DCF Secretary reacts to 8 On Your Side investigation revealing foster kids kept in cars at Wawa parking lot

By Mark Douglas

Published: February 7, 2018, 6:30 pm

Updated: February 7, 2018, 6:47 pm

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – In response to an 8 On Your Side foster care investigation, Florida DCF Secretary Mike Carroll said Wednesday, “I will not tolerate any children in the care of case management organizations spending extended periods of time in cars or offices when they should be in a foster home engaged in therapeutic treatment.”

Our investigation revealed that some of Hillsborough’s most troubled foster teens were warehoused in the parking lot of a Wawa gas station on Waters Avenue in Tampa. We watched the same teens sitting in the cars of caseworkers for hours on end, day after day and night after night.

Tuesday, Eckerd Connects fired Youth and Family Alternatives, the agency Eckerd hired to provide foster care to more than 1700 kids in Hillsborough County, based on poor supervision and YFA’s Wawa warehousing of foster kids that we documented week after week.

“In this case, those working for YFA have a duty to get them into services and not just find them a bed for the night,” Carroll said. “It appears that was not happening and their contract has been terminated as a result of poor case management.”

Eckerd spokesman Doug Tobin said Wednesday that Eckerd first learned of the Wawa situation in November but was told by YFA managers the practice had stopped so Eckerd took no further action.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman believes Eckerd shares some of the blame for what happened.

“At some level, somebody at Eckerd had to be complicit in this whole situation,” Murman said.

The surprising bills – and texts – from Hillsborough’s Rays stadium attorneys

Hillsborough County has now spent nearly $400,000 on outside legal counsel in its quest to lure the Rays over from St. Petersburg, and public records indicate the two firms it now employs appear to be not only advising the county, but also negotiating on its behalf — and possibly withholding records related to the discussions from public view.

Author: Noah Pransky

Published: 11:24 PM EST February 6, 2018

TAMPA, Fla. – Hillsborough County has now spent nearly $400,000 on outside legal counsel in its quest to lure the Rays over from St. Petersburg, and public records indicate the two firms it now employs appear to be not only advising the county, but also negotiating on its behalf — and possibly withholding records related to the discussions from public view.

Billing records show the county is now spending an average of $24,000 a month on stadium-related legal consulting to Foley & Lardner LLP, which has billed the county more than $300,000 in the last three years.

Law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP, which now employs former Foley attorney Irwin Raij, also started collecting county checks in September for Raij’s time, billing Hillsborough County $58,524 over the final four months of 2017.

It is not clear how many hours a week Raij, a respected sports business attorney, is spending on the project.

10Investigates repeatedly requested public records related to stadium discussions from County Commissioner Ken Hagan, and after multiple responses indicating none existed, a county attorney produced a series of text messages and emails between Hagan and Raij from the commissioner’s personal phone and email accounts.

Those messages reveal a pattern of private meetings and behind-the-scenes negotiations on a project that could include hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies. One text, sent from Raij to Hagan on Nov. 14, references a “marked up Rays document,” which has not been turned over.

Other texts between Raij and Hagan coordinate negotiations with local landowners, as well as the county’s response to media questions about the prospective new Tampa stadium – a surprise to several Hillsborough County commissioners interviewed by 10Investigates.

“My concern right now is the lack of transparency,” said Commissioner Victor Crist. “I’d love to see the Rays playing in Hillsborough County and I think the (proposed) site in Ybor City is a great location with lots of opportunities for expanded development. But the board needs to be kept in the loop.”

Florida’s public records laws require most records Hagan creates to be turned over when requested by any member of the public, including documents Hagan created and later gives to either the Foley or O’Melveny firms. But no such records have been produced yet in response to 10Investigates’ requests and a pair of county staffers have confirmed the existence of such documents.

Hagan has a long history of refusing to turn over public records to 10Investigates.

“The cost (of legal fees) is shocking because it’s not something that we’ve discussed at the board,” Crist continued. “I don’t think we anticipated it would take this long (or) cost this much. I think we’re going to have to get some answers and take a closer look at where do we draw the line … a good briefing is long overdue.”

Foley & Lardner has been on legal retainer with the county since 2014 at the cost of $4,500 per month, plus an additional $395 per hour in attorney fees and expenses related to travel.

