Jackson Johnson retires from Lansing as federal investigation looms

It won’t be an easy feat to replace Joan Jackson Johnson.

Amid accusations of years of financial mismanagement, Jackson Johnson sent notice on Friday of her immediate retirement as the city’s long-time director of Human Relations and Community Services. That letter — although only two sentences long — noted it had been her “honor to serve the people of the city of Lansing.”

But ask many who have gotten to know Jackson Johnson since she was hired by former Mayor Virg Bernero in 2008 and they’d tell you that honor was all theirs. Some of those closest to Jackson Johnson said they’ll always remember the impact she made on the capital city as one of Lansing’s most stalwart advocates for the poor.

“Hard work, compassion and elbow grease were the order of the day with Triple J,” Bernero said Monday. “Dr. Johnson worked tirelessly on behalf of the neediest of Lansing residents. I saw her put the needs of others over her own time and time again. I have no reason to doubt her integrity and commitment to her mission.”

Even as a federal investigation looms over Jackson Johnson’s alleged missteps in office, Bernero, among others in Lansing, are just starting to realize that someone as altruistic as “Triple J,”like so many affectionately called her, could be capable of doing something wrong. Her name may have been tainted, but they still expect it to be cleared.

“She didn’t care if you were black, white. It didn’t make any difference. Male, female, it didn’t bother her. She got her hands dirty. She rolled up her sleeves and she worked to help make Lansing great. We stand on her shoulders,” the Rev. Clyde Carnegie said. “Joan, we love you. We’re not going to leave you.”

And Jackson Johnson won’t exactly be leaving either. Although now retired, Jackson Johnson’s attorney, Jamie White, told the media last week that she was excited and enthusiastic about this “new phase” in her life and that she’ll now be able to focus more on her family and her “lifelong passion” of “helping others.”

It’s still unclear what that charitable work might look like outside of City Hall, especially as the city continues to pursue a court-ordered takeover of a nonprofit — One Church One Family — that Jackson Johnson purportedly resigned from last year. Its future operation in Lansing remains largely uncertain.

White and Jackson Johnson haven’t returned calls. Others in the community that were once quick to defend Jackson Johnson have also been less vocal in recent weeks after she was ousted from the job in January. And it has left the residents of Lansing with two sharply contrasting legacies that Jackson Johnson will leave behind.

Jackson Johnson — hired by Bernero in 2008 — had largely dedicated her life to community service even before the phrase became part of her job title. She has been heavily involved in dozens of charitable organizations for decades and has since developed a reputation as the patron saint of some of the poorest residents in Lansing.

“She’s a beacon of hope in this city,” Joshua Gillespie said. “She’s the reason why so many people are fed in this city, why many people have clothes in this city and why kids can eat when they get out of school. Dr. Joan Jackson Johnson is more than a hero. She’s God sent, purposed to do the work of taking care of people.”

Gillespie’s comment came soon after the news broke last month that Jackson Johnson has been placed on paid suspension based in a forensic audit and the city had referred its findings to the state attorney general. With Gillespie and most other of her friends and supporters staying quiet as the investigation escalated to the federal level — as well as Jackson Johnson herself — City Pulse has had to piece together a bio of Jackson Johnson from media reporting that City Pulse hasn’t been able to verify independently.

Those stories and her resume say Jackson Johnson grew up in poverty in Tampa, Florida, and attended a racially segregated public school system with her eight siblings. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, a faith-based private school established specifically to educate African American students.

Childhood roadblocks of disadvantage and discrimination helped to fuel her personal passion for advocating, empowering and educating poor children and families about homelessness and food deprivation, according to a interview she gave to the Capital Area Women’s Lifestyle Magazine for a cover story published in 2018.

By the 1970s, Jackson Johnson moved to Michigan and earned her master’s degree — and later her doctorate degree — in psychology from Michigan State University, according to a resume filed with the city of Lansing. It was there she met her husband Vernon and later had five children, including three who had been adopted.

She later went on to work as a probation officer for Ingham County and then as counselor for the Michigan Bureau of Rehabilitation while also starting up her own psychology practice, the East Lansing Center for Family. She still owns the building, but the staff told City Pulse last week that she rarely ever comes to the office.

Bernero reportedly recruited Jackson Johnson to his cabinet while the duo served on the board of directors for Community Mental Health. Mayor Andy Schor retained her in the same position when he was elected in 2017.

And over the years, Jackson Johnson has been said to have dedicated just about every ounce of her free time back to the local community. With help from Bernero, she helped to start a nonprofit organization — One Church One Family — to purchase homes in Lansing and rent them to homeless families at a drastically reduced rate.

She was also involved with the Capital Area Health Alliance, Capital Area Community Servicesm Inc., Loaves and Fishes Ministries, Advent House Ministries, the African American Health Institute, Catholic Social Services, the Ingham County Child Death Review Board, Capital Area Food Security Coalition and many other groups.

