A Valley nonprofit is working to get back to its mission after a tumultuous year with an executive director suddenly stepping down and a decimated board left to pick up the pieces.
Ten days before Christmas, and less than a month after the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into “questionable transactions” with the local United Way, a Staunton resident contacted AFP and suggested we look into the local Habitat for Humanity because the talk around town was that the nonprofit “survived” but had faced similar circumstances.
The United Way of Staunton, Augusta County and Waynesboro announced its closure on Nov. 8, initially pointing to increasing costs and declining revenues. More than two weeks later, an investigation was under way, and an affidavit was filed seeking access to the finances of the former executive director, Kristi Williams.
There has been no additional information released on the ongoing investigation.
The story with Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Habitat for Humanity is that its former executive director, Lance Barton, left his post quietly in May, allegedly having been given the opportunity to resign and walk away.
AFP interviewed more than a dozen sources, including police, a Commonwealth’s Attorney, former Habitat board and staff members and the current executive director for the Habitat chapter. AFP also traded more than 100 emails in the last few weeks with sources directly related to this story.
Over the coming days, we’ll share a three-part series exploring the shakeup at Habitat, where the organization stands now and its plans for the future. We’ll also take a deep dive into what experts in the region believe non-profits and board members can learn from the fallout of both organizations.
- Part one: A tumultuous year for Habitat ends on a positive note (below)
- Part two: Habitat’s work continues, its plans for the future (Jan. 9, 2025)
- Part three: What we can all learn from Habitat, United Way (Jan. 10, 2025)
AFP reached out to Barton for comment on this story but has not heard back from him.
Part one: A tumultuous year for Habitat ends on a positive note
In December, there was a sense of relief among Staunton residents that Habitat for Humanity had survived the year. In the wake of a public investigation into finances at the local United Way chapter, Habitat had more quietly dealt with its own internal crisis.
Habitat’s executive director, Lance Barton, was allegedly given the opportunity to resign in May, after joining the nonprofit organization in fall of 2016. With his sudden departure, board members were left scrambling in an effort to keep the organization afloat.
In his absence, the board “worked tirelessly,” according to one former board member.
“From May through July, we worked tirelessly as a board to stabilize the organization after Lance’s departure,” real-estate broker Keri Wilfong told AFP.
Wilfong said her term had come to an end when she decided to step away. Other board members left the organization frustrated that there would be no day in court for the former executive director.
Privately, some people in the community were angry that a woman, Williams, under investigation by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, had her name sullied after United Way closed its doors, and Barton walked away scot free.
They were also disgruntled that former Staunton School Board chair Natasha McCurdy had been “raked through the coals” for money allegedly missing from the A.R. Ware Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association, which led to her eventual resignation as chair. To date, no charges have been filed against McCurdy or her twin sister.
One community member told AFP that they thought Barton had been given a pass, because he is a man and has a wife and a child, and that the dichotomy between the women and Barton’s treatment was “inherently unfair and discriminatory.”
Back to the beginning
Barton, just four months into his job at Habitat at the time, joined my husband and I on a weekly TV show we co-produced for a local PBS affiliate called “Viewpoints” in early January 2017.
On the show, Barton shared details of his past struggle with heroin addiction, his love of Eastern European graphic art and his acquisition of a 1910 printing press. The printing press, I’m told, was stored at the former location of Habitat on Richmond Road, but it did not make the move to the organization’s current location on Greenville Avenue.
Barton told viewers that as a teenager, he discovered he had no artistic ability, but fascinated by the art world, had found a place that didn’t require a paintbrush, assisting artists and putting on art shows instead.
“I was in high school, barely making it through, and I heard that if you take art classes, it’s really easy, so I took art classes, and I realized I can’t draw a circle to save my life, and so I would help them put on the student art shows,” Barton said. “I ended up doing that for twentysome years, and included publishing books and publishing catalogs for the shows.”
Barton’s involvement in art shows, his love of graphic art and substance abuse issues all may have played a role in his eventual departure from Habitat.
Alleged sexual misconduct leads to deeper dive into finances
Before his sudden departure in the spring, Barton came to the board and told members of possible charges he faced related to accusations of non-consensual sex reported in December 2023 while in Richmond for a boujee arts and craft show.
The alleged offense, I am told, is what led to the unraveling of Barton’s more than seven-year tenure with the non-profit.
The Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney confirmed to AFP that an investigation into an alleged sexual assault did occur, but she said her office chose not to prosecute the matter.
“Following our review of the investigation conducted by the Richmond Police Department, my office declined prosecution at that time, and the complainant was notified of that determination,” Colette Wallace McEachin told AFP.
