SCCC trustee Theresa Sanders sought college funding for her nonprofit, records show
Suffolk County Community College Trustee Theresa Sanders. Credit: Howard Simmons
Suffolk County Community College Trustee Theresa Sanders advocated for a college partnership that would have financially benefited the nonprofit she operates, even after she had publicly recused herself from discussions about the issue, according to emails obtained by Newsday.
At issue was a proposed partnership between the Urban League of Long Island and the college to operate the new Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center, a vocational training and community facility. The proposal, backed by Sanders and others, would have provided $2,500 in monthly revenue to the nonprofit Urban League of Long Island, where Sanders serves as CEO and president.
Sanders and SCCC Board president E. Christopher Murray, who also serves as the attorney for the Urban League, formally recused themselves from board discussions about the proposal, according to their request for an advisory ethics opinion in February 2022. But emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request show Sanders continued to press SCCC president Edward Bonahue to recommend the plan as recent as September.
Bonahue and board members who initially expressed support for the Urban League initiative told Newsday they ultimately decided to abandon it after Newsday requested internal documents on the dealings.
Suffolk County Legis. Trish Bergin (R-East Islip), a member of the legislature's Education and Labor Committee, said she believes the discussions were not conducted appropriately, even though the 10-member college board decided not to pursue the deal.
“I’m absolutely appalled for the blatant disregard for ethics when it comes to what they were about to engage in,” Bergin told Newsday.
Sanders said she acted appropriately because she disclosed her role and did not plan to formally vote on the arrangement.
"When you disclose it, and you're transparent, and then you recuse yourself from any detailed discussions or voting, I think that brings the clarity," Sanders told Newsday.
"You should be able to discuss it like we do other programs," she added.
The Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center hopes to open this summer with career training classes for students from teenage to age 25 who live in the Wyandanch area and might not have reliable transportation to other college campuses, according to Sanders. It is located at Wyandanch Rising, a major revitalization project for Long Island that was spearheaded by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone when he was supervisor of Babylon Town.
Under the arrangement Sanders pitched to SCCC trustees, the college would have entered into a $2,500-per-month license agreement with the Urban League to use the organization's classroom space at the center to offer vocational and college preparatory courses. In turn, the Urban League would familiarize students with other programs offered by the college, and potentially contribute to SCCC's enrollment, which declined by 23% between 2011 and 2021. A draft agreement obtained by Newsday shows no restrictions on how the money could be used.
Bonahue, appointed SCCC president in April 2021, initially expressed interest in the proposal. But in November, after inquiries from county legislators and Newsday, Bonahue told Urban League representatives the college would not move forward with the program, according to an email obtained by Newsday.
Bonahue said questions about the propriety of the deal made him reconsider his support.
“Certainly the [Newsday] FOIL request and the questioning from legislators raised its prominence and made me really bear down on whether this would be the best investment for the college to make,” Bonahue said in an interview.
Sanders defended her actions, saying her goal was to provide opportunities for underserved minority students. She told Newsday such a program would have been in line with the mission of the Urban League of Long Island.
“I didn't see it as a conflict," said Sanders, who noted that the Urban League also has a program to place interns at the college that it does not receive money for. "I've had a partnership with the college for close to 30 years now.” The Urban League does not get paid for this program. The county pays for the interns the Urban League places in the program.
The Urban League will seek to partner with another educational institution as part of the Wyandanch project, Sanders said.
Appointed to the college board in 2011, Sanders served two terms as chairwoman until 2019. The unpaid board oversees the three-campus, two-year college, which had around 21,000 students enrolled as of September, according to its website.
Joanne Ciulla, director of Rutgers University’s Institute for Ethical leadership, said Sanders' action could be considered “Robin Hoodism,” in which someone who backs a good cause rationalizes behavior that could be unethical because the end justifies the means.
“Sometimes people say [with] nonprofits who have a worthy cause, ‘I'm trying to give to the poor’ and somehow think they're not subject to the same ethical rules as other people,” Ciulla told Newsday.
“I don't really see any bad intention on her [Sanders'] part," Ciulla said. "I think she's just going for what she thinks needs to get done.”
