The Tisbury Police Relief Association, a charity run by Tisbury Police officers, has brought years’ worth of state filings into compliance following records requests made by The Martha’s Vineyard Times.
State records show that over its 29-year existence, the association has almost continually been out of compliance with either the corporate division of the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office or the nonprofit and charity division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
Founded in part by Henry Burt, a former Tisbury Police officer and selectman, and Cora Medeiros, a former selectman and organizer of the Tisbury Street Fair, the association provides scholarships, and has regularly contributed to various Tisbury School causes. On Jan. 6, the association filed seven years’ worth of annual reports with the corporate division of the Massachusetts Secretary of State. Though filed on Jan. 6, five reports were signed on Dec. 24, 2020, by Timothy Stobie, a retired Tisbury Police sergeant and former corporate officer of the association. Another three reports were signed by Tisbury Police Sgt. Jeffrey Day, a past president of the association. Day is listed as the contact person for all seven filings.
“I didn’t understand what the reporting requirements were,” Day told The Times. “Reporting requirements were not explained to the officers.”
Day said past officers of the association didn’t impart any information about the organization to those who took control of it in recent years.
Tisbury Police Chief Mark Saloio said ignorance of regulations shouldn’t be an excuse. “It’s a person’s responsibility to review any laws associated with a particular position,” Saloio said. Nevertheless, Saloio said he found Day’s clerical problems “understandable,” but not repeatable. Going forward, Saloio said, he expects officers to run the association “by the book.” He also said he made it clear the association is “100 percent separate” from the police department, and the association should make sure all paperwork reflects that.
Day became president of the association in 2018, and bowed out this year. Tisbury Police Officer Charles Duquette, who joined the department in 2018, became president of the association in March, and said he knew little of the association’s history. Duquette said he was getting up to speed on the association, and was further tidying it up. “We are working to get everything correct,” he said.
Though the address and telephone number for the Tisbury Police Department appear on numerous association filings, Tisbury officials have maintained that there is no connection between the association and the town. Former Tisbury Police Chief Dan Hanavan also said the association was “totally” separate from the police department. Hanavan, a former president of the association, said the organization does good charitable work, but declined further comment.
The Times first sent a request for association records to the Tisbury Police Department on Dec. 16, 2020. Through its records officer, the department wrote that it wasn’t the keeper of those records. On Dec. 22, former Tisbury selectman Geoghan Coogan, a local attorney, emailed The Times to say the association wasn’t subject to records requests as it was “a nonprofit, private entity, with no formal relationship to the department or the town.” Despite Coogan’s stance, the IRS considers 990s from tax-exempt organizations to be public, and the commonwealth considers nonprofits’ articles of organization and annual filings public. In particular, IRS 990s show how much a charity takes in, and how much is spent and on what.
IRS 990 returns and reports to the attorney general’s office for the years 2013, 2014, and 2015 do not appear to have been filed. The assets of the association took a significant drop in that period. The 990 bottom line for 2012 was $90,741, while the 990 bottom line for 2016 was $24,006.38.
Asked if he represented the company, Coogan wrote that he was asked by the association to respond to The Times inquiry. Coogan declined any further comment.
Though it hadn’t been sent to him, town administrator Jay Grande responded to the records request on Dec. 23. “Just reviewing the above request,” he emailed. “I believe this is out of the chief’s and town’s purview.” He suggested a request be made to the association itself.
The day after Grande’s email, Day and Stobie signed corporate filings. Those weren’t the only recent filings. Between May and June of 2020, Day filed four years’ worth of reports with the state attorney general’s office, and four years worth of 990 tax-exempt IRS returns. The association has filed corporate documents in a tardy manner for decades. On Sept. 22, 2003, former Tisbury Police Officer Michael Marchand, now a sergeant in the Oak Bluffs Police Department, signed consecutive association annual reports spanning 1993 to 2003, records show. Records further show those reports were ultimately filed en masse with
corporate division of the secretary of state on Dec. 30, 2003.
“That’s way out of memory,” Marchand said when asked about the filings. “I have no idea of any taxes or any business filings.” Marchand instead pointed to Medeiros, who died in 2016. “She did all that kind of stuff,” he said.
