Head of charity laundry steps down

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Less than a year ago, Auntie Helen’s Fluff & Fold had almost $80,000 in its checking account.

The nonprofit laundry service for North Park area AIDS patients closed out last month with almost all of it gone, and now charity officials are scrambling to keep their 30th Street thrift store open.

Michael Dudley, who was the executive director until earlier this month, spent thousands of dollars in charity assets on restaurant meals, clothing, an eye exam and glasses and even a clothing-optional resort near Palm Springs.

According to bank records obtained by U-T San Diego, Dudley also withdrew thousands of dollars in cash from the charity’s bank account and racked up thousands more in overdraft and bounced-check fees.

“Michael left $21 in the bank,” said Ken Harrington, a volunteer who has served on the Auntie Helen’s board of directors.

Harrington said Dudley took a truck owned by the charity when he left his position, believing that Auntie Helen’s owed him money.

Previously: Bookkeeper questions charity laundry’s spending

Dudley, 59, declined to discuss the situation when approached at his Normal Heights apartment this week.

“I did the best I could,” he said before closing the door.

Just before leaving the charity, Dudley posted a message on the Auntie Helen’s Facebook page announcing his departure and thanking the community for its support.

He said the financial situation was bad when he took over, and had not improved, and he wants to focus on his new marriage.

“Every week there were new fires to put out,” Dudley wrote. “And the numbers are just as bad. David and I even tried to put some of our own money in. I haven’t been paid in 5 months.”

He added, “I have been helping with HIV and homeless for almost 30 years. I’m tired.”

Auntie Helen’s Fluff & Fold was established in 1988, when an activist named Gary Cheatham sought to help local AIDS patients by washing their clothes for free.

Named after Cheatham’s aunt, the project took root and Cheatham opened the thrift store in 1989. The service subsists off proceeds from the sale of donated clothes and household goods.

The shop has struggled since Cheatham passed away in 1995. Even a $500,000 bequest from McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc in 2003 wasn’t enough to sustain the organization. That money was gone in a few years.

At its peak, Auntie Helen’s was serving 800 clients a month. By 2011, when Dudley stepped in as executive director, the caseload had dipped to 260.

Volunteer Dermot Rodgers has taken over day-to-day operations as interim executive director. He said the board of directors had not authorized him to comment.

Longtime volunteer Kurt Cunningham said the store is headed in the right direction.

“The bills are getting paid, the doors are open and it’s getting back on the right track,” he said. “This is about the future and moving forward — not the past.”

U-T Watchdog reported two years ago that Dudley’s spending was being called in to question.

Among other expenses, the U-T reported, Dudley spent charity assets on personal dental work exceeding $20,000. He bought groceries, gas and restaurant meals with the charity debit card. He once withdrew $300 in cash from an ATM in a Florida casino, the records showed.

Dudley said then that the casino withdrawal was a mistake; the charity debit card looked identical to his own and he’d grabbed it by accident.

After the 2012 report was published, county Supervisor Ron Roberts ordered a review of a $10,000 county grant to Auntie Helen’s. Following the audit, much of the spending was found to be noncompliant and Dudley was asked to pay back almost $6.300.

More recent bank statements obtained by the Watchdog show Dudley spent thousands of charity dollars on meals, often more than one on the same day.

He charged Auntie Helen’s $186 for a summer visit to CCBC, a Cathedral City business that bills itself as the largest clothing-optional resort for gay men in Southern California.

During the same trip, the middle of a week in July, he charged $44 in groceries at a nearby supermarket and $33 at the local International House of Pancakes.

Bank statements dated from December 2013 to October 2014 show Dudley withdrew made $3,100 in cash from ATMs and the nonprofit group was charged $2,274 in bounced-check fees.

Harrington, the Auntie Helen’s board member, said the organization is working through its financial difficulties and predicted it would return to its core mission of serving those in need.

“Slowly but surely, things are starting to look up,” he said.

Dermot Rodgers, the new head of Auntie Helen’s, left, is seen feeding the homeless with his predecessor, Michael Dudley, right, on the group’s Facebook page, where the change was announced.