Two contract employees are no longer working for Cobb County’s federally funded neighborhood improvement program after they were found to be profiting from the program they helped administer.
Allyson Price and Deanna Benson, the former manager and real estate specialist at the Cobb County Neighborhood Stabilization Program, were hired in December 2008 by W. Frank Newton Inc., the company Cobb contracted to administer the program.
The NSP is a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development program that awards money to state and local governments to buy, redevelop and resell foreclosed properties in hard-hit areas. Price and Benson were responsible for identifying eligible properties and overseeing the process through the various steps to completion.
A Newton investigation found the women had been working second jobs as real estate agents, making commissions off the homes they sold to the county NSP office.
"They received commission from the listing broker in addition to receiving their salary from our organization and they did not disclose that," said Nick Autorina, managing director of Cobb's Community Development Block Grant program. "At the end of the day, this falls under the conflict of interest provisions of our program."
Price and Benson are no longer employed with W. Frank Newton, Autorina said Friday. He would not elaborate. Price and Benson were not available for comment.
The Atlanta HUD office received a tip about the double-dipping and passed the information on to Autorina on April 14, according to the investigation report obtained by an open records request. W. Frank Newton hired an outside investigator who found that both women had received commissions totaling $3,187 on three homes this year while working for Chapman Hall Realtors Atlanta North.
County officials received the report Wednesday and are reviewing the findings, Cobb spokesman Robert Quigley said.
In the meantime the remaining part-time NSP employee will be working full-time while replacement staff are found, Autorina said.
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