Jo Roffe was involved in several of the organisations which applied for funding "under the umbrella" of the Carterton Community Centre Inc, she was the recipient of a considerable amount of those funds. She was also very open about discussing her romantic relationship with local Senior Constable Steve Wakefield - who is mentioned in the letter from Senior Sergeant Reid of the Masterton police as the officer who conducted the "thorough investigation" into our allegations of fraud and serious mismanagement, in spite of the obvious conflict of interest given his relationship with Roffe. Funding was obtained for Roffe's 'programs' on the basis of funding applications incorporating recommendations from local police officers about the positive effect of her programs on troubled youth in the area. This was absolute rubbish, her part tme courses in painting flower pots and puppetmaking benefitted Roffe a great deal and did next to nothing for the 'troubled youth' or the community at large. These 'troubled youth' need competent and professional training in real job skills not the kindergarten level arty crafty "programs" run by Roffe, with names like Crafty Youth, etc. The programs were chaotically run and were a local joke. The Minutes book documents how when a question was asked about the money itemised in the financial reports as "housekeeping" it was explained that in order to get people to come to Roffe's courses they had to be bribed with free chocolate biscuits. The financial information, wages books, etc, showed that Tony Feinson was also involved in Roffe's 'courses', his 'job' appeared to be filling in the funding applications, for which he received about $300 per week - plus monthly 'bonuses' of more than $1000! The stark contrast in priorities was highlighted when the manager of the Community Gardens asked me, as committee liaison person for the Gardens, to ask the committee to authorise the purchase of a $20 gas burner to heat water for cups of tea for the workers at the Garden during the winter. I considered this a reasonable request and asked the committee to authorise the purchase in accordance with the Rules which required committee approval for spending. Tony Feinson, the Chairman of the committee, scoffed at the suggestion and told me to tell the workers, to bring thermoses. Thousands of dollars were being spent on Roffe's courses, and all the other ten organisations 'under the umbrella of the Community Centre, without the knowledge of the committee members, let alone their authorisation, while the only people who appeared to be doing anything worthwhile, or anything resembling real work and real work training, couldn't even offer their workers a cup of tea. Funding applications were being signed by Ruth Carter, purporting to be Secretary of the Carterton Community Centre when she was not even on the committee. She did not attend the AGM of the Centre in 2000 and was not on the committee according to the Rules of the Society. Feinson and Roffe were paid these exhorbitant sums for months after the 'courses' ended. Recently Roffe announced that she hadn't received $600 per week for her 'courses', that the committee had offered her this amount but that she had turned it down and only received a third of that. This is a lie. This is a copy of a page from the wages book, our organisation has the cheque butts, bank statements and other information confirming indisputably that it is a lie. They also show that the acting Manager of the VOSP program, set up to help people with intellectual disablilities into employment, was only getting just over six dollars an hour.
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