The Staunton Police Department said it does not have a report of any sexual assault accusations involving Barton from December 2023.
While Barton did not ultimately face charges, when the board learned about the incident, members apparently began questioning Barton on whether the trip could be traced back to Habitat in any way through a company vehicle or credit-card transactions. Barton emphatically said no, but the matter pushed board members to dig deeper into the organization’s financial records. A former board member said they found that there had been some resources of Habitat utilized in the trip to Richmond.
Barton had recently returned from an obscure trip to Poland authorized by his board to purchase thousands of dollars of Shakespeare-inspired graphic art on Habitat’s dime. Barton had assured the board that they could resell the art for a profit at the Habitat ReStore (a retail store located on Greenville Avenue), which had set aside a small space to sell art, or through a fund-raiser.
While Barton may have had ideas for how to sell the graphic art in Staunton, there was no formal plan in place for marketing the art on his return. Because of his enthusiasm and potential profit for the art, the board had agreed to cover Barton’s expenses. A Staunton artist who shared a love for the graphic posters, Cleveland Morris, accompanied Barton on the international trip, but he was to be responsible for his own expenses.
Multiple sources told AFP that when the board began scrutinizing other aspects of the ledger, they found Habitat had paid for some of Morris’ expenses against the instructions of the board.
And so “the irregularities and finances started piling up,” one source told AFP.
Another recent transaction raised eyebrows among the board: despite having a company car, Barton had purchased an e-bike allegedly without prior approval. We’re told the bike was expensive, but Barton insisted he needed it for his mental health.
The board, afraid the sexual assault accusations would be made public and linked to the nonprofit, and now questioning other financial transactions, I’m told, ultimately gave Barton an opportunity to resign his position. The mutual agreement, which was alleged to include a severance package for Barton, was to remain confidential.
Other issues under Barton’s leadership
While sexual assault charges and questions about finances may have been the final straw, they weren’t the only complaints received about Barton, with sources calling him “one of the worst people I’ve met,” “toxic,” “a bacterial infection” and “a monster.”
Individuals previously associated with the organization shared harrowing accounts of a dangerous work environment for years with Barton at the helm: verbal abuse of staff members to the point of tears, a fierce temper, constant lies, uncomfortable conversations about sex, substance abuse and drunken behavior while on the clock, and the “strange” financial transactions.
There were also allegations that Barton was skimming off construction projects, embezzling funds outright, or, I’m told, forging a signature on at least one check.
While much less serious than the other accusations, multiple sources said he had bad judgement when it came to money, spending an exorbitant amount on personal expenses, particularly food and wine, and having Habitat pay for it.
To be clear, the board has not pursued civil or criminal proceedings against Barton as of this writing.
Allegedly, at a Habitat function, Barton was reportedly drunk, and when he was approached about his condition, he was said to be “incensed” and “defensive.” Another source said that while they suspected Barton may be drinking on the job, they didn’t have any proof. It could have also been, they said, that he was just “inappropriately overenthusiastic.”
While it’s impossible to know if every allegation against Barton was true, the sources AFP spoke to seemed to have the same recollection of the environment when Barton was in charge.
When Barton resigned in May 2024, the board opted to temporarily reassign his responsibilities among staff and board members, and they never addressed his departure with the public. The board simply swept the matter under the rug and got back to work.
New leader at the helm
Four months later, the organization brought on the former executive director of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County Habitat affiliate, David Wenger, in an interim role. Wenger said he’s agreed to stay on for as long as he’s needed in Staunton, up to a year. The plan is to re-evaluate his role this summer.
“We’re in the middle of an audit right now, which is standard as far as doing that,” Wenger told AFP. “If there’s anything that could come out of that, we’d ask questions about it and those type of things.”
Beyond the audit, Wenger said, to his knowledge, there has been no formal investigation or law enforcement involvement regarding any previous financial transactions. The nonprofit did request an extension to file its 990 tax returns, but Wenger said that is not unusual for organizations like Habitat.
Wenger said that his philosophy is there should be checks and balances with a board and staff.
“My rule of thumb for myself is not to be signing checks, because of the checks and balances of the board, so in most cases, even for the smaller things, we have a staff person doing that. I’m looking at the reports. I’m initialing off on the reconciliations so that there’s checks and balances on that side of things.”
Wenger said board members generally serve anywhere from one to five years, with the bylaws calling for an initial one-year term followed by two additional two-year terms. He said the makeup of the current board, down to only five members, could be attributed to terms expiring and people being busy, not necessarily anything nefarious, though the departures were before his time with the organization.
