Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell told her fellow commissioners — and the public — during a November commission meeting that an immediate vote to approve an emergency $85,000 grant to MUST Ministries needed to be taken that night or people on the fringe of homelessness would lose their rent-subsidized apartments at Christmas.
There was no time, Birrell said, to notify other non-profit agencies of the suddenly available funds so they could make their own requests for the money.
“It has come to my attention after talking with the director of MUST Ministries, that … there are folks under (their) … program who will be displaced from their homes without this funding,” Birrell said at the Nov. 25 meeting. “If it doesn’t get approved, there are families that will be displaced by the end of December.”
The money was never delivered, but no families were thrown out of their apartments because MUST officials used cash from their savings account to keep the program running. There was no mention in Birrell’s November comments that MUST had money to keep the program afloat.
On Tuesday, the county commission will re-consider giving the grant to MUST.
The commission has to take a new vote on the grant because Commission Chairman Tim Lee, whose wife has worked at MUST since 2006, cast a vote in favor of awarding the grant in November. He then asked the commission for a do-over, so that he could abstain from voting on the issue to avoid a potential conflict of interest and a potential violation of the county’s ethics rules.
That meant the grant money, which comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, would only be given to MUST if a majority of the four district commissioners approve it. And now, it’s unclear whether the grant will be approved at all.
When asked about her comments during the November meeting, Birrell replied through a county spokesman: “Fortunately, it appears that MUST was able to find a way to meet an urgent need.” An hour later, the statement was amended to say MUST found a “temporary” way to meet the need “but that the funding is still needed.”
Commissioner Bob Ott, who voted in favor of the grant in November, will be the swing vote on the issue because Commissioner Lisa Cupid does not support the grant. She wants all eligible non-profit agencies to be allowed to request some of the funding.
Ott said he’s not sure how he’ll vote.
“I obviously have questions and concerns that the way it was portrayed in November was not accurate,” Ott said. “Why were we told what we were told? And I want to find out why it wasn’t until this point in time (that) concerns were shown that the chairman’s wife works there.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in December that Lee has voted to provide MUST with more than $3 million in funding during his wife’s tenure at the non-profit. And Lee made some of those votes while he also served on MUST’s board of directors.
Lee would not respond to questions about his previous votes for MUST funding.
The county’s ethics law says elected officials can’t “participate, directly or indirectly” in “any proceeding … vote … or any other matter involving an immediate relative or any interest of an immediate relative.”
Ike Reighard, president and CEO of MUST Ministries, said his agency will “absorb the loss” if the grant is not approved.
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