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Mayor McNally asks Omarosa for White House help for MYCAP
YOUNGSTOWN
MYCAP Assistance Request
Document
A letter to The White House from the desk of Youngstown Mayor John McNally, requesting assistance with the Mahoning Youngstown Community Action Partnership (MYCAP).
Mayor John A. McNally has pleaded with Omarosa Manigault at the White House to help keep a local anti-poverty agency afloat as it wallows in debt to the government.
The mayor wrote the letter, dated Monday, to Manigault, a Youngstown native and reality-TV celebrity who is now director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, on behalf of the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership.
“MYCAP’s existence is at risk,” the mayor wrote in his letter that was attached as an exhibit to a court document MYCAP filed in an employee severance-pay case.
The mayor explained the agency’s predicament is due to its $800,000 debt to the Ohio Department of Education, which is ultimately a federal debt, and due to an $85,000 court judgment against MYCAP on behalf of former agency employees, who said they were denied unused paid time off to which they were entitled upon leaving the agency.
The debt to the government “puts MYCAP at risk of shutting its doors because it is unable to secure new grants” and because the state “has placed MYCAP on reimbursement funding, creating cash-flow issues for the agency,” the mayor said.
“MYCAP is a local institution with a rich history in the community and overwhelming community support across the spectrum,” the mayor wrote.
“We hope that with your added assistance MYCAP can be restored to its full potential and grow to serve Youngstown and Mahoning County for decades to come,” the mayor added.
The mayor told Manigault he understands she isn’t likely to be able to help with the court case, but he asked her to coordinate a meeting with U.S. Department of Agriculture officials to reach a resolution of the debt issue.
In 2011, a hearing officer ruled MYCAP owed the state education department about $800,000 in funds from the Child and Adult Care Food Program from 2008-10 due to deficiencies in the agency’s fiscal management and accounting procedures, the mayor explained.
The education department is the pass-through agency for food-program funds that originate from the USDA, and the state must recoup the money from MYCAP on behalf of the federal government, McNally said.
“The government never alleged that MYCAP fraudulently or criminally obtained CACFP funds,” and “MYCAP has taken full responsibility for these errors and has corrected all deficiencies,” the mayor said.
At least part of the period of the alleged deficiencies was during the directorship of Richard Roller, whom the MYCAP board fired in May 2010.
In a separate matter, Roller, 52, of Colonial Drive, Liberty, is appealing his conviction for theft in office and grand theft pertaining to events that allegedly occurred in June and July 2009, while he directed the agency, to the Ohio Supreme Court.
MYCAP is asking Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to stay his $85,000 judgment against the agency in the employee severance case pending the agency’s appeal of that judgment to the 7th District Court of Appeals.
With 25 full-time employees, MYCAP, which is housed at 1325 Fifth Ave., offers Home Weatherization, the Home Energy Assistance Program, workforce development, computer and financial literacy programs and senior transportation. It was founded in 1965.
McNally said he wrote the letter to Manigault after meeting with MYCAP officials.
“We have a Youngstown person [a few] doors down from the president and decided on sending her a letter to see if she can get some guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” McNally said.
“We have a Youngstowner in the White House. Hopefully she can help,” the mayor said in an interview.
“I have no idea what happens if they can’t clear this debt,” McNally said. “They’ve been operating this way since 2011. They are looking for some way to get moving to resolve this debt,” he added.
The agency’s current executive director, Sheila Triplett, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Contributor: David Skolnick, staff writer