Board members raise questions about expenses, missing audits, and mission drift as three providers face additional review.
- The board ultimately voted to extend current contracts for 30 days for three of the five mental health providers while sending them back to the Program Committee for additional review. Board members raised concerns about missing audit reports, spending on sports registrations and boxing lessons, and significant changes to approved budgets.
“There are over 40,000-50,000 children that play little league sports here. Many are poor,” said Commissioner Lumon May. “And when you go down this slippery slope of us paying for baseball players, football players, cheerleaders and everybody’s eligible, that’s a bad precedent for this organization to be doing.”
Missing Audits and Budget Questions
Twin Oaks Youth & Family Services, which requested approximately $1.128 million for Year 3, came under particular scrutiny for lacking a 2024 audit and for allocating nearly $3,000 annually per child for boxing lessons as part of their $30,000 direct services budget.
- “If you break that up, almost 8% of this $30,000 a year will be going to one child,” questioned board member Tori Woods, who noted the program also had a separate sports line item.
Executive Director Lindsey Cannon explained that the organization was awaiting its 2024 audit. “They had an issue with their audits, so they were able to send us 2023 and a letter from their auditor saying that they are currently processing 2024, but we have not received it.”
Concerns Over Budget Reallocations
A recurring theme throughout the meeting was frustration over providers requesting funds for specific purposes and then reallocating money to different line items without board approval.
- “My issue is that if you change it to $10,000, but then you don’t get to just move the money somewhere else,” Woods said regarding Twin Oaks’ reduction of travel expenses from $60,000 to $10,000. “You just can’t make up somewhere else to put the money because you want to keep it.”
Commissioner May pointed to what he saw as excessive administrative costs. “When you’re almost looking at personnel and benefits, over $700,000 .… Accounting $17,000, Leasing rentals $33,000, Telephones $10,000, Liability insurance $29,000…I have to see the procurement on that to see if those numbers really make sense.”
- He added: “We’re paying $60,000 for staff to go out of town. I mean advertising and marketing, $15,000. I promise you don’t have to advertise for kids to come play sports. They just come.”
Why Not Formal Mental Health?
May raised fundamental questions about the Trust’s approach to mental health services, noting that millions are being spent on what providers call “informal mental health supports” rather than licensed clinical services.
- “We’re millions of dollars, millions of dollars for informal mental health while children are going crazy every day,” May said. “Mental health is serious. So it’s informal, but we have the ability and we have the resources to provide real mental health… I don’t want anybody to give me any informal healthcare about my diabetes or my blood pressure. I mean, mental health is just as serious as that.”
Cannon acknowledged that the programs represent a different approach. “I definitely think that these are different type of programming because they’re informal mental health supports,” she said. “This is not certified counselors going in and doing billable work. This is prevention and an early intervention.”
Programs Approved and Delayed
The board voted individually on each program:
- Boys and Girls Club: Approved with a reduction from $104,000 to $76,000
- Youth Left Behind: Approved with no overall budget change, despite some line item reallocations
- New World Believers Inc.: Given 30-day extension for program committee review (budget approximately $585,000)
- Twin Oaks: Given 30-day extension for program committee review (budget approximately $870,000)
- Lamplighters: Given 30-day extension for program committee review
Board member Stephanie White suggested the approach of voting individually: “I just think there’s some, like for example, Youth Left Behind, I’m great with this. I mean is doing a great job and I’m fine with this… and.”
- Finance Director Tammy Abrams warned the board about consistency: “New World Believers has a bunch of new line items that weren’t in Year 1 that are on Year 3. And if you’re not going to allow it for one provider, we need to make sure you don’t provide, allow it for others.”
Next Steps
The program committee will meet again on October 28 to review the three delayed mental health programs, with recommendations returning to the full board for a vote.
- Commissioner May urged a streamlined process: “Whatever information each board member wants, we should send it to them in writing. Give them ample amount of time to respond. If they don’t respond, they just don’t respond.”
Woods emphasized the need for programs to stick to their original proposals. “If you don’t use it under the line item that you wrote the grant for, that money should come back to the grant and allow us to help somebody else. You don’t just get to, well, I don’t need $50,000 here, so now I’m going to find somewhere to spend the money.”
If you like our reporting, consider buying us a cup of coffee – here. Your donation will help broaden our reporting. Thank you.