Serious questions plague charity’s leaders, practices

Documents, interviews show dubious actions by leaders of Gateways for Youth and Families

JASON HAGEY; The News Tribune
Last updated: November 18th, 2007 05:29 AM (PST)

Tacoma political operator Jamie Beletz and his wife, lawyer Mel Curtiss, joined the board of directors of Gateways for Youth and Families shortly after attending a fundraiser in late 2003, and quickly gained control over an organization that dates to 1890.

Beletz and Curtiss recruited allies to the board and ousted longtime employees. Beletz then jumped from volunteer board chairman to temporary paid president. And he left that position 10 months later after a cursory Gateways job search gave the president’s position to his wife. While he later served as chairman of the Gateways foundation, it’s unclear at this time whether he remains with that group.

Beletz and Curtiss say they’re leading a renaissance at Gateways, introducing new programs and saving a sleepy charity from financial ruin. Since Beletz and Curtiss took over, it’s expanded into a variety of new program areas, including a teen center and a planned equestrian center.

Gateways’ officials wouldn’t provide details about the current programs, most of which depart from its long-standing mission of helping emotionally disturbed children. Gateways was founded to care for orphans, and over the years has run a variety of programs to help children and troubled youth, from managing foster care to housing juvenile delinquents. It’s probably best known for its Jessie Dyslin Ranch property in Summit.

But public and internal documents and interviews with current and former Gateways board members, former Gateways employees and business associates of Beletz point to possible conflicts of interest and instances where the couple may have used the charity for personal financial gain, or for the financial benefit of their friends.

Some of their alleged actions not only run counter to best-practice standards for nonprofit organizations, but also appear to violate Gateways’ own bylaws and federal tax law.

The alleged violations could result in monetary penalties or even the loss of the charity’s tax-exempt status, according to several nonprofit law experts.

The questionable activities, alleged by a number of sources, include:

 • Hiring Mercury Direct Mail Service, a direct-mail company, to distribute Gateways’ newsletter and other material. Beletz and Curtiss both worked for Mercury Direct, and Beletz received a commission for sending Gateways business to Mercury Direct, according to a former board member and Beletz business partner. Mercury Direct owner Vito Chiechi said Beletz no longer works for the company, and that as far as he knew Beletz didn’t receive any money for sending Gateways business to Mercury Direct.

 • Using Gateways funds to pay James Bernier, a friend and business associate of Beletz, to write a grant application for Gateways. At the time, Bernier was an employee of a private company Beletz owned, and Beletz kept some of the payment for himself, Bernier said.

 • Using Gateways funds to pay for Seattle Mariners tickets, some of which Beletz used. Beletz bought them at a fundraising auction with his own money, then sold them to Gateways for the price he paid, according to Kevin Iverson, a former Gateways board member.

 • Allowing an insurance broker who sat on the Gateways board to share in the commission from Gateways’ insurance policy.

 • Failing to note on Gateways’ 2005 IRS return, as required, that then-board president Beletz and then-board member Curtiss were married.

 • Publishing a flattering profile of Gateways board member Kevin O’Sullivan in Gateways’ newsletter, while Beletz served as a campaign consultant for O’Sullivan’s failed bid for Thurston County commissioner.

Beletz talked with a reporter during the early stages of reporting on this story, but he and Curtiss later ignored repeated requests for interviews, declined The News Tribune’s offer to review this story in advance and did not respond to The News Tribune’s requests to see Gateways’ financial documents and meeting minutes.

The law requires nonprofit organizations to produce their Form 990 IRS documents – essentially their annual financial documents – to anyone who asks. Gateways wouldn’t, although The News Tribune was able to obtain a copy of its returns through other means.

Curtiss sent a four-page letter to The News Tribune on Wednesday saying Gateways officials decided not to speak with this reporter or preview the articles.

Curtiss accused this reporter of pursuing a specific agenda, “fishing for dirt” about Beletz, and failing to write articles about Gateways’ positive activities.

“At a certain point, the Board of Directors just simply no longer trusted Jason Hagey’s intentions and motivations and wanted nothing to do with him,” Curtiss wrote. (The text of the entire letter is available here.)

Individually, several of the situations at Gateways raise questions about potential violations of the law that either the Internal Revenue Service or the Washington State Attorney General’s Office could investigate, said Marcus Owens, an attorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm Caplin & Drysdale, and the former director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS.

“But the IRS also would be looking for a pattern of activity,” Owens said.

Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor and expert on taxation of exempt organizations, said the activities described by the newspaper raise questions of possible conflicts of interest prohibited by the IRS.

The potential conflicts could jeopardize Gateways’ tax-exempt status and subject those who benefit from them to substantial penalties, Hill said.

To the extent there are conflicts, “all of this self-enrichment is inconsistent with exempt status,” she said.

Kevin Iverson, a University Place accountant, said he and Beletz worked closely together soon after Beletz joined the Gateways board. Iverson described himself as Beletz’s “right-hand man.”

But the partnership eventually ended, Iverson said, after he came to believe that Beletz was more concerned with making Gateways into a vehicle to produce personal income than he was in promoting the charity’s original goals.

When Beletz arrived, Gateways had financial and management problems, but it also had millions in assets, primarily in the property it owned.

Already, Beletz negotiated the sale of Gateways’ longtime headquarters for a little more than $1 million. Gateways has also discussed selling off its operation that collects and wholesales second-hand clothing and household goods.

“I believe his priority,” Iverson said, “is to keep up the cash flow to continue paying him.”

FROM PASTA TO POWER

Based on his résumé, Beletz, 51, was an unlikely candidate to run a children’s charity. The white-haired and bearded Beletz, who looks like a cross between Santa Claus and Jerry Garcia, is known in political circles for his work on Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma’s 2001 campaign and Dino Rossi’s 2004 Washington campaign for governor, among others.

Beletz stirred controversy in the governor’s race by declaring himself a “Dinocrat” – a Democrat supporting the Republican Rossi.

He recorded a radio ad for Rossi, and ordered custom “DNOCRAT” license plates for his car.

Beletz told The News Tribune that he first learned about Gateways in 2003 when he attended the organization’s annual benefit dinner and auction at Mama Stortini’s, the University Place restaurant run by Joe Stortini, who years ago was Pierce County executive.

Beletz said he was drawn to the fundraiser by the chance to eat pasta, but came away with an appreciation for Gateways and its legacy of helping troubled children. Shortly after the dinner, in late 2003 or early 2004, Beletz joined the board of directors. A little more than a year later, Beletz was running the place.

Steve Downing, a former Gateways board member who worked with the organization in various capacities since the 1970s, says board members might have been busy with their day jobs and not paying close attention to the organization as Beletz took over.

As a board member and later as temporary president, Beletz recruited his friends and business associates to serve on the Gateways board.

They0 included John Bankston, a contractor who worked with Beletz on several businesses ventures; Tarie Barber, a Farmers Insurance broker who once dated the former vice president of Beletz’s company; and Cory Manthou, the son of Tacoma City Councilman Spiro Manthou, on whose campaign Beletz worked.

It’s not unusual for boards of directors to consist of people who are friends. But the Gateways board experienced rapid turnover after the arrival of Beletz and Curtiss. By January 2007, all 11 Gateways board members with voting privileges were either recruited by Beletz or Curtiss or had some tie to one of them before joining the board.

Every board member who predated Beletz and Curtiss had resigned, many telling The News Tribune that they were powerless to stop the couple. Sally Cofchin said she didn’t agree with the charity’s direction, so she quit. Iverson said he left when it became apparent that Beletz and Curtiss had enough votes to control the direction of the board. Downing said Beletz froze him out of decisions, holding board meetings in Olympia and not informing him of decisions.

After a majority of the board consisted of Beletz’s friends, Beletz started pushing for radical changes, saying the old charity needed overhauling, former board members said. Claude Carlson, Gateways president for 16 years, was forced out, a move that Iverson and others encouraged. Iverson said he pushed for Carlson’s ouster because he believed Carlson wasn’t working hard enough. Several lower-level employees left or were forced out. With Carlson gone, Beletz started running the organization from his position as a board member, according to former member Downing.

For example, Beletz and Curtiss showed up at meetings with proxy votes for several other members, making it impossible to outvote them, former board members said.

The minutes of the Dec. 14, 2005, Gateways board meeting, obtained by The News Tribune, show that Beletz held proxies for three other board members, and Curtiss carried proxies for two other board members. So, between them, the couple held seven votes; only five other board members attended the meeting, the minutes show. In 2005, Gateways had 16 board members.

Among the votes taken that day was one making Beletz chairman of the board, and another one related to the search for a new president. Curtiss, as the last item of business, made a motion authorizing the board’s Personnel Committee to adopt revisions to the president’s job description, and authorizing the board to begin the process of hiring a new president. (About five months later, it ended up hiring Curtiss for the job.)

