City drops Carolina Fintech Hub from jobs program due to conflict of interest concerns

CHARLOTTE — A new technology job-placement program will be overhauled because of concerns about a potential conflict of interest, Charlotte City Council decided on Monday night.

The decision followed a heated, three-hour debate as part of council’s regularly scheduled meeting — and came after the city attorney told council members that his review of state law and city ordinances found no conflict in the proposed program.

Tariq Bokhari, a Republican councilman, came under scrutiny this month when city administrators unveiled a 90-job training and placement initiative to be run by Carolina Fintech Hub and the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council. Bokhari is co-founder and executive director of Carolina Fintech Hub.

The $6.5 million program was to be funded with $5 million from private-sector sources and $1.5 million from city government. Because the city’s portion would come from a $154.5 million federal grant as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, the money must be spent on COVID-19-related expenses and recovery.

Under the proposal that came to the city’s small-business task force — a temporary committee formed in response to the pandemic — the city money would have been used to pay the 90 trainees a stipend for five months until they begin their full-time jobs in January. Each participant would have received $2,900 a month while going through the training portion before transitioning to private jobs — and higher pay.

The money would have gone directly to the trainees, not through Carolina Fintech Hub.

Read the full story here for more on the debate and what happens next.

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