Allen, chief executive officer of Atico Bank and the previous board chairman, said he, too, was unaware of Hardwick paying off a tax lien and having board approval to be reimbursed for it.

Said Allen: "There were never any discussions about any reimbursement for a tax lien. There was nothing ever in writing about Archie Hardwick getting reimbursed."

Told that neither board chairman knew about the tax reimbursement, Hardwick said he could provide documentation to prove his claim if given some time.

In a subsequent taped interview, Hardwick supplied a memo he said proved his point.

The memo was from Hardwick to fiscal director Thoroman.

The subject: "Procedure for Cash Reimbursement for loan for $75,000.00 IRS."

It read in part:

"At the present time with the establishment of the Fiscal Department, I would like to start reimbursement of this amount. This has Board approval.

"The procedure I wish to establish is the following:

1) "Write checks to me (Archie W. Hardwick) when asked for reimbursement and code checks as "Miscellaneous Expense."

2) "Write checks to yourself (George Thoroman) when asked for reimbursement and code these checks also as "Miscellaneous Expense, " and please cash and return cash to me.

". . . and I request you keep these transactions and matter simply between yourself and the President."

The memo was dated March 25, 1990 -- a Sunday.

It was printed on a laser printer -- which the agency didn't have until August.

And it purportedly was typed by Michelle E. Brownlee -- a secretary who didn't work at JESCA in March.

Confronted with these facts, Hardwick conceded that the memo had been typed only a few days before the interview. It wasn't meant to be a photostat of the original memo, he said. It had been typed "from memory, " he said, because the original is among the stolen documents.

A few minutes after admitting that the memo was a "reconstruction, " Hardwick also said it was inaccurate: The $50,000 he withdrew from JESCA bank accounts last year was not just for paying off a tax lien after all.

Instead, it was reimbursement for agency expenses that he had to pay out of his own pocket, Hardwick said.

In the past four years, Hardwick said in that interview, he has accumulated about $90,000 in JESCA-related expenses. These include: about $58,000 in business expenses, about $25,000 in tax refunds garnished by the IRS and an additional $6,850 to pay off an agency tax lien. He did not substantiate the business expenses.

And tax records later supplied by Hardwick show that at least $12,600 of the $25,000 garnished by the IRS is now listed as a personal credit to be given back to Hardwick.

Hardwick said he wasn't aware of the credit when he wrote the JESCA checks to himself. "If they send me the money, I will give it back to JESCA, " he said.

Asked why he initially said all $50,000 he recently withdrew was solely for the tax lien, Hardwick said that during the initial interview, he was rattled and afraid and not thinking clearly.

On Aug. 7, Hardwick withdrew $2,500 from a JESCA bank account reserved for United Way funds. On Dec. 5, he withdrew an additional $2,600 from the same account. Both checks were marked advance pay. Computer payroll records show that Hardwick received his full pay both months -- plus the $5,100 in advances.

In the two interviews, Hardwick gave two different explanations for the $5,100 withdrawal.

In the first interview he said the money most likely went for car-repair bills. "Somehow or another, I paid it back."

In a second interview, he said it was a board-authorized loan to enable him to purchase a benefits package and was repayable by December 1991.

Hardwick provided another memo to document the $5,100 loan. He later admitted it, too, had been "reconstructed." It was dated Dec. 10, months after one of the advances and five days after the second.

From the memo to Thoroman:

"Please make note of this in our promissory note file, and contact me in the Spring of 1991 for repayment schedule."

Thoroman said he inherited a porous system when he began as fiscal director a year ago and has labored hard to plug the holes.

"I think Mr. Hardwick has the agency's best interests at heart; he's just lived with the agency so long he presumes he can do anything he wants, " Thoroman said. "You're dealing with someone who's in complete control and not responsible to anybody."

He said he will demand changes when he addresses new board members this month.

