Lawyer says Carr issue ‘out of control’

March 18, 2020

Dara Kam

TALLAHASSEE --- Amid investigations, litigation and public scrutiny over allegedly exorbitant executive compensation at the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Tiffany Carr, the woman at the center of the maelstrom, has remained almost silent.

But a lawyer who represents Carr, the former CEO of the nonprofit organization, provided a glimpse in a court filing into her defense against accusations that she misspent public funds meant for the state’s domestic-violence centers.

“The entire debate has spun out of control, with a media frenzy fueling speculation, outrage, a ‘rush to judgment’ and a ‘mob rule’ mentality,” wrote attorney Chris Kise, who represents the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence Foundation and Carr, who is the foundation’s principal officer.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and House and Senate leaders in recent weeks have vilified Carr for orchestrating $7.5 million in compensation over three years, which included more than $4 million in paid time off. Inquiries into the nonprofit’s finances have also targeted the coalition’s executive staff and board of directors, who each year signed off on her salary and benefits.

“In 30 years of practice, I have never seen any issue or any series of issues spiral out of control so far and so fast, without anyone really considering all the substantive evidence,” Kise told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview this week.

The Department of Children and Families and the federal government have for years steered money to the coalition to manage Florida’s 42 domestic-violence centers, which provide victims with an array of services. The coalition received $42 million from DCF for the 2017-2018 fiscal year, but the agency sued Carr, the coalition and its board members this year and canceled a contract with the nonprofit organization.

Moody filed a separate lawsuit against Carr, the coalition and the foundation on March 4, asking a judge to freeze the assets of the coalition and the foundation and to assign a receiver “to take control and custody” of both organizations. The foundation is a nonprofit that raises money from private donors to support the coalition.

During a hearing last week, Leon County Circuit Judge Ronald Flury agreed to appoint a receiver to oversee the coalition, but the fate of the foundation remains up in the air.

In a court filing arguing against such action, Kise called “the entire proceeding … an effort to short circuit the normal adjudicative process for ostensibly political purposes.”

Judicial proceedings are intended to “separate hyperbole from fact, evaluate the serious allegations and issues in an impartial forum, and render a decision based not on public sentiment, but on the record facts before the court,” Kise, a former state solicitor general, argued.

The state’s motion contains “inflammatory language and innuendo” and refers to newspaper articles and a complaint filed by DCF, Kise wrote, elements that “are simply not clear and convincing evidence of immediate and irreparable harm” required for appointment of a receiver.

In the March 4 complaint, Moody’s lawyers wrote that the foundation had about $1.5 million in assets, according to the most recent public filings.

Carr’s “position as the sole member of the foundation should be terminated, and control over the foundation and its assets … should be turned over to a receiver to safeguard those assets and ensure that they are utilized for the donors’ intended purposes,” Moody’s lawyers wrote.

But Kise argued that the accusations have been lobbed against the coalition, not the foundation.

“In short, the motion asserts that a receiver should take control of the foundation because the foundation’s only member is Ms. Carr, and she cannot be trusted to run the foundation,” Kise argued in the 12-page response filed shortly before last week’s hearing. “However, the motion and the complaint are devoid of any allegations that Ms. Carr engaged in misconduct in her role as a director of the foundation.”

The state has not accused Carr of having “improperly disbursed” any of the foundation’s funds, “has not even attempted to identify any fraud, waste or abuse” associated with the foundation, and “cannot identify a single person or entity that would suffer in the absence of an injunction or appointment of a receiver,” Kise argued.

“There are no facts in the record establishing the scandalous allegations against the coalition and Ms. Carr,” he wrote. “The complaint effectively asserts fraud and concealment because the attorney general says it is, because the media says it is and because the mob rule mentality which has permeated the debate over these essentially contractual issues says it is.”

During the Thursday hearing, Flury said he would hold a separate hearing to determine whether the foundation should be assigned a receiver and whether its assets should be frozen.

But Kise told the judge a hearing may not be necessary, saying a temporary injunction might suffice.

“We’re not going to move any documents. We’re not going to do anything with the money, but I leave it in your hands,” he said.

As of Wednesday, no date had been set for another hearing.

Kise in last week’s court filing said Carr’s compensation hasn’t broken any laws.

While the lawsuit claims “excessive sums” and “unreasonably high levels of compensation” were paid to Carr, “there is no statute, law or rule” entitling the attorney general to relief “based on claims that something is ‘excessive’ or ‘unreasonable’ simply because the attorney general argues that it is,” he wrote.

The hearing and Kise’s court filing came as Carr eluded repeated efforts by the Florida House to serve her with a subpoena ordering her to appear before the Public Integrity & Ethics Committee. Process servers and sheriff’s deputies this month were unable to make contact with her because she was ensconced in a North Carolina gated community in one of the four properties she owns.

Over the two decades she was at the helm of the organization, Carr garnered widespread admiration for securing millions of dollars in state and federal funds and expanding services for domestic-violence victims. Lawmakers, at the request of former Gov. Jeb Bush, in 2003 enshrined the coalition’s contract with DCF in state law.

But officials’ views of Carr and the coalition rapidly dimmed following a series of stories about the nonprofit’s finances by the Miami Herald. The reports led to investigations by the House and the governor’s office that prompted lawmakers to strip the coalition’s contract with DCF from state law in February. DCF, part of DeSantis’ administration, also sued Carr, the coalition and its board of directors, alleging breach of contract.

Revelations about Carr’s compensation package ---from her $750,000-a-year salary to more than $4.5 million in paid time off, which she cashed out before stepping down from the organization in October --- sparked outrage from elected officials.

“I was aghast,” House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, told reporters on Feb. 27, after several of the coalition’s board of directors appeared before the House committee. “It was disturbing. Scandalous. I don’t know what other word I can use to fully express what I thought of that.”