LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- For the second time in as many months, Metro Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin is under fire. This time, the scrutiny is focused on her participation in a tax-funded upholstery program that city financial records show benefitted the councilwoman and her family.
"If you are a taxpayer, even if you are not, you should be able to use the program," said Shanklin, D - Council District 2.
Shanklin fired back Tuesday, defending herself and a couch she recovered for a friend during her participation in the program. For five years – from 2007 to 2011 – Shanklin oversaw an upholstery program that was initially designed to help ex-convicts learn a skill. Money for the project came from tax dollars and was funneled through Metro Corrections.
Invoices obtained by WDRB News show more than $30,000 in tax money was spent on the program that Shanklin says was later changed for more public use.
"No one from my family benefitted from this program," said Shanklin.
But she admitted her friends and relatives took part in the class, which she claims was more for public use than training ex-cons. Shanklin also said she never told her fellow Metro Council members about the change in program's focus.
"It never came back up in Metro Council so in the budget, it just rolled over," Shanklin.
In a letter dated from November 2011, Corrections director Mark Bolton wrote the instructor, Linda Haywood, telling her "I find the program has not served a viable or sizeable number of clientele. In fact, most of the records that you have provided indicate only one or two people in the attendance per session."
WDRB News obtained the invoices and the letter through an open records request.
Shanklin's name appears on the sign-in sheet for the class several times. As do other people with the last name Shanklin.
An invoice shows a purchase order for a $200 sewing machine.
It's unclear who actually used the class because the sign-in sheets were introduced at a later date.
We spoke to the instructor Linda Haywood, who said she didn't do anything wrong and was approached by Shanklin to run the program.
The issue is now in the hands of the city auditor.
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