The group called Fighting AIDS in our Community Today (FACT) is hoping to rebound from what, by any measure, has been an awful three years.

The nonprofit organization has been dogged by state legislative questioning, first about its proposed spending of taxpayer money, and then about how the money did get spent. Despite handout upon handout from local, state and federal government coffers, FACT has had little success building its outreach into the black community due to years of staff turnover.

The new executive director came over after being fired from his health district job. And while his $55,000 salary is $8,000 less than he was making at the governmental agency, Lionel Starkes is using his Episcopalian priest ordination to pad his income by offering "spiritual support" in the manner of baptisms, confessions, weddings and burials -- all for a price -- to FACT clients. And now, as the group's founder, Michael Chambliss, awaits trial on a homicide charge, Starkes is hoping to keep the organization alive by milking another $400,000 out of local taxpayers.

FACT has gotten at least $1.25 million over three years from the Legislature, Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. That figure does not include what could very well be millions more from the feds.

For instance, a Housing and Urban Development press release on July 24, 2003, highlighted the new 60,000-square-foot offices FACT was to occupy thanks to $6.5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds. But FACT doesn't occupy anything more than 3,400 square-feet over at its Wheeler Peak Street office in the Enterprise Health Care Center off Martin Luther King Boulevard. And it was a 2001 legislative appropriation of $500,000, coupled with $419,800 from Clark County, which got that little addition built.

Maybe HUD made a $6.5 million typo. I haven't been able to get anyone to verify either way.

But since money was pouring in from Chambliss' friends in high places, who's to say $6.5 million isn't sitting in someone's offshore account?

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, as chairman of Ways and Means, got $500,000 earmarked for Southern Nevada AIDS efforts as part of a $1 million appropriation split between the north and south. The bill never mentions FACT, even though that's where the money ended up going.

Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who helped Chambliss get his lucrative concession at McCarran International Airport, also helped the group get capital fundings, operating funds and program funds from Clark County. The county said it has handed some $919,800 to FACT over the years.

In 2003, FACT got $250,000 more out of the Legislature thanks to Arberry. That appropriation was scrutinized when the group proposed spending a chunk of change on a gospel concert.

By the time the 2005 Legislature adjourned, FACT still hadn't reported how it had spent its 2003 appropriation. Typically that would mean the money has to go back to the state. FACT got an extension. But Amy Roukie of the state's health division said FACT has finally filed the appropriate paperwork to be in compliance with the legislative appropriation. Roukie said the group still has nearly $42,000 to spend.

FACT is simply a money pit -- and plunking any more cash into this type of "outreach" is just continuing to grease the outstretched hands of a group whose impact is questionable, at best.

In a required monthly report to Clark County, dated Feb. 17, Starkes highlighted no tangible client numbers, with the exception of "testing 23 clients in house" and referring two clients to other agencies for housing assistance.

The line about testing might make you think that's what FACT does. It isn't. The health district does all testing for FACT, which is not licensed to do so.

So in the whole month of January the group basically told two people where to go to get subsidized housing and got 23 people to roll up their sleeves for a governmental agency. Since those numbers make it hard to justify nine staff members, FACT wants to grow into a busier line of work.

This year it is asking Clark County for $416,048. The request seeks an entire ambulatory medical clinic complete with a physician and nursing staff. These employees would join with the current band of undereducated staffers whose resumes show past stints at Wal-Mart, community college attendance and doing God knows what over at the Economic Opportunity Board.

And FACT is being a good citizen now that it wants to continue slurping from government's troughs. In its February report to Clark County, Starkes frets a bit about the bureaucracy over at the city. "Finally after many dealings with Las Vegas city's Planning Department and the city's Business License Bureau, FACT got its business license," Starkes reported. "This is a new requirement for any (community-based organization) wanting to apply for Las Vegas city grant money."

Too bad Starkes had to give in about getting the business license. It's clear there's no business taking place over at the Wheeler Peak office.

But heck, if it means the group can suck a few more dollars out of the city, all is good. After all, the damn Legislature doesn't go back into session for 10 whole months.

"We live on grants," Starkes told me in an interview at his quiet office. "We are 100 percent dependent on grants."

That's why all government agencies should be 100 percent opposed to feeding the group's addiction.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. You can reach her at 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.