‘We haven’t been paid’: Nonprofit leader confronts Mayor Wilson, says she left agencies unfunded

During a news conference where Mayor Katie Wilson was addressing the recent gang-related mass shooting during the Bite of Seattle, one woman spoke out about how her agency has not been paid despite several attempts to contact Wilson’s office, further stating her agency was not the only one.

Dr. Jacqueline Bowles with Redeemed Wellness Center joined “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio to explain why she made these claims and to provide her side of the story.

“How did that feel to stand up there in the middle of that press conference and just let her know that you’ve got some outstanding invoices?” Curley asked.

“I didn’t initially go to the press conference to speak at all,” Bowles replied. “I was just really going to because, as a partner, as a resident of Seattle, and a native, I really wanted to hear what we were going to do. I’m a vested partner at the table. I wanted to know what we were going to do. But as I heard the mayor talk about the program, the violence intervention, the evidence-based, she mentioned clearly how we were at the table just a month ago. I felt inclined to let her know; I was like, well maybe she doesn’t really know. We haven’t been paid.”

Curley looks at the nonprofit’s finances revealed razor-thin margins

Curley noted he looked into Bowles’ 990 tax return and found that her agency is running on thin margins and revealed what she gets paid.

“It’s not even a budget. Do you mind if I tell everybody what you get paid?”

“I don’t,” Bowles replied.

“$38,095. You work 40 hours a week,” Curley said. “You could get a job at Starbucks pulling lattes and make more money. You know that. You’re barely able to keep the lights on over there.”

Bowles traces the funding issues back to an audit

Curley highlighted that the mayor’s office cited improper paperwork filings, but Bowles began to explain why everything got “totally weird” after an audit found roughly $1 billion in waste.

“Did you notice that things started to get weird after that audit found, I think almost a billion dollars of waste?”

“Oh, totally weird,” Bowles responded. “Every system I’m involved in got totally weird, and I knew it was going to get weird, which is why I prepared. I said, ‘OK, they’re going to give us technical assistance,’ which is what the state did. The state said, ‘We know it’s going to get weird. It’s going to get tight. We’re going to put audits in place, controls in place; we’re going to ramp up everything,’ as if an audit will help your agencies do your work better, because we know we have a problem, and we can’t fund you on that auspice. We’re gonna have to make sure we meet somewhere in the middle, or nobody wins.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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