The $400,000 in outside legal bills over the course of three years are in addition to the countless hours county staffers have spent on developing a new stadium plan for the Rays. But even those resources pale in comparison to the subsidies the Rays have suggested might be necessary to get a stadium deal done in the cash-strapped county.

It won’t be cheap

Rays’ owner Stu Sternberg’s opening offer was a suggested $150 million contribution on a stadium that he said could cost $800 million. Experts tell 10Investigates a fixed-roof stadium would be more practical and could be built in the $500 million to $600 million range, but would likely still require hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions from either private developers or taxpayers.

That could put the public contributions for a new Rays stadium at more than double the public cost of Raymond James Stadium, even when inflation is considered.

“I would never put the taxpayer on the hook for that entire difference … that doesn’t work at all,” said Commissioner Pat Kemp. “What’s going to have to be seen is … to the extent (the Rays and county) can privately leverage (financing).”

10Investigates previously identified 14 different potential ways a new stadium could lean on public funds to subsidize construction. Hagan has publicly said the county is eyeing bed taxes, an “entertainment district” tax on retail sales made in the immediate area, and local community redevelopment area (CRA) property taxes for potential stadium funding.

Several commissioners have publicly vented in recent years that they are not getting sufficient communication from the county administrator and county attorney regarding the ongoing negotiations with the team and presumed discussions regarding hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

“I have only been briefed one time,” Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Sandy Murman said. “Bringing in big developers will make or break (a deal)…but it’s a non-starter for me if it involves taxes.”

Negotiations over public dollars are private

Secrecy has been an ongoing theme of the stadium talks, even after the secretive “land acquisition” stage of the process had been completed.

In late January, Hagan attended a private dinner at Bern’s Steakhouse with County Administrator Mike Merrill, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Rays owner Stu Sternberg, and prominent business leaders to discuss a Tampa stadium.

Details of the meeting did not appear on the calendars of any of the public officials. Hagan’s text messages also reveal that other stadium-related meetings between Hagan and Raij, Tampa businessmen and the Rays never appeared on the commissioner’s public calendar either.

A Hagan aide told 10Investigates, “The commissioner doesn’t put everything on his calendar.”

The firm also coordinated a trip for Hagan and County CFO Bonnie Wise to attend a trip to Atlanta to see the Braves’ new stadium last year, where the two attended a game as guests of the Atlanta Braves.

Hagan disclosed the gift on his third-quarter ethics filing.

Hagan’s recently obtained texts also confirm an August report from 10Investigates that revealed the commissioner was exploring relocating – and rebuilding – the sheriff’s office headquarters in an effort to trade county land in Ybor City for a new stadium site.

Foster kids kept in cars at Wawa parking lot in Hillsborough County

By Mark Douglas

Published: February 6, 2018, 4:54 pm

Updated: February 7, 2018, 6:31 am

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – In a month-long investigation of foster care in Hillsborough County, 8 On Your Side has discovered a disturbing practice of keeping foster kids in cars day and night at a Wawa gas station because they had nowhere else to go.

One day after we started asking questions, Eckerd Connects fired its contractor, Youth and Family Alternatives, the provider of that foster care, citing a lack of proper supervision.

“They’re just sitting there through the night or throughout the day,” said former Youth and Family Alternatives case manager Sharday Moore.

“Some of these kids aren’t going to school. Some of these kids aren’t going to any day treatment programs. They’re not getting the things they need by sitting in cars with a case manager or a transporter each day.”

In an hour-long interview, Moore confirmed what an 8 On Your Side investigation had already uncovered a month earlier.

As many as a dozen hard to place foster teens are forced to spend their days confined to cars in the Wawa parking lot on Waters Avenue in Tampa while their caseworkers try to find them a bed to sleep in for the night.

Moore says she was fired from YFA last week after an incident involving an unruly and threatening 17-year-old foster girl who she delivered to the Eckerd Family Center in Tampa.

That teenager was “hungry and crying” according to an Eckerd press release, even though Moore insists she had just taken the girl to Burger King for a meal before the girl’s behavior spun out of control.

Moore says the children who end up at Wawa day after day are banned from the offices of Youth and Family Alternatives which provides foster care to more than 1700 foster kids in Hillsborough County.

She says due to bad behavior, those teens are sent to the Wawa where they are kept calm by spending countless hours listening to music through the Wawa WiFi and when necessary, using the Wawa bathroom.

