If Florida domestic-violence agency’s greed brings criminal charges, great! | Editorial

Columba Bush, Florida’s former first lady, has a soft spot for victims of domestic violence. Her husband, Jeb, Florida’s governor from 1999-2007, has a soft spot for his wife. Out of these two data points, Tiffany Carr created a vehicle to enrich herself at the expense of taxpayers, and, more important, at the expense of untold numbers of domestic-violence victims.

Carr took advantage of the Bushes and the Legislature. By 2003, she had curried so much favor in high places that her so-called Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) was granted exclusive “managing entity” status, with permanent rights to distribute state and federal funds intended to shelter and protect victims of domestic violence.

Far from being an alliance for combined action in the public interest, FCADV has always been a dictatorship ruled with an iron fist by Carr.

As far back as 2005, the Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) and its Domestic Violence Program office director, Trula Motta, were under Carr’s thumb. Honest public servants employed as DCF contract managers sounded the alarm, complaining about Carr’s cozy relationship with Motta. The DCF whistleblowers felt like they “work for Tiffany Carr and Ms. Motta serves at the pleasure of Ms. Carr.”

We now know that the whistleblowers were right, thanks to dogged reporting by the Miami Herald, and the subpoenas issued by a House committee that followed.

Last week, documents and testimony dragged out of Carr’s staff and board members and given, under oath, to the governor’s inspector general revealed Carr’s skill at rewarding lackeys and shutting down the occasional troublesome board member who took fiduciary responsibilities seriously. To DCF’s contract managers in 2005, it appeared as if Carr was “the tail wagging the dog.”

The tail was wagging the inspector general at the time, as well. Following an IG report. a succession of DCF secretaries allowed Motta to carry on as Carr’s inside woman. When Motta retired in 2012, Carr threw her a party, and she returned to the public trough as a domestic-violence consultant.

Above all, Carr prizes “unyielding loyalty,” such as that displayed by FCADV Chief Financial Officer Patricia Duerte and Chief Operating Officer Sandra Barnett. Carr praised the pair for refusing to disclose “unnecessary” information to auditors and the media, right around the time she doubled their salaries and provided them with paid time off in amounts that look more like hush money than vacation time that any legitimate business would allow.

“It appears to me that the employees, along with Ms. Carr, worked collectively to cheat the system,” said committee chairman Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, following a televised public hearing at which Duerte and Barnett admitted that Carr directed them to transfer grant money intended for victims’ services to pad her paid-time-off account and “bonus herself up” to the tune of $4 million.

Carr also found the time and energy to buy and sell real estate in North Carolina; serve as interim CEO of the Alabama domestic violence coalition; campaign for Bush in his 2016 presidential run; and vacation in Paris with her friend and board member Angela Diaz-Vidaillet, who testified that she paid her own way. She can afford to on the $284,000 she makes as head of Miami’s Victim Response, Inc.

The IG and law enforcement should follow this case where it leads and make every effort to hold accountable anyone who violated the public trust, including — and especially — Carr.

All this scrutiny has rattled the cages of other government-funded managing entities. FCADV can’t be the only “not-for-profit” where extremely well-paid executives fly under the radar and pursue private interests on the taxpayers’ dime. Florida’s community-based-care agencies have scrambled a fleet of jets filled with lobbyists and public relations people in opposition to SB 1326. The bill is a DCF priority and aims to reclaim some of the authority that properly belongs to an agency secretary who is directly accountable to elected officials.

After all, if everybody’s responsible, nobody’s responsible. It’s a system that works great for people like Tiffany Carr.

This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.