RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) — In defending his wife and her nonprofit amid concerns raised by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign is calling out the wife of his opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein.
Robinson’s wife, Yolanda Hill, ran a now-defunct nonprofit called Balanced Nutrition Inc. The nonprofit falls under the Child and Adult Care Food Program, part of the NCDHHS’s Division of Child and Family Well-Being.
The nonprofit described itself on its website as “a private nonprofit organization dedicated to helping child care providers make the most out of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The food program is our only business. Our staff has over twenty-plus years of experience working with CACFP, making us well-qualified to serve the providers and the children in their care.”
Josh Stein’s wife, Anna Stein, works as a legal specialist for the Chronic Disease and Injury Section of the NCDHHS’s Division of Public Health.
Robinson’s campaign issued a statement underlining Anna Stein’s job and describing the case against Balanced Nutrition Inc. as a “weaponization of government” against his family. The NCDHHS denies that Anna Stein has had any involvement in CACFP or Balanced Nutrition Inc.’s review, and Josh Stein’s campaign called the Robinson campaign’s comments “ridiculous and completely false.”
‘Politically motivated’
Balanced Nutrition Inc. was scheduled to face a compliance review on April 15, 2024, but, on the morning the review was supposed to take place, NCDHHS received word from Balanced Nutrition Inc.’s attorney stating that “Balanced Nutrition and Mrs. Hill respectfully decline to meet with NCHHS officials without the presence of counsel. Furthermore, we are not available this week.” Documents provided by the state characterize Hill and others as uncooperative with this review.
Balance Nutrition Inc. filed to terminate its agreement with the NCDHHS on April 30, 2024.
In documents obtained by CBS17, Hill said that the compliance review felt like an attack, writing, “As an organization, there are numerous things that have happened and been documented that makes us feel as if we are the target of some type of vendetta, be it personal or political.”
Robinson’s campaign has taken this perspective as well, characterizing the investigation and subsequent findings as a political attack directly tied to Robinson’s gubernatorial aspirations.
“These findings are politically motivated at the core,” Mike Lonergan, the communications director for Robinson’s campaign, said on July 30. “Last year, an independent auditor issued a report on Balanced Nutrition, Inc. (BNI) with no material findings. Yet as soon as Mark Robinson announced his campaign for governor in April 2023, the Democrat-run state agency started moving the goalposts. Just as they are doing against President Trump, Democrats are weaponizing the bureaucracy to grind a political ax against their opponents. Needless to say, BNI is aware of these findings, vehemently disagrees with them, and is looking forward to challenging them on appeal.”
Lonergan provided the independent auditor’s report he referenced. Conducted by Florida-based accounting firm BAS Partners, the report covers 2021 and was published in January 2023. It was not immediately clear who ordered this independent audit.
“In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Balanced Nutrition, Inc. as of December 31, 2021, and the changes in its net assets and its cashflows for the year ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America,” the audit reads.
Anna Stein
On Wednesday, Robinson’s campaign released a statement bringing attention to Josh Stein’s wife, Anna Stein, and her work as a legal specialist in the Public Health division of NCDHHS.
For years, Mrs. Robinson ran a nonprofit helping to ensure daycare providers served nutritious meals to children across North Carolina who would have likely not received one otherwise. She helped disadvantaged children through this organization for eight years with no issues, passing independent audits and reviews by the NC officials. But, after Mark Robinson announced his campaign for governor, DHHS suddenly began to have issues.
Now, after reviewing public documents, we find out that Mark’s political opponent’s wife is a lawyer at the very same agency making these false attacks against Mrs. Robinson. But for some reason, all the reporters who have covered this story don’t seem to think that’s a relevant point. We’ve seen the weaponization of government against President Trump, and now the Robinson family is experiencing it first-hand.
Mike Lonergan, a spokesman for Mark Robinson’s campaign
When asked about any involvement by Anna Stein, the NCDHHS said, “No, [Anna Stein] has not been involved in any CACFP or Balanced Nutrition Inc. work.”
Josh Stein’s campaign said Anna Stein is one of 16,000 employees in the department.
“Anna Stein has nothing to do with the division that oversees Balanced Nutrition and has never spoken to anyone at DHHS about Balanced Nutrition or Yolanda Hill’s legal problems,” the campaign stated.
The campaign says that Anna Stein has worked for the NC Division of Public Health since 2011 “as an agency legal specialist to the Chronic Disease and Injury Section.” She moved to a part-time temporary position in the fall of 2023 and “averages about 3 hours of work for the agency per week.”
A 2021 page for the Opioid Prevention Summit describes Anna Stein as a “legal advisor to the Chronic Disease and Injury Section on policies relating to tobacco-free living, healthy eating, active living, and injury prevention.”
“This attack is ridiculous and completely false,” Josh Stein said.
