The Police Athletic League of Delaware (PAL DE) announces new leadership after former Delaware Speaker of the House Valerie Longhurst resigned from her role as executive director last month.
New Castle County Chief of Police Col. James Leonard was tapped by New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry to serve as the interim chair of the PAL DE Board. Lt. Angela Dolan steps in as interim executive director while a search is underway for a permanent replacement.
“Recently, I was made aware of some concerning issues at the PAL DE,” County Executive Henry said in a statement. “We immediately took action to put temporary, trusted leadership in place to right the ship. I’ve instructed Col. Leonard to work out the best path forward to serve our youth, because they should always remain the top priority for this organization.”
PAL DE offers a variety of youth programming in New Castle County with a focus on academics, drug awareness, suicide and violence prevention, summer camps and athletic activities.
While the reason behind Longhurst’s departure was not publicly announced, Col. James Leonard confirms recent financial strain led to the temporary closure of two of PAL DE's three locations.
“There were just some cash flow concerns that at one point in time, over the summer, had forced the then-executive director to have to shut the Delaware City Center and, very temporarily I'll say, shut the Garfield Park Center," he said.
The Delaware City PAL re-opened at the start of the school year but is still not back to its full operational schedule.
Following Longhurst’s resignation, the state froze hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to PAL DE while the Controller General's Office reviews the organization’s financial documents.
PAL DE received $205,000 in the fiscal year 26 Grants-In-Aid Bill, which distributes state dollars to nonprofit organizations, and $300,000 from the Bond Bill's Community Reinvestment Fund for a "roof-top solar array and environmental controls."
Col. Leonard says he and members of the board are also working to find clarity on what caused the recent financial stress.
“We're due for the generalized nonprofit yearly audit, but we've brought some of the questions and concerns that the board has and presented them to the auditor. Our hope is that we can get some more detailed responses after their analysis," he said.
Joint Finance Committee Chair Kim Williams (D-Stanton) says once the remaining documentation is delivered to the state and further questions are answered, budget leaders will meet with members of PAL DE leadership to discuss releasing the funds.
Col. Leonard says its not uncommon for the police to step into PAL DE leadership roles in the interim during a transitional phase for the nonprofit.
While the interim leadership team and board members work on getting to the bottom of the cash flow concerns, Col. Leonard says he also hopes this transition is an opportunity to reinvigorate PAL DE programming.
"The main goal, as I see it, and what I long for with regards to the PAL, was to have more police youth involvement, and that is our ultimate goal. And it will be incrementally, obviously, but we've always had an officer assigned to the Hockessin PAL and the Garfield Park PAL, but I want to get us back to the days where our officers would stop in when they had some free time, would eat lunch there with the kids and participate in weekend activities," Col. Leonard said. "And over the years, for whatever reason, that kind of has dissipated. And my main goal is to let the kids know that the Police Athletic League is going to be full of police officers in an effort to build relationships with these kids, help them out when they can, so that they're not only seeing us in times of need, but are looking at us as a resource to them, as a mentors to them and as partners to them."
Before being named interim chair, Col. Leonard served as a PAL DE board member and says he plans to continue in that role after the transition is complete.