About a month after the search for a permanent president was launched, Beletz left the volunteer board to become the paid interim president. The move came with an $84,000 salary plus full medical benefits, according to former board members. Unlike with other employees and the previous president, who pay a portion of their medical expenses, Gateways paid 100 percent of Beletz’s and Curtiss’ medical insurance, Iverson said.

CHECKERED BOARD

At least two of the Gateways board members recruited since Beletz and Curtiss joined the organization came with questionable credentials. One was Kara Williams.

Williams, a Tacoma real estate agent with ties to Beletz and Barber, became chairwoman of the Gateways board in early 2006, six years after she pleaded guilty to first-degree theft and forgery. Tacoma Police Department and Pierce County Superior Court records show she was arrested outside a Tacoma bank where she was caught opening a $50,000 credit line using a Port Orchard woman’s identity. She obtained the woman’s personal information through her work as a mortgage broker, according to the police report.

Williams said she joined the board in part to make amends for her conviction through community service. She didn’t intend to become chairwoman, but wound up in the job after Beletz left the position to become the group’s paid president.

As chairwoman of the Gateways board, Williams was required to disclose her criminal background to the state Gambling Commission, which regulates the charity’s Lakewood bingo hall. But Williams apparently resigned from the board after only a few months, and before submitting her personal information; the Gambling Commission has no record of her conviction. Williams said Beletz didn’t know of her conviction. The two went back a few years, though. Beletz, Williams and Barber worked out of the same building on two occasions, first at a location on Broadway and later at an office building on Center Street in Tacoma.

Brian Hauer is another former Gateways board member with a questionable résumé. An article in the October-December 2006 Gateways newsletter announcing his appointment describes Hauer as a real estate broker for Avant Real Estate, and a “business mentor to many young aspiring entrepreneurs.”

In fact, Hauer, 31, was accused by the state Department of Licensing in September 2006 of more than a dozen charges of misconduct, including altering numerous rental agreements, erasing names on agreements and willfully interfering with a Department of Licensing investigation of Zara Property Management Corp., a sister organization of Avant.

The state revoked Hauer’s real estate broker’s license for eight years as part of a settlement.

Avant Real Estate was housed at the William M. Factory Small Business Incubator in Tacoma, where Beletz also housed a company called Innovial Inc. for a time. When he received his real estate license in November 2005, Beletz identified himself as a salesperson for Avant Real Estate.

ONE NIGHT IN PHOENIX

As Gateways president, Beletz also was required to disclose to the Gambling Commission whether he’d ever been arrested or convicted of a crime to receive a gambling license. But an examination of his application shows that he failed to disclose his 1977 arrest in Phoenix on suspicion of burglary and marijuana possession, both felonies. Court records show that Beletz and two other young men were caught breaking into the kitchen area of an apartment complex and stealing food.

Beletz, then a 20-year-old Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College student, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree conspiracy to commit burglary, a misdemeanor. The drug charge was dropped.

Disclosing his full criminal record wouldn’t necessarily have prevented Beletz from receiving a gambling license. Susan Arland, a state Gambling Commission spokeswoman, said applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and that many factors are considered, including the type of arrest or conviction, and how long ago the offense happened.

But the form that Beletz signed makes it clear that failing to note something isn’t an option. “False or incomplete information may result in denial, suspension or revocation of a license,” it states.

On the spot where applicants are asked if they’ve ever been arrested, charged with a crime, convicted, jailed, placed on probation, forfeited bail or paid a fine over $25, including traffic fines, Beletz checked the box marked “yes” and circled the words “paid a fine over $25 (including traffic).”

But in the space provided to disclose details including the offense, the date and the jurisdiction, he wrote only “parking + minor traffic offense.”

Nothing about Phoenix. Nothing about the burglary arrest and conviction.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Beletz’s appointment to the top Gateways job was only temporary, and in early 2006 the search began for a permanent CEO. Gateways used Tim Reid to conduct the search. Reid is a Metro Parks commissioner and runs a human resources and workers’ compensation consulting business.

In a May 4, 2006, memorandum to the Gateways board, Reid said he advertised the job opening on Monster.com and Craigslist for three weeks and received six applications. Reid disqualified four of them, saying the applicants lacked necessary qualifications or wanted too much money. Carlson, the last permanent president, was making $84,000 a year. Reid forwarded two names to the Curtiss- and Beletz-friendly board for consideration.

