A HUD review of Knox County Community Development Block Grant and other programs requested by Mayor Mike Ragsdale in August has been completed and a report of HUD's findings has been submitted to the mayor's office.

The report "commends the county for employing a knowledgeable staff and for a commitment to carrying out worthwhile activities," and also commended the County "for good programmatic monitoring of sub recipients."

The report did, however, find actionable issues involving:

• Possible conflicts of interest relating to the CDBG program

• Problems with KCCD and Knox County PBA employees time sheets used to allocate administrative costs among programs

• Failure to include a "reversion of asset" related to a subrecipient agreement with the Tennessee Conference of Community Development

Other areas of concern included:

• Lack of progress in the HOME affordable housing program and "inconsistency of the PBA to provide consistent and experienced management of the Knox County Rehabilitation Program"

• Problems with subrecipient management procedures involving program and financial management monitoring

• Concerns regarding separation of duties and having proper checks and balances in place

A total of $33,454 in questioned funding was disallowed, and another $840,000 is under further review. HUD's summary letter of findings can be found here.

The mayor's office says they are taking steps to address these issues. The HUD report noted that Knox County officials did not appear to have "adequate knowledge of the CDBG and HOME conflict of interest requirement" and that they would review the county's response in relation to the disallowed funding.

The mayor's office has prepared the requested conflict of interest documentation, a copy of which can be found here.