Page 9 - Florida Sentinel 6-12-20

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Current And Future Spending By USF Discussed At Board Of Trustee Meeting
The USF System Board of Trustees (BOT) held its phys- ical meeting on June 2nd, at the Marshall Center.
During public comments at that Board meeting several people spoke.
The major concern at this particular meeting was the recent USF spending data with Black businesses, that was released to members of Tampa Organization of Black Affairs (TOBA) and the Satur- day Morning Breakfast Group (SMBG).
TOBA and SMBG distrib- uted the data to Black offi- cials, leaders, pastors and business owners prior to the meeting to reveal the huge gap, and had planned to speak at the Trustee meeting, but were given a short timeline prior to the meeting to ad- dress the disparity. So, the spokesman for the groups de- cided to attend the meeting, but not speak. However, sev- eral businessmen and elected officials did.
One business owner, Joe Robinson, who is also an of- ficer of the NAACP, spoke about the USF System diver- sity spending data being in- valid and asked the BOT to have the numbers audited. He also challenged the USF Sys- tem to spend more money with Black-owned busi- nesses.
Two elected officials Rep. Dianne Hart and Wengay Newton called in to express their concerns about the lack of USF System spending with
Terrie Daniel heads the Supplier Diversity Office at USF.
Black-owned companies. Black- owned company owners, Mr. Jonathan Graham of HORUS Con- struction and Allen Green of ENVISION spoke about their respective company suc- cesses and praised the USF System and Terrie Daniel, who heads its Supplier Diver-
sity Office.
For TOBA and SMBG
Board members, Graham and Allen’s success repre- sents some semblance of good news.
Unfortunately, the official USF System data that was presented by Ms. Daniel showed that the USF System only spent $289,000 with Black-owned companies out of its total addressable spend of $251 million.
In addition, Ms. Daniel revealed that while the USF System has and will be spend- ing larger amounts of public money with several construc- tion companies that have
Black-owned construction company partners, they could not reveal exactly how much publicly funded dollars were or will be spent with these companies.
According to James Ran- som, TOBA board member and SMBG president, ‘this fact left us with no real evi- dence to see nor celebrate. The notion that we should be happy to hear this specific news is irrelevant to our con- versations and due diligence. Daniel’s statement opens the door to the issues of trans- parency and accountability of spending public funds and public trust.
If the news is good, share it.’’ However, newly installed USF President Steven Currall, assured those pres- ent that a plan Ms. Daniel proposed during her presen- tation directly addressed sev- eral actions that TOBA/SMBG have been re- questing related to making in- stitutional changes. This plan would transform the USF Sys- tem spending culture in a pos- itive manner that has to date
never been seen there.
‘We will continue our ef-
forts to collaborate with the USF System on all matters of mutual interest and common goals that include increasing the representation of Blacks in staff, tenured professor- ships, key leadership posi- tions and governance and spending with Black owned companies, among others’, Ransom concluded.
Businessman Named Chairman Of Children's Board
Last month, during the Regular Board Meeting of the Children’s Board of Hillsbor- ough County, Edwin Narain was sworn in as the incoming Board Chair.
Narain replaces Megan Proulx Dempsy, who has served as Board chair for the last three years and has served as a Board Member for the past seven years. Ms. Dempsey is a Partner at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick law firm and serves on many boards that support children and families.
Former Representative Edwin “Ed” Narain has served the Tampa Bay Com- munity for almost twenty-five years. He has dedicated his life to helping children and the working poor. He has served on the Hillsborough County Community Action Board, the Head Start Policy Council and is a member of the Pinellas PACE Center for Girls Board of Directors, and the Saint Leo University Board of Directors.
Professionally, Narain is a Director of External Affairs with AT&T and has earned three Florida Top Perform- ance Manager of the Year awards and two AT&T Sum- mit Awards.
Kelley Parris, Executive Director of the Children’s Board stated, “It is a privilege
ED NARAIN Recently chosen as the Chair- man of the Children’s Board
to have Ed as our newly elected-Board Chair, he is a dedicated advocate and leader for families in our community. He is passionate about ensuring all children get the best quality early learning and education op- portunities.”
Narain holds a BA de- gree in Psychology and a Master’s in Business Admin- istration from Saint Leo Uni- versity. In 2013, he completed a Leadership Cer- tificate and earned a Jurist Doctorate from Stetson Uni- versity College of Law.
He and his wife, Monica, are co-founders of the USF Black Leadership Network that provides scholarships to African American college stu- dents.
He is the proud father of two daughters.
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