Elbert Memorial Hospital (EMH) contributed, and was then returned, $25,000 to Take Back Georgia, a non-candidate, independent political action committee (PAC) that has connections to gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and former President Donald Trump, according to records from the Georgia Campaign Finance System.
The $25,000 contribution was dated March 31, according to Take Back Georgia’s filings on the Georgia Campaign Finance System’s website.
The itemized contribution on the campaign contribution disclosure report (CCDR), which was filed April 1 and covered a period of contributions beginning Jan. 1, listed the contributor as “Elbert Memorial Hospital, 4 Medical Drive, Elberton, Ga 30635.”
Chief Executive Officer Kerry Trapnell said Friday afternoon in a statement that he made the contribution after being "invited to attend an event where EMH was asked to be a sponsor to help get us in front of more state and federal folks."
"To be a sponsor, I made the large sponsorship payment as requested," Trapnell said in the statement, which can be found in its entirety below. "I honestly thought this sponsorship was like any other sponsorship we would do for a charity fundraiser, a golf tournament, etc. Unfortunately, we later learned this type of sponsorship is not allowed and is considered a political contribution. I had no idea this is how PAC’s worked. The moment I found out this news, I contacted the PAC and told them of the news I received. The PAC then immediately refunded the money to EMH. The PAC personnel apologized profusely to me as they also did not realize that was not allowed. They were just trying to help our hospital find funding for a new hospital. All funds were returned to EMH nearly a month ago. Going forward, EMH is adding more policies and processes to ensure this does not happen again in the future."
Elberton-Elbert County Hospital Authority Chairman Leon Jourolmon confirmed earlier Friday that the money had been returned to the hospital.
“The Hospital Authority Board is aware of the allegations being made regarding the improper use of Hospital funds,” Jourolmon said in a statement issued to WSGC Radio early Friday. “The Board took prompt action to ensure that the Hospital funds are not used for political campaigns. The Hospital funds are not being used to fund Mr. Perdue’s campaign. The Board is actively engaged in reviewing its financial safeguards to prevent any funds from being used for lobbying or political action purposes. The Board is dedicated to ensuring that all hospital funds are used to support its mission of providing high-quality facilities and healthcare services to serve the residents of Elbert County.”
"Please know I love EMH and I love what we have been able to do here," Trapnell said in his statement. "Never in my wildest imagination did I think what occurred was going to be wrong, or it would have never been done. The guidance I was receiving was saying it was ok to do. I was only trying to help EMH and this community have the best possible healthcare. I now have more knowledge about this and am glad EMH is implementing more policies and processes to prevent this from happening again."
Georgia House Rep. Rob Leverett said Friday he was contacted via text message April 21 by a member of Gov. Brian Kemp’s staff inquiring if he knew about the contribution.
“I, of course, responded by text: ‘No. I can’t imagine they did that. Let me try and confirm or refute it,'" Leverett said. "I don’t remember who all I called or texted, but I reached out to a few folks that had hospital connections or were on the board and I think most of them said they were not aware of the contribution.”
Leverett said he was then contacted by Trapnell about the contribution.
“I think Kerry was trying to make a request to get some state money for a new hospital and I think he probably felt like that wasn’t going where he wanted so he was working on the federal angle and talked to [United States House Rep.] Andrew Clyde and I guess felt this would be a way to show our commitment and so he had made a contribution.”
After finding out, Leverett said he notified Gov. Brian Kemp’s campaign and said he didn’t think the contribution was “made necessarily to support Perdue.”
Elberton Police Chief Scott Marunich said Friday that the Elberton Police Department is trying to determine if the contribution from the hospital was a criminal act after he said the department has received complaints from multiple individuals “in reference to the misappropriation of possible public funds used for a private campaign donation.”
“As of right now, we’re not sure if we’re investigating something criminal, something civil or something that the hospital authority board will handle themselves,” Marunich said. “We’re still in the process of figuring out if it’s a criminal matter. If it’s a civil matter, we won’t get involved in it. Obviously, if it’s a hospital authority board matter, we won’t get involved in it. Only if it’s a criminal matter will we take it any further.”
Marunich said the contribution would be a criminal matter if there is a statute against it. Marunich said the EPD is researching campaign finance laws and is in talks with the District Attorney’s office in order to make a determination.
The $25,000 contribution from the hospital was one of six contributions from individuals and businesses that totaled $437,500 through April 1.
According to another CCDR filed by Take Back Georgia May 10, which covered a period of contributions since April 2, EMH requested a refund for the contribution.
“Refund per contributor request” was listed in the description for the contribution.
Out of the five total contributors to Take Back Georgia for the period from April 2 to May 10, three of the contributions were made from Save America, a PAC located in Arlington, Va. Save America made three contributions, totaling over $2.6 million.
According to the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) website, the leadership PAC sponsor for Save America is former President Trump.
Combined with the fifth contribution of $100,000, the total contributions, still including the $25,000 from EMH, totaled over $2.7 million.