Once in a while caseworkers dig into their own pockets to buy them a fast food meal.

“That’s completely wrong in my book because that child is then suffering. They’re not getting things that are needed. They’re not getting adequate mental health treatment that some of them need, trauma-informed base care,” Moore said. “They’re not getting adequate eating. They’re not getting the adequate sleep that they’re needing. They’re not getting rest.”

Moore isn’t the only one disturbed by YFA turning the Wawa parking lot into a home away from home for troublesome foster teens.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman is furious.

“It just brings tears to my eyes, absolutely, that we have girls getting out of cars one after another using Wawa for a bathroom, for exercise, for food. I mean this is just not right and absolutely to the top somebody needs to be held accountable for this.”

Former foster child Maria Young now advocates for foster kids and was horrified when we told her about YFA’s use of the Wawa gas station to warehouse kids between placements.

“What if that child was injured or abused or raped by somebody who just happens to show up at that gas station,” Young said. “This is not right and something needs to be done about it.”

Murman says she contacted DCF Secretary Mike Carroll after our interview Monday and he also expressed concern.

Tuesday, Eckerd announced it was terminating the YFA foster care contract in Hillsborough County, effective May 7, due to concerns over supervision and cited a specific incident involving Sharday Moore that sparked an abandonment investigation after Eckerd’s regional manager called the abuse hotline.

There was no mention of YFA using the Wawa as a way station for foster kids.

Late Tuesday, YFA released a statement saying “It is with deep regret that we must accept the decision by Eckerd to terminate our contract…we want to express a steadfast commitment to provide the very best care for children and teens, including the most troubled…we will be working closely with Eckerd to make the transition as smooth as possible for all of the staff involved.”

Lisa Brock with YFA also released a statement, saying:

It is with deep regret that we must accept the decision by Eckerd Connects to terminate our contract. We understand that this news segment will not be able to tell the entire story of the most complicated teens we serve. Still, we want to express a steadfast commitment to provide the very best care for children and teens, including the most troubled. We believe that the best answers to address this small group of the total population of children and teens served, will come only when a collective and collaborative discussion is had about how to bring innovation to the extremely complicated challenges of deeply troubled teens who live in the care of the system. We will be working closely with Eckerd to make the transition as smooth as possible for all of the staff involved. Our immediate need at this time is to work with our dedicated and hardworking staff as we absorb this news of termination

Hillsborough transit authority speaks critically of proposed BRT line

MITCH PERRY

18 hours ago

A proposed 41-mile, rapid transit line through Tampa hit a speed bump Monday when the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) board voted to keep the HART staff neutral and not involved in the public outreach effort.

While that sounds innocuous enough, the fact of the matter was that there was heavy sentiment against the so-called “regional transit feasibility plan” from advancing. However, even if the board had voted to reject the proposal, that would not stop the process from going forward.

First unveiled to the public last month in St. Petersburg, the project already earned thumbs up from two other regional transit organizations  — the Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area (TMA) Leadership Group and TBARTA.

Florida’s Department of Transportation is funding the plan, which is led by Jacobs Engineering, a local transit consulting firm.

Scott Pringle, the consulting project manager for Jacobs, gave a presentation to the board, explaining that his firm believes the 40.5-mile bus rapid transit (BRT) running from Wesley Chapel to St. Petersburg is a better plan than a 9-mile CSX rail project that would run through Tampa. A crucial factor is cost: the total bill for the I-275/BRT project would range between $380-$455 million.

The cost of the CSX project ranges from $490-$620 million.

Leading the opposition was Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, who questioned why the study did not include a land use and economic development study. She said it was primarily an express bus system.

“Despite what you may have heard today, this is not in any way a ‘gold standard’ BRT,” Kemp said, referring to how it’s been marketed. “This is kind of express-bus-plus, operating in mixed traffic in most cases.”

Kemp was the lone vote opposing the project moving forward on the TBARTA board two weeks ago, but she was joined Monday by fellow County Commissioners Stacy White and Les Miller. Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez and board members Richard McClain and Adam Harden also opposed moving the project forward.

Suarez said the project didn’t include the elements of what make bus rapid transit systems, such as a dedicated lane in traffic and transit-oriented development around some of the proposed 21 stations.

