Prince George’s County Sheriff John Carr said he had suspended his public information officer after learning of an audit into her nonprofit that revealed it had spent tens of thousands of dollars in county grants.
In February, the County Council’s Office of Audits and Investigations audited The Better Family Inc., a children’s nonprofit run by Romaine Taylor Thomas McNair, a former radio host who goes by Taylor Thomas and also serves as the sheriff’s spokesperson. The audit found that Thomas deposited grant funds into her personal bank account, spent some of the money on her private wedding business, and didn’t report potential conflicts of interest to a state ethics board, among other findings.
The sheriff’s office said on Wednesday that it didn’t learn of the audit until May 18, the day The Banner reported its findings.
“Based on the information my office has been provided and our preliminary internal review, our agency has initiated an internal affairs investigation,” Carr said in a statement.
The sheriff’s office said Thomas would be suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
Tracy Brown, Carr’s chief of staff, told The Banner that the sheriff was not made aware of the repeated requests for comment sent to the public information office’s email address, which was handled by Thomas. The Banner also attempted to reach Thomas on her cellphone.
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In his statement, Carr said he was “concerned by the allegations” in the audit.
Over two years, County Council members sent about $68,500 to Thomas’ nonprofit, $56,000 of which came when she was working as a county employee, according to the audit. The audit found that grant funding made up about half of The Better Family’s budget.
Thomas used different portions of her name across grant applications and claimed her nonprofit had a board of directors consisting of four members when she was, in fact, the sole member, according to the audit.
Auditors examined how Thomas spent about 65% of the total county grant funding she received and found 10 transactions totaling more than $20,000 that “did not appear to align with the organization’s mission or program noted in grant applications.”
That 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.
The audit also found that Thomas promised to spend $20,000 on scholarships, but awarded none of that money.
Nickisha Orphe, an administrative assistant with the council’s Office of Audits and Investigations, said last week that audit findings 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 for the office.
Orphe did not respond to questions about how that cut could affect the office’s operations.
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Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Romaine Taylor Thomas McNair has been suspended with pay.
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