Cheryl Grymes votes to send JCC money, and JCC sends money to her other employer

The school board contracted with the Jacksonville Children’s Commission (JCC) to run an after school program and the Jacksonville Children’s Commission sent Big Brothers and Big Sisters money to run mentoring programs and Cheryl Grymes voter for this to happen three times. 

Big Brothers Big Sisters runs mentoring programs for the JCC and JCC and Big Brothers and Big Sisters say it is all right that DCPS sends money to JCC and JCC sends money to BB and BS because different pots of money pay for different things, I disagree.

From the Jacksonville Children’s Commission

JCC Appropriation to Big Brothers Big Sisters

7/1/11 – 6/30/12 - $237,444.00

7/1/11 – 9/30/11 - $  47,155.00 (paid during contract period for 7/1/11 – 6/30/12)

7/1/12 – 6/30/13 - $284,597.99   

7/1/13 – 6/30/14 - $284,598.00

7/1/14 – 6/30/15 - $284,597.99

Funds collected from DCPS (on City’s fiscal year):

2011-12 - $294,300

2012-13 - $294,300

2013-14 - $294,300

2014-15 - $225,000      

From DCPS, this shows the Votes Mrs. Grymes made to send the money to JCC

  

Let me just say I think JCC and Big Brother and Big Sisters do good work

Furthermore I think we need even more after school programs, 

There however is a right way and a wrong way to do things and at the very least Grymes voted three times to send money to an organization that was sending other money to her employer. That's also not where the story ends.

A few months back I received a tip that said Cheryl Grimes was getting rich off Big Brothers and Big Sisters and her position with the district. Doing some diligence I asked the district how much they gave to Big Brothers and Big Sister and they said nothing so I just blew off the tip as silly and conjecture. Well it turns out that what the district told me wasn’t completely accurate as they give money to the JCC and then they give it to Big Brothers and Big Sisters. (that being said I want to thank the district and JCC for answering my questions).

Fast forward to Mrs. Grymes running for reelection and I saw all the for profit education companies looking to get a foothold into Duval that had donated to her and my curiosity about the tip returned.

http://www.duvalelections.com/Candidates-And-Committees/Candidate-Committee-Treasurer-Reports-Bios/Campaign-Treasurer-Reports-Bios

So I pulled Mrs. Grymes finical statements for the last 4 years and they said she has averaged over 80 thousand dollars a year from Big Brothers Big Sisters.

http://public.ethics.state.fl.us/results.cfm

Read that again or look it up yourself, she makes 80 grand plus annually from BB&BS and to me that seemed like a crazy high amount and combined with her school board salary means she is taking home about 120 thousand dollars a year.

But hey what do I know, maybe everybody at Big Brothers Big Sisters make that much money so I pulled Big Brothers Big Sisters financial disclosures on which there is a section which talks about how much the top people in the organization get paid and even though Mrs. Grymes made more than everyone but her husband she wasn't mentioned, which I thought was very strange.

http://www.bbbsnefl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/BBBSNEFL-990-Form-14-15.pdf

The Grymes family, her huband makes a salary of 114,000 is taking home nearly ten percent of Big Brothers Big Sisters total annual budget and at least last year the percentage was even bigger.  

My second complaint is where is the media? I am not digging through people’s trash, I am not a trained investigative reporter. If I don’t get a tip and can’t find it on google then I have basically gone as far as I can go.    

I begged the local media to look into and report who was giving Grymes money, literally begged but other than a few light mentions here and there and a back page article in the Folio, a piece I put on the blog first and suggested the author send out, it’s been radio silence.

Now we have learned that she has voted for things the last three years that have benefited her and her other employer in addition to the rogues gallery of donors.

I believe I am seeing a pattern of behavior here where Mrs. Grymes seeks to enrich herself that I find distasteful.

What would have happened had the media done its job and reported above? Would somebody in her district decided to run against her? The people of her district and the city deserved to know what is happening.

Finally I have met Mrs. Grymes several times and always found her nice and affable but in my estimation she has been a disaster on the school board and she makes me nostalgic for the halcyon days of Martha Barrett. We deserve a school board member who is going to do the right thing and we deserve a media who is going to inform the people of Jacksonville when they don't.