Silver Valley group loses grant after working with disbarred Spokane attorney

Barbara Miller spent most of her adult life fighting to ensure five generations of those living with chronic lead poisoning in the Silver Valley got the resources they needed to thrive.

Last year, Miller achieved her masterstroke. Through hard work and hours of paperwork, she secured a $250,000 Thriving Communities grant that came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was administered through Seattle-based organization Philanthropy Northwest.

“It was an accumulation of 40 years of work of persevering with community involvement, education and outreach,” Miller said.

The grant was “to assist with reparations for environmental devastation and human health.”

After it was rescinded by the Trump administration and then reinstated, everything seemed a go for the grant that would fund the Silver Valley Resource Center and provide the money needed for a lead health clinic and a series of tests that would monitor lead levels in the blood of children living near the large toxic Superfund site in Kellogg.

Miller said Philanthropy Northwest officials required that she find a fiscal agent to help administer the grant.

The grant managers in Seattle put her in touch with the Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance that was supposed to work with Miller to ensure she followed all the tedious steps necessary to track the funding for the federal grant.

But once Miller’s organization signed a contract with SIMBA, and its executive director, Robin Haynes, everything changed.

Miller said she thought Haynes would act as a fiscal sponsor, to help guide her through the process. Instead, Miller said she received confusing requests, obligations and deadlines in documents asking her, in some cases, to sign off on things that didn’t occur.

“Nothing got answered after that,” Miller said, referring to signing the contract to work with SIMBA and Haynes. “Nothing.”

Miller only found out later that Haynes was disbarred in Washington after she was accused of stealing money from her two previous law firms and that her law license was suspended in Idaho for failing to tell clients about her disciplinary history.

Within months of trying to comply, Miller learned in March that the grant was “voluntarily” being canceled by SIMBA.

In the end, Miller’s bank statements indicate that the Silver Valley Resource Center only received about $5,000 of the grant that was supposed to fund a communitywide outreach program.

“We are not going to give up in spite of the grant” being canceled, she said. “It is not right.”

Angela Silva, the CEO of Collaborative Partners Initiative, is based in Tacoma. Silva said she began working with Miller and the Silver Valley Community Resource Center first with grant writing and then with help in complying with grants already awarded.

At Miller’s request, Silva reviewed the communications between her, Haynes and Denise Middlebrook, who Haynes hired to help administer the grant that Miller won.

“We did not see that Silver Valley did anything wrong. We saw Barbara try and try and try again, but not receive enough support to really complete her portion of work,” Silva said. “I have been working in this field for 25 years and have not seen anything like this between a fiscal -sponsored organization and a grantee.

“I think everyone started out with good intentions, but I think that there wasn’t enough follow -through in benefit of the doubt and grace given in those relationships. And so the fact that Barbara wrote the grant that got approved from Philanthropy Northwest and was not successful in her relationship because of SIMBA’s fiscal sponsorship, I think that it should be revisited.”

Haynes did not make herself available for interviews, but did send an email detailing her former association with Miller and the Silver Valley Community Resource Center.

Juan A. Mas, who serves as the SIMBA board president, defended Haynes’ handling of the grant with Miller and blamed the failed grant on Miller’s organization.

“The cause was worthy. We needed to help get them there,” Mas said. “There are things they had to do on their own side that we cannot do for them that they weren’t doing.

“Their failure to complete certain tasks caused it to be complicated for us to be able to fulfill the subject that Philanthropy Northwest was requesting.”

Problems with money

The failed grant wasn’t the first time that concerns over fiscal management have come up regarding Haynes.

On the SIMBA website, Haynes wrote that she came to the organization with “two decades of small business assistance experience.”

“She believes strongly in second chances, career shifts, and new beginnings and knows that the prosperous, equitable, and local economy SIMBA strives to build can only exist if everyone in the community can participate,” the profile states.

But some of those career shifts and new beginnings came as a result of legal problems.

On Oct. 1, 2016, Haynes became the youngest attorney, then age 38, to become president of the Washington Bar Association.

But her run as president lasted eight months until she resigned after she was accused by two former employers and the bar association of stealing thousands of dollars, through improper use of company credit cards and false reimbursements.

In 2021, Haynes agreed to a deferment in which a felony count of first-degree theft, three counts of second-degree theft and one count of first-degree identity theft would be dismissed if she complied with a list of requirements.

Those felony charges were dismissed on Feb. 25, after Haynes had already begun administering the grant for Silver Valley Community Resource Center.

Prior to her criminal charges being resolved, Haynes was disbarred from practicing as an attorney in Washington on May 15, 2023.

She also had her law license suspended in Idaho for two years effective in February, the same month her criminal charges in Spokane County Superior Court were dismissed.

The Idaho Supreme Court in February suspended Haynes’ license for three years in 2023 for a separate disciplinary matter. In that case, she did not inform two clients “about the possibility of her disciplinary suspension and the consequent termination of her representation and withdrawal as counsel in the clients’ custody cases.”

That same year, Haynes twice filed for federal bankruptcy, and subsequently sued the U.S. Department of Education, seeking relief for more than $142,000 in student loans used to obtain the law degree that she could no longer use in Washington.

All those matters were dismissed in 2024.

Mas, the SIMBA board president, said his organization was aware of Haynes’ financial and legal history before they hired her.

“The board became aware of it. There was discussions. We did our own research and we also interviewed some folks, and we spoke with Robin in detail,” Mas said. “And we felt comfortable on moving forward on hiring her because she had worked for the organization as a contractor. And we were very impressed with her work.”

Mas acknowledged that others who learned of Haynes’ past would have concerns about her managing funds.

“Of course,” he said. “We did our own research and we did our own investigation and we did our own conversations, and we felt comfortable with our decision.”

He added that Haynes continues to have the board’s full support.

“She has brought SIMBA up to a level in the community where we’re respected,” Mas said. Haynes is “doing fantastic work for small businesses.”

Silva, the CEO of the Collaborative Partners Initiative, said she learned about Haynes’ past through an online search. She informed Miller of her findings.

“We brought this forward to Philanthropy Northwest. They said, ‘Well, if you have any evidence of any wrongdoing, let us know,’ ” Silva said.

Officials at Philanthropy Northwest declined to comment for this story.

Regardless, Silva said she hopes that highlighting the problematic situation leads to Miller getting another shot at a grant to help residents of the Silver Valley.

“This leaves Barbara … with no funding and a potentially tarnished reputation in this space with grantors,” Silva said. “And then it leaves SIMBA … still on path to receive additional federal funds.”

Miller said she will continue her work, but said losing the grant was particularly painful.

“It was so exciting to come to this stage after 40 years,” she said. “We are going to carry on and get the justice that people deserve here.”