Not exactly Jimmy Carter’s vision
The late former President Jimmy Carter rolled up his sleeves and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity chapters across the country for more than three decades, pitching in to frame houses and paint walls alongside his wife, Rosalynn. Singlehandedly, the couple energized hundreds of thousands of volunteers, bringing international attention to the ongoing need for affordable housing.
Even for a small chapter, it seemed that perhaps the vision and mission of the organization had been lost somewhere in the years with Barton in charge of the Staunton chapter.
In a span of one to two years, a person familiar with the organization told me, only one house was completed. In a good year, five or six houses were under construction.
Affordable housing, it seemed, wasn’t being prioritized, but other projects that fed Barton’s passions, like the acquisition of the graphic posters, seemed to be of utmost importance.
The art now sits collecting dust until the organization figures out what to do with it.
“Even with his (Barton’s) departure from Habitat, he’s got a great concern for what’s going to happen to those posters. He loves those posters … they’ve (Habitat) got an inventory worth $10,000, but it’s like a musical instrument, unless you know what it is and how to use it, it doesn’t have any value,” Morris, the artist who traveled with Barton to Poland, said. “I mean there’s an invoice for every single one and how much was paid for it, but he (Barton) knows which ones are rare and out of print, which ones are by the most touted new designers, he knows, like a violin, he knows the inner workings of that. I don’t know that anyone over at Habitat knows that.”
Morris thought his involvement in the art project was a way to share the love of the artform with the community and start a conversation about the work Habitat was doing. The goal, Morris said, was to “get beautiful artwork in people’s homes and also expand the conversation about affordable housing.”
The project was imaginative, Morris said, and not just another fancy dinner with everyone getting dressed up and paying a hundred bucks to attend.
“I thought it was a great new way of raising money here in Staunton, an innovative way to share beautiful artwork with people who ordinarily wouldn’t think of having it in their houses … something that was fun, a conversation piece, bright, colorful stuff,” Morris told AFP.
Morris said he has also parted ways with Habitat and is no longer volunteering with the nonprofit on the project.
“I didn’t understand how they made the decisions that they made, let me just say that, related to Lance. I don’t know much about them, and I don’t really know the board members, and they don’t know me,” he said. “I think he [Barton] bought about $10,000 worth of posters that could have been resold for three times as much money. The prospect of fundraising was really dynamic.”
While some people outside the current fold of the organization questioned where the Polish art landed in the midst of Barton’s exit, the Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Habitat for Humanity ED confirmed the organization is in possession of the posters that were purchased in Poland for resale.
Though thousands of dollars were supposedly invested in the artwork, Wenger said Habitat has “not determined how to proceed with this project but will be working toward a plan for this in the future.”
Ending the year with a bit of cheer
Wenger, now three months into his interim role, is bringing his experience to the table for the nonprofit while it rebuilds and gets back to its core mission.
“The staff is good, and it’s intact,” he said. “The board members have a good understanding and have helped so they were able to keep things moving forward, or above water, or treading water, or what you want to say, until they talked with me, and I came on board to help move things forward.”
He said, in the three- to four-month absence of an executive director: “operations was maintaining.”
“Planning and forward thinking, as you would expect, was probably paused a little bit during that time,” Wenger said.
Just before Christmas, Wenger said they were able to help a family close on a new home. Neighbor Bridge helped stock the pantry and the fridge for the family. Francisco Farms donated a tree that was placed in the home so that when the family crossed the threshold, “they had a warm welcome.”
The new year gives the nonprofit a chance to turn the page.
“I can be a little pie in the sky, I guess,” Wenger said, hoping that with the forward momentum, the organization can have four or five builds in 2025. He is hoping to open up the application process soon for families and renters in need of affordable housing.
In the next month or so, Wenger said they also should be placing another family.
“I think there are bright things on the horizon. Housing is hard, but anything worth doing is usually hard.”
The Habitat series
This article is part one of a three-part series.
- Part one: A tumultuous year for Habitat ends on a positive note
- Part two: Habitat’s work continues, its plans for the future (Jan. 9, 2025)
- Part three: What we can all learn from Habitat, United Way (Jan. 10, 2025)
Related stories
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- Local United Way closure also ends free tax prep through Valley VITA
- United Way of Staunton, Waynesboro, Augusta County shuts down
- Staunton School Board chair resigns position amid PTA embezzlement allegation
- Viewpoints looks at Staunton Augusta Waynesboro Habitat for Humanity
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Crystal Graham