"This has to be rectified, or they can have my resignation. I will not continue to have a hemorrhaging like this, " said Thoroman.

Thoroman himself received a pay raise last year that doubled his salary: from $35,000 to $70,000.

And on April 23 of last year, Thoroman withdrew $11,500 from a JESCA bank account reserved exclusively for United Way funds. The check is marked "for car for agency."

But the car, a 1990 Plymouth Sundance, is registered in Thoroman's name.

Getting his own car was part of the agreement that brought him to the agency, Thoroman said. He said Hardwick and Allen both approved using United Way funds to buy him a personal car.

"The board said, 'That's fine, ' " Thoroman recalled.

Board Chairman George, however, recalled no such agreement.

"Are you kidding?" said George. "I'm sure I wasn't at that meeting or any other like it and was not aware that this had occurred."

Said Allen: "I have no recollection of that."

On April 2 of this year, after a series of Herald interviews, Thoroman signed a sworn statement agreeing to give the car to JESCA "upon termination of employment" from the agency.

Last Aug. 8, Thoroman cashed a JESCA account check for $3,500 labeled "advance upon condo."

This, he said, was part of a $12,000 loan he got from JESCA "for possible down payment" on a condominium. He said he decided not to buy because "of the instability of the agency."

The loan, according to another "reconstructed" memo, is to be repaid to JESCA "in equal installments of $1,000" beginning in June 1991.

Of the $55,000 he recently withdrew from JESCA accounts, Thoroman said most of it went to Hardwick.

According to Thoroman:

Hardwick would ask if Thoroman was going to the bank that day. If he said "yes, " Hardwick would say: "Well, write a check to yourself, and give me the money."

"I'd do it, " Thoroman said.

In August alone Thoroman cashed more than $30,000 drawn from JESCA accounts -- the bulk, he said, ending up in Hardwick's hands.

He said he became frightened of walking through poor neighborhoods with so much cash.

The chronic withdrawals on Hardwick's behalf got so bad, Thoroman said, that he demanded a letter of protection from Hardwick.

"I told Hardwick he was putting the onus on me. That I'm the one being put behind the eight ball, " Thoroman said. "I said, 'My God, this looks ridiculous.' He said, 'OK, I'll just write a memo that protects you.' "

Dated Sept. 12, the memo authorized Thoroman to withdraw money on Hardwick's behalf, Thoroman said.

JESCA has a projected budget of almost $7 million this year. Most of it comes from public funds: federal, state, county and city. United Way also has been generous.

But the 66-year-old community association currently has its share of financial woes. JESCA has been hard pressed to make payroll some weeks, and it owes $206,000 in delinquent payroll taxes, which the IRS intends to collect.

Last month, many of the association's 200 employees -- some of whom earn as little as $7,800 annually -- went without paychecks because the bank accounts were empty.

"If this agency were run right, we'd make it, " said Jansson, the former assistant fiscal director who recently resigned. "If we had all the money that's been taken, we could meet our tax liability."

Rayford Taylor, who had worked at JESCA for 12 years, was let go last October. "They said they didn't have the funds to pay."

At the time, the retired Army officer had to take care of a family of four. Two weeks later, he had a stroke. "I think it was related to the termination."

He said JESCA still owes him more than $5,000 in back pay.

Rose Moore, who worked at JESCA for 13 years, also left the agency last October. She said she and a number of others left because they frequently didn't get paid. She said JESCA still owes her $3,000.

"I had to go on food stamps and welfare while I worked there, " Moore said. "I'd walk away on Friday with tears in my eyes because another week had gone by and still no paycheck.

"And I had worked like a dog all week because I believed in the program."

JESCA, she said, is the only local program representing black people and the community. But, she said, something has gone wrong.

Said Moore: "Have you ever heard of directors of an anti- poverty program making more than $100,000 a year with cellular phones in their cars?"

Herald staff writers Lisa Getter and Jeff Leen contributed to this report.