In June 2012, the secretary of state revoked the association’s corporate charter for reasons not readily apparent. The following year the association, through its president, former Tisbury Police Sgt. Robert Fiske, applied for reinstatement of the association’s corporate status. The application appears to have been accepted. The reinstatement filing cites “compliance with annual documentation requirements” as some of the activity that occurred following revocation. On Oct. 22, 2012, records show Fiske signed consecutive association annual reports spanning from 2004 to 2012. Those reports weren’t filed until May 7, 2013. Fiske, who was terminated in 2011 for reasons unrelated to the association, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Neither could former Tisbury Police Officer Michael Gately, who was listed as the contact person on all Fiske’s reports, and whose contact number was listed as the Tisbury Police Department’s landline.
As The Times reported in 2012, Gately said the police department doesn’t solicit donations, they hire someone else.
“We’re just cops,” Gately said at the time. “We’re not supposed to be out soliciting, so we leave that to the companies.”
In the same article, Stobie indicated he didn’t know what it cost to use the solicitation company. At the time the association used Eastern Advertising of Newton.
“Tisbury Police Sergeant Timothy Stobie told The Times that in 2010, solicitation efforts resulted in $43,774 in donations,” the newspaper reported. “Sgt. Stobie did not know what percentage the solicitation company kept.”
Gately was president of the association in 2010 and Stobie a director, records show.
“Myself, financially, I’m not very good,” Stobie said Monday.
In 2020, Day and Tisbury Police Sgt. Max Sherman, a former treasurer of the association, signed a contract with the solicitation company TCI America, records show. The contract grants TCI 35 percent of gross advertising revenue generated from advertising products made on behalf of the association. An independent contractor of TCI will receive 38 percent of gross advertising revenue. The association gets 37 percent of revenue under the contract.
“It’s obviously not ideal,” Sherman said. He characterized it as a “buffer” alternative to direct solicitation by police officers, which was something the association didn’t want to do.
The contract was made Feb. 10, 2020, and expires Dec. 31, 2021.
Not commenting specifically on the three years’ worth of 990s missing from the attorney general’s website, Day said there were “no misappropriations or funny business.”
Day also emphasized he was left with “very little to go on,” as far as records and information.
Asked how he knew what association officers held which positions, Day said a box of records was ultimately discovered that helped fill in the blanks.
Asked why information wasn’t conveyed by former officers, and why filings were not made, Day said, “I’m not going to comment about past participants in the organization.”
Late filings with the Secretary of State’s office can result in charter revocation, according to Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth spokesperson Debra O’Malley. For nonprofits, O’Malley said, revocations are “less common” but do occur. As for the revocation the association endured, she said, “That’s pretty obviously due to lack of filing.” Among other things, unfiled annual reports can prevent companies from receiving certificates of good standing, O’Malley said. This year, with all the PPP loans companies wanted, the certificate was essential, she noted.
Sherman said he does not believe the association applied for a PPP loan.
In a statement to The Times, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said it previously notified the association it was out of compliance. “If we become aware of nonprofits that are out of compliance with our office, we get in touch to inform them about their filing obligations to ensure transparency and accountability,” the office stated. “It appears we did notify them that they were out of compliance previously in 2012, after which time the charity sent a number of additional fiscal years’ worth of filings. This is not uncommon — charities that realize they are out of compliance or are notified by our office about compliance issues often submit records for a number of years at a time, in order to come into compliance.”
In a follow-up response, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office wrote that the association wasn’t assessed civil penalties. Three years of filings were confirmed missing. “We do not have filings for FY2013-2015,” Roxana Martinez-Gracias emailed. “The organization submitted three fiscal years of filings and fees in 2020. In the ordinary course, we require the last several years of filings to consider an organization in compliance. It was in this normal course that we did not require additional back filings, particularly given COVID-related deadline extensions for FY2019 filings that we had granted all charities.”
Stobie, who is listed as an officer in the association as far back as 1994, said there was no ulterior motive to all the late filings. “More that we didn’t know what to do and how to do it,” he said.
The Tisbury police officers are incapable of interpersonal relationships, “by the book”, noted by repeated discrimination lawsuits, so why should we expect them capable of running a charity, “by the book”?
That it again takes the intervention of our community newspaper, the MV Times, to bring this lawless entity into compliance, is a stunning indictment of their department.
Saloio has got to go, if he has any respect left at all for the citizens of Tisbury.
Nice work by the current officers for correcting a mess they didn’t create on a subject they have zero training or experience with. Zero mention of any of the positive work those guys did by the times once again.
Never mind the late filings, the big question is where did the money go? Who benefited from the charity work done by this organization. Has any of this money been used in a manner to provide gain to officers within the department?
These questions beg an answer.
Having been here for 50 years I remember Oak Bluffs had a long run of being the laughingstock in everything they touch and did. I think Tisbury has surpassed them and is winning the excellence in dysfunction award.