The Springfield News-Sun reported Thursday the county signed an agreement with a state agency to recover almost $500,000 from Sheltered in a dispute after a review found the nonprofit had committed “multiple violations” in regards to the reimbursement of funds.
County officials said Wednesday that Sheltered had not been in contact about the recovery of funds.
“Those statements are inaccurate,” Dobyns said in a letter Thursday to the News-Sun. “In fact, we have been attempting to work with the Clark County prosecutor to resolve this issue since May 3, after we received the first demand from them on April 27.”
Beau Thompson, a lawyer with the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office’s civil division, which represents the county DJFS, on Friday said he did not chose his words carefully on Wednesday. Thompson said he apologized to Dobyns for his wording.
He acknowledged conversations with Dobyns and said neither of them knew the correct contact with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which he said he learned about two weeks ago.
“Sheltered has not explained why they say that number is not correct, but there have been discussions as to procedure,” Thompson said.
Dobyns said his Taft Law office has communicated with the prosecutor’s office several times since and later was referred to the Attorney General’s Office from those conversations.
“Unfortunately, the prosecutor’s office has never provided a direct point of contact with the attorney general, despite multiple requests for such information,” he said. “Our attempts to contact the attorney general to open discussions on this matter have been met with either confusion about what we were referring to, or silence.”
Dobyns said Sheltered also was unaware of the existence of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the county and state until the News-Sun reported on it this week.
“No dialogue has been opened by the state or county on this matter,” he said.
Thompson said the purpose of the MOU is for the Attorney General’s Office to assign someone to collect the debt on behalf of Clark County.
He said Sheltered has not provided “a substantive response to the allegation” regarding the contract termination and what the county DJFS said Sheltered owes.
Dobyns did not provide the News-Sun with those details either but repeated Sheltered’s previous position.
“We continue to believe that the report underlying the termination, and claimed debt owed, contain inaccurate and/or false statements and conclusions without factual basis,” Dobyns wrote.
In an April report, Clark County Department of Jobs and Family Services Director Ginny Martycz detailed 50 reimbursements from DJFS to Sheltered Inc. from July 2021 to September 2022 that DJFS said did not qualify for funding or asked for more money than the nonprofit appeared to need.
Sheltered had coordinated much of the response to an increase in people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the county terminated its contract with Sheltered in February, the city of Springfield in April selected Homefull, based in Dayton, to operate the former Executive Inn hotel as an emergency, non-congregate shelter space.
In July, Clark County also signed a deal with Homefull regarding the shelter at the former Executive Inn.
Also in July, OIC of Clark County, a nonprofit, showed its support for Sheltered by providing it with financial support in light of the contract dispute.
OIC Executive Director Mike Calabrese said then he and the board of directors sought to stabilize Sheltered, which he said has the facilities and experts best-equipped to handle the local homelessness crisis.
Dobyns said Sheltered continues to assist those in need.
“Sheltered remains devoted to its mission and will continue to serve the underprivileged and those facing homelessness in Clark County to the best of its ability,” the statement from Dobyns said.
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