Conversely, Commissioner Sandy Murman repeated her declaration from the earlier TMA meeting that the proposal is “a great start.” She chastised colleagues for “a lot of negativism” before it goes before the general public for comment.

“This is a start, not an end,” Murman cautioned.

But White, who initially said he liked that the plan pushed BRT and not light-rail, said the lack of specific funding sources compelled him to oppose moving the project forward.

“Even this first step is an exercise in futility,” he quipped.

When informed that a vote opposing the project from moving forward wouldn’t stop it completely, Kemp expressed frustration.

“Why are we even discussing it?” she asked colleagues, saying that she serves on the TMA and TBARTA and realizes that none of them can impact the project — either behind closed doors or in public settings.

Miller, who chairs the Hillsborough MPO board, agreed with those concerns; the public deserved to weigh in before lawmakers begin to tinker with it, he said.

Citing White’s apprehension over lack of funding, Miller said at some point HART board members must decide on whether to raise the millage rate to begin paying for more service for Hillsborough County residents.

“Do we bite the bullet … even though there’s an anti-tax sentiment? How do we meet the needs of the citizens of Hillsborough County? I’m not talking about Pinellas; I’m not talking about Wesley Chapel. I’m talking about Hillsborough County.”

Also giving the BRT project critical reviews: the Tampa Bay Business Journal and Tampa Bay Times’ editorial page.

A public outreach effort — led by Jacobs Engineering — is slated to begin later this month and is scheduled to run through the summer. Pringle said outreach would include members of his team going to farmers’ markets and other locales — where the community is.

CareerSource Tampa Bay CEO Ed Peachey suspended without pay

By Mark Douglas

Published: February 2, 2018, 1:20 pm

Updated: February 2, 2018, 6:52 pm

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — CareerSource Tampa Bay suspended CEO Ed Peachey Friday without pay.

Peachey said he’s not ready to resign.

“Until something comes back with some kind of solid findings I’ve done things wrong, I don’t feel it would appropriate for me to resign and I don’t feel I’ve done anything wrong,” Peachey said.

The controversy over Peachey’s leadership of CareerSource Pinellas and Hillsborough job agencies has been building all week.

Thursday, the job agency he runs in Pinellas suspended him with pay and Friday, Hillsborough forced him to step down without pay until investigations conclude.

“These are very very serious allegations, especially the potential misuse of federal dollars and we need to take the most serious action,” said board member and Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman.

So why all the fuss?

It turns out that for a number of years both job agencies under Peachey’s leadership have been claiming credit for job placements they had nothing to do with placing. Peachey insists he’s simply following the state’s rule book, but state leaders from the governor on down aren’t so sure.

Friday, the U.S. Secretary of Labor, H. Alexander Acosta, announced he’s calling for an Inspector General’s investigation and left open the possibility of a referral to the Dept. of Justice.

“We’re going to have to see how that works out,” Peachey said. “But there’s no criminal acts going on here.”

The Inspector General of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity launched an investigation two weeks ago that is still underway and a state House committee is also digging around.

Tiffany Vause, the Director of Communications and External Affairs at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, released the following statement:

“The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity welcomes the opportunity to coordinate with the US Department of Labor and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as a part of the investigation of CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay.  Protecting the taxpayers’ dollars and ensuring transparency and accountability in the workforce system is our highest priority.”

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is fuming over CareerSource Pinellas’ claim of placing more than 600 workers in his agency.  Gualtieri says the real number of job placements is zero and he’s called the CareerSource job claims a “scam.”

The FDLE is reviewing the matter and so is Pinellas State Attorney Bernie McCabe.

Peachey says after years of success, his sudden downfall in the public eye is starting to take a toll on him.

“I don’t sleep. I don’t eat. It’s like it would affect anyone else. I take it personal,” he said.

Tampa law firms part of nationwide push to sue over opioid crisis

By Richard Danielson

Times reporter

Published: January 9, 2018

TAMPA — Two Tampa law firms are part of a nationwide effort to recover damages from pharmaceutical companies for states and local governments burdened by a rising tide of opioid overdoses.

Hillsborough County already is a potential plaintiff. Tampa could sign on this week.

The suit would be similar to the multi-state legal campaigns launched against Big Tobacco and BP after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. And the initiative is being led by former Mississippi attorney general Mike Moore, who in 1994 filed the first suit against cigarette makers over the public costs of treating disease caused by smoking.

