Hemming Park Shocker: Friends of Hemming Out of Money

[tufsu1]

^ on this we agree

[BennyKrik]

If Vince's job performance was exceptional as some individuals here indicate,
There will be a long line of non-profits interested in hiring him based on his work performance at FOHP.

[mtraininjax]

If Vince's job performance was exceptional as some individuals here indicate,
There will be a long line of non-profits interested in hiring him based on his work performance at FOHP.

+1

Wood has to resign as well, to move this project out of the mud.

[KenFSU]

Only in Jacksonville does a guy raise 400k in corporate sponsorship in the first year and then get hounded into resigning.

Only in Jacksonville does said guy find a local business who says, "Hey, we want to do our part to help bring life back to the urban core! Here's $250 thousand dollars that the city doesn't have so you can build a permanent stage in Hemming Park for the community to enjoy," only to have the city turn around and ruin the deal because they want the right to renegotiate naming rights for a stage they wouldn't otherwise have two years earlier than the local business was originally told.

Could have been a major game changer for Hemming, and I've yet to hear anyone at City Hall take accountability for botching it.

[BennyKrik]

the only plausible conspiracy theory is as follows:
Forcing Dr Wood, a pillar in the community, to resign for taking part in 'growing pains', would have dealt a serious blow to his image and reputation.
Instead, he was given additional responsibilities in programming.

How did this happen?

[edjax]

Per WOKV


City agrees to contract extension with Friends of Hemming Park, with new focus on safety
The City of Jacksonville and Friends of Hemming Park have agreed to a 6-month contract extension which now needs City Council approval




By John Engel
Jacksonville, Fl — It's been nearly a year since outrage surround Friends of Hemming Park, the non-profit tasked with managing Jacksonville's most centralized meeting space, over questionable spending habits and exorbitant salaries.
The controversy led to the resignation of the organization's chief executive officer, Vince Cavin, and intense scrutiny over financial decisions by the City Council and Mayor's Office.
But with an end-of-month expiration looming, Friends of Hemming Park has agreed to a 6-month, $415,000 contract with the City, pending Council approval.
Interim CEO Bill Prescott stepped into his role when the future of Friends of Hemming seemed bleak, and the organization was requesting additional funding from the City just to stay afloat. In the months since, Prescott says the entire mission of the non-profit has shifted.
"City Council and the Mayor's Office was much more interested in clean and safe, and making the park welcoming, and I really think that Friends of Hemming Park has changed that focus and really concentrated on those areas," Prescott told WOKV.
Under the pending contract's current wording, $240,000 will be used by Friends of Hemming Park for approved operational expenses and $175,000 will go toward capital improvement expenses.
Prescott believes the organization's relationships with the City and Council have improved in recent months, too. He says stricter financial reports are important but giving the City Council an opportunity to hear the challenges facing the Friends of Hemming Park has also helped.

[spuwho]

415k for periodic beer gardens and santized of any semblance of homeless.

Sorry to sound so sarcastic, but ridding the place of the homless seemed to be more important than the programming.

Give me a 400k grant to work with the homeless downtown and I will make it sing.

That would go a LONG way to start a transition program, instead of shuffling them off to the shadows and shelters until the more privileged exit.