Dr. Roderick Watts, Alabama A&M
Several members of the Alabama A&M Board of Trustees have ties to companies that provide goods and services to the state of Alabama. According to a report today at donaldwatkins.com, some of those board members have been informed that their status as state vendors will be in jeopardy if A&M attempts to collect on a $527-million debt the U.S. government has determined the state owes A&M as a result of chronic underfunding by the state over roughly 30 years.
Donald Watkins, a longtime Alabama attorney who has become a leading voice in online investigative journalism, says this edict from the state helps explain A&M's failure to seek payment on a debt that clearly is owed and likely could positively affect A&M's fortunes far into the future. In short, Watkins states, some trustees apparently are afraid to buck the state. That raises at least two questions: (1) Does Alabama's not-so-subtle message to A&M board members amount to an unlawful threat under the Alabama Criminal Code? (2) If so, does that constitute extortion as a matter of law? The answer to both questions appears to be yes, which raises this question: Is the state of Alabama going to get away with it?
How did such a disturbing situation arise? Under the headline "The Watts Family Pocketed $21 Million in State Funds, But Alabama A&M Board Chairman Roderick Watts Refuses to Collect a $527 Million Debt the State Owes A&M," Watkins provides details:
Enrestoration Inc., is a residential health-care company that is dedicated to helping individuals with mental health and related challenges move toward recovery, health, and greater independence through community living, meaningful work, and clinical care.
Enrestoration offers a full range of care, with programs in Etowah County, Alabama, and the surrounding counties for those ready for new challenges and structured transition.
Enrestoration is a family-owned business that was originally incorporated on June 19, 1989 by distinguished nursing educator and businesswoman Roberta O. Watts. Roger William Watts, Sr. (her husband), and Roderick DeWayne Watts (her son). It was dissolved on June 5, 1990.
The Watts familyincorporated Enrestoration, Inc., again on November 17, 1994
On July 7, 2022, Roberta and Roger Watts removed themselves as an "Incorporator/Member/Partner" in their individual names and substituted Target Management Trust as the “Director/Manager/Organizer Activity” and “Registered Agent.” The company also named Target Management Trust as a “Director” and Bethlehem Management as an “Incorporator.”
Target Management Trust is an Alabama real estate investment trust that is housed in a commercial building owned by Roger Watts at 201 Wall Street in Gadsden.
The beneficiaries of Target Management Trustare not disclosed in public records
Roberta Watts is still listed as Enrestoration’s corporate “Secretary," according to records maintained by the Alabama Secretary of State.
Enrestoration Inc. appears to operate in an "off the grid" manner, and Watkins says that probably is due to Roderick Watts' position on the A&M Board of Trustees and the company's status as a state vendor. Reports Watkins:
Enrestoration is a "for profit" company. It is a completely separate and distinct entity from the Roberta O. Watts Medical Center owned and operated by Quality of Life Health Services, Inc. The Quality of Life entity is a private, "non-profit" 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Interestingly, the owners of Enrestoration are NOT listed anywhere on the company’s website. Likewise, neither the beneficiaries of Target Management Trust, nor the owners of Bethlehem Management, are listed on the company's website.
However, the "Agency Experience" section of Enrestoration's website states that the company "is owned and operated by a highly qualified community/mental health nurse educator, University of Alabama Nursing Hall of Fame recipient, with a specialty in community mental health." These credentials fit Roberta O. Watts
How best to describe this peculiar arrangement? Watkins uses these words: Enrestoration Operates in a Stealth Mode Until it is Time to Collect a Vendor Payment from the State of Alabama. Watkins provides details:
Enrestoration is a major healthcare provider to the Alabama Department of Mental Health. According to Open Alabama Checkbook. Enrestoration has received a whopping $21,227,483 from the state of Alabama in the last seven years fiscal years (running from Oct.1st through September 30th).
