UPDATED: Battle over relief funds between current, former commissioners continues

ELYRIA — Whether or not county commissioners properly spent federal COVID-19 relief dollars prior to two new members of the board taking office earlier this month remains a point of contention. Interviews with those involved in the controversy show that distance remains between Republicans David Moore and Michelle Hung and their predecessors, Democrats Lori Kokoski and Sharon Sweda. Kokoski and Sweda have continued to say they did nothing wrong by simply trying to ensure $16.5 million Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, funding was sent where it needed to go to assist in pandemic relief. They and fellow Commissioner Matt Lundy said they followed protocols after discussions with fellow county officials and their legal counsel, and spent the money they way they did to ensure it got where it needed to go more quickly and efficiently. After rescinding $4.6 million in grants made by their predecessors and Lundy in the two months prior to taking office, Moore and Hung continued this week to hammer the Democrats and doubled down on accusations they inappropriately spent county taxpayer dollars out of the county's general fund on COVID-19 relief. Hung released a spreadsheet showing COVID-19 relief spending she said outlined exactly what the Democrats spent and where it went. Kokoski said the numbers were inaccurate and didn't have an accounting for pandemic hazard pay she and her colleagues approved for county workers. State officials may have to be the ones to settle the controversy. Auditor of State Keith Faber's office is "aware of the concerns and will review it in our regular audit of the county," spokeswoman Allie Dumski told the Chronicle-Telegram in an email response to a request for comment on Friday. Moore Moore said Jan. 14 the money his predecessors spent that he and Hung voted to revoke the previous day would be returned to the general fund. With the county general fund carryover from 2020 now at $25 million with the addition of the $4.6 million in rescinded grants, he said the county would still be in a deficit situation due to his predecessors' repeal of a 0.25 percent sales tax on Dec. 16. Moore said he estimated the county would lose $8.5 million in revenue due to the repeal of the sales tax effective April 1. He also blamed much of the controversy on politics. "Inside (Hung's spreadsheet) I'm doing a lot of work trying to nail down the $16.4, 16.5 million that was spent. I'm tracking down where that all went. So there's still a lot of work I'm doing behind the scenes," Moore said Saturday. He said he continues to gather information and hopes to go public at Wednesday's scheduled commissioners' meeting with more details and documentation that he wouldn't identify, as it was not yet complete. "The commissioners were pretty clear in November they were going to take money and pay people," Moore said. "They made sure (former County Administrator Jim) Cordes got his money. Did they pass this knowing they would make Michelle and I look bad?" "Had they not cut the sales tax, we were not going to be in a panic mode and (figuring out) how we are going to fix a deficit spending budget," he said. Hung Hung sent her spreadsheet to the Chronicle-Telegram and also posted publicly on the commissioners' Facebook page. Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass confirmed the numbers as accurate in comments to the Chronicle-Telegram on Jan. 25, three days — including a weekend — after being provide a copy of Hung's document "Residents had emailed and asked for it, and there were requests on social media," Hung said Jan. 22. "I put it out because of requests from residents." That same day, Hung called it "a fact" that the former board of commissioners spent $4.6 million in general fund money on projects and grants that they said were being funded by CARES Act dollars. She said the reasoning given for the former board's actions was "incorrect." "Yes, we have checked. Not personally me but (Lorain County Administrator) Tom Williams and our legal team has checked," Hung said. "If the state auditor wants to come in and do a review, do an audit, I would welcome that." She referred further questions on the matter to Williams. Williams Speaking from what he said was Hung's viewpoint, Williams said CARES Act money was required to go into a separate fund: Account number 1050. (Snodgrass verified that was the account number as well as verifying Williams' statement). "That money went in, and (former commissioners and Lundy) spend the money to go through and offset some of the costs for the county, which was part of what the COVID package was for: So government could continue providing services," he said. "The other money they wanted to award to those nonprofits, that money was coming from the general fund." For Kokoski and Sweda to say that the money they spent wasn't from the general fund, "that is factually incorrect," Williams said on Hung's behalf. "Obviously Commissioner Lundy has a different viewpoint than the other two commissioners, and my job is to represent the board of commissioners as a whole," he said, after giving what he said was Hung's opinion. Williams, himself a former Republican commissioner, further said he did his own research and determined the former commissioners didn't follow proper protocols for spending county money on nonprofit organizations or charities. He directed a reporter to a 2002 opinion by former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery on the proper protocols for doing so. "There's a whole list of protocols you have to follow to give money to nonprofit groups," Williams said. The former commissioners and Lundy "did not do that," he said. In a four-page opinion that still can be found on the Ohio Attorney General's website, Montgomery wrote that counties may donate public money to certain nonprofit purposes where Ohio law allows. Those donations allowed include "to nonprofit agencies for social services for older persons or emergency food for the needy," for encouraging economic development or tourism, for private nonprofits "engaged in diversion, adjudication, detention or rehabilitation of criminal offenders," to agencies promoting safety, EMS or patient transport services, to historical societies and other groups for various reasons, according to Montgomery's opinion. Lundy Lundy said last week he remains disappointed that his new colleagues rolled back money promised to charities and nonprofits such as Lorain's Blessing House, Second Harvest Food Bank and others that are providing services in a time of crisis in the county and across the nation. He said he wasn't worried about an audit of the former commission's actions: The county has always had good audits in the past and Lundy said he looks forward to state auditors visiting again. "The actions we took were deemed proper by the county auditor and legal by the county prosecutor," Lundy said, repeating the statement twice. Now-retired Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Gerald Innes said Jan. 14 that the money spent by Lundy, Kokoski and Sweda came from the general fund, but also that they "are right by saying it's really indirectly a way of using the CARES money in a safer manner." CARES Act rules and regulations were complex and the way the former commissioners and Lundy apportioned the money was the safest option, Innes said at the time. Hung and Moore "want to create the picture that things were done wrong. That's not the case. They need to take more time to see how things worked. They weren't the decision-makers at the time," he said. "The bottom line is that the new members want to erase what the previous board did, that things were done wrong," Lundy said. "To paint a picture otherwise is misleading the public and it needs to stop. These grants need to be restored and they're badly needed." Kokoski After reviewing Hung's spreadsheet, Kokoski said last week her successor's numbers did not tell the whole story. She said $5 million in COVID-19 hazard pay the former commissioners passed along to essential county employees wasn't included in the numbers, out of the $16.5 million the county received and what was approved by the former board on Dec. 18. By their numbers, Hung and Moore "are accusing us of spending $20 million, which is not true," Kokoski said. "We put the CARES money into the budget around Nov. 4," she said. "It wasn't like we were trying to do anything shady. That's what the state told us we could do. So we put it in the general fund just in case it was hard to get the money out by the end of the year." A message seeking further comment on the matter was left for Sweda, who in previous comments over the past nearly two weeks has defended the actions of the former board. If Hung and Moore turn out to be wrong and the former commissioners did nothing wrong, Kokoski said she wanted to know if they would commit to give the money back to the more-than 20 agencies to which it was promised. "That's the big question: If I'm right and Matt (Lundy) and Sharon (Sweda), we're all right and we did everything we're supposed to do and did not spend more than $16 million, will you give those agencies that money?" she asked. Moore said Saturday he wouldn't consider the hypothetical question, saying it was based on "a falsehood." The former commissioners "were doing everything they could to harm us, and by doing that, they harmed the county," he said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him @daveobrienCT on Twitter.