Jackson Johnson — when not inside her office applying for grants and coordinating services — was also known to scout around to local homeless shelters and search beneath bridges for those who needed her help. On the weekends, she also volunteered to serve meals to the homeless and had been known to pitch in any way she can.

That generosity led to her induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame among other awards such as the Advent House Volunteer of the Year, the ATHENA Award, State of Michigan Volunteer Family of the Year, the NAACP Citizen of the Year for Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. the Sojourner Truth Award and many others.

Carnegie, Gillespie and several others crowded Lansing City Hall last month after the news broke that Jackson Johnson had been accused of financial impropriety and had been placed on paid leave. Like so many others in Lansing, they found it shocking that Jackson Johnson could have done anything but positive work for the city.

“If we’re not supporting the people that are disenfranchised and at the bottom of our socioeconomic scale, our entire community is impacted,” added retired Lansing teacher Cheryl Dudley. What had been done to Jackson Johnson, she said, was “horrible.” And “a price is always paid when we touch God’s people doing God’s work.”

But according to auditors, that work apparently also includes mismanaged finances and conflicting interests.

After the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified city officials about “issues with contracts” stemming from Jackson Johnson’s department last year, auditors were hired to investigate. And their findings have cast a shadow over Jackson Johnson’s otherwise impeccable record with the city.

Their report found at least $1.38 million in city funds — under Jackson Johnson’s direct oversight — had been funneled into various nonprofit groups in which she was either directly involved or had ties to members of her immediate family. That included at least $86,000 that directly benefited those charitable agencies, auditors said.

Records also showed One Church One Family had received the bulk of that cash — nearly $500,000 — while Jackson Johnson served simultaneously as a department director for the city and as the nonprofit’s president, secretary and treasurer. Officials have since cast the dueling roles as an insurmountable conflict of interests.

City officials this month also discovered that five of the six members of Lansing’s Human Relations and Community Services Board — an entirely advisory and volunteer body which helped Jackson Johnson distribute grant funding — had been fraudulently listed in state records as directors of One Church One Family.

Subsequent interviews with board members showed that none were actually willingly involved in the nonprofit at all, indicating Jackson Johnson — at least in recent years — had directed the entire operation. Schor had labeled the development as “surprising” as officials continued to explore how the nonprofit had operated.

In the meantime, without any state registered agent or a formal board of directors, the city is demanding a court-ordered audit of the nonprofit’s financials to ensure thousands of dollars in grant funding were spent appropriately. Lansing has also since petitioned a judge to appoint a receiver to take over the nonprofit.

But early records from One Church One Family show that Lansing is only attempting to dismantle a product of its own creation. Bylaws show Bernero had actually appointed Jackson Johnson (and former planning director Bob Johnson) to serve on the nonprofit’s board of directors. And it wasn’t a problem at the time, Bernero said.

“A city official serving on the board of a community nonprofit isn’t an issue as long as there is transparency and accountability with regard to any perceived or actual conflicts of interest,” Bernero told City Pulse Monday. “Any contract I signed would have been vetted by the city attorney, so I had no reason to question the legality or propriety.”

But under Schor’s administration, the dueling roles — where Jackson Johnson had essentially cashed checks that carried her own signature — created a sort of legal grey area that warranted some more immediate consequences.

“I can only address the decision that I needed to make when the information was in front of me,” Schor said. “When we saw a forensic audit suggesting that an employee may have violated state, federal or local law, it rose to the level where we strongly recommended putting her on leave and provided the report to proper authorities.”

Because the cash also involved federal grants, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office — which was charged with reviewing the situation after Jackson Johnson was placed on paid leave last month — has since referred the file to federal investigators. A spokeswoman for the U.S. District Attorney’s office declined to elaborate on the referral.

Court records also contend One Church One Family has failed to provide any records of how it spent nearly $250,000 in grant funding and, after Jackson Johnson’s resignation, is essentially a ship without a rudder. City officials contend a local judge will have to appoint someone else to take control over the nonprofit.

That person, if appointed, would also be tasked with ensuring homelessness prevention services continue for dozens of local families, including those housed at nine homes owned and operated by One Church One Family. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Clinton Canady. A hearing will help to sort out the finer details on Feb. 26.

“I never caught one whiff of financial impropriety from Joan’s office,” Bernero added. “This case only highlights the need to strengthen the city’s internal reviews and controls to make sure all conflicts are brought to light in a timely way and are appropriately addressed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”

But as the case continues, Lansing is left to decide between two versions of Jackson Johnson. The first: an impassioned community servant that has done nothing but help others. The latter: a top city executive who had too much control over finances, too little oversight and a disregard for proper bookkeeping and ethical rules.

“Were we perfect? Of course not. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely,” Bernero explained this week. “But I never had reason to doubt the integrity or commitment of my cabinet members.”

Visit lansingcitypulse.com for previous and continued coverage on Jackson Johnson’s departure.