The payments were doled out to Enrestoration during this period are as follows:
1. $4,087,768.12 in 2017
2. $3,695,568.25 in 2018
3. $3,613,551.19 in 2019
4. $3,477,880.63 in 2020
5. $2,600,353.52 in 2021
6. $1,972,204.36 in 2022
7. $1,780,157.26 in 2023
Even when reporting Enrestoration's publicly available compliance information to the Alabama Department of Mental Health, the company only listed bare-bones information. Furthermore, the company’s reporting official only uses her first name, “Peggy.”
Other oddities surround Enrestoration Inc., Watkins reports:
Enrestoration is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. In fact, it does not appear from the company's website that Enrestoration is accredited by any recognized accrediting agency in the mental-health profession.
Because Enrestoration, Inc., is an unaccredited, Black-owned business that pockets annual multimillion-dollar payments from Alabama taxpayers, the company's true owners and management team apparently felt a need to "fly under the radar" in order to avoid any public scrutiny of its company profile, services offerings, and substantial revenue streams
Why the concern about public scrutiny? Watkins posits this: Roderick DeWayne Watts is an Heir Apparent to Enrestoration's fortune. Then Watkins adds:
Roberta and Roger Watts have two children, one of whom is Dr. Roderick DeWayne Watts.
Dr. Watts is Chairman of the Alabama A&M University board of trustees. I profiled Dr. Watts in an October 23, 2023, article titled, “Alabama A&M Board Agenda Omits Authorization to Collect $527 Million owed to University by State.”
Even though Dr. Watts is an alumnus of Tuskegee University, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey appointed him to the Alabama A&M board of trustees on May 16, 2017. She likes him. Dr. Watts was reappointed by Ivey for a second term and was confirmed by the Alabama Senate on March 31, 2022.
Dr. Watts is a staunch supporter of President Daniel K. Wims, despite Wims’ checkered employment record in higher education and a documented history of formal sexual harassment complaints filed against Wims by men and women employees in his workplace.
In October 2021, Watts voted in favor of selecting Wims as Alabama A&M’s president over two more objectively qualified candidates for the job.
Watts does not appear to be a hard-nosed advocate for A&M's best interests. It's more of a "go along, to get along" style. Writes Watkins:
Today, Dr. Watts leads a notoriously weak and ethically challenged board of trustees that is backing President Wims' refusal to collect the $527,280,064 debt owed to Alabama A&M by the state of Alabama.
Dr. Watts and his board members have also acquiesced in Wims' rapid conversion of Alabama A&M from a respected institution of higher education into a hotbed of activities for MAGA operatives, a home for sexual predators in top management positions, and a platform for MAGA vendors to gouge the university for doing little to no work.
We have confirmed that any hesitation by Dr. Watts in backing President Wims' refusal to collect the university’s $527,280,064 from the state of Alabama will result in the Department of Mental Health’s immediate cancellation of Enrestoration's multimillion-dollar annual contracts for health-care services to the state. This places Dr. Watts in an apparent conflict-of-interest situation.
Instead of resigning to avoid his apparent conflict of interest, Dr. Watts decided to betray Alabama A&M University and Bulldog Nation in October by refusing to direct Wims, other university executive officers, and school attorneys to use all lawful means necessary to collect this $527,280,064 debt.
Dr. Watts is not alone in his apparent conflict of interest. State money has also flowed to other trustees who support Wims' de facto waiver of this $527,280,064 debt
In a series of upcoming articles, we will expose the other pro-Wims trustees who have received vendor payments from the state of Alabama and who are backing Wims' refusal to collect this $527,280,064 debt.
Like Dr. Watts, these conflicted trustees have knowingly and willingly placed their personal financial interests ahead of their sworn duty to secure, protect, and grow Alabama A&M’s portfolio of financial assets.
Stay tuned as we expose the staggering conflicts of interest at Alabama A&M University that are preventing the institution from collecting its $527,280,064 debt.