The Escambia Children’s Trust Policy and Bylaws Committee held a rare meeting on Monday afternoon, amid the recent arrests of Rodney Jones and others with New World Believers, which has received over $900K from the Trust.
If there was one theme that ran through nearly every agenda item, it was this: the Trust is drawing clearer lines around how taxpayer money flows to the providers serving our community’s children — and it’s doing so at a time when the Trust’s very existence is in question.
- Strange Point: The Policy Committee last met on April 23, 2025, according to its website. However, the minutes approved at the Feb. 2 meeting were dated Sept. 24, 2024. Whichever is the case, this committee has not met in months.
Chair Tina Cain presided over a meeting that moved briskly through a stack of draft policies — from motor vehicle use to background screenings to the thorny debate over indirect costs — before wrapping with public comment that underscored just how closely the community is watching.
Motor Vehicle Policy Gets a Five-Year Overhaul
The Trust funds have purchased several motor vehicles for its providers, and the current policy requires the Trust to maintain a reversionary interest — essentially, a lien — for the lifetime of each vehicle. The staff recommended changing that window to five years. Read Vans.
- “A lot of times when you look at the lifetime, when it gets the vehicles are 10, 15 years old, they’re not really any good when they come back to us, but we’re stuck with them,” Trust Finance Director Tammy Abrams explained.
The committee also approved adding a prohibition on personal use of Trust-funded vehicles and a requirement that only drivers who have had a motor vehicle records check completed may operate them.
Contract Suspension Policy: Putting It in Writing
Trust Executive Director Lindsey Cannon brought forward a draft policy on contract suspension and enforcement. Read Suspension.
- “We do need to have the ability to actually suspend a contract as we’ve had to do, especially around child safety,” Cannon said. “But there may be other issues that come up from an administrative side that we need to be able to look at an opportunity to pause our contracts, see if it can be rectified before we go into a termination situation.”
Cannon noted that the policy had been reviewed by the Trust’s legal counsel, with their edits marked in red on the draft. Board member Stephanie White asked whether the Trust had already been suspending contracts without a formal policy in place. The answer was yes—but Cannon stressed the importance of putting it in black and white.
“We do get asked that question — where is this in your policy?” she said. “We need to be able to show that.”
Annual Background Checks Replace the Five-Year Gap
One of the more consequential policy changes discussed Monday involves provider background screenings. Current law requires a Level 2 background check, valid for 5 years. But Cannon argued that the gap is too long. Read Background.
- NWB Problem: When Cannon announced to her board that she had suspended the $585K grant for New World Believers, she admitted the Trust hadn’t received background checks on NWB staff.
“If you only screen these people every five years on your staff, you have no idea what liability you are putting,” Cannon told the committee. She noted that school districts and some government agencies receive automatic alerts from law enforcement if an employee is charged with a crime — but she claimed nonprofits in Escambia County do not get that same notification…