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Witness Claims Green Paid Children Who Were Not in Jobs Program

A witness at an upcoming ethics hearing involving Louisville Metro Councilwoman Judy Green claims the city lawmaker paid several children who did not participate in her summer jobs program.Two years ago, Green approached leaders with the LIFE Institute to run the city-funded “Green Clean Team” in her district. A complaint filed with the Ethics Commission claims she used the program to benefit her family.LIFE Institute founder Eddie Woods says Green also used what he estimates could be thousands in tax dollars to pay children who didn’t work over the summer.“She basically gave us a list of names and amounts. And most of the time when the kids were there to pick up a check they signed for the check that they received. In those cases where the kid was not there she said that she would see them in church or she’d see them somewhere and she would give them the check,” he says.Green has denied any wrongdoing and maintained that the LIFE Institute ran the program and that her husband, James Green, only volunteered to oversee its supervisors.Her attorney declined to comment for this story.An internal audit and police investigation found that over $28,000 of the initial grant was unaccounted for due to poor bookkeeping. It also found that Green ran the program with 12 of her relatives receiving 10 percent of the $35,000 in city money allocated for the program.Last summer, wages owed to youth participants were delayed for several months due to an investigation by the city auditor, who was unable to document expenditures from the $55,000 grant Green had secured for the program. The county attorney’s office has continued its request that LIFE Institute repay the city for the undocumented funds.Woods says that his organization isn’t responsible for the money because Green and her husband ran the program. He points out that the audit and police report concluded that although LIFE Institute was supposed to be in charge, Green and her husband administered the program. “We won’t accept any responsibility at all for a program we did not run,” says Woods. The ethics hearing continues April 28.