A nonprofit led by former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s wife is appealing a state agency’s order to repay more than $100,000 in federal funding following a scathing review.
Until shutting it down amid a state probe last year, Yolanda Hill led a nonprofit called Balanced Nutrition that helps childcare facilities apply for and receive federal funding for kids’ meals. Mark Robinson and the couple’s son and daughter have worked as employees of the Greensboro nonprofit; he wrote in his book that Hill's success with the nonprofit allowed him to quit his job and move into politics.
Last summer, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services declared the nonprofit “seriously deficient” after its review found a long list of missing documents required to administer the program, as well as claims filed for payment for centers that apparently hadn't requested or received money.
Initially, DHHS ordered Balanced Nutrition to repay $132,118.86. But after a September meeting with the nonprofit and its attorneys, the agency lowered the amount owed in January to $101,142.05. It gave Balanced Nutrition 30 days to pay.
Instead, Balanced Nutrition has appealed the order to the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings. A DHHS spokesperson said a judge from that agency held a hearing on the appeal last week.
WUNC requested a copy of the appeal filings from the Office of Administrative Hearings, but a clerk for the agency declined to provide them.
“Currently this case is sealed,” chief hearings clerk Maria Erwin said in an email. “Therefore, I am unable to release any information regarding this case unless authorized to do so from Judge (Michael) Byrne.”
When the order to repay DHHS was issued last year, Robinson’s campaign for governor called it “politically motivated,” arguing the action came from a “Democrat-run state agency.”
Now the fate of Balanced Nutrition's appeal rests with an agency led by Republicans. The state’s chief administrative law judge, Donald van der Vaart, served in Gov. Pat McCrory’s Cabinet and was appointed to his current role by N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican.
One of the newest administrative law judges at the agency is Brian LiVecchi, who served as Robinson’s chief of staff before resigning from the lieutenant governor’s office in September. He is not the judge assigned to the Balanced Nutrition case.
