By Lynn Bonner and Galen Bacharier

NC Newsline

State inspectors cited the Greensboro daycare that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and his wife Yolanda Hill owned years ago for falsifying credential certificates.

Now it’s the focus of a new campaign ad as Robinson, a Republican, runs for governor.

The 30-second ad from Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein’s campaign is titled “Unsafe.” It outlines an inspector’s report of Precious Beginnings — where Robinson and Hill worked together from 2000-07, he wrote in his 2022 biography.

“Mark Robinson: unsafe for our kids, unfit to be governor,” a narrator says in the ad.

Robinson’s campaign has called the inspection reports cherry-picked, and an attempt by Democrats to “dig up old news.”

Inspections in ’06, ’07 focused on employee credentials, background check letters

In 2006, an inspector found falsified credential certificates for two former employees and one of the daycare’s co-owners. The state’s Division of Child Development had not issued credentials to any of the three, the inspector wrote in the report.

The inspector wrote that she would recommend the state issue an administrative action against the license, reducing it to probationary status or a similar penalty. Raleigh’s News & Observer was the first to report on the falsified documents.

In 2007, an inspector found that criminal background check qualifying letters in Robinson and Hill’s files at the daycare were apparently fake. The state never issued Robinson or Hill background check qualifying letters, the inspector wrote.

Hill had agreed to mail criminal records forms to the state in April 2007, but the childhood development division at the state Department of Health and Human Services never received the forms and never issued Hill and Robinson qualifying letters, according to a June 2007 summary of the inspector’s visit to the daycare.

The ad also cites allegations of issues with lighting, water and heat in the facility. Those allegations were made in a complaint to DHHS but were not confirmed by the inspector’s report.

“Whether it’s endangering kids or falsifying business documents, Mark Robinson is showing North Carolina voters how unfit he is for the job of governor,” said Jeff Allen, Stein’s campaign manager, in a statement. “If this is how Mark Robinson cared for children, he cannot be trusted to care for the future of our state.”

Robinson campaign dismisses report as “Democratic smear”

Mike Lonergan, a spokesman for Robinson’s campaign, said in a statement that “it’s telling that the first one to run this Democrat oppo dump was a liberal columnist.”

He called the story “just another attempt by the left to dig up old news instead of addressing the massive failures of Biden’s failed Border Czar Kamala Harris and their top North Carolina cheerleader Josh Stein.”

And Lonergan pointed to eight other inspection reports from 2003-07 that gave the center “superior” sanitation ratings.

“They’re cherry-picking a few minor violations and clerical errors to grind a political ax while ignoring visits that include ‘superior’ inspection ratings or note that minor violations were addressed in the near future,” Lonergan said.

“The voters of North Carolina need leaders that will address the problems facing them every day — like rising violent crime, a massive border crisis, or rising crime and inflation and more — and have more important things to worry about than the latest Democrat smear.”

How Robinson described ownership, work at daycare in his book

In his 2022 biography “We are the Majority,” Robinson wrote of owning the business with his wife and quitting his job at an aviation services company to work there fulltime.

Hill cared for children and had primary responsibility for administration, Robinson wrote. She became frustrated by government required paperwork and took another job.

At that point, “the management began falling on me more,” Robinson wrote. “That’s when we decided to sell the daycare.”

Investigative Reporter Lynn Bonner covers the state legislature and politics, as well as elections, the state budget, public and mental health, safety net programs and issues of racial equality.

Galen Bacharier covers North Carolina politics and government for NC Newsline.