“Mike is really the grandfather of this effort,” said Tampa attorney Tom Young, who is part of a legal coalition that includes more than a dozen law firms from nine states and the District of Columbia. The other Tampa attorneys in the effort are father and son Steve and Truett Gardner of Gardner Brewer Martinez-Monfort.

Both Tampa firms are working with local governments involved in the litigation, while firms elsewhere are focused on manufacturers, distributors, appellate issues and coordination with state governments.

Overdoses cost the community a lot of money for law enforcement and emergency medical responses, Hillsborough County Commission chairwoman Sandra Murman said, so it would be good to recover some of those costs and put the money into treatment to address the problem first-hand.

“The increase in deaths have spiraled out of control,” said Murman, who organized a local summit on the opioid crisis in September. In 2016, Florida medical examiners saw the number of deaths where opioids caused or were present at death rise 35 percent from the previous year.

Moore’s consortium of law firms also has talked to Miami-Dade officials about joining the effort and hopes to bring in the state of Florida, which last year joined a multi-state effort to make civil investigative demands for information from manufacturers and distributors of opioid pain-killers.

“The states are going to drive these cases,” Young said, with participation from larger counties and cities like Tampa and Hillsborough. And the group headed by Moore’s firm is just one of five or six such litigation teams working on opioid abuse, he said, so other communities could get involved in similar litigation brought by different attorneys.

As proposed, Moore’s team would investigate the feasibility of recovering any damages that Tampa may have suffered because of the opioid epidemic, and sue if damages can be demonstrated. The legal fee would be 25 percent of any money recovered for the city. The city also would reimburse the firms for out-of-pocket legal expenses from its settlements funds, but would not owe anything if it didn’t receive any money.

That’s in line with the $7 million that Tampa trial attorney Steve Yerrid was paid for winning Tampa a $27.4 million settlement in its litigation against BP over damage done to local tourism after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

Young said the purpose of the suit is not just to extract damages for state and local governments, but to generate sources of funding for initiatives to prevent the creation of new addicts and to equip first-responders with life-saving overdose reversal drugs such as Narcan.

Moreover, Young said, any solution needs to find a way to pay for long term in-patient treatment for opioid abuse and addiction.

“We have to treat the problem,” he said. “That’s going to be expensive. These drug companies and distribution companies that are complicit are going to have to come up with some significant money.”

In an open letter, Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, says “this is our fight, too,” so it is designing its products so they cannot be snorted or injected, making them harder to abuse. It also says it supports limiting the length of initial opioid prescriptions, improving information-sharing between state prescription drug databases and increasing vigilance by doctors.

The Tampa City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday whether to join the litigation, which Mayor Bob Buckhorn said could help the city recuperate some its costs and provide “resources to help us combat this devastating epidemic.”

“As deaths and near-death overdoses increase due to opioid addiction, cities across America are left to bear the costs,” Buckhorn said. “Opioid addiction does not see race, gender or socio-economic status. It’s plaguing millions across the country.”

The Hillsborough County Commission voted to retain the outside attorneys in mid-November, but had been talking about the idea since Murman brought it up in August.

“We’ve got to do more at the local level,” Murman said. “If we can get any dollars from these distributors or manufacturers, that will help us to have more treatment, it will help us to provide more beds. … We just don’t have enough to provide services and that’s why we have so many (addicts) end up in our jails and our emergency rooms.”

HART’s driverless shuttle on hold for downtown Tampa

By Caitlin Johnston, Times Staff Writer

Published: January 8, 2018

Updated: January 8, 2018 at 05:18 PM

TAMPA — A highly touted autonomous shuttle project along the Marion Street Transitway won’t be ready by the NHL All-Star weekend at the end of the month, as previously planned.

Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, the county’s bus agency, oversees the project. Problems arose with the contractor, Stantec, which didn’t meet certain requirements, HART spokeswoman Sandra Morrison said.

“They were not performing under the terms of the contract,” Morrison said. “The proposed cure was insufficient and they received a notice of termination.”

HART officials are working with Stantec to find a resolution. Morrison said the agency can’t comment further because of potential legal disputes.

The NHL All-Star weekend will take place during what will be a busy Jan. 26-28 weekend in downtown Tampa. The skills competition will take place on Jan. 27, the same Saturday as the annual Gasparilla parade.

