As Escambia Children's Trust approves $1.6M program, some board members question decisions

The Escambia Children’s Trust board is moving forward with plans to launch a new program that’s aimed at addressing early learning delays in children. They’re also hiring a private consulting to firm to help the trust identify goals and meet them for the next three years. The proposals were green-lighted at the ECT’s board meeting despite some questions about whether or not they’re a good use of the trust’s money.

According to its website, Help Me Grow is a comprehensive statewide system designed to help identify developmental or behavioral concerns in children early on and if needed, connect them and their families with support services. It works similarly to United Way’s 2-1-1 hotline referral service.

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The board agreed to put out an Invitation to Bid to establish the Escambia County Help Me Grow Collaborative at the request of ECT executive director Tammy Greer. The program will have an annual budget of $1.6 million.

During the board’s discussion about the initiative, board member and Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May wanted to know how the program’s early learning needs assessment was any different from existing programs that identify children with behavioral and learning problems and questioned if it was a good use of money when what was really needed was direct services.

“We need to be able to provide money for service of problem identified,” May said. “We have poverty, we have low educational achievement in Escambia County. We don’t need any assessment to tell us that, we know that. I’m not opposed, I’m just saying as we identify this funding for this program, how do we identify funding for the services, so if this is all encompassing of the services, thumbs up.”

According to ECT, the trust has $17,388,957 cash in bank with prepaid expenses of $53,544. May has consistently expressed his concern that too much money is being spent on grants, programs and organizational expenses that don’t provide direct services for children in poverty. While more than $1.5 million for the Help Me Grow initiative is a hefty amount, May pointed out that it won’t last long if part of that money is being spent on services, because the need for therapy and other educational services is so large. Greer, however, said services will be a component of the Escambia Help Me Grow Collaborative.

“We recognized early on it would not be in good service to our community just to bring in the coordination piece, which is the Help Me Grow model,” said Greer. “It’s that services piece that is really missing here, so our model would be different from others in the state because we would add that piece.”

After some discussion, the board also approved Greer’s request to hire Pensacola branding consulting firm idgroup for more than $112,000, to create a three-year strategic plan to help the trust identify goals, measurable outcomes, and provide public transparency. She said staff could do it themselves, but they had so much other work to do it would slow them down. May and board member David Peaden questioned if that was the best use of the trust’s money, especially when staff could create the strategic plan.

“It’s my non-profit background,” said Peaden, “but anything that’s got a $112, 802.00 price tag on it, is big and I always think, is there a better way to do this without spending this type of money? If I’m on Boys or Girls Club, or Gulf Coast Kid’s House or any other non-profit, would a board vote to spend $112,000 on a plan and the answer is, ‘No.’ We’ve got governmental tax dollars and I feel like we’ve got these dollars and we can allocate them, but is there a better way to do this without spending these kinds of dollars?”

However, other board members felt hiring idgroup, the only company to bid on the strategic plan, was a good plan because staff “had a lot on their plate” and they felt it would create more accountability and transparency with the public.

Board member Patty Hightower said she could support the funding “if idgroup can talk to us about what are our strategic focus areas, what is our intention and what are our goals and what are the key performance factors so that the public can say, ‘They said they were going to do this and they either did it or they didn’t,’ and that’ll be on us. But some in the public have not been happy with us thus far, and at least we’re putting it out there, what we’re about, who’s going to be responsible for getting it done. I’m ready to support it.”

Peaden also suggested that moving forward the trust create a committee to discuss where board members can hear and learn about staff’s proposals before they come up for a vote, so they have time to vet them and understand them before deciding on them.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia Children's Trust spending questioned by some board members