The financial challenges confronting the San Diego County Taxpayers Association are much deeper than initially understood in the wake of the sudden resignation earlier this month of longtime Chief Executive Officer Haney Hong.
Interim CEO Richard Gentry, who was introduced as the temporary leader in a March 3 news release, will no longer be the paid executive running the tax-fighting association that is scheduled to celebrate 80 years in business this September, an official said Monday. The one-year, $150,000 contract that was initially offered to Gentry was cancelled due to the group’s cash-flow issues.
“There was never a contract because there was no ability to pay,” said Gentry, who will remain on the Board of Directors. “It was impossible to honor the terms of the contract.”
The taxpayers association Board of Directors has been meeting regularly over the past days and weeks to address its financial and staffing issues.
Newly seated board director and spokesperson Patty Ducey-Brooks said the group is now largely being run by volunteers. With Gentry no longer on the payroll, the organization is down to a single employee, she said.
“Things financially are not where they should be,” said Ducey-Brooks, a longtime San Diego marketing professional who formally joined the taxpayers association board of directors last Thursday.
“That can happen in nonprofits,” she said. “There’s some reality that we need to do a better job at how money is spent and how dollars are coming in.”
Ducey-Brooks said the association board only recently learned the depth of the financial condition left in the wake of Hong’s unexpected resignation. Its focus now is on restructuring and raising money to keep the organization afloat.
“We all own the problem, we all own the challenge,” she said. “We value the worth of this organization and we believe there is a future if we put on our hats and put our skills and talents together to move forward.”
The public acknowledgement Monday represents a stunning fall for a San Diego nonprofit that has challenged policies and policymakers dating back to 1945.
Hong, who led the association for nine years before his resignation, agreed to a three-year contract paying him $300,000 a year just last July. In his statement explaining his departure, Hong said he wanted to spend more time with his family and practicing his faith.
The San Diego Union-Tribune later reported that federal tax filings submitted by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association showed the organization spent hundreds of thousands of dollars more than it collected in recent years.
Both the association tax filings and those of its education and research arm were operating with structural deficits, records show.
Hong cited the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for lagging fundraising. He also said he wrongly relied too much on corporate donations and an annual gala for revenue to support the association.
He said he worked to build individual memberships to boost the group’s profile. He also expanded the association’s mission by offering leadership and governance courses to local school administrators to help them pass bond measures.
“We embarked on a very long journey of diversifying how we got revenue,” Hong said in a prior interview. “We took a lot of risk trying to create new things. That risk manifested in financial expenses.”
On Monday, Hong said he regretted the association could not afford to pay a chief executive, but there was money in the bank when he left the nonprofit.
“I did what I could to try to bring in revenue,” he said. “If the organization is at a place where it can’t finance an interim CEO, it just means we didn’t do enough work trying to get all these new products sold.”
The association is currently operating without any headquarters.
Hong said the association vacated its office in Liberty Station at the landlord’s request last November, when renovations to the historic structure were planned. The board hopes to reopen inside its former office space as soon as later this year, Ducey-Brooks said.
Board members already have brought in lawyers and auditors to review association finances and decision-making during the period when Hong was running the organization, Ducey-Brooks said — standard practice for an organization being rebuilt from the ground up.
She said she has seen no evidence of fraud or financial wrongdoing, but did say the revenue and spending practices required immediate restructuring.
“That (oversight) really wasn’t happening as well as it should have been,” the new association spokesperson said. “This is really a time to look at how everybody is functioning and operating in the organization.”
Lindsay Langford is the board chair at Nonprofit Solutions, a charity that promotes good governance and offers coursework on managing tax-exempt organizations. She said restructuring any nonprofit can be tricky, especially in the face of governance and financial challenges.
“It often involves rebuilding trust with staff, funders, and the broader community,” she said. “That trust is best regained through proactive transparency, consistent communication, and a demonstrated commitment to reform.”
Langford said it is equally important for charities that are in the process of rebuilding to find the right people to serve as board directors and to implement strict new accountability mechanisms.
“Restructuring is not just about correcting past issues — it is about reinforcing the nonprofit’s integrity, aligning operations with mission and ensuring long-term sustainability,” she said.
The San Diego County Taxpayers Association was formed in September 1945, just days after the formal end of World War II.
The association mission calls for tracking the effectiveness of local tax dollars and promoting or opposing tax policies and proposed bond measures presented to San Diego County voters.
For years, the association has presented its annual Golden Watchdog awards gala, a black-tie affair attended by business and political leaders who gather for a night to celebrate effective government spending.
Association officials also bestow annual Golden Fleece prizes, tongue-in-cheek honors to local agencies they believe did not properly steward public resources.
Ducey-Brooks said the taxpayers association has recruited a number of new members to its board of directors in recent days, and continues to add people with expertise in specific areas that can help the group rebound.
“The organization has great worth and has done great things for San Diego,” she said.
Staff writer Gary Warth contributed to this report.
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