By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
Former Lee County Commissioner Arianna Lavallee and current Commissioner Cameron Sharpe exchanged tense words Monday night over the propriety of a vote taken in November to award $500,000 in grant funding to Life Springs Church.
Lavallee, a Republican who left the board in 2022 after not seeking a second term, spoke during the Lee County Board of Commissioners’ public comment period, pushing back against a claim from January by Democrat Sharpe that her vote was “borderline unethical.”
Lavallee said she appeared Monday to “set the record straight about this false statement,” but turned first to an issue that Sharpe had actually never raised.
“Commissioner (Bill) Carver and I did not – and do not – receive any kickback from the results of the vote,” she said.
Video from the January 9 meeting does not show Sharpe or any other commissioner making a claim about kickbacks.
“In no way have we – nor will we – receive any payment from Life Springs Church or the Dream Center. We were never promised any type of compensation from the Dream Center in order to vote for the Dream Center’s funding. Our votes were specifically geared toward a nonprofit that will help the Lee County people,” Lavallee said.
Lavallee continued that Sharpe’s remarks were a “false and unwarranted attack that was made in poor taste and could very well be damaging to my personal and professional reputation, as well as the church’s reputation in the community.”
Lavallee also took issue with Sharpe’s suggestion that her failure to recuse herself from the vote, along with fellow Republican Carver, constituted a breach of ethics because they are members of Life Springs Church.
State law doesn’t allow commissioners to recuse themselves from votes, although they can ask to be recused by a majority vote of the rest of the board – but only if state law gives them a reason to do so. County Manager Dr. John Crumpton has told The Rant previously that Carver sought a legal opinion from the county on whether he had a conflict of interest over the matter prior to the November vote and was told he did not.
Lavallee concluded by saying Sharpe’s statement could put both the commission and Sharpe at risk for damages alleged to have been caused to “the church, the Dream Center, and my own reputation.”
Near the end of the meeting, Sharpe responded to Lavallee’s claims.
“She didn’t call me by name, but she was referring to me,” he said. “I didn’t say (Lavallee and Carver) should recuse yourselves from the Life Springs vote because you were receiving compensation. You need to look at the video because I didn’t say that. It was my opinion that you should have recused yourself because of the public trust. There is such a thing as public trust. Sometimes people don’t understand that. I never said that you and Mr. Carver did anything illegal – just that it was borderline unethical.”
Directing his remarks at the two Republicans, Sharpe said, “if you would be so inclined to go after me legally, bring it on.”
The controversy surrounding the November vote to award $500,000 in federal COVID relief funding to the Life Springs Action Team has become a local flashpoint, and the split is becoming more obvious among the seven members of the county commission. The board’s GOP majority has rallied around the church, while the three Democrats have continued asking questions about the way the board scrapped its own processes to make the grant without any study.
Sharpe said in light of how the process had unfolded, he could no longer support the grant.
“I voted to support the Life Springs Dream Center a month or so ago, but going forward, I will not be doing so,” he said.
The original proposal came on November 14. Crumpton, who is retiring from his position on February 28, recommended at the time that commissioners study the proposal and be ready for a potential vote at a December meeting.
But Lavallee and Carver pushed to bypass the recommendation, saying the Dream Center proposal addressed mental health concerns facing the county as a result of the pandemic and that no further study was necessary. While all three Democrats urged patience on the issue, only Democrat Robert Reives Sr. voted against the proposal when the ballots were cast.
The project ran into trouble three weeks later, when it was learned that the Life Springs Action Team, a nonprofit organized to operate the Dream Center, had not received approval from the Internal Revenue Service to operate as a tax-exempt organization. That prevented the county from entering a contract with LSAT.
Things got worse on January 10, when it became public that the pastor chosen to operate the Dream Center, Rev. Daniel Owens, had pleaded guilty in federal court to a conspiracy charge of filing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent Medicare claims.
The scheme laid out in documents filed in federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania involved persuading persons to submit to a cancer screening test used to identify genetic mutations indicating a higher risk of developing certain types of cancers in the future. Medicare would reimburse the costs of such testing when it was deemed medically necessary and ordered by the physician who was actually treating the patient. Claims submitted outside such a relationship were not reimbursable.
Owens was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to pay back just under $184,000 in false claims paid as a result of his participation in the scam, along with about $11,000 in kickbacks and bribes he personally received from participating in it over a four month period. Life Springs leadership said in a subsequent Facebook video that it had been aware of the situation, and characterized Owens’ participation in the scheme as a mistake.