According to the same CCDR from Take Back Georgia from May 10, the itemized expenditures included two specifically for a television ad and text messages to “support David Perdue.”
The expenditures were made to Brabendercox LLC, located in Hilton Head, S.C., for $2.25 million for the television ad while the other was made to Michael Smith Consulting LLC in Brookhaven for $50,000 for the text messages.
The total expenditures for the period were almost $3.1 million and also included expenditures for “staging expense, bus tour sponsorship, and fundraising consulting.” The other expenditures were non-candidate specified.
According to Take Back Georgia’s registration with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, the group was registered March 21 and listed a Beverly, Mass., address, courtesy of Bulldog Compliance.
The PAC’s chairperson is Brandon Beach of an Alpharetta address, while the treasurer is Charles Gantt of Bulldog Compliance. Beach's address matches that of Georgia Republican Senator Brandon Beach of Alpharetta.
According to their website, Bulldog Compliance, a division of Red Curve Solutions, is a “comprehensive treasury, budgeting and FEC compliance service for PACs and other fundraising-driven organizations.”
Take Back Georgia also made a half-a-million-dollar contribution to Georgians for Honesty in Government IEC, another non-candidate, independent committee from Roswell.
According to the CCDR itemized expenditure list from Georgians for Honesty in Government, the committee made contributions to three places, all to “support John Gordon.” Gordon qualified to run in the Republican primary against incumbent Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
The Elberton Star reached out to Trapnell for a comment but had not received a response as of Friday. The Star also filed an open records request with the hospital Thursday for all minutes from both the authority board and executive committee meetings from Aug. 1, 2021, through April 30, 2022.
The executive committee is scheduled to meet Monday at noon while the full authority is scheduled to meet Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. Both meetings will take place in the Charles Ruff room at EMH.
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4:45 p.m. update Friday, May 20: CEO Kerry Trapnell released a statement, sent to the leadership and management of EMH at 4:30 p.m. and forwarded to The Elberton Star, WSGC Radio and EMH Authority Board Chairman Leon Jourolmon at 4:39 p.m. The statement is printed in full below.
"EMH Family:
I wanted to take some time to send out my statement pertaining to the recent news going around town about EMH making a political contribution. I apologize for just now getting it out, but I have been out of town for meetings yesterday and today.
First, I hope everyone knows how passionate I am about EMH. Since I got here almost 5 years ago, my desire has been to not only keep the hospital open, but to do everything we can to keep it open for decades to come. Over the last few years, this work has put me in places all around the state working to help not only our hospital, but all rural hospitals in Georgia. In fighting for rural hospitals, I have been blessed to meet a lot of people with similar passions. In fact, if it wasn’t for a certain Democrat politician in another part of the state, EMH would not have received the help needed to get us converted to Critical Access to keep the hospital open back in 2019/2020.
Rural health covers both Democrats and Republicans. I have worked with both political sides over the last few years, and especially this last year, while trying to find state or federal funds to help us pay for a new hospital for this community. Please know that EMH is always politically neutral and does not pick sides. I live in South Carolina and can’t even vote for anyone in Georgia. I have personally worked with both political parties to educate all stakeholders on the healthcare needs of this community. I have received both state and national recognition for this work. EMH has applied for state and federal funds from both political parties for help with the new facility. My desire has always been to not have to ask the Elbert County citizens to help cover the costs of a new hospital, if at all possible. That’s why it has been so important to work with state and federal politicians for this assistance. Since we were told recently that our requests from the State were not approved, we had to move on to the federal level.
Recently, I was invited to attend an event where EMH was asked to be a sponsor to help get us in front of more state and federal folks. As the WSGC news article today states, EMH made a contribution to a political action committee (PAC), and not to a specific candidate as rumored on Facebook. In fact, I have never even met the politician mentioned on Facebook by a local citizen. To be a sponsor, I made the large sponsorship payment as requested. I honestly thought this sponsorship was like any other sponsorship we would do for a charity fundraiser, a golf tournament, etc. Unfortunately, we later learned this type of sponsorship is not allowed and is considered a political contribution. I had no idea this is how PAC’s worked. The moment I found out this news, I contacted the PAC and told them of the news I received. The PAC then immediately refunded the money to EMH. The PAC personnel apologized profusely to me as they also did not realize that was not allowed. They were just trying to help our hospital find funding for a new hospital.
All funds were returned to EMH nearly a month ago. Going forward, EMH is adding more policies and processes to ensure this does not happen again in the future.
Please know I love EMH and I love what we have been able to do here. Never in my wildest imagination did I think what occurred was going to be wrong, or it would have never been done. The guidance I was receiving was saying it was ok to do. I was only trying to help EMH and this community have the best possible healthcare. I now have more knowledge about this and am glad EMH is implementing more policies and processes to prevent this from happening again.
Thank you to everyone that has reached out to me and who are praying for EMH and for me. You will never know how much I appreciate it. Please feel free to share this with your staff as well.
Kerry"