Bonahue, at Sanders' request, asked the county to support the proposal. Sanders, in August 2021, sent Bonahue a draft letter, asking him to sign and forward it to Rosalie Drago, the Suffolk County Commissioner of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs, according to emails obtained by Newsday.
“Suffolk County Community College supports the mission of Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center and is committed to partnering in the collaboration necessary for its success," Bonahue wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Newsday.
Suffolk County last month entered into a lease/lease-back agreement with the facility's property owner in which the Urban League will sublease the space, according to Jonathan Keyes, director of both downtown and transit-oriented development for Suffolk and director of the county Economic Development Corp.
The county approved $460,000 in state grants from the Economic Development Corp. to build out the 2,700-square-foot space. Under a lease executed in January, the Urban League will rent the space for around $3,700 per month, Sanders said.
In a February 2022 letter requesting an opinion from SCCC's ethics board, Murray said he and Sanders publicly had recused themselves from discussion of the proposed partnership.
Attorney Anthony La Pinta, an ethics board member, said in an April opinion that Sanders and Murray should disclose their positions with the Urban League and allow the other college board members to determine whether a conflict of interest existed.
Murray told Newsday he did not seek a formal opinion because he had notified the other trustees and preemptively recused himself.
He left the room during a public trustees meeting on Dec. 16, 2021, while Sanders described the Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center project to Bonahue and other board members and asked for their support, according to minutes of the meeting.
“I don't know what more I could have done personally" to avoid a conflict of interest, Murray said in an interview. “That's what I'm required to do.”
Sanders said she was speaking as a “community leader,” not as a SCCC trustee, and publicly recused herself "as a board member," according to minutes of the meeting.
“I have been with Urban League of Long Island as president and CEO for close to 30 years and having a relationship with Suffolk for about 20 years outside of my role of a board member, so I'm speaking to you from that frame,” Sanders said.
Emails obtained by Newsday show Sanders continued to lobby Bonahue in private to support the lease as recently as last fall — more than eight months after Murray relayed the fact that they both had recused themselves. “We are looking forward to finalizing details of this partnership, which has been under review for a few years now,” Sanders wrote on Sept. 22.
Bonahue emailed the Urban League on Nov. 10 and said he would not advise supporting the proposal. He defended his earlier consideration of it in an interview, noting he was new in the job when the proposal came to his attention, and was looking for ways to better serve the Wyandanch community and to increase college enrollment.
Bonahue said he viewed it as Sanders advocating for the college to perform outreach in Wyandanch.
“Few organizations have done as much as the Urban League to try to make some of the persistent disparities in educational attainment and employment and housing … evident,” Bonahue said.
Though the nonprofit reported a negative $217,000 fund balance in 2020, the last year tax records were publicly available, Sanders told Newsday its finances have improved since and that it recently was awarded a $1.15 million federal grant for workforce development.
"I still have to focus and move forward," she said. "And take responsibility for something that, if it [her discussions with the board and college president] made it look wrong, I'm going to have to live with that."
Suffolk County Community College Trustee Theresa Sanders advocated for a college partnership that would have financially benefited the nonprofit she operates, even after she had publicly recused herself from discussions about the issue, according to emails obtained by Newsday.
At issue was a proposed partnership between the Urban League of Long Island and the college to operate the new Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center, a vocational training and community facility. The proposal, backed by Sanders and others, would have provided $2,500 in monthly revenue to the nonprofit Urban League of Long Island, where Sanders serves as CEO and president.
Sanders and SCCC Board president E. Christopher Murray, who also serves as the attorney for the Urban League, formally recused themselves from board discussions about the proposal, according to their request for an advisory ethics opinion in February 2022. But emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request show Sanders continued to press SCCC president Edward Bonahue to recommend the plan as recent as September.
Bonahue and board members who initially expressed support for the Urban League initiative told Newsday they ultimately decided to abandon it after Newsday requested internal documents on the dealings.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Suffolk County Community College Trustee Theresa Sanders advocated for a college partnership that would have financially benefited the nonprofit she operates.
- The proposal backed by Sanders and others would have provided $2,500 in monthly revenue to the nonprofit Urban League of Long Island, where Sanders serves as CEO and president.
