The REAL Robinson problem

The question of whether Mark Robinson did or did not hang out on the pornographic website “Nude Africa” or did or did not hang out at a Greensboro XXXX video store has shaken North Carolina politics like a 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

We’ve been writing about the problems with the non-profit Balanced Nutrition – founded by Robinson and his wife Yolanda Hill — for more than a year. Some of the apparent problems with BN include: failure to pay taxes, false information on government forms, sketchy accounting, and conflicting numbers and other data reported to state and federal regulators.

All of that stuff — if proven — can lead to hefty fines or other penalties, such as jail.  And the money we’re talking about with Balanced Nutrition is and was OURS.  (Tax dollars.)

We’ve been asking Mark Robinson‘s team questions about Balanced Nutrition for more than a year — well before he officially jumped into the primary.

You would have thought they’d have appreciated being made aware of paperwork problems that could lead to lots of legal hot water.  Instead we got stone-cold silence or cheap shots like “go back to your mother’s basement.”

The plan appeared to be just to ignore the questions their actions at the daycare center and at Balanced Nutrition provoked. They could have taken time way-back-when to fix some of the more serious parts of this mess.

Questions  that could have been resolved more than a year ago are now being hashed out in the middle of a gubernatorial campaign. But – no – the egos came out on top. 

A review of 10 out of Balanced Nutrition‘s roughly 100 clients for the first three months of 2024 found more than $132,000 that DHHS believes needs to be paid back to the state of North Carolina by Yolanda Hill and Balanced Nutrition.  One has to wonder how much bigger that $$$ number will get if all of Balanced Nutrition’s transactions get scrutinized. 

This is not on me or my website.  This is on Mark & Yolanda and their habit of doing whatever they want, and then ignoring the ensuing problems until they become huge, expensive, and embarrassing.  

You see it with the landlord who had to go to court to evict them from his property for non-payment of rent.  You see it with the lawsuit against Yolanda by The Girl Scouts for “breach of contract.”  You see it in the collapse of the Greensboro daycare center. You see it in all the people who have had to take them to court for bad checks.

Through Balanced Nutrition’s six year business relationship with NC DHHS, Yolanda filled out, signed and submitted government documents claiming that she was not “related” to her son, husband, daughter, son-in-law, mother, or sister. I could understand one typo on one form, but FIVE OR SIX YEARS OF DENIAL OF ALL THOSE RELATIONS?

Another theme we see with Mark & Yolanda is blaming someone else when their ethical, moral, or legal boo-boos are exposed.  The collapse of the daycare center was blamed by Mark on the allegedly oppressive level of oversight and red tape involved in working with DHHS.

(Yet, roughly seven years later, Mark & Yolanda sign up for another tour of duty — Balanced Nutrition – with the NC Department of Health & Human Services. *I guess life with NC DHHS and all their tax $$$ wasn’t all that oppressive after all.*)

Yolanda announced she was shuttering Balanced Nutrition in April. She gave conflicting reasons: (1) telling clients it was to allow her to spend more time on the campaign trail with Mark, and (2) telling the public it was due to political harassment by DHHS management.

Yolanda and Mark decided to call out and blame a single DHHS employee named Joyce Bonner for all their Balanced Nutrition trouble.  Bonner reportedly sent texts to DHHS management pointing out that Balanced Nutrition’s Yolanda Hill was actually married to current Lt. Gov. — and former Balanced Nutrition employee — Mark Robinson.

DHHS regulations make it crystal clear that contractors like Yolanda need prior approval in order to hire family members (to be paid with tax dollars) or put them on their boards.  Apparently, Yolanda did not seek or receive that approval for Mark. (Or any of the other relatives, for that matter. )

*Of course, why would DHHS management assume someone named “Hill” would be married to someone named “Robinson”?*

What could easily be explained as surprise at discovering the relation got twisted into something sinister.  *Apparently, it wasn’t up to Yolanda Hill to make it clear that — at the time Balanced Nutrition signed up with NC DHHS — she and proposed employee Mark Robinson had been married for 27 years.*

 Somebody else was the problem.   Conservatives like to champion the concept of personal responsibility.  Unfortunately, North Carolina conservatives have, as their champion in the gubernatorial race, someone who — with his spouse — is notorious for pointing the finger at someone else at the drop of a hat.

Balanced Nutrition is not the only skunk at the Robinson garden party:

• • The beach house:  Yolanda and Mark stayed at a beachfront mansion in Virginia Beach.  The house rented for $30,000 per week.  Who paid?  Our questions were met with stone-cold silence by the lieutenant governor’s office and campaign.
  • The four-year old elections board complaint:  Liberal activist Bob Hall filed a complaint with a lot of really good questions about the finances of Robinson’s 2020 campaign.  The complaint has been sitting in limbo for four years.
  • The Paycheck protection “loans”:  Balanced Nutrition applied for and received two of these from the federal government.  The feds approved these for small businesses that lost revenue as a result of the COVID lockdowns.  The problem for Balanced Nutrition?  Its records showed no revenue loss for the time period in question.  The company did not qualify.  BN applied for two “loans” they didn’t appear to qualify for.  There is no evidence the money got paid back.  Still awaiting comment on this from Team Robinson. 

“Insensitive” words that hurt the sensitivities of protected classes really get the attention of our drive-by media.  You just have to pop over to Facebook or Twitter or whatever to take a few screen shots.  It’s not hard work to collect your ammo.

The real issues regarding the Robinsons involves digging through public documents and reading financial statements. Stuff that can hurt your head. 

Digging into the stuff we have — and the stuff we’ve raised here — is a real service for readers and voters out there.  Crude tweets and Facebook posts are a dime a dozen.  We’re talking about tax dollars in this case.  We’re talking about putting a man and his wife, with a long and on-going history of sloppy and careless financial behavior, at the top of the Raleigh political “food chain.”

Look at the stuff that really matters.  Read up on the issues that matter.