LOUISVILLE, Ky. — During a news conference Friday afternoon, Mayor Craig Greenberg announced he is terminating the multi-million-dollar contracts with the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council. He said the group agrees with the decision.
This comes after a "clear and unanimous decision" where the ethics commission found that Metro Councilmember Anthony Piagentini (D-19) committed multiple ethics code violations.
Greenberg said roughly $16 million in funding was allocated to four local sub-recipients including AMPED, Metro United Way, Louisville Urban League and the University of Louisville.
"There has been no implication of any wrongdoing by any of these organizations," Greenberg said. "It is my strong recommendation to Metro Council that Louisville Metro Government recommit funding to these four organizations so they can continue their important work to educate and train the next generation of leaders in our city."
The mayor said the remaining $24 million should be reallocated to benefit the city. Greenberg said the federal government has strict guidelines and a deadline of when these funds must be used, "we can't wait," he added.
"Our city will lose this once in a lifetime opportunity unless we meet these federal spending guidelines, we have to act quickly," he said, proposing it go toward the city's parks and libraries.
Under Greenberg's proposal, $14 million would go to improving Metro Parks while the remaining $10 million will fund library projects across the city.
"Let's remember, the money that we are talking about is [ARP] funding, which was designed to make communities across the country stronger following the economic fallout of the pandemic," he said. "We will not let the unethical actions of a couple of people get in the way of that."
The commission found Piagentini violated six ethics codes after he allegedly leveraged his power as a local lawmaker to get a new job.
Last year, he co-sponsored a proposal to allocate $40 million from the American Rescue Plan to the Healthcare Workforce Innovation Coalition. While he abstained from the final vote, he took a consulting job with the group leading that coalition around the same time as the vote.
Friday morning, Piagentini reiterated that the entire situation was purely a “coincidence of timing.”
“I can’t control when somebody approaches me about a job, I have no control over that,” he said. “When they do, I am then required to do what the law requires me to do, and I did precisely that.”
The Healthcare CEO Council released a statement saying:
The Healthcare Workforce Innovation Coalition was granted the $40 million workforce grant and CEOC is the grant administrator on behalf of the Coalition. We are very proud of the equity-focused Healthcare Workforce Innovation Coalition and its strong roster of community partners doing this important work, including Amped, Metro United Way, Louisville Urban League, the University of Louisville, GLI, KIPDA and KentuckianaWorks. We fully support Mayor Greenberg and this administration, and we look forward to working with the mayor’s administration on the transitioning of the ARP grant back to the city.
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