San Bruno B.A.R.T.

  A nationwide grassroots group named ACORN, which champions itself as an advocate for low-income people who lack a seat at the table of political power, has gotten off to a rocky start in trying to make an impact in Columbia.

  The nonprofit group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, opened an office downtown at 2025 Hampton St. in February 2006 and has since worked to register people to vote, press City Council to fix a longstanding drainage problem in north Columbia and fight predatory home mortgages.

  Founded in 1970, ACORN claims more than 200,000 members in 110 cities and generally is regarded as an effective community activist group.

  Locally, says Veronica Edwards, chair of Columbia ACORN, "We're organizing neighborhoods all across Columbia."

  Amid such efforts, however, the group has run into trouble with the State Law Enforcement Division, the S.C. Human Affairs Commission and at least one neighborhood leader.

  Some of ACORN's problems mirror issues the group has had in other states.

  At the request of the S.C. Election Commission, SLED launched an investigation in October into ACORN-related allegations of fraud, according to SLED spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson. "That's about all we're able to say," Richardson says. "We can't give out any other details on an open case."

  Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire says the commission asked for the probe because election officials with Richland and Lexington counties told the commission that they received some voter registration applications from ACORN staff that were fishy.

  The applications had red flags such as similar handwriting as well as blatant errors like duplicate Social Security numbers and incorrect phone numbers, according to Lillian McBride, chair of voter registration for Richland, and Carolyn Bledsoe, assistant director of elections for Lexington.

  Both McBride and Bledsoe say that in discovering the faulty information they learned that ACORN was paying people to register voters per application. McBride adds that ACORN told her that the group fired those responsible for the bogus forms.

  Asked about the matter, Hector Vaca, a lead organizer with Columbia ACORN, initially says his organization used to pay per application but now pays registration workers by the hour. Then in a follow-up interview, Vaca says he misspoke and that the group always has paid by the hour. Upon learning of the situation, ACORN terminated the offenders "and we turned them in ourselves," Vaca says.

  Nationally, ACORN has been hit with similar allegations in Kansas and Missouri.

  Meanwhile, a complaint against ACORN has been filed with the state Human Affairs Commission. "I can't tell you anything about it, or what's going on," Jesse Washington Jr., who runs the agency, says of the complaint. Washington says he can give details of the complaint only after the commission officially resolves it.

  Edwards and Vaca say a problematic former ACORN employee lodged the complaint.

  On yet a third front, the group has provoked suspicion over its monthly membership dues.

  ACORN's membership application features a section that, if completed and signed, gives the group permission to automatically draft the money from a bank account or charge it to a credit card. The amount ranges from $10 to $25 or "other."

  Says Vaca, "As far as I know none of our members have ever done that."

  Doris Hildebrand, president of the Historic Waverly Neighborhood Association, says she has heard about ACORN automatically charging its members dues. More generally, Hildebrand says no one in her community wants to be involved with the group. "They're not active in my neighborhood anymore," she says, "I had to tell them, ‘Go on.'"

  Edwards says ACORN does not require membership dues. "It's like a tithe," she says of the money, "it's whatever you can do."

  Asked about a group championing low-income folks while at the same time charging them monthly membership fees, Kevin Whelan, ACORN's national communications director, says members set the amount and the funds help vest members in the organization and prevent it from being beholden to outside interests.

  Mayor Bob Coble, who is scheduled to speak at a "community empowerment summit" ACORN plans to hold Saturday at the Cecil Tillis Center on Simpkins Lane, says he has not heard about the group's troubles.

  ACORN lists a bevy of public and private entities as sponsors of the summit, including Benedict College and the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

  It seems either ACORN has them all fooled, or the group has made some poor hiring choices.