- Sanders advocated for the funding even after recusing herself from discussions, records show.
Suffolk County Legis. Trish Bergin (R-East Islip), a member of the legislature's Education and Labor Committee, said she believes the discussions were not conducted appropriately, even though the 10-member college board decided not to pursue the deal.
“I’m absolutely appalled for the blatant disregard for ethics when it comes to what they were about to engage in,” Bergin told Newsday.
Sanders said she acted appropriately because she disclosed her role and did not plan to formally vote on the arrangement.
"When you disclose it, and you're transparent, and then you recuse yourself from any detailed discussions or voting, I think that brings the clarity," Sanders told Newsday.
"You should be able to discuss it like we do other programs," she added.
Center hopes to open in summer
The Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center hopes to open this summer with career training classes for students from teenage to age 25 who live in the Wyandanch area and might not have reliable transportation to other college campuses, according to Sanders. It is located at Wyandanch Rising, a major revitalization project for Long Island that was spearheaded by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone when he was supervisor of Babylon Town.
Under the arrangement Sanders pitched to SCCC trustees, the college would have entered into a $2,500-per-month license agreement with the Urban League to use the organization's classroom space at the center to offer vocational and college preparatory courses. In turn, the Urban League would familiarize students with other programs offered by the college, and potentially contribute to SCCC's enrollment, which declined by 23% between 2011 and 2021. A draft agreement obtained by Newsday shows no restrictions on how the money could be used.
Bonahue, appointed SCCC president in April 2021, initially expressed interest in the proposal. But in November, after inquiries from county legislators and Newsday, Bonahue told Urban League representatives the college would not move forward with the program, according to an email obtained by Newsday.
Bonahue said questions about the propriety of the deal made him reconsider his support.
“Certainly the [Newsday] FOIL request and the questioning from legislators raised its prominence and made me really bear down on whether this would be the best investment for the college to make,” Bonahue said in an interview.
Sanders defended her actions, saying her goal was to provide opportunities for underserved minority students. She told Newsday such a program would have been in line with the mission of the Urban League of Long Island.
“I didn't see it as a conflict," said Sanders, who noted that the Urban League also has a program to place interns at the college that it does not receive money for. "I've had a partnership with the college for close to 30 years now.” The Urban League does not get paid for this program. The county pays for the interns the Urban League places in the program.
The Urban League will seek to partner with another educational institution as part of the Wyandanch project, Sanders said.
Appointed to the college board in 2011, Sanders served two terms as chairwoman until 2019. The unpaid board oversees the three-campus, two-year college, which had around 21,000 students enrolled as of September, according to its website.
Joanne Ciulla, director of Rutgers University’s Institute for Ethical leadership, said Sanders' action could be considered “Robin Hoodism,” in which someone who backs a good cause rationalizes behavior that could be unethical because the end justifies the means.
“Sometimes people say [with] nonprofits who have a worthy cause, ‘I'm trying to give to the poor’ and somehow think they're not subject to the same ethical rules as other people,” Ciulla told Newsday.
“I don't really see any bad intention on her [Sanders'] part," Ciulla said. "I think she's just going for what she thinks needs to get done.”
Seeking county support
Bonahue, at Sanders' request, asked the county to support the proposal. Sanders, in August 2021, sent Bonahue a draft letter, asking him to sign and forward it to Rosalie Drago, the Suffolk County Commissioner of Labor, Licensing and Consumer Affairs, according to emails obtained by Newsday.
“Suffolk County Community College supports the mission of Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center and is committed to partnering in the collaboration necessary for its success," Bonahue wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Newsday.
Suffolk County last month entered into a lease/lease-back agreement with the facility's property owner in which the Urban League will sublease the space, according to Jonathan Keyes, director of both downtown and transit-oriented development for Suffolk and director of the county Economic Development Corp.
The county approved $460,000 in state grants from the Economic Development Corp. to build out the 2,700-square-foot space. Under a lease executed in January, the Urban League will rent the space for around $3,700 per month, Sanders said.
Ethics opinion
In a February 2022 letter requesting an opinion from SCCC's ethics board, Murray said he and Sanders publicly had recused themselves from discussion of the proposed partnership.
