Representatives of the Peoria County Board of Health say potential criminal financial improprieties prompted termination of the Cure Violence program.
Speaking to the Peoria City Council on Tuesday, board president Mike Kennedy said things are “still evolving” and they’re continuing to assess the situation following the anti-violence initiative’s abrupt demise.
Kennedy said over the past seven months, the board encountered “logistical issues” with getting Cure Violence to comply with certain grant funding requirements before voting to terminate the anti-violence program last week.
“As a result of that, Minority Business Development did a quick audit of the financial standing of that particular project and found some funding discrepancies,” he said. “It was reported to the Peoria Police Department and initiated (an) investigation. It is now in the hands of the Peoria state's attorney.”
The Peoria Police Department confirmed Wednesday that they are investigating the House of Hope, which was awarded money to launch the Cure Violence initiative on Peoria's South Side. The health department revoked that funding from the nonprofit last month, citing "capacity issues" with the implementation process.
Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich said the program was slated to get $650,000 from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. He said only $382,000 was actually dispersed.
“With the notice that we received from the health department that the Cure Violence Program had been terminated or suspended, we sent them a letter to date, letting them know that we were considering this a partial termination of the award,” said Urich.
“We know that with the ARPA deadlines in place, we have to re-obligate any unspent ARPA dollars by the end of this year, and then they have to be spent by the end of 2026. So, this will be something that we'll bring back to (the council).”
After the City of Peoria initially passed on the program, the Peoria City/County Health Department paid $25,000 in July 2022 for the Cure Violence Assessment. Last fall, the department chose the nonprofit House of Hope to operate the initiative.
Council member Zach Oyler called on Kennedy and health board secretary Ben Brewer to speak to the council to discuss what he called “potential impropriety.”
“It's very upsetting and frustrating, especially to some of us around the council, because two years ago, we voted this down for concerns over lack of oversight, lack of due diligence, not being prepared to take on the program,” said Oyler.
“Here we are two years later, and there's a clear lack of oversight, a clear lack of accountability, and a program that appears to be completely mismanaged.”
After Oyler questioned what made the health department think it could handle management of the Cure Violence program, Kennedy clarified that wasn’t quite accurate.
“If I said that, that's not what I meant when I said, ‘we can't handle it.’ This is a very specialized intervention; working in violence is not something most of us could do,” said Kennedy. “Organizations, very traditional nonprofit organizations, could manage it, as long as you know the rules and go by the rules.”
He said the move to cut ties with House of Hope was made before they discovered any financial malfeasance.
“Once we saw it, we dealt with it. The issue of the fund discrepancy was not part of our decision,” he said. “We had already terminated the relationship with House of Hope before the funding discrepancies were made available to us.”
