Dear Mr. Murzin:
I don’t know if you remember me but my name is Thelma Manley and I am the community Liaison for Front Porch Florida here in Pensacola.
I really need your help! I have been the community liaison for 8 years and some of my job duties include but are not limited do running the office, answering the phones, paying the bills, administering the grants, organizing and attending council and partnership meetings.
Building partnerships, coordinating and attending fundraisers, picking up supplies and equipment for functions, cleaning the office, picking up the parking lot,looking for resources and funds, conducting work shops, conducting door to doors to ensure that residents know what is going on with Front Porch, eligibility determination for programs, creating and notarizing forms for residents, assessing residents with applying for public assistance, assistance the elderly with applications for medicine and reading their mail for them and helping them understand what the mail is, arranging task force meetings, traveling to mandatory training’s sponsored by OUO and public speaking engagements concerning Front Porch.
I am also responsible for preparing the agendas and noticing all meetings for Front Porch, acting as a liaison between the council and OUO and community and much much more. Well, about 6 weeks ago, one of the council members came to me and stated that there was a “secret meeting”held at the new executive chairs home the night before and asked if it was posted, I said to her that we were in the process of starting a training and that we should look at it later!
Before the training started, 2 or 3 other members came to me with similar concerns and also that the executive chair and her family already owned quite a bit of property in the area already and that they were using a Front Porch grant to try and clear up titles for seniors and take the land at a later date.
I stated once again that we needed to look at this later since we were supposed to be having a training within the next hour! To make a long story short, when I asked the questions that were brought to me, apparently it caused some hard feelings and I have been under attack in the Pensacola News Journal since that time and as a result of the bad publicity the IG for DCA came and collected the files for review.
I am writing you to see if your office can ensure that the program as a whole is reviewed and that I am not the total focus for the review. The 2 council members that are upset with me are best friends and have sat on this board for 8 years so why is it that when they got mad at me, now everything that I have done is wrong!
Every document goes to OUO and I have done everything the same way for the past 8 years so if I am so bad and have done such a terrible job for the past 8 years why did it take 8 years and 2 disgruntle council members to bring it out?
A large issue is the amount of money that I have made on grants and fund raisers and if that is a problem then we need to look at all 20 communities since all liaisons have had the opportunity to work on the same grants and have done so!
I will promise you that with the many duties that I have had to perform to make this program work by myself, that I may have made some mistakes but nothing has been malicious or illegal and nothing has been done with the council knowing it or documents been submitted to the appropriate people.
I do not wish to be the sacrificial lamb for this program and I am simply asking for assistance in getting a fair review because I must live and work in this community. Any suggestions and/or assistance that you and your office can give would be greatly appreciated.
I do not know what is going on right now and don’t know what to expect from all of this and that is the hardest part. I am willing to take responsible for any mistakes that I have made but the Pensacola News Journal has just about destroyed by reputation in Pensacola and has never once interviewed me!
It seems strange to me that these 2 women have been on the board for the entire 8 years and now they have problems with me after the hard questions were asked. I never accused anyone of anything, I simply asked the questions in attempt to get clarity and hopefully move on.
This has been very painful for me and my family and not only did I get a call informing me that I have “messed” with the wrong family but I got a letter from a local church telling me that I need to burn in Hell for my sins.
Pensacola has already tried and convicted me! I only hope that I get a fair review from Tallahassee.
Thank you very much for your time and my contact information is below. I think that the review is still going on but it has been about 3 weeks and I suspect that they will have findings soon.
Thelma Manley