Escambia Children's Trust delays $4.3M in grants after public outcry over funding choices
The Escambia Children's Trust delayed awarding its largest round of grants to date after it was met with public outcry over its selection process Tuesday night.
The Children's Trust was set to award $4.3 million in the first year of grants for "out-of-school" programs Tuesday, but it decided to send the top 29 proposals back to a selection committee for reconsideration.
An additional "sole-source" grant for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office for $432,5000 failed to pass after the Children's Trust council members tied in a 4-4 vote on the grant.
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The Children's Trust had 37 organizations apply for its "out-of-school" grant programs, which had budgeted $5.84 million for the first year of programming.
A selection committee scored the proposals and recommended funding 18 organizations. Organizations like the Boys & Girls Club of Emerald Coast, Omega Lamplighters, Pensacola Little Theatre and the city of Pensacola Parks and Recreation Department were among the groups selected for grants.
The grant award would've been the Children's Trust's largest expenditure since its creation in a county-wide referendum in 2020. The contracts would commit the trust to award the 18 selected organizations $13.1 million over three years.
However, the Escambia County Commission chambers, where the trust was meeting Tuesday, were filled with more than 100 people who urged the trust to reconsider its grant selections.
One of the biggest groups in attendance Tuesday were supporters of James B. Washington Education and Sports (JBWES), which applied for a three-year grant totaling $1.9 million, with $845,169 requested for the first year.
JBWES provides academic tutoring after school and during the summer, along with its youth sports programs based in the Warrington area.
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The selection process required an organization to receive a minimum average score of 70 or more by the selection committee to be recommended for funding. JBWES scored 69.67.
Celestine Lewis, an educator and supporter of JBWES, said she hoped when the Children's Trust was created, it would be able to help nonprofits that served impoverished areas of the county.
"But then, as I look at what was awarded, it was always the same organizations that get money from every source," Lewis said. "… I hope this is not another taxpayer giveaway to agencies that are not even serving in the impoverished areas."
Lewis said organizations like JBWES are those that are making a difference in children's lives, and the trust should support them.
"I hope that this is not another just 'if you know somebody, you get it,' " Lewis said. "(It's) who you know, that's what you all are saying, and I'm tired of it."
Children's Trust council members also had questions about the selection process and raised concerns that financial and tax records did not have to be submitted as part of the application.
Children's Trust Executive Director Tammy Greer explained that the grant process was designed to get as many applicants through as quickly as possible to be able to have funds on the ground before the school year was over.
"I want us to be able to get some programs started so that the kids start getting the services," Greer said. "If it feels rushed, yes, it was rushed."
Greer said organizations that are approved for grants would have financial and tax records before any contract would be signed.
After a long debate, trust council Vice Chair Tori Woods, who ran the selection committee for the grants, motioned that the grants proposals be sent back to the selection committee for more consideration.
Trust council member Lumon May, who represents the County Commission on the council, added that he felt the council should hold a workshop on its policies and goals to ensure that the grant awards align with the mission of the trust. He asked that setting a workshop be included in the motion to send back the proposals.
However, May left the meeting to attend his son's basketball game before the vote could take place, and his idea for a workshop was not included.
Woods' proposal passed in a 7-1 vote, with council member Melissa Sidoti voting no. Sidoti also served on the selection committee and said she stands by the committee's rankings.
Council member and Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Frydrychowicz proposed that the selection committee reconsider the proposals that scored 60 or above previously, which comes out to 29 proposals. Frydrychowicz added that full due diligence should be conducted on all 29 groups before a recommendation comes back to the full council.
Frydrychowicz's proposal passed 8-0.
Sheriff's grant fails
The trust was also set to award approximately $1 million for two unsolicited sole-sourced initiatives.
The first grant to Legal Services of North Florida for $617,034 to pay for legal services for children in dependency and in need of educational advocacy was approved, but a second grant of $432,501 grant for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office raised concerns with some council members.
The ESCO grant would have been broken up into several ECSO initiatives related to children and school safety. The proposal called for $40,000 to go to ECSO Movie Night community outreach events, $50,000 to go toward public service announcements on issues such as drug use, gun safety and co-sleeping safety. Another $152,000 would have gone to a virtual reality training simulator, and $190,000 going to the creation of a real-time crime center.
Several board members questioned if the grant was allowed under the state law governing children's services councils, which prohibit trust funds from being used to replace existing funding.
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Escambia County Chief Deputy Tommi Lyter said the Sheriff's Office is locked in to a three-year funding agreement with the county and can't fund the proposals out of its current budget.
Lyter said the real-time crime center goes directly to solving online crimes committed against children.
"Just over 1,700 children are victims of crimes," Lyter said. "That's just this last year; 1,700 is a lot of victims. A lot of our victims are victimized online. So it's an opportunity with the real-time crime center and with the software packages that they have to track a lot of that stuff."
Lyter said the virtual reality training center could simulate every Escambia County school layout to train for active shooters, and it allows deputies to train in interacting with children of different ages or with special needs.
The council was divided over the proposal, with the final vote on the issue resulting in a tie. Council member and School Board member Patty Hightower said the proposal could be brought back up for reconsideration at its next meeting.
Sidoti said the proposal set a trend of proposals coming to Children's Trust for funding that should be funded with regular tax dollars from the county.
"If we continue to do this, we're going to exhaust the Children's Trust money for the children because the county is not standing by their commitments they have made in the past," Sidoti said.
Council member David Peaden said he didn't believe the county was sending things to the Children's Trust.
"The county funds the sheriff's office. They give them $77 million," Peaden said. "It's up to the sheriff to do what he wants with those dollars. It's not five commissioners telling them, you have to go do this, this and this. And so they're not pushing off any of these things on us per se. It's the sheriff's budget and what they think their priorities are."
Top 18 out-of-school grants recommended to the Children's Trust and first-year funding:
Boys & Girls Club of the Emerald Coast for Great Futures in Escambia County - $874,878
Dixon School of Arts and Sciences for Dixon After Hours After-school Summer - $260,000
Covenant Care for Camp Monarch Grief Camp - $201,095
Children's Home Society for SAIL Academy at C.A. Weis Partnership School - $244,671
Urban Development Center for YouthFirst Century - $397,556
Omega Lamplighters for Project Ignite - $115,000
Pensacola Children's Chorus for Sing to Succeed - $108,640
Creative School Age Child Care for OST SEL Program with Second Step - $99,443
Pensacola Little Theatre for Character Building Through Building Characters - $150,000
City of Pensacola Parks and Rec for PPRD Free After-School - $540,040
Pensacola MESS Hall for Weekly afterschool programming - $85,648
CMB Visions Unlimited for Afterschool and Summer school - $293,184
SALT Ministry (Sisters Anointed to Lead Together) for Excellence on Your Level-Be You! - $11,489
Valerie's House Pensacola for Meet Children Where They Are - $105,215
Epps Christian Center for Steps to Success - $254,800
Central Gulf Coast Freedom Schools for Expanding summer school - $215,045
Chain Reaction for Chain Reaction After School Program - $195,580
Children's Theater Company for Kids with a Cause Musical Theater - $196,189
More information about the proposals can be found at escambiachildrenstrust.org/bids-and-rfps.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia Children's Trust rethinks $4.3M in grants amid public outcry