Attorney Anthony La Pinta, an ethics board member, said in an April opinion that Sanders and Murray should disclose their positions with the Urban League and allow the other college board members to determine whether a conflict of interest existed.
Murray told Newsday he did not seek a formal opinion because he had notified the other trustees and preemptively recused himself.
He left the room during a public trustees meeting on Dec. 16, 2021, while Sanders described the Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center project to Bonahue and other board members and asked for their support, according to minutes of the meeting.
“I don't know what more I could have done personally" to avoid a conflict of interest, Murray said in an interview. “That's what I'm required to do.”
Sanders said she was speaking as a “community leader,” not as a SCCC trustee, and publicly recused herself "as a board member," according to minutes of the meeting.
“I have been with Urban League of Long Island as president and CEO for close to 30 years and having a relationship with Suffolk for about 20 years outside of my role of a board member, so I'm speaking to you from that frame,” Sanders said.
Advocating after recusal
Emails obtained by Newsday show Sanders continued to lobby Bonahue in private to support the lease as recently as last fall — more than eight months after Murray relayed the fact that they both had recused themselves. “We are looking forward to finalizing details of this partnership, which has been under review for a few years now,” Sanders wrote on Sept. 22.
Bonahue emailed the Urban League on Nov. 10 and said he would not advise supporting the proposal. He defended his earlier consideration of it in an interview, noting he was new in the job when the proposal came to his attention, and was looking for ways to better serve the Wyandanch community and to increase college enrollment.
Bonahue said he viewed it as Sanders advocating for the college to perform outreach in Wyandanch.
“Few organizations have done as much as the Urban League to try to make some of the persistent disparities in educational attainment and employment and housing … evident,” Bonahue said.
Though the nonprofit reported a negative $217,000 fund balance in 2020, the last year tax records were publicly available, Sanders told Newsday its finances have improved since and that it recently was awarded a $1.15 million federal grant for workforce development.
"I still have to focus and move forward," she said. "And take responsibility for something that, if it [her discussions with the board and college president] made it look wrong, I'm going to have to live with that."
Timeline
Aug. 11, 2021 — Suffolk County Community College Trustee member Theresa Sanders invites SCCC President Edward Bonahue to a ZOOM presentation on the Wyandanch Technology Opportunity Center which will be operated by the Urban League of Long Island, where she is CEO.
Aug. 12, 2021 — Sanders asks Bonahue to send a letter of support for the project to Suffolk County.
Aug. 26, 2021 — Bonahue sends the letter. The county ultimately administers $460,000 in state grants for the initiative.
Dec. 16, 2021 — During a board of trustees meeting, Sanders publicly advocates as a “community leader” for a partnership between the college and the Urban League which would have paid the nonprofit $2,500 per month. Trustee chairman E. Christopher Murray, who is also an attorney for the Urban League, exits the room during the presentation.
Feb. 14, 2022 — Murray, in a request for an ethics opinion, said the he and Sanders were recused from “any role” during the agreement’s approval.
April 5, 2022 — College ethics board member Anthony La Pinta in an advisory opinion said Sanders and Murray should disclose their relationship with the Urban League and have the remaining board members decide if there is a conflict of interest. Murray told Newsday the pair had preemptively recused themselves, so there was no need for a formal vote.
June 8, 2022 — Sanders in an email to Bonahue mentions setting up a meeting to discuss the project. “I look forward to our partnership,” she said.
Sept. 22, 2022 — Sanders in an email to Bonahue said she is looking forward to finalizing the agreement.
Sept. 23, 2022 — Murray sends an email to Bonahue and the board reiterating that he is recused from the proposal.
Sept. 29, 2022 — Bonahue in an email to Sanders said he will discuss the proposal with Urban League of Long Island Board Chair Sidney Joyner moving forward. Bonahue sends an email to Joyner outlining a list of concerns on the partnership.
Oct. 19, 2022 — Newsday files FOIL request seeking emails between Bonahue and board members.
Nov. 10, 2022 — Bonahue, in a letter to Joyner, said “I cannot provide a commitment of the college to a multiyear agreement at this time.”
Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
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