Trump can help prevent MYCAP agency’s demise

In January, after Youngstown native Omarosa Manigault was tapped to serve in President Donald J. Trump’s administration, Mahoning Valley businessman Bruce Zoldan had this reaction:

“She’s a very dynamic, intelligent and hardworking person. She’s very proud of her Youngstown heritage. [Trump] respects her a lot, and she has his ear, which will help this area.”

We trust that Zoldan, chief executive officer of B.J. Alan fireworks company in Youngstown, wasn’t exaggerating. Manigault had arranged a meeting in December between then President-elect Trump and pro football legends, including Jim Brown, to discuss Brown’s Amer-I-Can inner-city outreach program. Zoldan, who works closely with Brown on the program, attended the meeting in Trump Tower in Manhattan.

The businessman’s view of Manigault’s relationship with the Republican president is now being put to the test.

Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally has sent a letter to the former reality TV personality – she served as Trump’s campaign director for African-American outreach – seeking the administration’s help in saving a crucial anti-poverty agency in the city.

Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, which was founded in 1965, is deep in debt and facing a bleak future.

“MYCAP’s existence is at risk,” the mayor said in a letter to Manigault, who is director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison. McNally explained that the agency’s financial predicament was caused by a demand from the Ohio Department of Education for reimbursement of about $800,000, which the state was administering for the federal government.

In addition, MYCAP has a court judgment against it for $85,000 that is owed to former agency employees. They claimed that they were denied unused paid time off, which was due when they left the agency.

Unambiguous

McNally’s letter to Manigault is unambiguous: The federal debt “puts MYCAP at risk of shutting its doors because it is unable to secure new grants.”

The state has created a cash-flow problem for the agency by putting it on reimbursement funding, the mayor wrote.

We have no doubt that President Trump’s mentor as a contestant in “The Apprentice” television show, which he hosted, is familiar with MYCAP. We also are confident that she well understands the desperate need for such agencies in a city like Youngstown, which has a high poverty rate.

If Manigault requires an incentive to forward Mayor McNally’s request to the appropriate individuals in the White House, here are a couple of facts that we’ve referenced in previous editorials in support of MYCAP:

One, the agency was cleared of wrongdoing by the state after a yearlong investigation.

Two, there were no findings of misappropriation of the $793,113 – the amount in 2011 was $877,547 – which originated from the U.S. Department of Education.

Indeed, MYCAP officials have argued that a lack of adequate record-keeping by the previous management team, led by former Director Richard Roller, prompted the state to seek reimbursement. The Ohio Department of Education found that $877,547 was not spent according to the terms of the Child and Adult Care Food Program by MYCAP.

In his letter to the Trump administration, Mayor McNally noted the state education department is the pass-through agency for food-program funds that originate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“The government never alleged that MYCAP fraudulently or criminally obtained CACFP funds,” McNally said in his letter. He pointed out the agency has taken full responsibility for the errors in administering the money and has corrected all deficiencies.

In 2014, MYCAP lost its Head Start program, resulting in layoffs, because it could not secure grants that paid for meals and snacks and to cover some overhead costs.

Here’s the bottom line the Trump administration should contemplate: Youngstown’s economically vulnerable residents are being punished because government bureaucrats can’t find a solution to MYCAP’s fiscal problems.

The president has railed against unreasonable federal rules and regulations. He can show he means what he says by letting MYCAP off the hook.