Charity and Checkpoint

Simpson's attorney is also playing the cover-up card as part of his client's defense. A towering transplanted New Yorker with a hard jaw and steady hazel eyes, criminal defense lawyer Richard Marx counters that his client has been wrongly accused by disgruntled employees and some members of Camillus's board of directors who didn't agree with Simpson's difficult management style. "Dale was a heavy-handed taskmaster who got results," Marx says during a recent interview at his Flagler Street office. "But he had no motive to do anything dishonest."

Marx also questioned why Camillus has retained criminal defense lawyer John Thorton to represent every employee who is on the witness list. "Why is Camillus paying for him?" Marx asked rhetorically. "What is Camillus worried about? My client is the one standing trial."

Ahr and Dickinson claim Camillus House is in great shape these days. The charity is gearing up for its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Camillus House Gala, which is held in conjunction with the United Way's Mayor's Ball in November. Last year Camillus and the United Way raised more than $1.5 million. The charity also seeks more private donations to help pay for Camillus's long-awaited new home near Cedars Medical Center. More revelations of corruption within the organization would certainly hamper efforts to raise money.

"I really have no desire to go over things that occurred with the previous administration," Dickinson says during a recent interview. "It's old news. We have untold levels of checks and balances now. We have much better safeguards in place."

Chang wholeheartedly disagrees: "The donating public has a right to know what goes on inside Camillus House."

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Following Dale Simpson's departure from Camillus, the board hired Ahr on April 28, 2004, to fix the damage and negative publicity generated by the former executive director's arrest. Ahr held the title of interim executive director for six months until he was selected by the board to be Camillus's new president — a position that had been vacated by the departure of Brother Savio Charron, the clergyman to whom Simpson reported.

Ahr, who earns $180,000 a year, was already familiar with the charity when he joined Camillus. He ran Altenhar Group, a management consulting firm with clients in St. Louis and Miami. Ahr is also a former director of Missouri's Department of Health and the author of two books on mental healthcare. In late 2002 Altenhar won a bid to assist Camillus devise a long-term strategic plan for providing care to the poor and homeless. "We were asked to determine the capacity for Camillus's new facility," Ahr recalls during a recent telephone interview. "The other part was to figure out how to develop vocational programs to help our clients find jobs." Ahr's firm received $55,000 for its services. He met periodically with Simpson and reported to the board's government relations committee headed by former Miami Beach City Manager Roger Carlton.

Ahr spent his first 90 days as interim executive director reorganizing the facilities and maintenance department, where most of the employees who worked on Simpson's properties were assigned.

"The warehouse was bursting at the seams when I got here," Ahr says. "There were pieces of furniture we had no use for." Ahr notes Camillus has an arrangement with City Furniture to receive free furniture for the charity's apartment complexes and halfway houses. "City Furniture has been very, very generous to us," Ahr says. City Furniture president Keith Koenig sits on the Camillus board. Ahr decided Camillus would collect furniture only on an as-needed basis and limit most pick-ups to food. Ahr also determined he would need fewer drivers on the road collecting goods. As a result, Camillus eliminated six positions in the warehouse and transportation departments. That decision prompted Ahr to lay off Mena and Chang in the summer. The former employees say Ahr used the reorganization as an excuse to get rid of them. Chang and Mena claim Ahr had developed a personal relationship with Simpson during the time Ahr was working as the charity's consultant. During a staff meeting while they were still employed by Camillus, Chang and Mena claim Ahr made the following statement: "I have nothing bad to say about Dale Simpson. He was very good to me when I was here."

Ahr confirmed he made the comment, but he did not intend his words to be interpreted that he was a friend of Simpson's. Ahr says most of his interaction was with Carlton's committee, not Simpson. "There was a fair amount of grumbling regarding Dale when I started as interim director," Ahr explains. "I just wanted people to know I didn't have a beef with him. I didn't want to get caught up with who liked and who didn't like Dale."