The memo doesn’t name the candidates, but one of them was Curtiss, board members said. The other was Beletz, according to former Gateways board member Clyde Kalahan. A former Gateways employee also said Beletz was the other candidate.

The board chose Curtiss.

“We knew nothing about her,” Kalahan said. “It was presented as ‘Hey, this is it. She wants it.’”

Reid refused to discuss the job search or anything related to his work for Gateways, telling The News Tribune, “I don’t talk about my clients.”

Former Gateways board chairman Cory Manthou said he doesn’t think Beletz was one of the two finalists for the job, but he couldn’t say who the other finalist was. Barber also disputed Kalahan’s account and Reid’s memo, saying the board looked at “quite a few” résumés and that Curtiss’ was “by far the best.”

Board member Mike Sando, an Enumclaw High School teacher and coach who is an old friend of Beletz (and one-time vice president of Beletz’s Washington Home Based Business Association) said he doesn’t remember details of how Curtiss was selected. But he said, “It seemed to make sense to me” at the time.

Curtiss was hired in the spring of 2006, but didn’t start work until Oct. 13, the day after Gateways’ annual fundraising auction. While Curtiss waited in the wings, she served as the chairwoman of the board for the Gateways Foundation, a separate entity formed to support the work of the Gateways charity.

The arrangement ran counter to nonprofit best practices. Beletz was running the charity. His wife was chairwoman of the foundation. It’s not a good idea for family members of a nonprofit’s paid leader to serve on a related board, said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog based in Arlington, Va.

After Curtiss took over for Beletz as the Gateways president, Beletz took his wife’s old post as chairman of the Gateways Foundation. In another questionable move, Beletz also became the chairman of the board for Gateways for Youth and Families – the same board charged with overseeing Curtiss.

GATEWAY TO CASH

Even before Beletz and Curtiss moved into staff positions, they were making money from Gateways, according to former business partners.

Beletz received a 10 percent commission from Mercury Direct Mailing Services for sending Gateways business to the company, according to a former board member and business partner who said that Beletz told him about the arrangement. The former board member asked that his name not be used, but signed an affidavit that the information was true.

Gateways used Mercury Direct as a vendor as early as July 13, 2005, according to board minutes obtained by The News Tribune. Gateways uses the company to mail its quarterly newsletter, The Gateway, as well as other material.

In April 2006, Gateways paid Mercury Direct $4,661.40, according to a “screen grab” of Gateways’ QuickBooks program obtained by The News Tribune. In March 2006, Gateways paid Mercury Direct $4,478.28, according to the same document. A 10 percent commission would have yielded Beletz $466 and $447, respectively.

Mercury Direct is a Lacey company. Its business, among other things, includes sending out campaign fliers for political candidates. Frequently, political candidates who have used Beletz as a consultant have also used Mercury Direct, according to state Public Disclosure Commission records.

Vito Chiechi, an Olympia lobbyist, told The News Tribune in October 2006 that he owns Mercury Direct. Beletz is a friend who once worked for Mercury Direct as a salesman, Chiechi said.

Judging by their Web sites, Mercury Direct and Innovial Inc., Beletz’s private consulting company, have been and remain closely entwined. Last fall, the Web site for Innovial included a link to Mercury Direct that made it appear the company was part of Innovial. As recently as August 2006, the Mercury Direct Web site instructed prospective customers to call Mel Curtiss or Jamie Beletz for more information. And as recently as Nov. 1, clicking on one of the “contact us” links at www.mercury-direct.com automatically redirected visitors to www.innovial.net/mercurydirect. Clicking on the word “employment” at the Mercury Web site opened an e-mail addressed to “jobswithmercurydirect@innovial.net.”

But Chiechi said Beletz no longer worked for Mercury Direct, and that as far as he knew Beletz received no commission for the mailing of the Gateways newsletter. When asked about the Web site links between Mercury Direct and Innovial, Chiechi said, “Evidently he has not taken it down.”

If Beletz did receive a commission from Mercury Direct for Gateways’ business, it would raise questions for the IRS, several nonprofit law experts said. If Beletz worked for Mercury Direct as a commissioned salesperson, and Gateways was one of his accounts, Beletz would be considered a “related party” and the relationship should have been disclosed to the Gateways board, said attorney Owens.

Beletz’s connection to Mercury Direct wasn’t disclosed to the board during his time with the organization, the former board member said.

