Values Advocacy Council: A deficit-ridden slush fund for Larry Pegram?

Here at Watch Dog, we aren't the smartest financial folks... heck, we run a blog that takes scores of hours a month to keep current and we don't make any money doing it.

Because we don't know much, we will share what we've learned (through a very smart Watch Dog) about Larry Pegram's right-wing non-profit, the so-called "Values Advocacy Council." Mr. Pegram just announced that he is running for City Council in District 9 in San Jose so we share it with you today because tomorrow is the filing deadline and there still time for Pegram to un-pull his papers...

(As an aside, we have been promised by three separate Watch Dogs that there is more dirt to uncover...)

Onto the Values Advocacy Council...

Did you that the only major expense for the Values Advocacy Council is paying Larry Pegram's salary? It's true, here are some numbers (click on the year to see the actual filing):

2006 - $68,455 (of a total of $99,331 raised -- or 69% went to Pegram)

2007 - $74,750 (of a total of $134,094 raised -- or 56% went to Pegram)

2008 - $78,000 (of a total of $215,018 raised -- or 36% went to Pegram)

Can you imagine another non-profit where upwards of 70 percent of all the money raised went directly to the Executive Director? Imagine if Pat Dando at the Chamber took in 70 percent of all the money raised... Or Cindy Chavez at the Labor Council took in 36 percent... Everyone would be outraged...

But at least Pat and Cindy have more than 2 other people voting on their salaries... You see, there seem to be only three "voting members of the governing body" of the organization, including Larry Pegram? Check out Part I, Line 3 on this document. "Number of voting members of the governing body... 3"

So it seems that Larry Pegram runs his own little slush fund: He raises the money, votes on where the money goes, and then collects the money he just voted on.

But perhaps the best part is that each of the past three available non-profit financials show that the Values Advocacy Council has finished the year in the red...

2006 - ($6,120)

2007 - ($7,902)

2008 - ($4,465)

At least Mr. Pegram has lots of experience dealing with deficits... that might come in handy at City Hall.

So what have we learned? Watch Dog doesn't really know... other than we still don't like Larry Pegram and that he runs a poorly-managed non-profit with little or no oversight and takes most of the money for himself...