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MYCAP cleared by agency; still faces another
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, cleared of wrongdoing by one state agency, still faces potential extinction if it cannot resolve a claim by another state department.
The $877,000 refund request, part of the money the Ohio Department of Education granted MYCAP’s Summer Feeding and Child and Child and Adult Feeding Programs over three years, was not the result of inappropriate spending, said Jamael Tito Brown, chairman of the MYCAP board of directors.
Rather, Brown said in a letter to community leaders and at a press conference this week, it was the result of insufficient record-keeping of previous MYCAP management.
MYCAP administers 11 programs in Mahoning County to help poor and disadvantaged people.
During its review and rebuilding of records, MYCAP’s interim management team clearly demonstrated the initial amount the ODE said should be returned was based on erroneous considerations, and therefore the state education department reduced its refund request by a third, Brown said.
He said MYCAP is contesting the remaining $877,000 because all earmarked money was spent to feed Mahoning County children and youths who were eligible for the services.
The issue was that MYCAP’s past management did not file or submit amendments to the budget that ODE required, Brown said.
“We recognize and accept that not submitting the required budget amendments was wrong and irresponsible. However, that reason alone should not endanger the existence of an agency of this magnitude in terms of its community impact,” Brown said.
Not only is MYCAP contesting ODE’s claim, but it is asking that the community and its leaders contact anyone they know at the education department and/or the U.S. Department of Agriculture who they believe can help the agency.
MYCAP spent the money on providing nutritional meals to the children the programs were intended to serve and, therefore, the money is not available to be returned, Brown said.
“If we are not successful in our appeal to our legislative leaders or find alternative means of redress, our agency will not be able to continue to provide services to this community,” he added.
As an agency that has debt to one funding source, MYCAP is not eligible to seek money from other funding sources, said John Wilson, the local agency’s former interim executive director.
The solution is at the federal level because the funds in question came from the USDA. To that end, MYCAP officials are meeting with the area’s federal lawmakers in Washington next week to enlist their support in resolving the matter, Wilson said.
The agency offered ODE a lien on its office building, but that was rejected, and MYCAP has no property to sell that would retire the debt, Wilson said.
In another matter, Brown said MYCAP is seeking “talented and committed community members” to expand the board’s membership.
“We are still in need of members from various areas of the community, such as clergy, law, low-income representatives and business,” he said.
Brown said the resignation of numerous board members during the initial stages of the Ohio Department of Development’s review of the agency “... caused a major role change within the board’s executive leadership ... and created a credibility issue [for MYCAP] within the community and the agency.” ODOD is MYCAP’s major funding source.
Brown said the remaining board members actively worked on rebuilding, and current board members “remain dedicated and committed to restoring the integrity of MYCAP; and to being transparent and communicating the agency’s status with local leaders and stakeholders.”