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Knox County must repay $33,450 HUD grant due to Cynthia Finch conflict
Posted By katie allison granju
Kay Watson has the story:
Because the county did not comply with the conflict of interest requirements, HUD disallowed a grant of $33,454.04 made to Families Security, Inc.
A “disclosure notice” from the Mayor’s office also posted to the website Friday shows that group received the grant to provide health education services to low income households.
However, Families Security, Inc. contracted with TennCorp Volunteer Services to provide those services. TennCorp was founded by Knox County Community Services Director Cynthia Finch, and is now run by her sister.
Finch is in charge of distributing the HUD money and other community grants. She has come under fire in recent months because of her personal ties to several of the organizations which receive grant money through her office. 10 News also reported on Finch’s use of county money to travel to meetings of her sorority.
In the disclosure notice, the Mayor’s office states that “Cynthia Finch received no advantage, financial or in-kind” from the Families Security, Inc. grant or the TennCorp connection. However, the notice acknowledges the situation represents “a direct conflict of interest for which the County is not seeking an exception.”
Finch’s office also awarded thousands of dollars of county grant money directly to TennCorp.
Dec 23rd, 2007
So, again nothing happens. Do you really need to be told not to make grants to relatives companies? What have either one of these places done, they offer services that are already provided in the State budget.
And has far has the HUD letter to the Mayor, stating the great programs the County has initiated regarding housing, will someone please show me one thing they have done to even recieve grant money from HUD.
The fact that HUD is reviewing anything by the county is a joke in itself. Didnt HUD just wrote a review (re: County) a few months ago, why didnt they catch this?