David Forest posts: I will do a LIVE “report” about my knowledge and history of JOHN KATAPODIS (and his longtime relationship with my former management client, RYAN IDOL) … THURS – FEB 21 at 10am PST / 12noon CST from my office in Van Nuys.
I’ll be talking, in person, to JC Adams from the GayPornTimes … and … via phone, to ”Birmingham News” columnist, John Archibald.
I’m sure that JC and John will have stories released by tomorrow afternoon.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Birmingham Mayor Larry “Light in the Loafers” Langford [pictured] has dissolved the board of a charity he created to distribute city-bought laptops to schoolchildren and, amid ethical questions, a longtime friend of the mayor’s has severed all ties to the project.
In e-mails sent to members of the Birmingham Education Initiative’s board, Langford said he regretted that they had been caught up in the controversy, The Birmingham News reported in a story Thursday.
Langford said he plans to ask the City Council to select a new board for the charity.
John Katopodis set up Langford’s laptop initiative and ran a previous charity Langford created to distribute computers when Langford was mayor of Fairfield. Katopodis said Wednesday he would have nothing more to do with the Birmingham Education Initiative, known as BEI.
Katopodis said his role was to secure the commitment from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and One Laptop Per Child, which he completed.
“The organization documents were drafted by an attorney close to the City Council and I had no input into it. The ball is now squarely in the court of the City Council,” Katopodis said.
Katopodis organized the former Computer Help for Kids with HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy and Langford to refurbish donated computers and give them to needy children throughout Jefferson County.
A civil lawsuit filed by HealthSouth Corp. questions why the charity gave Langford money, paid for casino trips and gave donated computers to friends and politicians.
The suit also claimed that the computer charity and another Katopodis ran paid $30,000 to Marc Anthony Donais, also known as Ryan Idol, a former adult-film actor.
Besides being a porn star, Donais is a businessman who worked for the charity and fixed computers despite lacking any formal training in the area, Katopodis said.
Donais referred all questions to Katopodis.
Several City Council members demanded assurances that Katopodis would not be involved in BEI before the city gave $3.5 million to manage the 15,000 laptops in the computer program for schools.
Langford is currently pursuing a plan to provide the city’s schoolchildren with 15,000 basic laptop computers originally intended for students in Third World countries.
“What we have to do is go forward and make sure we don’t have ethical clouds before getting started,” council member Roderick Royal said.
Concerns over how Langford’s former charity operated also raised concerns with people who had agreed to serve on the BEI board.
Miles College President George French outlined his concerns in a letter to Katopodis and distanced himself from the controversy. French had said he would quit the board if ethical questions remained.
Langford has said he didn’t care who controlled the board, as long as the schoolchildren get the computers.
He has called this initiative one of the most important of all his proposals, along with providing city-funded scholarships to Birmingham high school graduates.
Royal said that since Katopodis severed all ties with BEI, Langford should not have dissolved the board.
“I hope that he was responding out of emotionalism because I’d hate for him to think that this was about the board,” Royal said.