The Escambia Children’s Trust workshop revealed publicly for the first time the many issues and possible contract violations and maybe even fraud committed during the first nine months of the special taxing district’s over $5 million budgeted for Out-of-School Time (OST) awards.
We only heard from two providers – Children’s Theater Company (CTC) and Urban Development Center (UDC) – and their problems are only the tip of the iceberg.
State Attorney Ginger Madden needs to convene a grand jury to review all expenditures and make recommendations for improvement. An independent, nonpartisan investigation is necessary to rebuild public trust.
Here’s my case for the grand jury:
1) The supporters of creating ECT promised that organizations receiving funds, which are taxpayers’ dollars, would be held accountable, and outcomes would be measured. That isn’t happening. Few measurable outcomes have been presented; ECT staff cited several of the 19 providers have failed to meet reporting deadlines; and millions have been spent on vans, computers, salaries, and start-up costs on programs that have fallen far below their contracts’ participation commitments.
2) Many OST contracts have metrics for improvements in school attendance, English Language Arts, and mathematics. However, none of the providers have provided last year’s grades and compared them with the kids’ first report cards. ECT staff still doesn’t have a signed agreement with the school district to collect attendance and grades on all students in the 19 programs.
a) CTC had no objective measurements its contract for its Kids with a Cause. Per the contract, the academic outcomes were 23 unnamed literary skills, improved homework completion, and engagement in learning – measured by parent and faculty surveys, not any school records.
b) Central Gulf Coast CDF Freedom Schools agreed to use $215,045 for a “six hours high-quality summer enrichment program” for 150 at-risk elementary and middle school students. The program only served 104 children, charged ECT $104,413, and didn’t submit its results or the demographics of attendees.
3) This first public accounting of the OST awards focused on attendance, but how accurate are they? The programs were contracted to service new children – how many were already in their systems?
a) According to the attendance records I acquired from ECT, UDC shows 40 participants for 36 consecutive weekdays and 35 for another 17 straight days. Really?
4) Providers weren’t supposed to be solely funded by ECT dollars. Many listed partnerships and dollars from several sources to prove their sustainability. We have no reports on whether those other dollars were ever collected and used for the programs.
Last January, the Century Town Council unanimously passed a motion to loan UDC $61,925 for computers while the nonprofit waited to receive its ECT grant. According to council meetings, UDC was to reimburse the town when ECT provided funding. That didn’t happen.
According to ECT records, UDC paid Hixardt Technologies, Inc. $34,723 for 20 desktop computers and two laptops in March. Century’s town clerk told Inweekly that UDC had made one payment on the loan, and the balance is due this month. While NorthEscambia.com reported the payment was “at least $20,000,” the town clerk provided no public records to document the reimbursement or balance due.
4) Board members and ECT staff have been heavily lobbied for programs. The behind-the-scenes pressure has been intense and is the root of many issues. A grand jury takes politics out of the equation.
Former State Attorney Curtis Golden, in the late 1990s, used grand juries to investigate pollution and other environmental issues. Russ Edgar headed them, and their reports became blueprints for local government.
I’ve called the Escambia Children’s Trust OST grant program a dumpster fire. After attending last week’s workshop, I realized it’s more what political pundit Rick Wilson called Hillary Clinton’s campaign “a clown car crashing into a dumpster fire.”
Melissa, I thank you for your thoughtful response and I never thought, nor intended to insinuate, you made the comments discussed. However, I understand your comments on ECT Governance. In regard to UDC and Century, The Program offered is a true learning environment that the Century youths choose not to participate in the program, however, the Program may be better suited for Pensacola and develop it as designed, an afterschool program in Brownsville Community Center. Move the computer lab equipment and staffing and work directly with the community and schools.
My point is the quality of the Program, nor its cost is the issue. What is unusual is the lack of participation in such a rural community that has no schools to draw from. However, in a “participant-rich” environment, like Brownsville, this specific Program could not only develop youth in positive ways but, also have a larger community benefit by keeping 11-18 YOs off the streets after school while teaching them useable skills for the future. Isn’t that where such a program would have direct impact and social benefit immediately?
