Since July 1, 1999, Butler County has received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women to help victims of domestic abuse.

The fact that the county has been rejected for a new grant of more than $300,000 is troubling and requires a full inquiry by county officials into what went wrong.

Did the county jeopardize its chances for continuation of the funding because it demonstrated an inability to spend all of the money it received for the latest grant period, which ended June 30? The county has sought approval for an extension until the end of this month or November for spending $12,000 that hasn't yet been spent.

Without such an approval, the county would have to return the money, which is administered by the state, and it presumably would be allocated to some other locale.

If the $12,000 and the new grant weren't really needed, the rejection wouldn't be anything to be concerned about. However, that's not the case.

The loss of the grant will mean a big hole in the budget of the Victim Outreach Intervention Center, which, according to Elizabeth Clark-Smith, VOICe executive director, will require the elimination of three jobs — two counselors and a manager.

In addition, VOICe will not fill three currently vacant positions.

But the negative impact doesn't end there. District Attorney Randa Clark says the loss of what is referred to as the Arrest grant for addressing violence against women will hurt her office's budget and hamper its ability to deal with domestic violence.

According to Clark, two vacant positions won't be able to be filled. Meanwhile, she is trying to reallocate other grant funds to allow her to retain part-time detective Charles Barger and full-time Assistant District Attorney Mark Lope.

The DA's office has been without a victim-witness coordinator and victim-witness assistant coordinator since those who held those positions resigned earlier this year.

One basic premise that should guide local governments' handling of grant funds from the federal and state governments is that when money is received, all of the funds should be spent — within the allotted time frame. Most local governments recognize the potential danger of not doing that; future grants might be scaled back or eliminated.

Counties or local municipalities that don't make good use of all federal and state money they receive are both foolish and shortsighted regarding the potential consequences.

What prompted the federal Office on Violence Against Women to shut off Butler County's grant can't really be determined from its rejection letter, dated Sept. 13. But that letter does say this:

"Final selection was made based on scores, with consideration given to the demographic characteristics of the service area, and prior performance on previous awards."

That letter says the OVW office received 181 applications for the Arrest program, with the requests totaling $98.18 million.

"With $50.39 million available in funding for this program, we are unable to support all applications," the letter says.

The letter, signed by Mary Beth Buchanan, OVW acting director, then says, "I regret to inform you that your application was not selected for funding."

Whether the fact that all of the money wasn't spent led to the feds' decision is unclear. But county Controller Jack McMillin acknowledged Thursday that "it's somewhat unusual for a grant to be discontinued."

It is especially unusual considering that the county has been receiving such money for so many years.

A thorough inquiry into what went wrong could help prevent a repeat of this unfortunate situation in the future. Regardless, it is damaging to this county's image that, even on such an important issue as helping domestic-abuse victims, it failed to manage the spending of all of the money received in compliance with the expectations of the state and federal governments.

VOICe, the big loser, provided both assistance to victims and community prevention programs. The prevention programs will be scaled back, thanks to the OVW decision.

At least in terms of the unspent money, some person or persons erred. The next task is to determine who, and to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

In regard to next year's grants, Butler County's failing has someone else smiling.