If there was a relationship and it wasn’t disclosed, any payment from Mercury Direct “starts to have the look and feel of a private benefit,” Owens said. The law states that no part of an organization’s earnings may “inure to the benefit of a private shareholder or individual.”

“Private benefit/inurement” is considered one of four types of activities that can jeopardize a 501 (c) (3) organization’s tax-exempt status.

Iverson, the former board member, said Beletz profited from Gateways in another way, too. Beletz, he said, went to a fundraising auction for his daughter’s school and agreed to pay approximately $1,200 or $1,300 for an unknown number of Seattle Mariners tickets. Beletz then sold the tickets to Gateways for the price he paid, and Gateways held its own auction, Iverson said. The Gateways auction raised just $100 from the tickets – meaning the charity lost about $1,100 or $1,200 on the deal. And Beletz kept some of the tickets for himself, Iverson said.

Iverson said he heard about the deal from a Gateways employee.

“On the surface, one would say that should be looked into,” said Elizabeth Boris, director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization. “That does not look good.”

Owens, the former IRS official, said it could constitute an “excess benefit transaction,” which is punishable by an “intermediate sanction.” The penalty for an excess benefit transaction is 25 percent of the excess amount, and the individual must repay the nonprofit organization.

Beletz used his position to put Gateways’ cash into the pockets of some his friends, as well, sources said.

As Gateways president, Beletz hired his friend and business partner James Bernier to write a grant application for Gateways, and then pocketed some of the grant-writing fee, Bernier said. Bernier said he can’t recall the exact amount. In a July 2006 proposal from Beletz’s company Innovial to the Virgin Islands government, Beletz described Bernier as senior vice president for strategic development for Innovial.

This could be considered a “related-party transaction,” Owens said. The IRS would want to know whether Gateways paid a fair-market value for Bernier’s services. If Beletz kept some of the money for himself, that could be considered an “excess benefit transaction,” Owens added.

Beletz also helped Barber profit from Gateways, according to a former Gateways board member and Beletz business partner who asked not to be identified. Beletz negotiated new insurance coverage for Gateways, a switch that reportedly saved money for the organization, but also helped Barber, a Farmers Insurance broker and Gateways board member, the source said. Gateways’ new insurance agent allegedly shared some of his commission with her. The source said Beletz told him about the arrangement.

Gateways’ insurance agent, Chris Beall of Federal Way, wouldn’t confirm or deny that he shared his commission with Barber when reached by phone, though he said he knew her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Beall continued after a pause. “I’ll tell you what: You send a letter and we’ll go from there.”

Beall didn’t respond to a hand-delivered letter asking him whether he shared his commission with Barber. He said he needed to talk with a district manager before saying anything. Beall also didn’t respond to a follow-up message left Nov. 8 with a woman who answered the phone at his office.

Barber’s Tacoma numbers were disconnected, and she couldn’t be located to respond to the allegation.

If Beall did share his commission with Barber, the arrangement could constitute another “related-party transaction,” Owens said. The IRS would want to know whether Gateways paid fair-market value for the policy, and whether Barber’s commission was disclosed to the Gateways board, he said.

Leslie Richardson with the Seattle-based accounting firm Moss Adams said Barber’s apparent conflict of interest would need to be disclosed to the Gateways board, and Barber would have to recuse herself from any discussions about the charity’s insurance. If those things didn’t occur, the IRS may regard it as a “private benefit,” which could lead to the revocation of Gateways’ tax-exempt status, Richardson said.

THOUSANDS IN CONSULTING FEES

Beletz didn’t work solely as Gateways president while he held the title. He also put in time as a campaign consultant for Kevin O’Sullivan, a Gateways board member who ran for Thurston County commissioner in the November 2006 election.

The arrangement created a scenario in which O’Sullivan, as a Gateways board member, was responsible for overseeing Beletz as the Gateways president. At the same time, O’Sullivan was paying Beletz to work on his campaign. Beletz received $14,000 in consulting fees, state campaign finance records show.

The connections between Gateways and the O’Sullivan campaign became an issue during the race. Backers of O’Sullivan’s opponent, incumbent Commissioner Bob Macleod, accused O’Sullivan of using his position on the charity’s board of directors to help in the election.

Specifically, they questioned whether an article about O’Sullivan’s appointment to the Gateways board that was published in the Gateways newsletter and later reproduced on O’Sullivan’s campaign Web site was a campaign piece. O’Sullivan denied it. Political campaign activity is one of the four things that can cost a 501 (c) (3) organization its tax-exempt status, according to the IRS. Political campaign activity is defined as “directly or indirectly participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for elective office.”