The new driverless shuttle service might start as soon as summer, Morrison said, but there is no projected date.

The P-1 electric shuttle, an autonomous vehicle without a human driver, was scheduled to start serving the public for free on a trial basis this month. The P-1 has seats for 14 people plus standing room for six and would run 0.6 miles along Marion Street in eastern downtown from the Marion Transit Center south to Whiting Street and back.

The shuttle was supposed to be able to get smarter over time, detecting and reacting to pedestrians and other vehicles in a 360-degree range.

Tinkering with routes: As expected, the HART board also approved a list of $2.3 million worth of bus projects to supplement the roll out of Mission Max, a complete overhaul of the agency’s bus network.

The changes includes connections to the airport to Tampa International Airport and Tampa General Hospital, along with more frequent trips for some routes.

Those include increasing the frequency on routes 6, 34, 35, and 56 so they run every 15 or 30 minutes; extending route 19 so it runs to Tampa General Hospital rather than requiring riders to switch to a shuttle; adding trips on the 24LX to MacDill Air Force Base; and adding the 75LX South County Shopper Shuttle on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The changes depend on the approval of the Hillsborough County Commission, which is expected to discuss the plan Thursday. If the commission approves the list, those route additions can go into effect Feb. 25.

HART chairman and County Commissioner Les Miller expressed concern last week that some county commissioners might try to tinker with the project list.

Miller, who was not present at Monday’s board meeting, said he has heard that a couple commissioners want to specify what routes get the new money rather than having HART staff decide.

“The routes, I heard, are routes that aren’t really utilized that much by consumers, by those who use the buses,” Miller said. “People in certain parts of the county want a bus system that comes to their area, even though the routes aren’t well utilized.

“And, let’s face the facts, it’s an election year.”

There are four commission seats on the 2018 ballot. Commissioner Stacy White is running for re-election while Victor Crist, Ken Hagan and Sandy Murman are running in new seats.

Miller said his original understanding was that the $2.3 million would go to routes where ridership was increasing or to areas where riders were stranded after Mission Max eliminated buses in their area.

“HART staff already has the routes in place and what they want them to look like,” Miller said. “Now we have all kinds of things going on.”

A new CEO: Board members decided Monday to hold off on conducting a national search for a new chief executive to replace Katharine Eagan, who took a similar job at the transit agency in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Instead, the board extended the contract of interim CEO Jeff Seward from six months to 12 months. Seward previously served as the agency’s CFO.

The board can determine after the 12 months is over whether to conduct a national search. It can also decide at any point during the period whether to make Seward the permanent CEO.

CareerSource Pinellas chair says he has suspended CEO Ed Peachey

Zachary T. SampsonTimes staff writer

Published: February 1, 2018

Updated: February 1, 2018 at 08:55 PM

The chairman of CareerSource Pinellas announced he was suspending embattled jobs chief Edward Peachey on Thursday until a review panel determines whether the agency has been inflating its success at helping people find work.

In Hillsborough County, commissioners urged CareerSource Tampa Bay board members to suspend him as the head of that office as well when they meet today.

The moves came the same day as Florida’s two U.S. senators added their names to the growing list of leaders calling for a wholesale examination of the CareerSource books.

Doubts about the centers’ performance have snowballed in the last week, quickly turning into a series of local, state and federal inquiries. Investigators are trying to determine whether the CareerSource agencies overstated their job placement numbers by reporting they helped put people to work who never sought their assistance. Also in question is whether the centers earned state incentive money based on exaggerated placement numbers.

Aundre Green, chairman of the CareerSource Pinellas board, suspended Peachey with pay on Thursday, just a day after he blocked a proposal by Pinellas County Commissioner and CareerSource board member Pat Gerard to do the same.

Gerard had countered by saying she would seek Green’s removal from the board, a move two other county commissioners signaled they would support.

“Upon further reflection and in light of comments made yesterday at the meeting,” Green wrote in his letter to CareerSource board members Thursday. ” … I have reconsidered and determined to suspend the CEO with pay.”

It was unclear Thursday if Green had the authority to unilaterally suspend Peachey. CareerSource attorney Charles Harris did not respond to a request for comment.

