Make California Post a Preferred Source A Los Angeles nonprofit boss tasked with helping domestic violence victims and homeless has reportedly been living in Hawaii for at least a decade while enjoying lavish perks paid for by her organization, including a luxury Santa Monica apartment and a BMW.
Carol Adelkoff, CEO of 1736 Family Crisis Center, also raked in a staggering $1.6 million over two years, making her the highest-paid homeless services executive in the city, according to the LA Times.
Nearly half of that sum came from a payout for unused vacation time she had accumulated over four decades, she told the LA Times.
But her hefty compensation wasn’t the only expense raising eyebrows.
The nonprofit, which operates domestic violence shelters across Los Angeles, also reportedly shelled out $6,500 a month for an upscale apartment near the beach in Santa Monica for Adelkoff to use during trips to Southern California.
The organization also leased a BMW for her personal use in Hawaii, where she has lived for at least 10 years despite the nonprofit having no shelters or clients in the state, according to records reviewed by the outlet.
The nonprofit’s board signed off on the Santa Monica apartment in 2018, and financial records show the organization was covering the rent the following year.
It’s unclear how long the arrangement lasted or whether the nonprofit is still footing the bill, the LA Times reported.
The organization’s attorney, Kerry Garvis Wright, defended the apartment expenses in a letter, arguing maintaining a residence was more cost-effective and predictable than repeatedly booking hotel rooms for Adelkoff’s visits.
Wright also said the property provided additional security for the CEO, who had concerns about her personal safety.
The spending had already sparked alarm among employees years earlier.
In 2019, three senior staffers hired attorney Dorsey Kleger-Heine to raise concerns about what they believed was an improper use of charitable funds to finance Adelkoff’s personal benefits, according to the LA Times.
Kleger-Heine outlined the employees’ allegations in a letter to the nonprofit’s board in December 2019.
Weeks later, she escalated the matter to the California Attorney General’s Office, filing a complaint with its charities division over the organization’s spending practices.
The nonprofit 1736 Family Crisis Center, which operates domestic violence shelters, crisis hotlines and homeless programs across LA and Orange counties, brings in about $15 million a year, with roughly 94% of its revenue coming from taxpayer-funded government grants, according to its latest tax filings.
Adelkoff defended the roughly $1.6 million payouts, claiming they were largely the result of cashing out decades of unused vacation time rather than a dramatic salary increase.
“The salary didn’t jump like that,” Adelkoff said.
She said her base salary has remained about $405,000 for several years and that roughly $824,000 of the money paid over the two-year span represented accumulated vacation dating back decades.
The next-best-paid employee, the finance director, made $206,000.
“It was simply a matter of reducing accrued vacation liability on the books and paying it out,” Adelkoff said.
The nonprofit’s attorney, Kerry Garvis Wright, said the board worked with legal and financial advisers to reduce the growing vacation liability before Adelkoff’s eventual retirement.
Wright said the executive had accumulated the leave because the demands of leading the organization made it difficult for her to take time off over her 40-year tenure.
Still, nonprofit governance experts questioned both the payout and the oversight behind it.
“The bigger question is, was it appropriate for a person to be able to accrue that much money and suddenly get it paid out?” said Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University expert in nonprofit accounting.
Laurie Styron, CEO of nonprofit watchdog CharityWatch, called the payout “highly unusual.” “How was this decision made?” she asked.
Experts also noted that while California employers cannot force workers to forfeit unused vacation, most nonprofits cap how much paid time off employees can bank.
The Times reported 1736 Family Crisis Center capped vacation accrual for other employees — but not for Adelkoff. The executive has also been living far from the nonprofit’s headquarters.
Adelkoff has listed the Big Island of Hawaii as her primary residence for more than a decade, according to the outlet.
Property records show she owns a 3,700-square-foot, four-bedroom home, and court records include testimony from her daughter that she was raised in Hawaii and that her mother lives there “year-round.”
Adelkoff declined to confirm where she lives, telling the newspaper that revealing her location could pose a security risk because the nonprofit serves victims fleeing abusive situations. She also did not answer questions about how often she travels to Southern California for work or who pays for those trips.
Other nonprofit leaders told The Times that while some executive duties can be handled remotely, regularly visiting shelters and meeting with staff, donors and clients is a key part of running community-based organizations.
“I’m sure that that’s an operational challenge,” Mittendorf said. “My big question would be, does it create more of a financial burden on the organization?”
The nonprofit said Adelkoff works an average of 70 hours a week and that her pay has returned to its historical level now that the vacation payouts have been completed.
The Post reached out the the non profit for comment.
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