WILKERSON SPONSORS MORE TAXPAYER MONEY TO CAMP HOPE CREATOR
Julie “Jewel’s” Garcia, Creator of Camp Hope Protest and Million Dollar Tax Awardee
POSTED 31 July 2023
On tonight’s Spokane City Council agenda (page 211) Council Member Betsy Wilkerson has sponsored additional funding of $12,500.00 for “Jewels Helping Hands” the creator of the Camp Hope protest that held our city hostage for a year-and-a-half. This latest funding is from taxpayer American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a federal program as detailed here.
This would bring “Jewels Helping Hands’” total ARPA funding to $57,500.00 as awarded by the Spokane City Council (in addition to the $1.45 million from Lisa Brown’s Commerce Dept.). Generally, ARPA funds (taxpayer money) are eligible for:
Revenue replacement for the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, relative to revenues collected in the most recent fiscal year prior to the emergency,
COVID-19 expenditures or negative economic impacts of COVID-19, including assistance to small businesses, households, and hard-hit industries, and economic recovery,
Premium pay for essential workers,
Investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure.
It is not apparent how this “nonprofit” fits any of the above.
“Jewels Helping Hands’” website does not list any tax returns, their board of directors, nor their donors. There is no address or phone number either. However, according to the WA Secretary of State, the group’s governors include Julie (self-proclaimed “Jewels”) Garcia and her husband, Jason Green who is the registered agent and tax preparer.
Julie Garcia and Jason Green have scandalous pasts (both have been charged with fraud, with Green doing hard time) Their “leadership” of “Jewels Helping Hands” has been wrought with controversy, after controversy, after controversy. This last article link to the INLANDER includes savvy reporting by Nate Sanford,
“Tax records indicate that Garcia was paid $35,671 for her work with Jewels in 2020, and $25,600 for her work in 2021. Jason Green, Garcia's husband and the treasurer for Jewels, says that a 2020 tax filing reporting that $565,032 — 64 percent of the nonprofit's revenue that year — had gone to "executive compensation" was done in error. He thanked the Inlander for bringing it to his attention, and says he's filing an addendum to correct it. The total for Garcia and the other two board members who received compensation in 2020 was $62,184, Green says.”
You can contact Spokane Council Member Betsy Wilkerson at: 509.625.6269 (you have to call her assistant, as she does not list a direct phone) or bwilkerson@spokanecity.org.
Questions for Wilkerson might include:
How can you justify continuing to give our taxpayer money to these people?
What is this money being used for?
Has an audit been performed on the first ARPA funding paid to Jewels?
Can you provide any details on Jewels’ request for my money?
Are you even considering helping the East Central Neighborhood residents and businesses that were affected by Camp Hope?