How Gov. Lee's office of faith-based initiatives plans to spend $1.2M in taxpayer funding

On the campaign trail in 2018 and when he first took office the following year, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee pitched the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives as a self-funded, independent entity to help mobilize faith groups and find solutions to problems government couldn’t as easily address.

“This office will leverage the nonprofit community and help us unleash the potential of all Tennesseans to get involved to not only make lives better for their fellow citizens but to reduce the responsibilities and ultimately the size of government,” Lee said in his first State of the State address in 2019.

But this year, for the first time, the office is receiving direct taxpayer support: $1.2 million in recurring state funding.

The governor sought the funds this year "to strengthen the Office's mission" of working with nonprofits to "help meet the greatest challenges facing our state, including reducing recidivism and ensuring that every child has a safe, loving home," Lee spokesperson Jade Byers said.

The money will go to hiring five new core staff members and six community liaisons. In the past, the office has operated with six staff members supported by private funding, according to annual reports.

Outside of the plans to hire new staff, few details are available on the office's specific spending plans. The governor’s office, for instance, has no budget records detailing how the office will spend the money. Oversight is left to a nonprofit board.

By state law, the Tennessee Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives is run by an appointee of the governor, who works in tandem with a separate nonprofit entity governed by a board of directors.

This spring, lawmakers reversed a previous requirement that the nonprofit be entirely self-funded, despite criticism from Democrats that Tennessee’s Constitution precludes preference “to any religious establishment or mode of worship.”

Executive Director Lance Villio, whom Lee appointed to lead the office in September, said his goal is to act as “connective tissue” between state government and nonprofits and faith groups across the state.

“It’s like, how do we make it really easy for people that are doing really great work to continue doing great work?” Villio said.

Faith office oversight

Villio told The Tennessean that the board of directors has direct — and final — oversight on how the $1.2 million allocation is spent.

The all-volunteer board is appointed by Lee and includes close allies of the governor. Those include Lee's former chief counsel Lang Wiseman; Ginger Eley, wife of deputy governor Butch Eley; Libby Phillips, owner of TDOT contractor Big Al Mowing; Barry and Iris Ray of Cleveland, Tennessee; and Memphis businessman and philanthropist Tyrone Burroughs, founder of the Burroughs Foundation. Until last year, Lee's former campaign treasurer Fred Decosimo also served on the board.

The governor's office included the $1.2 million funding request in its fiscal 2023 budget. But as of this month, the governor’s office did not have a copy of the faith-based office's budget for the current fiscal year, a list of organizations the office has worked with, or any email records with Villio and administration staff discussing the office’s budget request. The Tennessean requested copies of those documents and a public record request coordinator said the governor’s team had no such records.

The office is required to provide an annual report of its activities to the governor, and speakers of the House of Representatives and Senate. Villio provided copies of all existing reports to The Tennessean.

But it is unclear if those were filed with the governor and legislative leaders. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally's office told The Tennessean that it did not have copies of the reports. Neither Lee's office nor the office of House Speaker Cameron Sexton responded by Friday afternoon on whether they had copies of the annual reports.

For now, Villio and his assistant are the office’s only employees.

While the office requested state funding to support new staff positions this year, it previously supported a staff of six with funding from private donors. Those employees are no longer with the office. The office still receives significant funding from donors, whom Villio declined to disclose.

According to the nonprofit's latest available tax filings, it raised $441,500 in private contributions in 2021. Of that, nearly all went to employee salaries, including for the executive director and four other nonprofit employees. The nonprofit is subject to audit by the State Comptroller but not the state's public records or open meeting requirements.

The lion’s share of the $1.2 million appropriation will go to hiring more state staff. Villio said he is currently working to hire a deputy director. By June 2024, he hopes to grow the staff to 12 people, including a director of community development, a director of initiatives, a communications director, and six regional liaisons. No job postings for the other positions have yet been advertised.

Website redirects to Malaysian lottery

As the office begins to spend through its first-ever allocation of tax dollars, elements of its operations appear to have fallen by the wayside. While still in existence, none of the office’s social media accounts have been active since December 2022, or in one case, 2021.

The URL for the Office’s website, linked on its social media accounts and email signatures, has been broken since April. Villio said they’re working on a redesign. As of Aug. 11, the website URL redirects to a Malaysian lottery website.

“That’s an unfortunate part of managing all this with a small team right now,” Villio said.

Villio is budgeted to take home a salary of $165,000 per year (about $26,000 less than his predecessor), in addition to a $1,000 monthly car allowance, which he said he uses for rental cars for travel around the state. His assistant makes $4,000 per month. The money is allocated from the nonprofit.

The nonprofit has offices in Chattanooga, according to tax filings. The state office is located on the 22nd floor of the William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower, a state-owned building that houses several state agencies. Villio’s budget lists an expense of $457 per employee for office rental totaling $2,292 in rent for the month of July – and projected to rise to $6,876 per month by next June.

Also budgeted is a $450 per employee monthly phone tab. The phone bill is projected to rise to $5,400 per month by next June for 12 employees.

What does the office do?

Under its previous director, Dave Worland, the office facilitated an initiative to encourage Tennesseans to pray for state leaders, which about 900 people signed up for, according to the office's 2021 annual report, the latest available.

It also drafted guidance for houses of worship to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic, and hosted calls to help victims of natural disasters navigate applications for state and federal assistance.

The office also collaborated to create a portal to map nonprofits and houses of worship across the state and facilitate connections, and started a podcast to feature nonprofit leaders. The podcast does not appear to have been updated since 2021. The office also launched a "TN Hope Line" to offer connection and encouragement for older adults. The phone number has been disconnected.

Right now, Villio is working on an initiative called TN Fosters Hope to help identify and connect nonprofits working in the continuum of care around foster children to fill in gaps in service at the Department of Children’s Services. DCS is also working on similar initiatives.

“Certainly they have different groups that they work with. I think the unique thing about our office is that we work with DCS, but we also work with a lot of other departments,” Villio told The Tennessean. “We kind of play that connective tissue, making sure the department really knows and understands what's out there, and then to making sure that these groups know, ‘hey, we might have a gap in care here.’”

Primarily, Villio’s job at the moment largely centers on meeting with nonprofits around the state. Villio has met with 84 different organizations since coming on in September, the majority of whom are community nonprofits or Christian charities.

“Anybody that reaches out, I mean, I've always met with them,” Villio said. “It's like a rabbit hole, right? Like, you start digging and you realize, like, oh my gosh, there's so much like amazing work that's already being done.”

The Tennessean also requested a list of organizations and faith groups the office has worked with since its creation. At first, the governor’s office responded that no such records exist. Later, Villio shared a list on state letterhead to The Tennessean.

The list includes the 84 groups Villio has met with since taking office. The majority are anti-trafficking, family services and disabilities nonprofits, or houses of worship, primarily Christian.

Villio has met with three non-Christian faith groups: the BAPS Temple in Nashville, the American Muslim Advisory Council, and the Islamic Center of Nashville.

Villio has also met with the Tennessee Resettlement Agency to gain a better understanding of refugee resettlement in Tennessee. No agenda or initiative is planned with that organization.

When asked whether in those meetings he is representing an ask from the government, or making an ask of the agency, Villio says it’s “a little bit of both.”

Reach reporter Vivian Jones at vjones@tennessean.com or on X and Threads @Vivian_E_Jones. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives received $1.2M