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Athens commissioners get some clarification from state officials on more than $2.5 million in misspent funds
By: David Forster
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — Athens County commissioners were surprised to learn just how much the county owes the state in reimbursement for misspent funds that have resulted in felony criminal charges. It could have been worse.
The total owed is $2,585,898.15.
“It far exceeds what we were expecting to be the amount,” Commissioner Lenny Eliason wrote in an email last month to Sabrina Jamison, a senior financial manager with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
“What were you expecting the amount to come to?” Jamison asked in reply.
“1.5 to 1.7 million was the number that we had heard most often,” Eliason responded.
Monday morning, the commissioners had a virtual meeting with Jamison and others from Ohio JFS. Jamison explained the total reflects the amount of state and federal funds Athens County Job and Family Services used for things that were not eligible for payment using these funds.
Former Athens County JFS Director Jean Demosky was indicted on seven felony charges two weeks ago in connection with the misspent funds. County Commissioner Charlie Adkins was also indicted, on a felony charge of intimation. The indictments accuse Demosky and Adkins of confronting JFS staff and pressuring them to identify a whistle blower who raised concerns about how funds were being spent.
Ohio JFS has proposed the county repay the amount owed over 15 years at $43,098 a quarter. The commissioners have not yet signed off on this payment plan.
During Monday’s videoconference, it was clear commissioners may be looking for ways to ease that burden.
Eliason mentioned nearly $93,000 that Ohio JFS says was misspent on a program to help low-income people treat bedbug infestations in their homes.
Some of that money was taken from a 2024 grant to pay for extermination services done in 2023. That’s not allowed because it was outside the period covered by the grant, the state said. As for the rest, the state said it could find no documentation that the extermination services were provided only to people whose incomes met the grant limits.
Eliason asked the Ohio JFS officials if the county could file a claim against HAPCAP for this money. They did not offer an opinion.
WOUB reached out to HAPCAP early Monday afternoon to find out whether it was responsible for determining if people helped through the bedbug program qualified based on their income, and if so whether this was documented. HAPCAP did not respond by the time this story was published.
Eliason also asked in his email exchange with Jamison whether the county could essentially repay the state by drawing a smaller amount of state and federal funding in coming years. Jamison replied that this would amount to using state and federal funds to pay back misspent state and federal funds.
This isn’t allowed, she replied. “Therefore it has to be paid with local funding,” she wrote.
It turns out the county could have been on the hook for substantially more than what the state says it owes.
According to Ohio JFS, there were more than $1.6 million in inappropriate direct expenses by Athens JFS and nearly $3 million in inappropriate staffing costs. That totals more than $4.6 million in misspent funds.
But the state was able to use grants for which Athens JFS had not used all the money available to reduce that total to just over $2.5 million.
A significant portion of the misspent funds identified by the state were related to a nonprofit organization Demosky created to administer programs including the Back to School Bash, which provides students with school supplies; Winterfest, which provides students with clothing; and Operation Full Belly, which provides families with meals.
According to Ohio JFS and the grand jury indictment against Demosky, Athens JFS staff helped organize and run these programs, using work hours that should have been devoted to their JFS duties.
Ohio JFS also identified more than $350,000 in inappropriate costs related to a building in Nelsonville bought to house the nonprofit, known as the Athens Community Cares Fund. Some of these costs were related to renovation expenses and for operating expenses before the building was even occupied.