January 21, 2020; Miami Herald

In November, Tiffany Carr, the twenty-year CEO of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) stepped down from her $761,000-a-year job as the organization’s CEO. While the organization had a $43 million budget in 2017, $34 million of that was in the form of pass-through grants. The out-of-scale salary, which the press reported on vigorously, was not the nonprofit’s sole problem at the time. State officials and lawmakers also had issues with the organization’s inability to respond to document requests and discomfort with its domestic violence funding intermediary position, which was written into law but is now being challenged in the legislature.

When she resigned, Carr was replaced on an interim basis by a close friend, former state senator Denise Grimsley. Though Grimsley may have been an excellent choice in other ways, her relationship with Carr made her a very bad choice indeed for the organization.

Such flouting of public concern tends to create its own endings, and so it was with FCADV, as Grimsley resigned her unpaid position with no reason given after just two months, causing a mountain of speculation the group will now have to climb over—ironically, in part because Grimsley is well regarded among lawmakers and agency heads.

Rep. Juan Fernandez Barquin calls Grimsley’s sudden departure “odd and suspicious.” He would impose a year-long suspension on FCADV, which would disallow their bidding for a DCF contract pending its audit.—Ruth McCambridge