Life Springs Church withdrew their proposal for funding on the same day news broke on Owens’ guilty plea. Pastor Dale Sauls told the commissioners by fax they would resubmit their plan once they received their determination letter from the IRS.
These kinds of conflicts are the result of the epidemic of political polorization that is infecting our country at every level. Sharp says decisions made by Republican members are “Borderline Unethical”, implying there may be some ethics violations when there is none, plants seeds that political partisans will latch on to and make huge issues out of. Mrs. Lavallee has also alleged that she has personally and more importantly been professionally, negatively impacted. She also says there may be legal ramifications towards the Commissioner’s office and Mr. Sharpe. It is not impossible to win a legal battle on these grounds, however it is an uphill climb to prove damages. Historically it has been very difficult to win these kinds of legal battles because of the person claiming harm was in the capacity of public service in the public sphere and as such there is great latitude given to comments about them. I would like to see the political rhetoric of our elected leaders calm down and be relegated to relevant FACTS, not hyperbole, conjecture, and assumptions that accomplish nothing but fuel their political bases and furthers the divide of our governing bodies and the people they represent. If you don’t have quantifiable proof of wrongdoing then don’t throw it out into the aether, creating conspiracy theories, fear, and mistrust. All sides of the political spectrum do this and use it as a tool to manipulate public opinion on issues. Let’s bring facts, logic, reason, and civility back to our governing bodies and address real issues with real solutions and implement those solutions within the limits of local, state, and national rules. It really is simple.
Lavalle is gaslighting making people think Cameron said something he did not say so she could play the victim. Many think the fact she and Carver went to the church should have been known especially when she was the one to make the motion to approve it with no vetting. It is about transparency. There is nothing wrong with Cameron pointing this out. Many think the fact that the Dream Center did not have its non-profit status should have been known. Many think the fact the exec director of the Dream Center had plead guilty to a financial felony should have been known. Maybe by law they did not have to disclose all this but it would have been the right thing to do…. you know how Christians are suppose to act… do the right thing without having to be forced to.
Well said.
Seems this is a case of “A hit dog will holler” if we’ve ever seen one. Like most of her ilk every projection from Lavallee should be viewed for what it likely is, a confession. Mr Sharpe wasn’t making an accusation but rather asking questions to the obligation elected leaders have a duty to uphold, the response indicates he struck a nerve.
In addition to her ethical challenges it seems Lavallee has a less than basic understanding of defamation law, I’m sure the number of attorneys lined up to argue her case will be measured in zeros. Many people are saying this grant stinks to high heaven and we applaud Mr. Sharpe for standing up for the taxpayers of Lee County.
The money that is “left over from Covid relief” should not be used for ANYTHING. It was allocated for “covid relief” and wasn’t used. Therefore, no school, no church, no public or private group should have access to it in anyway shape or form. The very fact that they were considering using it fund a “dream center”, which sounds nice, but is completely unnecessary is unethical. First off, we don’t need a “dream center” in Lee County. If the Church wants something like that, they can fund it themselves and since they want to be involved in politics by trying to use money tied to government, set aside for relief , then they should NOT receive tax exempt status for the center and pay taxes on it yearly. Do that and I can guarantee the church will not want the center any longer. The money cannot and should not be used for anything that it was not allocated toward no matter how “good” of an idea it may be. Doing so is a direct violation of ethical behavior on both sides, like it or not. And standing up for the taxpayers of Lee County? Really? You honestly believe that? Sounds like he was just trying to lessen his involvement in this entire thing to try and make himself look innocent and better than he was being portrayed. Sharpe doesn’t give a damn about the taxpayers of Lee County.
Actually it does fall in the scope of the relief act so it is technically ethical. Here is the act. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-01-27/pdf/2022-00292.pdf What is unethical to me is the fact that no one knew the county was willing to give money to a non-profit. Somehow the DC knew. If I was a non-profit I would be upset they were not notified and given a pathway to apply. I think it was either Reives or Sharpe who brought this to light. As far as Sharpe not being a good steward of tax payer money he voted several times to lower the property tax rate and he ask for more time to vet this particular proposal. It was Lavallee, Carver, Smith, and Knecht who bypassed norms and pushed the vote. That is how much they care about tax dollars.
So why it was an interesting read, I saw nothing in the act that stated these funds could be used for what they are being proposed for. It doesn’t fall under (a), (c), or the Final Rule because it doesn’t meet criteria.
To Onionhead, I agree with you !!
Onionhead, I agree with you that the money should not be spent this way. I guess the board attorney read it differently than you did. Maybe you should go to the meeting and ask them to explain how they are justifying it.
She doth protest too much!