Less than a third of the cash raised over four years at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. dinners led by Annapolis mayoral candidate Carl O. Snowden has been donated to community organizations, according to financial statements he released yesterday.
According to the statements, released after an inquiry by The Sun, the events in honor of the late civil rights leader raised $47,674 from 1991 through 1994.
Of that amount, the organizing committee has given a total of $14,981 to more than a dozen Annapolis-area organizations, including the Annapolis Boys and Girls Club, the Black Political Forum and the Anne Arundel County Youth Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, according to the statements.
"The committee violated no laws," Snowden, 43, said in an interview yesterday. "It did not have to register as a charity and we are releasing these statements to let the public know that we have nothing to hide."
The Keeping the Dream Alive/Martin Luther King Dinner Committee, which Snowden chairs, carries a cash balance of thousands of dollars from year to year, according to the financial statements. It had $8,520 left at the end of 1996 and now has $10,042 in an unspecified bank account.
The Sun questioned Snowden about the fund raising a month ago because the committee was not registered as a charity.
Snowden, chairman of the city council's Finance Committee, said yesterday that he has never spent any of the money raised on himself or his campaign.
He said the large balance has been carried from year to year because the committee has sought unsuccessfully to attract nationally known speakers such as the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. or Colin L. Powell, who might charge $10,000 or more for an appearance.
Snowden said the organizing committee will soon donate most of its excess funds. Over the next six months, it will donate $9,000 more to community organizations, he said.
The secretary of state's office ruled last month that Snowden had violated no laws by not registering the organization as a charity, because it did not present itself to the public as one.
In each of the past nine years, about 400 people have paid about $25 each for tickets to the January dinner organized by Snowden in honor of the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Other money has been donated for the dinner and to pay for ads in a dinner program.
