Resident alleges federal grant fraud

Robyn Rush is no stranger to local government officials. About two months ago, she filed a lawsuit against the City of High Springs, which has yet to be resolved.

But when she approached the commission during an Aug. 26 meeting, it wasn’t about the Florida Sunshine Law and the right to public records.

This time, Rush fired off a series of specific and detailed allegations amounting to a claim, that if her data is correct, she said it appears the City of High Springs has committed fraud against the federal government.

Commissioners appeared baffled last Thursday night when she presented her concerns.

Later during the meeting, City Commissioner Larry Travis said he “has a real problem” with people coming up and making accusations while he and the other commissioners have no prior knowledge of the issue. This was not the proper way, he said, to go about voicing a complaint.

Though she did not go into detail, Rush later indicated that she chose to address the commission directly based on prior experiences that calling or e-mailing city commissioners or the city manager yielded little or no response.

“If they’re not under the spotlight then they don’t feel the responsibility to take action,” she said.

The questions she raised concerned the High Springs Police Department’s use of Byrne Grant funds, which consist of federal money disbursed through the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.

Rush cited various city documents she claims show that some of the city’s expenditures of grant money does not appear to match up with the dollar amounts for which the city requested reimbursements from the sheriff’s office.

She claims that in several cases, dating back to 2008, the city requested grant reimbursements to cover expenses of overtime pay for officers. But in the cases in question, she said the city never actually wrote the corresponding checks to cover overtime pay.

Toward the end of the commission meeting, Mayor Bill Coughlin opened the floor to High Springs Chief of Police Jim Troiano, to respond to Rush’s concerns.

Troiano told commissioners that he can assure them, he has never intentionally misused any grant funds, and in this instance, to the best of his knowledge, neither he, nor the city, has done anything wrong. Both he and the city manager, Jim Drumm, said that if there has been a bookkeeping mistake it will certainly be addressed and corrected, but they have no knowledge of any intention to deliberately scam anyone.

The chief also indicated that contrary to rumor, he confirmed with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that he, nor the city of High Springs, is under investigation regarding the Byrne Grant at this time.

On Wednesday, Drumm said he has not received written confirmation, but he added, “My understanding is that there is not an investigation.”

He also said that he spoke to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) grant administrators on Monday, and they will be doing an administrative review of the grant over the next week.

The general consensus of the commission was that the records Rush cited should be reviewed, and the city should do whatever is in its means to answer her questions and put all doubts to rest.

Troiano said he would gladly give money from his own paycheck to pay for an investigation, if that’s what it takes to prove his innocence.

Drumm said he believes that this administrative review will clarify any concerns that were brought forth.