A spokeswoman for Josh Stein’s campaign, Kate Frauenfelder, said, “These shameful attacks are baseless and exactly what you’d expect from someone doing everything in his power to avoid responsibility for a dangerous daycare and allegations of six-figure fraud.”
The NCDHHS said the recent review stemmed from issues found in its annual review of the 2022-2023 year, which would predate Robinson’s campaign announcement in April 2023 and be for a year later than the independent audit Robinson’s campaign shared.
The scheduled compliance review, conducted by NCDHHS in accordance with set USDA federal policy, is a standard review for all organizations participating in the North Carolina Child and Adult Care Food Program.
CACFP sponsoring organizations are bound by legal and contractual obligations to participate in compliance reviews. Per federal regulations, reviews are conducted every two to three years at a minimum, depending on the size of an institution and previous findings. When there are findings from the review that do not rise to the level of Serious Deficiency, the institution must complete a corrective action plan to address the findings in order to avoid the issuance of a Notice of Serious Deficiency. The frequency of reviews increases for programs who have had findings in prior compliance reviews to ensure the sponsoring organization has corrected the findings and is complying with state and federal rules.
The standard 2022-2023 review of Balanced Nutrition, Inc. resulted in findings. Rather than taking the more punitive step of issuing a Notice of Serious Deficiency, NCDHHS directed Balanced Nutrition, Inc. to complete a corrective action plan to address the findings from the compliance review. Balanced Nutrition, Inc. completed the corrective action plan and NCDHHS put the organization back on the review schedule for the next Federal fiscal year to ensure continued compliance with state and federal rules.
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Background
‘Deficiencies’
In a letter sent to Balanced Nutrition Inc. on July 24, the NCDHHS wrote that it identified “Yolanda Hill, Kimberly Cephas, and Renee Matthews-Jones as responsible for the serious deficiencies as a result of their responsibility for the overall management of Balanced Nutrition, Inc. operations.”
“The state agency was permitted to begin the review on Balanced Nutrition, Inc., on April 22, 2024, and was able to make copies of some requested documents. However, Balanced Nutrition, Inc. did not provide all requested documents,” according to NCDHHS.
NCDHHS says it tried to contact Balanced Nutrition, Inc.’s employees, including Hill, to schedule an exit interview “by email, telephone, and written communication, with no response.”
“A letter dated June 14, 2024, was sent to Balanced Nutrition, Inc. requesting three dates and times that an institution representative would be available to participate in an exit conference. Balanced Nutrition, Inc. was unresponsive,” NCDHHS documents said.
It goes on to outline that the organization must provide documents that show it has taken corrective action for the deficiencies outlined by Aug. 7. If it does not do this, NCDHHS will “propose to disqualify Balanced Nutrition, Inc., Yolanda Hill, Kimberly Cephas, and Renee Matthews-Jones from further participation in the CACFP.”
Noncompliance issues include the “USDA nondiscrimination statement was not listed on the menus for all centers. Menus that were posted and obtained from Apple Tree Wee School, Inc. did not have this statement included,” “no documentation on file to verify that sponsoring organization staff received annual Civil Rights Training within the last twelve months,” and “monitoring records were missing; Income Eligibility Applications were missing; enrollment documents were missing.”
‘Disallowances’
On July 26, the NCDHHS shared letters sent to Balanced Nutrition Inc. that address disallowances owed by the nonprofit with a detailed breakdown of where it found inconsistencies between reported costs and verified costs for the operations and services provided by the organization to various daycares in the state.
Disallowances are deductions or monetary benefits that a person or organization files for but is not entitled to. When a disallowance is found during an audit, the individual or organization must give back the amount of money that was granted by the disallowed deduction or benefit. Disallowances are separate from the deficiencies outlined in July, which deal more with operational issues rather than financial issues.
“NCDHHS has issued disallowance forms to Balanced Nutrition, Inc. resulting in the following: $24,400.29 in disallowances for the test facilities under the sponsorship of Balanced Nutrition, Inc. included in the compliance review. $107,718.57 in disallowances for the Sponsoring Organization ($86,560.57 for centers and $21,158.00 for day care homes).”
The full disallowance owed by Balanced Nutrition, Inc. to the State agency is $132,118.86,” the documents read.
“An amount owed to the State Agency indicated on page 1 of the CAC 101 form will become effective fifteen days from the date of this notice unless you request 1) an informal review or 2) an appeal,” the documents state.
The documents outlining the amount owed can be reviewed below.
Prior financial issues
Robinson has previously been accused of non-payment of rent and non-payment of vehicle taxes.
Robinson has often discussed his troubled financial upbringing, jobs he said were lost due to the North American Free Trade Agreement and bankruptcies. He wrote in his 2022 memoir that he’s struggled with finances but that these were “the ups and downs of a man who is determined to make a go of it in the world without a steady stream of government ‘charity.’”
