00:00The 2024 budget redirected the original investment to the Dollywood Foundation to develop the statewide Imagination Library.
00:08Yet, even after the 2024 budget action, the state library did not allocate the full amount as directed by law.
00:15And the strong reader partnership continued to spend state funds.
00:19The bank statements and the financial expenditure detail report that we received helped paint a fuller picture of how $1
00:26.1 million was spent
00:28by the strong reader partnership.
00:31However, the set of documents we received raised deeper questions about what the funds were spent on.
00:36And so when you saw indicators that there was an appearance of lobbying, when you heard from committee staff that
00:41there was concern that funds were being used for lobbying.
00:45At what point did you or your staff think that it would be a good idea to reach out to
00:50SRP to express your concerns?
00:53Or to highlight that this is not the way that funds were intended to be used?
00:57We reached out to them in October when this subcommittee asked whether the funds were used for lobbying, and they
01:07replied that it was not.
01:10As I say, they're prohibited in the grant agreement from lobbying.
01:13So we both signed, the state library signs that agreement, the partnership, or any grantee in fact, right, that receives
01:21money from the state library.
01:22And those are mutually agreed upon parameters and terms and conditions.
01:27Mr. Lucas, moving forward, I just want to highlight that it's my expectation that the state library when they are
01:38overseeing a non-profit.
01:39That they are providing tighter oversight and accountability around these issues.
01:45And if there are questions or concerns where it looks like a non-profit entity that the state library is
01:53overseeing may be in violation of the contract.
01:56Or there's an appearance that there may be a violation of the contract that you all are taking action to
02:02communicate with the non-profit.
02:04And if there's uncertainty that you're working with staff to resolve some of those questions.
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