Robinsons appeal state fine over Balanced Nutrition finances

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Mark Robinson has been out of office for a little more than a month.  Surely, he and the family have enjoyed the quiet.  

But Balanced Nutrition (BNI)  — the family’s non-profit contracting venture with the NC Department of Health & Human Services (NC DHHS) that employed the former lieutenant governor, the former Second Lady, and some other family members — is still hanging out there.

We led the reporting on Balanced Nutrition — which focused mainly on some apparently quite sloppy accounting of the federal dollars that flowed through the non-profit.  (If you’re behind on the story, you can catch up on the details HERE.)

Word has surfaced that the Robinsons and their attorneys have appealed the six-figure fine assessed by NC DHHS – based on a review only of three clients BNI served during the first quarter of 2024 — to the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH):

A nonprofit led by former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s wife is appealing a state agency’s order to repay more than $100,000 in federal funding following a scathing review.

Until shutting it down amid a state probe last year, Yolanda Hill led a nonprofit called Balanced Nutrition that helps childcare facilities apply for and receive federal funding for kids’ meals. Mark Robinson and the couple’s son and daughter have worked as employees of the Greensboro nonprofit; he wrote in his book that Hill’s success with the nonprofit allowed him to quit his job and move into politics.

Last summer, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services declared the nonprofit “seriously deficient” after its review found a long list of missing documents required to administer the program, as well as claims filed for payment for centers that apparently hadn’t requested or received money.

Initially, DHHS ordered Balanced Nutrition to repay $132,118.86. But after a September meeting with the nonprofit and its attorneys, the agency lowered the amount owed in January to $101,142.05. It gave Balanced Nutrition 30 days to pay.

Instead, Balanced Nutrition has appealed the order to the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings. A DHHS spokesperson said a judge from that agency held a hearing on the appeal last week.

WUNC requested a copy of the appeal filings from the Office of Administrative Hearings, but a clerk for the agency declined to provide them.

“Currently this case is sealed,” chief hearings clerk Maria Erwin said in an email. “Therefore, I am unable to release any information regarding this case unless authorized to do so from Judge (Michael) Byrne.”

When the order to repay DHHS was issued last year, Robinson’s campaign for governor called it “politically motivated,” arguing the action came from a “Democrat-run state agency.”

Now the fate of Balanced Nutrition’s appeal rests with an agency led by Republicans. The state’s chief administrative law judge, Donald van der Vaart, served in Gov. Pat McCrory’s Cabinet and was appointed to his current role by N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican.

One of the newest administrative law judges at the agency is Brian LiVecchi, who served as Robinson’s chief of staff before resigning from the lieutenant governor’s office in September. He is not the judge assigned to the Balanced Nutrition case. [….]

We reviewed Balanced Nutrition for the duration of its relationship with NC DHHS.  We found serious issues in just about every year.  Remember, the state’s review focused on merely a few clients from the first three months of 2024. 

We had hoped the Robinsons might have attempted to honestly answer questions about BNI finances or make some efforts to correct the organization’s records.  Yet, from the outset, Team Robinson chose evasion and went on defense — with a wee bit of offense occasionally thrown in. 

The money that flowed through Balanced Nutrition (BNI) originated with the US Department of Agriculture.  So, one might think there would be some federal interest in this case.  Of course, with the new administration taking over in DC, things would be a little slow in getting started.

Sealing the details of the proceedings is quite an unusual move. In my experience as a journalist, when document sealing and secrecy take over in a case — THAT screams federal interest in the matter.  Possibly with things getting handed over to some kind of grand jury.  Oh, we can speculate until the cows come home. 

For the sake of Mark’s legacy – for the sake of the Robinson family – it would be good to see an attempt to come clean about Balanced Nutrition.  If there are just a lot of mistakes, correct them, settle any monetary discrepancies, and move on. 

This is clearly not a Democrat set-up.  There are too many red flags in too many official documents (Again, check our story archive HERE and at the site’s masthead) about Balanced Nutrition filled out and signed by Mark Robinson and Yolanda Hill.