ELKHART -- Scheduled participants in two Elkhart Black Expo events in 2008 funded by Genesis grants confirm that the programs didn't occur.

But invoices were turned into the city prior to the events and paid for though the City Controller's Office without adequate documentation.

Elkhart Black Expo provided an invoice to the city for a Dec. 26, 2008, Kwanzaa celebration at St. James AME church at a total cost of $700. According to the invoice, the cost to use the church and the hall, including the kitchen, was $225. In addition, the invoice -- which is on Elkhart Black Expo letterhead, but not signed by any representatives of EBE -- says the cost for janitorial services would be $75 and a performance by three church choir members would be a total of $225. The speaker was supposed to be the Rev. Cyneatha Millsaps, whose fee was $175.

But neither Pastor Jennifer Tinsley of St. James nor Millsaps knew anything about a Kwanzaa program. They did not receive payment, either.

"We didn't have anything here and we have not received anything from anybody," Tinsley said. "It's the first I've heard of it. I don't know anything about this. We knew nothing about this."

Millsaps, now a pastor in Chicago, first heard her name associated with something involving EBE earlier this year. "I made it quite clear that that was not true and that I would need to see some documentation that I had received some money for that," she said.

She said she never received any paperwork until recently, but what she did get was an invoice that anyone could have created. It didn't have her signature on it and she didn't get a copy of a check. "It looked like I had been paid for doing a service that didn't take place," Millsaps said.

She is clear that she was never asked to participate in a Kwanzaa program as a speaker last year and she was not paid for something she didn't do.

The last time she did Kwanzaa work for Black Expo, she said, was about 12 to 15 years ago.

There was no supporting documentation with the December Kwanzaa program invoice, such as a bill from the church or Millsaps. It was billed to the city's Genesis fund on Dec. 11, 2008, for a Dec. 26 program.

The second program was a Dec. 28 jazz and poetry reading at the RV Hall of Fame Museum called "Jazz & More," the total cost of which was billed to the Genesis program at $3,850.17.

A representative from the RV museum said there was no EBE program at the museum on Dec. 28, nor was she contacted about having a program there. The invoice to the city controller's office from EBE -- dated Dec. 2, 2008 -- said the facility cost was $500.

According to the same invoice, rental of tables and chairs from Four Star Rental was $407.67; five hotels rooms at the Ramada Inn were $367.50; and musician Gregg Bacon of Indianapolis cost of $2,500. The invoice also charged $75 for setup and tear-down of a small stage.

The invoice is not signed by a member of EBE.

Alan Overholser, owner of Four Star Rental, said he bid on the job, but "I don't think we ever got it."

A document from Four Star, obtained by The Truth, confirms that Leroy Robinson, program director for EBE, obtained a bid on Dec. 2 or 3 for tables and chairs to be delivered to the RV Hall of Fame on Dec. 31 and picked up Jan. 2. It has a hand-written "OK" on it with the initials "TP" in the bottom, right-hand corner and a hand-written correction on one of the two times the date is written on the bid.

Overholser said he has no record of a transaction taking place between his company and Elkhart Black Expo and it would have remained in his computer system if it had.

A representative for Gregg Bacon Entertainment said Bacon did not perform in Elkhart on Dec. 28, 2008. Bacon performed at a June event as part of an Indiana Consortium of State and Local Human Rights Agencies Training Conference. That was sponsored by the Elkhart Human Relations Commission, but Bacon was paid through Genesis funds by Elkhart Black Expo. His fee and hotel room were $825 in an invoice charged to the city Aug. 18.

Both claims are signed by Rechia Marlow, administrator of the Genesis program, and Karin Frey, parks superintendent. Genesis was under parks department supervision.

Elkhart Black Expo received $12,000 in Genesis money in 2008 during the first year of the Moore administration, the final year of the program. The organization received $5,000 in 2007, the final year of Mayor Dave Miller's term.

Frey said she would have been the last person to see the invoice before it went to the controller's office to be paid. She would just put her signature to it. Marlow processed invoices.

Frey said she believed the deadline to process claims for the end of 2008 was about Dec. 15. "For that reason, anything planned through the end of the year would already have to have an invoice in hand as to what it would be," she said.

But EBE should have turned in receipts following the event to the controller's office.

There are two other questionable invoices EBE turned into the city as well, one related to the NAACP-sponsored Ethnic Festival in October and a second for a play put on in conjunction with the Elkhart Human Relations Commission's housing consortium.

In December, Traci Porter, who was president of Elkhart Black Expo at the time, signed and prepared her own voucher as head of the Human Relations Department to reimburse EBE 10 percent of the contract cost for a play called "The Meeting,"staged in conjunction with the housing consortium in June. However, the city paid the entire amount of the $4,000 play in early June, after EBE invoiced the cost to the city.

She and Arvis Dawson, Mayor Dick Moore's executive assistant, signed a check from EBE to the play's promoter in July for the entire amount. That check accompanied the November invoice for the $400 request.

In addition, EBE received $500 in Genesis funds to give contributions to several organizations to perform at the NAACP's Ethnic Festival. But Ron Davis, president of the NAACP, said the groups never performed.

In fact, Davis said, all the groups that performed volunteered to do so. The NAACP received a $1,000 Genesis grant for food for the event. Receipts were turned in after the event for payment by the city.

"Any contributions should have been made to the Ethnic Festival," Davis said, "not to the individuals."

Davis is a member of the Canaan Baptist Church Men's Choir, which did perform, but was not paid.

Ginny Gary, current president of EBE, said she was not involved in EBE at the end of last year. She wouldn't comment further. Porter did not return a call for comment.