INSIDE INGLEWOOD-Was there a coup at the Inglewood Airport Area Chamber of Commerce (IAAC C)?
In early March, rumors from reliable sources told this journalist that an “upheaval” at the IAACC resulted in the executive committee voting out the two people who run it. It was also said that no one was running the chamber save for one member who remained to answer calls.
Emails to the three chamber staff members—which the Web site states are Shannon R. Howe, Jerry Loznysky and Janet Solis—were not answered. Howe’s email account with the IAACC was returned as having been deleted. Loznysky, who regularly staffed the office, has apparently not been seen in the office lately.
Attempts to verify the alleged coup appeared to have met significant resistance.
Telephone calls to the chamber were initially answered by Erick Holley. When asked if the chamber’s president is Norman Cravens (photo above), Holley answered, “No. The president is Roland Talton and he’s been the president for about two years.” Holley’s statement was contrary to the 2013 IAACC Business Directory & Buyers [sic] Guide, which on page 2 features a picture of Cravens titled “Chamber President.” The IAACC’s Web site currently states that Cravens is the chamber’s president. It also states that Talton is the “immediate past president.”
Talton was reached for comment on Tuesday, March 11. When asked if there had been a change in staff at the chamber, he remarked, “They have not been voted out.” He would not elaborate, but he did state that there was to be “no [IAACC] board meeting in March.” When asked why, he answered that he would only be “available to comment next Thursday.”
Several attempts to reach Talton since then have not been successful. Whether in person, via telephone and by e-mail, Talton has not been present, has not answered and has not returned messages.
While it is unusual to integrate seemingly unrelated incidents in a single news story, it must be noted that in Inglewood, everything is very closely related in a way that would make Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall minions jealous.
The IAACC’s April 10 “State of the City” event, which is slated to take place at the Forum, ties in a number of other aspects.
The chamber’s Web site states that Marc T. Little is the IAACC’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Secretary.
Little is the COO for Faithful Central Bible Church as well as for Forum Enterprises, Inc. (FEI). Faithful Central, which is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and FEI, the “for-profit arm for Faithful Central Bible Church,” share the same business address: 333 West Florence Avenue, Inglewood, California.
FEI bought the Forum in 2000 for $22 million; according to the LA Times, the “mega-church” had more than 10,000 congregants. In 2012, FEI sold the church for approximately $23 million to Madison Square Garden (MSG); Faithful Central was reported to have approximately 2,000 members at that time.
In Faithful Central Bible Church’s 2012 Annual Financial Report, it was written that “Compared to 2011, total combined assets decreased $23,332,773 from $39,571,460 to $16,238,687 in 2012, mostly due the sale of the Forum.” The statement indicates that the tax-exempt church had a vested financial interest in a property that was essentially bailed out with an $18 million redevelopment loan floated by taxpayer funds via an agency that the State of California closed down the very day that Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts approved the “rehabilitation loan.”
A 2010 story in the LA Times titled “Faithful Central Bible Church, venue operator SMG settle differences over Forum” indicates that the Forum was in foreclosure prior to FEI selling it to MSG (note: SMG is a Pennsylvania-based management company) for essentially the same price that FEI purchased more than a decade prior. MSG has since put approximately $100 million into the Forum’s renovation in under one year.
In 2011, Michelle Ingrid, a former Faithful Central Bible Church congregant and ex-wife of a Faithful youth pastor, published “Life After the Down-Low.” The book detailed an alleged cover-up by the church’s current pastor, Kenneth C. Ulmer, regarding no fewer than three of the his youth pastors’ pedophile activities that were stated to have been allowed as late as 2007.
Little, who works closely with Ulmer, has refused to comment on the church’s apparent pedophile agenda and subsequent cover-up that allegedly occurred in 2007 during Ulmer’s watch.
Ulmer is also responsible for swearing in Mayor Butt’s two hand-picked district candidates, George Dotson and Alex Padilla. Padilla, like Butts, is a former Santa Monica police officer. Apart from the one of the highest city council salaries in California, Butts and Padilla receive a combined CalPERS pension from the City of Santa Monica that totals more than $427,000 annually.
This Thursday, the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit IAACC will host a ticket-only fundraiser at the Forum that will feature Butts as the keynote speaker. Attendance is expected to feature Talton, Little, Ulmer, Padilla and Dotson. The event is be one of the 17 free days set aside by MSG for community events. According to Forum spokesperson Jason Lombard, the Forum has already granted Ulmer and Little’s organization one of those free community days for the church’s Easter event on April 20.
G-d helps us all.
(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com) Photo credit: Teka-Lark Fleming.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 29
Pub: Apr 8, 2014
