MANSFIELD — Mansfield Choice Academies owes the city over $60,000 after failing to pay rent over the last 10 months, according to city officials.
This issue was discussed Tuesday during a finance committee meeting in council chambers, initially addressed by Third Ward Councilman Jon Van Harlingen, chair of the finance committee.
Van Harlingen said he was hesitant to move forward with legislation that allows the safety-service director to enter into a new lease with Mansfield Choice Academies, considering that the school hasn’t paid rent since last August.
“(Year) 2016 is kind of where all of this got started because there seems to be a problem with the billing, or receiving payments, let’s put it that way,” he said.
Mansfield Choice Academies is housed in the Ocie Hill Neighborhood Center on Bowman Street. The school serves Richland County students in kindergarten through 12th grade who are behind academically, at risk of dropping out of high school, or have dropped out of high school and have not obtained a GED, according to the school’s website.
The city entered into a year-long lease with the school on Sept. 1, 2016, but Deputy Law Director Chris Brown said there were typos in the contract.
“That’s what began the issue of not getting paid because Mansfield Choice Academies correctly said, ‘Well, you’re asking us for this amount, but that’s not accurate based on the new annual amount owed,'” Brown said.
The 2015 contract was for $97,800, with a monthly payment of $8,150 due on the first of the month. The 2016 contract was for $72,459, but the monthly payments were still set at $8,150.
“That monthly amount did not align with the new annual amount,” Brown said.
He added, “I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus, but there were definitely some problems over that 10-month to year-long period of following up.”
“So it’s a human error issue, not an issue of not having the money?” Councilman-at-large Cliff Mears asked.
“That’s my understanding,” Brown responded. “I have about a year’s worth of emails going back and forth between the city and Mansfield Choice Academies saying, ‘can we get a new lease signed, can we get some of the typos fixed,’ because as Mr. Van Harlingen mentioned there are a few typos in last year’s lease.”
Brown said the 2016 contract never came before the law department.
“I don’t know who drafted the original lease,” Law Director John Spon said. “I don’t even know where it came from.”
Fourth Ward Councilman Butch Jefferson asked, “With all due respect with all the parties involved, who dropped the ball here?”
“I always thought the law director’s office was in charge of leases in the end result to make sure everything’s legal.”
Mayor Tim Theaker believes it was drafted by Ocie Hill director Lisa Hall and Mansfield Choice Academies officials, noting that council approved the contract last year.
“Yeah, and we do that all the time under the pretense that you have done your job — the law director, Lisa and whoever else,” Jefferson responded.
Councilman-at-large Don Bryant shared similar concerns.
“How are we getting legislation to council that’s not going through (the law) office first?”
In an email sent in August of last year, Human Resources Director Dave Remy directed Hall to get the contract signed, Brown said.
“At some point Lisa should have taken it around the (municipal) building, gotten Director Spon to sign it, gotten Director Cope to sign it,” Brown said.
“If it came to us, or if Mansfield Choice Academies had an issue about the discrepancy, when she was getting those signatures, she would have mentioned to us, ‘This isn’t correct — will the law director’s office please correct this,’ but that just never happened.”
Jefferson said checks and balances need to be in place.
“When Lisa (Hall) signs or looks at a contract, that’s not her expertise,” he said. “She has an immediate supervisor — I guess that’s Mrs. (Lori) Cope, and then it goes forward. That (issue) should be caught way before it gets to (council).”
“I’m really disappointed in that process because this process happened 10 years ago dealing with the jail, where we got into a contract and had no way out,” he added.
Second Ward Councilman Jeff Rock asked if there are any processes in place within the finance department to prevent situations such as these.
“I look at all the revenue every month, except RCA and the grant fund,” said Finance Director Linn Steward. “Finance has had to help out with RCA in a lot of ways, and I’m sorry that my assistant never brought this to my attention.
“I’ve changed procedures where those employees in charge of the grant fund and RCA have to report to me every month so that I know if there’s something not right or there’s a potential problem.”
Brown said the school hopes to pay the full annual amount ($72,459) very soon, without giving a specific date.
Regarding the contract for 2017, Brown said, “I wrote it in such a way that it authorizes Director Cope to enter into this lease upon final negotiation by the law director’s office. So if this piece of legislation were to pass tonight, it would authorize her to enter into a lease for the next year if we came to a final and complete resolution of all these issues.”
If the school does not pay what’s owed, then the contract becomes void and the city will not enter into the lease, Brown said.
“I can promise you that if they don’t pay or we can’t agree for how much space they’re leasing, then it will not be signed,” Brown said.
The new 10-month contract, which council unanimously approved, is effective July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, to align with Mansfield Charter Academies’ fiscal calendar.
It was written this way because that helps the school secure funding from the Ohio Department of Education, Brown said.
“If they have a lease that’s not effective until Sept. 1, that makes it more difficult to secure that funding, which of course then it makes it more difficult for us to secure rent payments for the property.”
He noted, “If we didn’t have the July 1 deadline looming over us for the Department of Education funding, then we probably wouldn’t be asking you to pass this tonight.”
Future contracts would be from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.
