http://66.225.205.104/LM20111209.mp3
Harold Cogdell Mecklenburg County Chairman Harold Cogdell is asking the non-profit C.W. Williams Community Health Center to release his work contract with them. This comes after the Charlotte Observer reported that Cogdell pushed to boost county funding to the health center by $110,000 this year. Two months after that was approved, he began doing work for the group. Cogdell maintains his vote was based on what he believed was "necessary to address the needs of the community." In a written statement he says he wasn't approached about the possibility of working with the non-profit until at least a month after the final budget was adopted. Cogdell is one of three attorneys who work with the C.W. Williams board. He bills the group for his hours. C.W. Williams board chairman Preston Haygood says he can't release Cogdell's contract until the board approves it. He says the non-profit didn't recruit Cogdell because he was a commissioner, and certainly not because he voted to give them extra money. "That's the way we look at it... as attorney Cogdell," says Haygood. "I knew him through some help he had given my church, plus he was very highly spoken of. So in late July, early August we needed some additional attorneys to help us out. So we talked with him." A spokeswoman says Cogdell isn't available for comment today.