As part of her recent evaluation, Escambia Children’s Trust executive director Tammy Greer listed her accomplishments and challenges.
Under her accomplishments, she listed regular work items such as reviewing prior board minutes, paying bills, proposing ideas, attending meetings, exploring benefits and doing media interviews.
Meetings: Achieve Escambia, Lindsey Cannon-Children’s Home Society, Julian & Kim MacQueen, Community Action Program, Pace Center for Girls, Studer Community Institute, Dr. Ed Meadows, Michelle Watson, Quint Studer, Equity Project Alliance, CivicCon, Halfway Home Re-entry, Gulf Coast Kid’s House, Junior League, Kindergarten Community Action Network, Early Learning Coalition, Pensacola Women’s Alliance, Ted Kircharr, Carolyn Appleyard, Jenn Grove, Jenn McPherson, Laura Gilliam, Myra Van Hoose, Rusty Branch, Bruce Watson, Terry Horne, Dan Duncan, Cecile Soon, Studer Family Children’s Hospital, Adm. Cozad, Chamber Policy Committee, Parent University, Mental Health Task Force, Andrea Krieger, idGroup, Lakeview, Kyle Schooner, Todd Thomson, Kammy Young, Debra Goldberg, Circuit 1 Community Town Hall, Ministry Partnerships, Gun Violence Roundtable, FDOJ Youth Mental Health Summit, Build to Thrive Virtual Summit, The Lodges, Chandra Smiley, Abraham Sculley, School District Food Services Director, Sheriff Chip Simmons, ECSD Foundation, Joe Davis, Michael O’Neal, School District transformation team, PSC Non-profit Training.
Under ‘Unanticipated Challenges:’
Greer writes that setting up and running the Trust has been made difficult “by the number and extent of public record requests received, the negative newspaper and blog articles published, and the fact that ‘everyone knows everyone’ in the county.”
She has faced challenges connecting with a couple of board members and has hired a board liaison to help her get on each member’s calendar once a month.
She writes that operating in the Sunshine has “created unexpected obstacles to timely communication,” adding that it has taken her several months to “figure how to maneuver within the guidelines and get things done.”
The “gigantic unanticipated challenge” is “figuring out how to make the greatest positive impact with our limited funding.” How is that unanticipated? The voters have always expected the receiving the greatest impact.
Another challenge is “nurturing provider organizations’ leaders to be more open to change.” Greer say the Trust will be exposing outdated and unproven practices that need to be replaced with evidence-based practice —which has been the point of my criticism. She writes, “I have experienced surprising resistance to change from a few local providers’ leadership.”
The last challenge she lists is leveraging the Trust funds with state and federal funding. This would seem to be a challenge for the providers, not the Trust.
Read Greer Self-Eval
The Personnel Committee gave her these scores (1-5) – 5 means “exceeds expectations:”
Judge Jennifer Frydrychowicz
Planning: 4
Financial & Program Management: 4
Operations Management: 4
Community Relations and Advocacy: 4
Governing Board Relations: 4
Patty Hightower
Planning: 3
Financial & Program Management: 3
Operations Management: 2
Community Relations and Advocacy: 3
Governing Board Relations: 3
David Peaden
Planning: 4
Financial & Program Management: 4
Operations Management: 4
Community Relations and Advocacy: 3
Governing Board Relations: 3
Melissa Sidoti
Planning: 3
Financial & Program Management: 4
Operations Management: 4
Governing Board Relations: 3
No Name Given
Planning: 3
Financial & Program Management: 3
Operations Management: 4
Community Relations and Advocacy: 4
Governing Board Relations: 3
Tori Woods
Planning: 5
Financial & Program Management: 5
Operations Management: 5
Community Relations and Advocacy: 5
Governing Board Relations: 3
Tim Smith
Planning: 5
Financial & Program Management: 4
Operations Management: 5
Community Relations and Advocacy: 5
Governing Board Relations: 4
Earlier this year the PNJ reported on Greer’s hiring. David Peaden said of her, “Ms. Greer has the skill set we need and the passion we need. We feel like we have hit a home run by hiring her.” I’m guessing that Peaden never played baseball. I did. Greer can’t hit a curve, or a fastball, or a slider, or a softball. She probably would strike-out at t-ball. I was just thinking about what he said when Greer’s incompetence was made public and I just happened to be watching the movie Trouble with the Curve staring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and John Goodman. Greer is like the big-talking “Bo” character who blames everyone but herself. If anyone had ever worked for me in the Marines and given me such a whiney, blame-shifting self-assessment (and I didn’t ask for self-assessments because it was my job to know what they were all doing), I’d have found them a new job. I recall watching Greer’s first appearance at an Escambia Children’s Trust meeting and thinking to myself, “This lady is not ready for prime time.” She must have known somebody to get the job because she very clearly did not present herself as chief executive material. The BOCC members are most responsible for creating the Escambia Children’s Trust mess as a special district of the county government. Under state law, they have the power to do everything the Escambia Children’s Trust does minus the unaccountable bureaucracy. The BOCC can even fund the new Sheriff’s project using general fund revenues, ARPA dollars or Law Enforcement Trust Fund dollars. Stop making excuses. We are desperate. Not everyone can afford to move to Santa Rosa County! FDLE just reported that Escambia County has the #3 highest per capita crime rate in the state, again. I most blame the BOCC not the Deputies. Voters should blame them too in November 2024. Escambia County has a big problem. It has created a welfare state of large and mom & pop so-called non-profits some with highly paid or bloated staffs who have come to expect and demand public money to include to pay for champagne brunches at the Portofino Island Resort for rich people who want their picture in VIP Magazine. I know of four different ways that non-profits are funded by the county to include the Escambia Children’s Trust. I am sure there are more. Information is usually incomplete and does not disclose why the groups really want the money (often different from what they say), how they spent or misspend the money they previously got, how they measured their accomplishments if they even did (usually they do not or issue pious statements), and they rarely tell who else they asked for money and what they got. I once tried to tell the city that a group claiming poverty had separately asked the county for money for the same thing and gotten it. The city didn’t care. No one wants to be called uncharitable. Easier just to give away public money to private groups because voters are never told. Escambia County should appoint an independent committee supported by a small but smart staff picked by the Budget Director to scrutinize every “non-departmental” request made to any part of the county government and they should have the final say taking the politics out of it. The committee members should served fixed, staggered terms of office and be independent of the BOCC.