Miami Herald; Sunday, October 6, 1991
Charles E. Hecker, Herald Staff Writer

To save Center One's place as a beacon in a ravaged community, Steinsmith made a promise.

"We are going to be doing the most fantastic job to help people with AIDS," he said.

A year later, Steinsmith and Center One were once again under siege. A new executive director had resigned, pre-empting his ouster. Steinsmith made another sweeping pronouncement.

"We have no intention of shutting down and giving in to the AIDS virus," he said.

His words rang hollow. Members of the Broward County Community AIDS Task Force, which had assembled to address Center One's plight, had lost confidence in the agency.

And now, the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services is reviewing the alleged misappropriation of $146,000 that was supposed to pay for housing for people with AIDS.

People with HIV are always under attack -- by a deadly virus. But so, it seems, is their refuge.

"Center One's problem was that it tried to be everything," said the Rev. Grant Ford, pastor of the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Church. "That's been the problem since the day Fred Tondalo was executive director to today."

Saturday, Center One directors met and agreed in principle to merge with Hospice Care of Broward Inc. A board committee was created to execute the deal, which is still under discussion with Hospice.

Center One started in 1984, in the basement of a gay hotel on Fort Lauderdale's Strip.

A series of ads called for action against a then-unfamiliar but terrifying disease in the gay community.

Tondalo was one of its founders and its first executive director.

"We paid people's rents. We helped them with prescription drugs. We helped them get medical care before there was a Northwest Health Center," he said.

He was also the first executive director to resign.

Accused of mismanaging funds by a combative board, he quit in 1988 after a brief struggle. An independent audit showed no wrongdoing.

"There was some bookkeeping that needed to be tightened up," he said. He left, "fighting the board of directors all the way."

Last week, Tondalo was the first to recommend that Center One be dismantled.

Ira Estis followed Tondalo to the hot seat. His tenure lasted for six months before he was fired. An executive search chose Juliette Love, who had 17 years in the public health field and was the local AIDS coordinator for the federal Centers for Disease Control, to replace him.

Love is widely credited with putting Center One on solid ground. She did not return phone calls requesting interviews for this story.

"Center One, since the board removed Fred Tondalo, has stood for chaos and instability," said Alan Terl, a task force member and prominent gay rights attorney. "Juliette overcame these factors and returned the organization to serving the community."

But Love is also credited with attempting to expand Center One beyond its base in the gay community, to include other groups affected by AIDS. Former employees say the move created enormous tension.

"I don't think you could go in there as a black man or a pregnant woman and get the same kind of help you could get as a gay middle-class man," said Richard Forgitano, who worked as a bookkeeper at the center.

Love's tenure at Center One ended explosively and publicly. A fractious board leveled accusations in all directions. The center didn't even know when its clients died.

Forgitano said grant money, private donations and government funds were lumped into single accounts with little or no regard for where the money came from or where it was supposed to go.

"Once you start transferring a lot of money back and forth, sometimes you lose money in the transaction and forget where you were," he said.

"Since Juliette was removed, we've been back to chaos and instability," Terl said.

Some of Broward's people with AIDS, nervous and angry, are lashing out at the center.

"Here we are, the third-largest stricken area in the country. The feds give us a small allotment, and Center One blows it," said former client Michael Burgess, referring to the housing grant.

Steinsmith, then president of Center One's board, took over as acting executive director. In February, the search for a director ended with the selection of Bill Gasparovic, the director of health and social services for Lauderhill. He resigned last week amid conflict over his management style.

Since news of the HRS audit broke, Center One has shifted into crisis mode. Board members are not speaking publicly about past or present turmoil.

Matthew Klir, a board member who owns a public relations and marketing company, is spokesman. His job is to disassociate the center from its history.

"There may have been a political agenda in the past, but the current board of directors has no political agenda," he said.

He denied that the center has a pro-gay bias.

"My board of directors at Center One only sees people in the context of whether we can help if they have HIV or AIDS," he said. "There is no other consideration that falls into play."

Klir said the center looks forward to clearing up the confusion over the HRS grant. Friday, Center One officials turned over nearly 100 pages of financial records that they say shows the $146,000 was spent on emergency housing assistance.

"HRS can now determine where the money was spent, based on documentation provided," he said.

What's more, Klir said the center spent $154,000 on housing that wasn't even covered by the grant. And finally, they said the terms of the grant were confusing and the level of assistance provided by HRS insufficient.

The alleged financial laxity, Klir said, happened long ago, and is not a hallmark of the board he currently serves.

HRS started looking into Center One when people who were supposed to be getting housing money from Center One complained to HRS that they weren' t, said Van Stitt, HRS deputy district administrator for health.

The confusion, however, appears to be an isolated event. Other programs that HRS runs through Center One are running smoothly.

The County Commission, too, has weighed in on Center One's financial problems. Last month, commissioners reluctantly awarded the agency $171,000, although directors had failed to submit audits to the county as required.

At this point, some people wonder whether giving public money to a private organization this large is really the best way to serve people with AIDS.

"I think it's probably as good as we've got, in a community that doesn't want to deal with the problem at all," said Stitt.

In the beginning, HRS went with Center One because that was all there was, Stitt said.

Now, the landscape is dotted with agencies that serve people with AIDS. That creates a caring, but competitive atmosphere.

Everyone, including Gasparovic, who is now affiliated with another social service agency, wants a piece of Center One.

"It seems that every agency in town wants to grab them," said Ford of the church.

Corman, ultimately, is concerned that people with AIDS suffer the least.

"It's tough enough for people with HIV to be dealing with that problem in their lives," he said. "But then the agency that is principally responsible for treating people with HIV to be under a cloud has got to be creating a lot of anxiety for these people."

CAPTION: PHOTO Alan Terl (b)

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