Green announced the appointment of Jennifer Brackney, an employee who worked for years at a similar agency in Peoria, Ill., to serve as interim director. She has worked in the local CareerSource agencies since February 2015 and made $111,000 last year, according to payroll records.

“I’m glad (Green) decided to do the right thing,” Gerard said Thursday afternoon.

Two board members who argued against suspending Peachey on Wednesday, Tom Bedwell and Mike Mikurak, said Green’s reversal surprised them. Both declined Thursday to comment until learning more details.

Earlier Thursday, Hillsborough County Commissioners asked the CareerSource Tampa Bay board to go a step further than Pinellas and suspend Peachey without pay.

“If the allegations are true it very much violates the public trust,” said Hillsborough Commissioner Pat Kemp. “It’s very, very disappointing to see.”

Sandy Murman, the commission’s representative on the CareerSource Tampa Bay board, will now push to remove Peachey during its executive meeting Friday afternoon.

“If there’s an investigation going on, you cannot have the fox in the hen house,” she said.

The commissioners said Peachey has not been forthright in communication since the controversy began more than a week ago. He did not return a request for comment for this story. Payroll records show he earned about $291,000 in 2016.

“My concern is we’re paying him when it’s quite obvious there’s some really serious wrongdoings there,” said Commissioner Les Miller.

Each CareerSource office is overseen by its own board of directors, whose members come from the fields of education, business, and government, and from labor organizations. County commissioners must approve the board members and the agencies’ budgets. But only the agencies’ boards of directors, not the county commission, has the power to remove their leaders.

While the Hillsborough commissioners were meeting Thursday, U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio jointly issued a bipartisan letter requesting a federal Department of Labor investigation. Both CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay receive funding through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The Labor Department should therefore assist in the investigations to determine “whether federal taxpayer dollars were misused,” the senators wrote.

“Your Department should ensure there are sufficient practices in place to deter fraud and abuse,” the senators urged Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity launched the first inquiry after the Tampa Bay Times asked about the agencies’ job placement figures. CareerSource had claimed in state reports to have helped find jobs for people who told the Times that they got no assistance from the agency. Several employers also said CareerSource routinely asked them to provide complete hiring lists of all employees — even those who had not used the job placement centers.

Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, for instance, ended his department’s contract with CareerSource last month. He said he could find no evidence that the jobs agency played a role in any of the 624 employees it claimed to have helped place with the Sheriff’s Office since 2014.

Peachey has for years been celebrated for the high job placement figures that are now in question. Of the 24 CareerSource agencies in Florida, the Tampa Bay and Pinellas offices have regularly ranked at the top for finding people work.

Murman, the Hillsborough commissioner, said she has served on the CareerSource Tampa Bay board for years and the meetings have always been rubber-stamp sessions with few challenges.

“The board meetings are not in-depth like you would think of a board meeting, and that’s a problem,” she said. “The oversight and accountability, it’s just, I mean, it’s nowhere to be found.”

The board chair of CareerSource Pinellas says he has placed the embattled head of the agency on paid suspension while a committee investigates whether it inflated job placement numbers reported to the state.

Board chair Aundre Green announced the suspension of president and CEO Edward Peachey at 1 p.m. Thursday

The move came a day after Green blocked Commissioner Pat Gerard, a member of the CareerSource board, from asking the agency’s executive committee to suspend Peachey. Gerard, the vice chair of CareerSource Pinellas, had subsequently requested that the County Commission vote at its Feb. 6 meeting to remove Green from the board of directors at the jobs center.

Green would not explain how he has the authority to make the decision unilaterally.

“Upon further reflection and in light of comments made yesterday at the meeting by Commissioner Gerard and Jack Geller,” Green wrote in the letter, “I have reconsidered and determined to suspend the CEO with pay until the Ad Hoc committee completes its investigation and recommends any necessary and appropriate disciplinary action.”

He appointed Jennifer Brackney, an employee who worked for years at a similar agency in Peoria, Ill., to serve as interim director.

Peachey, who also heads CareerSource Tampa Bay in Hillsborough County, has come under scrutiny for how the agencies report job placements to the state.

Investigators from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity are trying to determine whether the two jobs centers inflated their job placement numbers under his watch. The investigators are also trying to determine whether the centers — which receive millions in federal dollars each year to help train people and find them jobs — also received state incentive money for the exaggerated numbers.