The article appeared on the front page of the February 2006 edition of Gateways’ newsletter, and included a photo of O’Sullivan. It described his background in politics and law enforcement, his election loss three years earlier, and his life-threatening heart disease that required surgery two years before.

The O’Sullivan article didn’t mention that he was running for office, something that some nonprofit law experts said probably would protect Gateways from charges of wrongdoing. But the unnamed writer introduced politics into the article by name-dropping Dino Rossi, the 2004 Washington governor candidate.

“O’Sullivan most admires (Dino) Rossi, and his own father and mother as the three people who have shaped his life the most,” the article stated.

Owens, the former IRS official, said the IRS would want to determine that Gateways resources – such as copy machines or phones – weren’t used by the O’Sullivan campaign. And he would ask whether the O’Sullivan campaign sought Gateways’ permission to reproduce the article on its Web site. If permission was granted, that could look like an endorsement, Owens said.

There’s also a question of how Beletz was spending his time, said Boris, the director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. At the same time Beletz was working as Gateways’ top paid administrator, he also was earning several thousand dollars for campaign consulting, she noted.

“It would seem the board might have something to say about that,” Boris said.

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Conflicts of interest between nonprofit board members and the nonprofit organization they represent aren’t always prohibited under the IRS rules. The law allows a member of a nonprofit organization’s board to do business with the nonprofit if the relationship is disclosed to the rest of the board, the board member with the business relationship abstains from voting on any contracts, and the organization pays a fair price for any goods or services.

But without access to the internal records of Gateways, Beletz, Curtiss and Barber, including board meeting minutes and financial records, The News Tribune cannot determine all of the potential conflicts and whether they were properly disclosed. Curtiss, currently the top administrator at Gateways, wouldn’t respond to the newspaper’s multiple requests for copies of board meeting minutes and requests for an interview.

Curtiss also didn’t respond to the newspaper’s multiple requests, including a written request faxed and sent by certified mail last week, for audited financial statements, a copy of Gateways’ bylaws and the organization’s Form 990.

Failing to provide the IRS document is a violation of federal law. All 501 (c) (3) organizations are required by law to disclose to the public an annual Form 990 and supporting documents, as well as their exemption application. Intentional disregard of this rule will result in a $20-per-day penalty, up to $10,000, according to the IRS.

The News Tribune first requested the documents on a Feb. 28 visit to the charity’s Summit offices.

The law doesn’t require Gateways to disclose annual reports or financial statements, but the IRS recommends that nonprofit organizations make such documents available to the public.

“By making full and accurate information about its mission, activities, and finances publicly available, a charity demonstrates transparency,” the IRS states in a publication entitled “Good Practices for 501 (c) (3) Organizations.”

ANSWERING CRITICS

Curtiss and Beletz aren’t willing to open up the books at Gateways for inspection, but they want people to contribute to the charity.

In March, Gateways invited Tacoma residents to a coffee and dessert at the Chinese Community Center of Tacoma. “Come Join Your Neighbors for an Evening of FUN!” declared a postcard. The invitation – mailed by Mercury Direct – promised coffee and dessert, entertainment by the Gateway dancers, and a chance to meet Bob Pittman, a Fircrest attorney and host of “Legal Line,” a radio program.

The hourlong event consisted of the dancers, a PowerPoint presentation about Gateways’ history, and Pittman explaining a variety of ways that people could include charities such as Gateways in their estate planning.

Afterward, a News Tribune reporter approached Beletz and asked for an interview to discuss this article.

“I haven’t decided,” Beletz said, complaining that he hadn’t been treated fairly by the newspaper in previous articles, and accusing this reporter of pursuing a vendetta against him.

Beletz then spoke for several minutes about Gateways, defending his involvement with the charity and attacking the credibility of some of the newspaper’s sources.

Beletz said he left the Gateways board in January because he knew about The News Tribune’s reporting, and that he didn’t want to bring harm to the charity. He said he planned to leave the Gateways Foundation for the same reason. The News Tribune was unable to determine whether he still has a role with the foundation.

Rescuing Gateways from possible failure had been rewarding, Beletz said.

The newspaper’s investigation, he said, ruined what had been a “spiritual experience.”

Jason Hagey: 253-597-8542

jason.hagey@thenewstribune.com

Originally published: November 18th, 2007 01:27 AM (PST)