Feds to supply funds to Cleveland, despite missed deadline

CLEVELAND (AP) — The federal government has agreed to overlook a blunder in Cleveland that could have cost county taxpayers $400,000.

Contracts for using federal grant money in that amount were approved in June by Cuyahoga County commissioners, who didn’t realize their vote missed a government deadline by several months. The error was discovered in July, after the funds had already been spent on services for uninsured AIDS and HIV patients.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration let the county know in an e-mail Friday that it would forgive the foul-up and come through with the money anyway.

County officials had said the bungle was the fault of two employees who waited too long to put the matter on the commissioners’ schedule.