WCBU has obtained a heavily redacted police report the Peoria City/County Health Department filed with the Peoria Police Department alleging “theft, obtained by deception,” related to grant funding intended for Peoria's Cure Violence program.
The report is dated Sept. 19, 2024.
That is about two weeks after the county’s Board of Health voted to terminate its relationship with the Cure Violence Global program and a little over a week after representatives of the board told the Peoria City Council there was an ongoing investigation into “funding discrepancies” within the program.
Among several redacted names, the report lists Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson, Peoria Mayor Rita Ali and the nonprofit House of Hope.
The name of the suspect was redacted.
Entire pages of the police report also are redacted for potentially impeding an ongoing investigation or divulging details of “confidential sources/Informants/Persons providing information to law enforcement.”
The Peoria City/County Health Department had previously contracted House of Hope to act as administrator for the program in a targeted area of Peoria’s South Side. The department ended the contract on Aug. 17 and directed House of Hope to return their grant funding due to “capacity issues.”
The board of health’s agenda packet for their Oct. 21 meeting includes a timeline of the process for ending the Cure Violence partnership.
The fiscal portion of the timeline indicates that House of Hope was over a week late in providing final fiscal documentation to the health department. Over the course of two weeks, the department requested additional details and eventually settled on a total of $197,222.01 in grant funding to be returned after an internal review.
The total grant funding awarded for the program initially was more than $500,000.
House of Hope and the Minority Business Development Center returned the funds on Oct. 3, two days after the deadline set by the health department.
The timeline says the board of health is seeking an external fiscal audit of the Peoria Cure Violence program from Sikich, a Springfield-based CPA, technology and advisory firm.
