Statement from CEO Rota Knott

Dear dedicated DCP friends and employees,

The top priority for DCP is always to provide quality service to reduce the impact of poverty for the residents of Washington and Hancock counties. DCP remains committed to and embedded in the communities of Washington and Hancock counties, and our programs and services are essential to supporting many of our neighbors in need across both counties.

Like many nonprofits, and even for-profit businesses, DCP has experienced some financial and administrative challenges that were brought to light following staff turnover several years ago. Since then, current DCP staff and Board of Directors have worked diligently to unravel a patchwork of poor past financial practices and correct lack of staff accountability in the agency. Beginning in 2022, our current staff has implemented new financial and operational policies and procedures to ensure that DCP follows generally accepted accounting practices and improved the operational policies going forward.

Our clients have not been affected in any way by the fiscal and operational challenges and changes that have taken place at DCP. In fact, thanks to our dedicated and highly skilled employees, DCP’s programs are now more efficient and providing a higher level of customer service to our clients that ever before. We look to continue to grow our DCP employee team to enhance our presence and impact for residents of Washington and Hancock counties.

As you probably recall, the pandemic was a challenging time for everyone including for Community Action Agencies as they tried to manage the millions of dollars in multiple funding streams that were being filtered to programs like Covid-19 Emergency Rental Assistance. Funding was being distributed by authorizing state and federal agencies, quickly and often with limited or constantly changing guidance.

DCP received nearly $14.8 million in ERA funds and $13 million of that was expended to support emergency rental assistance for those in need of help maintaining their housing in Washington and Hancock counties at that time. When the program ended several years ago, any unused funding was supposed to be sent back to Maine Housing.

DCP was one of several Community Action Agencies across the state that was required to return unused funds to Maine Housing. However, in working with Maine Housing more than 2 years ago to determine the amount of funding due, DCP discovered that those remaining funds, $1.7 million, had been inappropriately used to support other mission-critical programs. That happened because former DCP staff did not segregate ERA funds, used unconventional accounting practices for cash transactions, and, due to finance staff turnover, accounting entries were behind so that there was no clear picture of the situation.

Since this challenge was discovered, Maine Housing and DCP partnered to complete an extensive financial review and the auditors found no indications of fraud on the part of past employees. According to MaineHousing, the auditors concluded that all the funding was used to support DCP’s mission; it just wasn’t all being used to support the program to which it was supposed to be dedicated.

DCP recognizes that we need to honor that debt and pay back the funds to Maine Housing. We have already withdrawn some funding from our investments and paid back a portion of the debt, $700,000, to Maine Housing. Additionally, our Board of Directors worked closely with Maine Housing to develop a plan to pay off the remaining $1 million within a year. That plan includes selling properties that DCP owns but that are not critical to our mission. A Board committee is working with staff to review all our properties to determine which we want to sell.

DCP and our employees are part of our Downeast communities, and we understand the challenges our friends and neighbors face every day. We are here with a renewed focus on strengthening and expanding our organization’s efforts to reduce the impact of poverty in our Downeast communities with empathy, accountability, and transparency across our organization.

Contact Information

Rota Knott (MHSA, CFRE)
Chief Executive Officer
248 Bucksport Road, Ellsworth, ME
rota.knott@dcpcap.org
O: (207) 610-5904
C: (207) 479-0556