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The glass-enclosed computer lab inside the LOVE Social Services Center has 12 Dell computers, arranged in a horseshoe along three of the lab's four walls. The lab sat empty on one early February afternoon, just before the expected arrival of children at the tutoring and mentoring center in South Fairbanks.

The lab has been around for a few years, helping children and attracting little attention.

Now, however, the small computer lab is one of the more visible items that a Daily News-Miner review of government records raises questions about.

Here's why:

An early 2002 update report from LOVE Social Services to the federal agency that provided it just under $1 million in 2001 to get started says the center "has a completed Computer Laboratory, which has 15 Dell computers … The center also has available five other computers. Although these computers are older and slower, there are plans to upgrade them."

But other records submitted to the federal government by LOVE Social Services officials show computer purchases - many more than what exist in the lab today - appearing in three later budget proposals as justification for the additional money already directed to it by Congress at the request of Sen. Ted Stevens.

(Read documents obtained by the News-Miner here)

Duplication of budget items and misrepresentation of budget items on the grant paperwork that LOVE Social Services provided to the government are just two of the government's many claims in its financial fraud case against Jim and Chris Hayes, two of the center's founders who, according to the indictment, worked to deceive federal employees by making "false and misleading certifications and statements" to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice "to obtain more grant funds while concealing the misapplications … "

The newspaper's review shows dozens of repeated items, from small ones such as three-hole punches - two of them in paperwork for a 2002 grant and 20 each in paperwork for 2003 and 2004 grants - to big ticket ones such as copy machines, cash registers and paper shredders. It also shows funding for new gym flooring for a building that doesn't have a gym. And the review also raises questions about the timing on the submission of some of the records.

Lab largesse?

The computer lab, one of several dozen items appearing repeatedly on the budget documents submitted to the government, first appears in a November 2000 application, signed by Chris Hayes, to HUD to obtain the $1 million approved by Congress just weeks earlier. The application refers to the need to provide "access to computers," with a notation for wiring and equipment. The application does not mention how many computers were being sought, but a brief financial update - the only one sent to HUD, according to a department official - from February 2001 says $10,000 had been spent for the purchase of computers.

Computer purchases appear again in 2002 as part of the first grant application to the Justice Department. That application, seeking to acquire additional money approved by another action of Congress, contains two conflicting references for computer equipment purchases: one for $6,500 for eight computers, with printers, and one for $8,925 for 10 computers and two printers.

Computers also show up associated with two later Justice Department grant requests, in 2003 and 2004, both submitted by Chris Hayes. A budget worksheet for the 2003 grant includes a reference to $14,300 for 10 computers and one printer. The worksheet for the 2004 grant contains a $12,400 budget item for 10 computers and one printer. The Justice Department requests, taken together, seek at least $33,000 for 28 to 30 computers.

Yet there is nothing in the documents provided by the Justice Department, including in the progress reports submitted by LOVE Social Services, that shows whether the money was spent as proposed.

Not all of the $1.7 million designated for the center through the department has been spent, however, allowing for the possibility that computer purchases could be made in the future. LOVE Social Services has continued to draw on its Justice Department account, according to a report provided by the department and compiled on Jan. 23 of this year. At that time, LOVE Social Services' most recent withdrawal was for $20,000 on Jan. 3, leaving a balance $529,100 in total grant funds channeled to the center through the department.

No references exist, however, in the material supplied to the News-Miner by the Justice Department or HUD to say plans existed to expand the lab beyond the 15 Dell computers Hayes mentioned in her 2002 report to HUD.

Questionable listings

Several other budget items also appear repeated times through the three Justice Department grant documents. In each of the three budgets proposals, for example, the money provided by Congress was to be used to buy a copy machine: for $3,900 in 2002, $2,800 in 2003 and $2,000 in 2004. There's also a total of $8,000 in playground equipment listed, with each request saying the money is to be spent on a sandbox, swings, slides and tether balls and poles. The 2003 and 2004 grants include money for the purchase of one van each - $15,000 in the first grant, $10,000 in the second one.

Just one combination play set, with two swing seats and a slide, sit outside of the building, however. Only one copy machine was visible on a recent tour of the building. LOVE Social Services has no vans at present, according to Howard Hornbuckle, a LOVE Social Services worker.

Other items among the many that are repeated among the dozens of entries in the "Budget Detail Worksheet" sent to the Justice Department for each grant: 75 clipboards per grant; one postage scale per grant; at least 20 cork bulletin boards in one grant and 10 in the two others; 15 dry erase boards in one grant and 25 boards in the two others; one shredder per grant; one cash register per grant.

The budget proposal for the first HUD grant, for $1 million, is much less detailed than the proposals written for the Justice Department grants. Its dollar amounts fall under general categories, such as $65,000 for "Furniture & Office Equipment." HUD provided no other budget detail documents to the News-Miner and has said that the newspaper possesses copies of all HUD material regarding LOVE Social Services.

Hornbuckle, who Jim Hayes designated as his pastoral successor at Lily of the Valley Church in April 2006 should circumstances lead Hayes to no longer be leading the congregation, declined several times to answer questions about the budgets that the nonprofit submitted to the government. "I can't comment on anything with the case," he said as he walked the News-Miner through the building for a tour on an early February afternoon, before children were expected to arrive. Hornbuckle also has a family connection to the Hayeses - his wife, Tamara, is Chris Hayes' niece and a choir leader at Lily of the Valley.

On a follow-up visit by the News-Miner to the center, a person at the front counter of LOVE Social Services declined to answer questions about the computer lab or to allow a closer look at the lab, which at the time was occupied by two or three small children and one adult.

The person then asked the News-Miner to leave, saying the paper had been unfair in its coverage of the Hayeses and the center. She then locked the front door after the News-Miner left the building.

The mystery gym

The May 2005 grant paperwork that Chris Hayes submitted to HUD to obtain money from the fifth - and, it turns out, final - Stevens-generated grant to LOVE Social Services included one item that caught the particular attention of federal investigators. The center said it wanted to use a portion of the grant to buy some gym flooring.

LOVE Social Services doesn't have a gym.

The new Lily of the Valley Church, across the street, does.

The HUD paperwork submitted by Chris Hayes "did not disclose that the floor was to be placed in the new church rather than the LSSC building," the indictment reads, before continuing on to say that Hayes on Dec. 7, 2005 had a $50,000 check issued from the HUD grant funds awarded to LOVE Social Services "to pay for the gym floor which had been installed in the new church building."

Nowhere in the material provided to the News-Miner in 2005 by HUD and the Justice Department does LOVE Social Services indicate it intends to build a gym in the former church building. Rather, an unsigned update statement from LOVE Social Services to the Justice Department and covering the second half of 2004 indicates the center was enjoying a satisfactory relationship with Lily of the Valley Church to use facilities there.

"… it has enabled our youth in the summer education camp to use the [outdoor] court for basketball after their academic programs," the center's statement reads. "The church also has an indoor gym; we use [it] for physical education activities."

Two days after the check was reportedly written to pay for the gym floor, a plaque went up in the church's gym, according to the indictment. It reads "The Pastor James C. Hayes, Fellowship Hall" and, according to the indictment, carries the following words: "Thank You For Your Contributions towards the Gymnasium Floor!"