The investigations were touched off by questions from the Tampa Bay Times, which found that Career Source had claimed in state reports that it helped find jobs for people who say they got no assistance from the agency. Several employers have also told the Times that CareerSource routinely asked them to provide complete hiring lists of all employees — even those who had not used the job placement centers.

In response, Gov. Rick Scott urged the board to “consider appropriate disciplinary and administrative action” and to “review all leadership” at the jobs centers.

Green called an emergency meeting of the CareerSource executive committee on Wednesday to address the allegations. The executive panel voted 7-3 to create the ad-hoc committee to review how the agency reports job placements.

In a letter afterward to county commissioners calling for Green’s removed from the CareerSource Pinellas board, Gerard’s said she was “deeply concerned” the committee “is not sufficiently independent to conduct a meaningful, objective review of the reported allegations. Two other commissioners said they supported removing Green from the board.

Each of Florida’s 24 CareerSource agencies is overseen by its own board of directors, whose members come from the fields of education, business, and government, and from labor organizations.

County commissioners must approve the board members and the agencies’ budgets. But only the board of directors, not the County Commission, has the power to remove their leaders.

Pinellas Co. suspends job agency boss; Hillsborough Co. on deck

By Steve Andrews

Published: February 1, 2018, 6:52 pm

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The embattled CEO of two local organizations that used taxpayer money to help people find work was suspended by with pay by one of the organizations. Now the Hillsborough County Commission wants him suspended without pay from the other.

Ed Peachey is the head of CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay.

Peachey was hired in 2010 to address accountability and transparency issues previously exposed by Target 8.

Now, Mr. Peachy finds himself faced with similar problems.

Hillsborough commissioners voted unanimously to recommend CareerSource Tampa Bay’s Executive Committee to suspend Mr. Peachey without pay while investigators look at whether the job placement numbers the agency boasts are phony.

“It’s quite obvious there are some really serious wrongdoings over there,” said Commissioner Les Miller. “I’m inclined to make a motion to suspend him without pay.”

“I would be in favor of dismissing Mr. Peachey just because of his what I perceive is a lack of competency,” added Commissioner Stacy White.

Hillsborough Commission Chairperson Sandy Murman who sits on the Career Source Tampa Bay board thinks letting Mr. Peachey work while the agency is under investigation, is like leaving a fox in the hen house.

“You’ve got the feds the state and now local government, three levels of government and the Governor’s office questioning your transparency and accountability, there’s a big problem,” explained Commissioner Murman.

U.S. Senators Bill Nelson (D)-Florida and Marco Rubio (R)- Florida are also asking the Department of Labor to investigate the allegations of inflating job numbers.

Peachy was supposed to restore transparency and oversight to an agency crumbling amid a cheesecake scandal.

In 2009, while unemployment was through the roof, our Target 8 investigation revealed executives of the then Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance were busy chowing down on expensive meals including cheesecake desserts with money meant for finding people work.

CEO Renee Gilmore okayed extravagant parties and hosted workshops in placed like the Tampa Improv Comedy Club, and even paid a comedian to entertain employees, calling him a public speaker.

When we questioned the organization, Workforce Alliance Chairman Ron Smith blew me off. “I think you’re nitpicking here,” he said.

The state began investigating and Ms. Gilmore resigned. We’re having déjà vu all over again.

At the time, Mr. Peachey was the head of Career Source Pinellas and offered to help out. He eventually became CEO for both organizations.

After refusing on Wednesday to allow Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard to introduce a motion to suspend Mr. Peachey, Mr. Green today informed Career Source Pinellas Board members he reconsidered and suspended the CEO with pay until an Ad Hoc Committee completes its investigation and recommends any necessary and appropriate disciplinary action.

Commissioner Sandy Murman tells us the Peachey investigation is heating up.

“The allegations are so serious and I have talked to the Governor’s office, they say they have much more than what has been reported to the press about the allegations of miscounting the misuse of funds,” Murman explained.

The vote by the County Commission to suspend Mr. Peachey without pay is only a recommendation, which Commissioner Sandy Murman will take to the Career Source Tampa Bay Executive Committee meeting on Friday.

If you know of something that should be investigated call our Target 8 Helpline at 1 800 338-0808 or contact Steve Andrews at sandrews@wfla.com.