The Meridian City Council on Tuesday voted to pull back a donation to a local charity, citing a protocol violation because a council member also served as director of that charity. 

The executive director of the charity Youth Excitement Team, Inc., Gary D. Houston, is married to Kim Houston, who serves on the council as a representative for Ward 4. Kim Houston also worked as a non-paid director of the organization in 2016 but said she hasn’t in the last year or so.

“Our legal counsel didn’t say, to the entire council, to pull YET,” Kim Houston said. “I didn’t even know it was an issue until I saw it on social media.”

Some social media posts accused Kim Houston of giving money to her husband’s charity. Houston said that each council member requests funding for approximately two dozen specific charities on the same list. Charities which may pose a conflict, such as YET or L.O.V.E.’s Kitchen, which council president Fannie Johnson directs, should have been pulled from the list and voted on separately. 

Gary Houston said the council hadn’t followed the right procedure and that the charity had returned the $8,400 donation. 

The Youth Excitement Team, Inc., or YET, aims to “lower juvenile statistics that have given Mississippi an unfavorable reputation… (we) believe that we have a vision and the goals to direct the youth entrusted in our care,” according to a description submitted to the Secretary of State’s office.

YET said its mission is to serve the educational needs of youth and increase parental involvement in order to help youth become “successful and productive citizens of tomorrow.”

“We’re a faith-based organization that been serving kids since 1996,” Gary Houston said. 

The charity’s license with the Secretary of State’s office expired in 2006.

Gary Houston said he didn’t know about that and didn’t comment further. 

Tax forms for the charity, a 501c3 organization, are available through ProPublica’s non-profit explorer up to 2016. 

In 2016, according to the forms, YET made $171,823 in revenue, with $143,823, or 84 percent, coming directly from government fees or contracts. The remaining $28,000, or 16 percent, came from contributions, gifts or grants.

YET had a total of $186,746 in expenses, ending the year with a $14,923 deficit offset by $13,882 from the previous year. Nearly a third of expenses, or $57,022, went to salaries. 

Gary Houston, the executive director of the non-profit, made $16,500, according to the tax filing for that year. Three other employees, Freddie Hare, chairman; Edward Griffin, the secretary and treasurer; and Kimberly Houston, the director; had no salaries for their part-time work. 

According to their 2015 filing, Gary Houston received no salary but the charity paid $41,931 in salaries. 

The tax filings don’t list any other employees. Gary Houston said that the non-profit had three employees, including himself, but mostly relied on partnerships with other organizations, such as Meridian Community College. 

Gary Houston noted that the two biggest expenses, food and transportation, are part of their after-school programs that serve area children up to middle school. The organization provides transportation for the children. 

In 2016, the organization spent $32,681 in food expenses, $12,472 for vehicle maintenance and $12,098 for office expenses. Together, with various other expenses totaling less than $2,500 each, these costs comprise the biggest expense, $80,217, for YET on their tax forms.

YET’s Facebook page posts infrequently, only 13 posts since July 2017, mostly sharing posts about the Houston’s religious sermons.

A May 2018 photo album, titled “Y.E.T. Graduation Program 2018,” shows 12 preschool-age graduates receiving awards such as “top reader” or “perfect attendance.” Both Houstons and Tyrone Johnson, the council member for Ward 2, attended and spoke at the graduation.

“The attorney should have advised us to pull YET or any other organization that could pose a conflict of interest,” Kim Houston said.