Community Action Program Legal Services Inc.

“Caplaws bylaws were amended on june 9, 2015 to add the following provisions:(1)at the time of selection, a candidate must, at a minimum, be currently serving as and have had at least 5 years experience serving as an executive director(or equivalent position)of an "eligible entity" as defined in the federal community services block grant act and have demonstrated participation in caplaw events (article v, section c);(2) if, during a director's term, s/he ceases to serve as executive director of an eligible entity, s/he may serve out the current term and serve a maximum of one additional term(article v, section c); and (3)a director who fails to attend, in person, 2 out of any 3 consecutive, regularly scheduled meetings of the board shall be deemed to have been removed as a director(article v, section f).”

“There are no committees that have authority to act on behalf of the board.”

“The organization distributes a copy of the 990 to all of the board members for review and comment before the tax return is filed.”

“Board members and key employees are asked annually to complete, sign and return conflict of interest disclosure forms. The forms include a statement of the policy and an acknowledgement that the individual will follow the policy. If there is a potential conflict situation, it is addressed at a board meeting.”

“The board of directors performs an independent written evaluation of the executive director. The board then votes on whether to apparove a salary increase based on cost of living, merit and compensation paid by comparable organizations for comparable positions.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are available to the public upon request.”

“Eleanor evans, executive director works approximately 18 hours per week for abcd, inc, an unrelated 501(c)(3) organization.”

“Caplaw has an agreement with action for boston community development, inc.(abcd), an unrelated 501(c)(3) exempt organization. Abcd employs attorneys and other help who spend all or a portion of their time on caplaw related matters and caplaw reimburses abcd for that time. All w-2s and related payroll tax returns are filed by abcd, under their tax identification number. Therefore, although caplaw is reporting amounts for salaries and related expenses, there are zero employees listed in part i line 5 and zero w-2's listed in part v line 2a.”

“The organization answered no to this question but as further explanation the organization does have a business relationship with abcd, inc., an unrelated 501(c)(3) exempt organization of which john drew, who was previosly a director of this organization is president/ceo.”