Non-profits raise ethics red flags about Jacksonville children’s board governance

Jacksonville City Hall.

Harsh words flowed last week from two heads of Jacksonville nonprofits to Jacksonville city officials regarding perceived irregularities in the new Kids Hope Alliance.

At issue: board member Joe Peppers, who had since resigned, pursuing the CEO position of the nascent children’s program board.

“I am honored to remain a candidate for the CEO position. If the board and the mayor believe that I am the best person for the job, I will do my best to represent the organization, the board, and the city of Jacksonville in the the very best light which it so deserves,” Peppers added.

Sherry Magill, head of the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund, and Nina Waters, head of the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida, were “disappointed” that KHA Chair Kevin Gay said there was no problem with Peppers pursuing the position.

“It is neither common nor ethical,” the writers said, for board members to pursue paid positions with the boards they are on.

The writers want “written standards” and firm policies regarding board standards and governance.

Council members had concerns about the KHA, with two of them (Garrett Dennis and Council President Anna Brosche) on the JEA “Potential Sale” Special Committee — which itself will have a Jessie Ball DuPont Fund tie.

Per minutes from a March 19 meeting, the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund is willing to fund an outside consultant, via “the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida to gauge their interest in undertaking the task and to invite Ted Kury, Director of Energy Studies for the Center, to attend a future special committee meeting to discuss the project and the Center’s potential interest.”

Kury has already gone on record with preliminary thoughts on a sale. He thinks the utility would have to be split up among two or more entities, and with skepticism on a sale ruling the committee, it’s easy to see how Kury’s testimony will help to guide said skeptics’ talking points in terms of the very real considerations of divesting local control to private operators.