Published: September 18, 2007 11:23 pm      

Cleland quits board of Murtha-linked charity

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., has withdrawn from the board of directors of a beleaguered Johnstown-based charity founded by a former top aide of Rep. John Murtha.

Cleland, a triple amputee and Vietnam veteran, said he has stepped down from the board of the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals with Disabilities.

“I’m not associated with PAID,” Cleland said Tuesday. “I am not interested in pursuing that relationship at all.”

Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said Murtha would not comment on the situation.

The news comes barely a month after Cleland and Carmen V. Scialabba, PAID founder and a former Murtha aide, announced Cleland was joining the board.

“Max Cleland will provide the continued leadership for the PAID family so we can extend our mission to those who normally would not have the opportunity to do so,” Scialabba said in the Aug. 2 news release.

Cleland acknowledged his change of heart came during an investigation by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. The paper was looking into PAID’s limited achievements and close ties to Murtha, local defense contractors and others benefiting from congressional earmarks.

“I don’t really know much about it,” Cleland said. “Once I learned more about the organization, I just decided it was not for me. And I really don’t have time to do that.”

Roll Call found that PAID received Murtha-backed government contracts as recently as 2003 and works with other companies Murtha has funded.

PAID “can point to few successes that are unrelated to the congressman,” the newspaper said. It contacted some statewide disability organizations that said they never worked with the Johnstown charity.

This is not the first time PAID’s ties to Murtha have come under scrutiny. In December, The Washington Post said defense contractors, businesses and universities that were seeking federal funding worked to raise money for the charity.