State Auditor report says director of Commission on African American Affairs was falsely elected

The Nebraska Commission on African American Affairs has fallen short of several transparency and accounting benchmarks, according to new findings by State Auditor Mike Foley.

This includes failure to comply with many portions of the Open Meetings Act and what Foley said was the apparent fraudulent election of executive director John Carter.

Created by the Unicameral in 2020, the commission’s goal is to promote legislation and work with the state government in order to enhance the rights of Black Nebraskans, according to state statute.

Carter was paid for being the executive director of the commission, even though he was never properly elected, Foley said. The Department of Administrative Services, which handles the state’s payroll, should have dug deeper to find meeting minutes proving Carter’s election.

“Basically, they took his word for it, put him on the payroll for a couple months. And then we said wait a minute. What’s going on here?” Foley said. “This was not handled properly at all. He was never duly and properly installed and elected and he should be taken off that payroll immediately until this matter is remedied.”

Carter was one of four executive directors of the commission in its roughly five years of existence.

The commission also failed to provide the public with advance notice of its quarterly meetings all ten times the auditor’s office checked from 2022 to 2024.

“In some instances, I think some meetings were being held where the public wasn’t properly noticed and maybe some of the members weren’t even properly noticed,” Foley said.

The state auditor reported seven total so-called “deficiencies” including questionable transactions, accounting, contracting and use of temporary employees.

An attempt to reach the commission was unsuccessful Friday afternoon.