly minding his choice of words. I intend to continue investigating the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's (SFAF) annual "grant awards" to the CAEAR Coalition … particularly to see if CAEAR's Board or members include representatives of the Black clergy, nationwide … and SFAFs other front group, Mobilization Against AIDS (whose employees have made donations to American AIDS PAC, possibly against FEC rules), and will continue questioning SFAFs expenditures to The Sheridan Group for "advocacy,"which may in fact be nothing more than a cover for lobbying, that I believe is a prohibited "expense" by CARE Act, or other, monies - no matter how modest the sums involved. While, like Assemblywoman Carole Migden, I certainly don't want to say anything libelous, slanderous, or unreasonable, I intend to ask the FEC to investigate donations SFAF employees have made to legislators and/or PACs; while those donations may have come from paychecks gleaned from grossly inflated salaries affording disposable incomes most people with HIV and AIDS are not privy to, as employees of an organization receiving federal contracts this appears to be at best, or at minimum, a modest conflict of interest on the part of SFAF employees and its Board. It's time for such an investigation. Sincerely, Patrick Monette Shaw San Francisco, CA Ph: 415-292-6969 Em: pmonette@slipnet.com ========================== Michael Petrelis Welcome to AIDS-STATISTICS www.AIDS-statistics.com 2215-R Market Street, #413 San Francisco, CA 94114