Thank you Rick. Well said Melissa! I hope this is the sound of the winds of change that we hear blowin… The lack of oversight, accountability and transparency is so blatant and at the same time heartbreaking for the children and taxpayers.
Seriously CJ, if you think it’s the BCC that has been orchestrating this dumpster fire then you either clearly don’t have eyes in your head, or are disingenuously politicking in refusing to call out the real culprits.
If anything, the BCC’s culpability in this was not taking a firm hand in the ballot language, and a lax attitude towards it in general.
The whole point of the monied special interests that cooked up this Trust and got it across the finish line was to do it in a way that it could avoid accountability and not be beholden to County and City government. That was the point from the get-go–a tax grab with no governmental oversight and a boondoggle of back door dealing to a degree that’s epic by any standard of measure.
Children’s services programs are an important county function but it should be done well. The best solution remains for the BOCC to create a “dependent” special district whose board members are accountable to the public through the commissioners. A board of 15 (5 x 3) with staggered three year terms of office might work pretty well. The BOCC can do this by January. Let this Escambia County Children’s Services Programs District start by reviewing all non-departmental requests for children’s services programs that require the approval of the BOCC. Then, don’t let the BOCC put its finger on the scale as it does now to benefit its political supporters. It’s pretty crazy how, as example, Barry advocates for football cheerleaders at a public school to get public money supposedly to tell football players not to use drugs (he knows their parents are all voters). Its currently a very corrupt system. Also, prohibit the BOCC from interfering with the operations of the District. Each month, the board’s chair should then meet with the county administrator and present the board’s recommendations for funding. If a request is ridiculous or poorly documented (as many are) it would die at the board. If a request is related to a public school, it would be referred over to Escambia County Public Schools. If there was a new rigorous process, fewer but better programs might be funded and there might be better metrics on the outcomes. Once the District is up and running, and the BOCC funds children’s services programs on almost every agenda, the BOCC can then vote to let the people vote in November on the fate of the ECT. It would be a landslide – NO. County commission candidates should each be made to say aloud their position on the ECT.
Also, just wanted to reply briefly to George Hawthorne here that I wasn’t picking on any one program in particular.
To underline, the entire Trust is a wreck, has been from the inception, and was–in my opinion–purposely set up to be dysfunctional to make it easier to funnel money to cherry picked recipients.
UDC unfortunately bears the brunt of being a recent example of a program not being up to par, regardless of intent or some measures met. They are hardly the only ones, so my comments weren’t about UDC in particular. They are about a Board and staff that have been warned repeatedly that ineptitude is no excuse (or disguise, for that matter) for their embarrassing failure to stand up and cultivate a responsible and impactful Children’s Trust that has *real* impact on children’s day to day lives and futures. The agencies who have received money for questionable efforts and results are far less to blame than the decision makers and employees who steered it to them.
(And just to be clear–I’ve never made any comments on anyone’s appearance. I understand your frustration and the implications of those remarks, and my criticism is a separate thing altogether from those tired and often bigoted tactics.)
WHAT A RELIEF to hear somebody just saying the thing.
Thank you for confirming it really is as bad as some of us have been thinking, Rick. Because this thing is more like a dumpster fire raging on a bulkhead flat carried on 8 loose wheels careening along an overpass built of balsam wood soaked in kerosene while the conductor and brake man are passed out cold in the caboose.
Hopefully Ginger Madden will agree that it’s time for objective eyes to sort this stuff out and provide a clean, fresh start. It’s the very best chance–the only way, really– for getting the Trust righted in sufficient time to maneuver some of the wheels back on the track.
Refusing to renew grants is hardly sufficient at this point. This situation screams the need, if there ever was one, for not just the judicial clarification you’re calling for. The public and the kids not being served also require claw backs of taxpayer money to recoup every red cent that wasn’t employed in strict accordance with both the letter and the spirit of Trust bylaws and statute.