FBI probe brings up question of funding renewal
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
November 3, 2009
The disclosure of an FBI probe into the finances of a publicly funded child care center in Wheaton has renewed the concerns of some Montgomery County Council members that the county's decision to renew $448,000 worth of contracts may have been "premature."
The Examiner first reported Sunday that an FBI agent visited Centro Familia last week and spoke with the center's bookkeeper in what was described as a "routine inquiry."
"For the FBI to even have entered this discussion ratchets things up," said Councilwoman Valerie Ervin.
Councilwoman Nancy Navarro, who co-founded the center but severed all ties with it in 2004, echoed Ervin's concerns and added that the county's recent decision to renew contracts with the center "raised a lot of eyebrows."
The center aims to provide care and instruction to Hispanic children, but has been under a cloud since an inspector general's report in February found that the center couldn't properly account for $900,000 it had been paid by the county in fiscal 2007 and 2008.
The county's chief administrative officer, Tim Firestine, started his own review after the inspector general's report and found that there had been "several" overpayments to the center by the county in fiscal 2009.
Firestine said in June that he would delay awarding the fiscal 2010 contracts for the center until "pending issues are resolved." The county awarded the $448,100 in contracts in September, according to a county spokeswoman.
But the FBI's involvement has increased doubts about the wisdom of that decision for some county officials.
Ervin said she is concerned that the inspector general reported recently that his office is still seeking records from the center.
The center's executive director, Pilar Torres, has denied any wrongdoing and has been adamant that the center has turned over every record that has been requested. She also has said that her center has been unfairly tarred "unfounded and totally unfair innuendoes."
County Executive Ike Leggett's spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, defended the county's actions, saying that "there is no evidence to date of any criminal wrongdoing" at the center.
"We continue to work with [Centro Familia] to resolve any invoice disputes. When invoices are properly documented, we are paying them; when they aren't, we aren't paying them," Lacefield said in an e-mail. "That's accountability."
Councilman George Leventhal, chairman of the council's Health and Human Services Committee, said the FBI's involvement, "in and of itself," isn't enough for him to second-guess the county's decision.
