Prince George’s County Council funded the sheriff’s PIO’s nonprofit. Auditors found problems.

A Prince George’s County employee who also ran a children’s nonprofit collected tens of thousands of dollars in county grants, depositing some of the funds into a personal bank account and others into her private wedding business — all while serving as the public face of the county sheriff’s office, according to a recent audit.

The Prince George’s County Council’s Office of Audits and Investigations uncovered significant deficiencies in the operations of The Better Family Inc., a Clinton-based nonprofit that runs an annual children’s expo called Tots to Teens, according to an audit released in February.

Over the fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Prince George’s County Council members collectively sent $68,500 to the nonprofit run by Romaine Taylor Thomas McNair, a former morning radio host who goes by Taylor Thomas and has served as a public information officer for the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office since 2024, according to the audit.

Of the funds, $56,000 was awarded while Thomas was employed with the county, the audit found. The grant funding accounted for about half of the organization’s budget in 2024, according to the audit.

Thomas did not return multiple requests for comment on the audit’s findings. The sheriff’s office did not respond to questions about whether the audit has affected Thomas’ employment with the agency.

The audit found Thomas did not disclose her county employment to a state ethics board, creating potential conflicts of interest. Audits also found Thomas used different portions of her name across grant applications and other documents and claimed the nonprofit had a board of directors consisting of four members when she was, in fact, the sole member.

But it was more than just paperwork issues.

Auditors reviewed how the nonprofit spent $44,720 of the grant funds — about 65% of the total received — and found 10 transactions that “did not appear to align with the organization’s mission or program noted in the grant applications.”

The transactions, totaling more than $20,000, included $5,000 in radio advertising and $750 in photography services for Wedding Bliss LLC, a for-profit wedding company owned by Thomas, according to the audit.

There was also money going unspent, auditors noted. The audit found the organization had promised to fund $20,000 in scholarships in its FY2024 grant application but awarded none.

The nonprofit also paid $69,913 in salary to a person listed as its treasurer, identified in audited documents as Romaine McNair.

The audit concluded the grant funds winding up in her personal bank account “may have resulted from a lack of proper segregation of duties, where a single individual has too much control over accounting functions, including initiating bank account changes.”

“Internal control weakness, such as this, can allow for potentially fraudulent activity, theft, or the misuse of funds for personal gain,” the audit said.

The report is signed by former county auditor Turkessa M. Green, an audit supervisor. Green’s post as head of the Office of Audits and Investigations is currently being overseen by acting auditor Larry Whitehurst.

Asked whether the findings were shared with outside agencies, Nickisha Orphe, an administrative assistant for the office, said the findings of each audit are shared with the council administrator, county executive and council members.

The proposed budget for fiscal 2027, released in March, contains a 20% funding cut to the council’s Office of Audits and Investigations.

Orphe did not immediately respond to questions about how that cut could affect the office’s operations.

Much of the funding sent to The Better Family came from District 9 council member Sydney Harrison, who directed some $45,000 in grants, about two-thirds of the total Thomas received in county money.

Harrison’s chief of staff, Eric Bowman, said the council member has a professional relationship with Thomas through her nonprofit. Thomas was the cohost of two official District 9 events in 2021, according to archived newsletters.

Bowman said Harrison increased funding to the nonprofit to support its scholarship program. He said using that money “for any purpose stated outside of the application is improper.”

In response to the audit, Bowman said Harrison “does not have any objections or rebuttals regarding the findings in the report” and emphasized the importance of the office and the council’s grants office in vetting nonprofits.

As for the potential cuts to the audits and investigations office, Bowman said Harrison “has not been made aware of a proposed cut” and that it is the council member’s belief that “to increase the public’s trust, transparency, accountability, and commit to service, the county must continue to invest into and build our regulatory and investigative agencies.”

“Any cuts to the Office of Audits and Investigations’ budget will weaken the council’s ability to properly manage and regulate the grant process,” Harrison said.

In a letter to Thomas last fall, auditors said they would recommend the County Council stop funding her organization and request refunds of grant money spent on unrelated expenses.

Despite the audit’s findings and its recommendation to discontinue county funding, the Tots to Teens Expo was still scheduled for this past Saturday. The Better Family’s website lists the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission as its “title sponsor,” but in an email the commission’s spokesperson said it was no longer sponsoring the event.

Bowman said the process of requesting or requiring reimbursement is the responsibility of the grant office and the office of audits and investigations, not individual council offices.

The grant office did not immediately respond to a question about whether that reimbursement has been requested.

Have a tip for our Prince George’s County reporters? Tell us here.