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The charity group decides to allow non-Christians to serve after denying the nomination of a Jewish woman.
By DAVID KARP, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 1, 2002
TAMPA -- For the first time in at least 20 years, the area's best-known charity for the poor promised Thursday to include people of different faiths on its governing board.
The decision by Metropolitan Ministries ended months of anguished internal debate and came several days after the St. Petersburg Times reported a Jewish woman was denied a seat on the board.
But despite promises of a "new path" by the charity's top officials, the board made certain Christians will keep control. It adopted rules that limit the number of non-Christians to a third of the total board.
And though it named eight new members Thursday, expanding its board to 23, none were non-Christians.
"What (we) did is take steps to make sure we did not lose sight of who we are," said Karleen Kos, executive vice president of the ministries. "We are not going secular."
The board did not consider appointing Linda Karson, the Jewish woman whose nomination caused the nonprofit to examine its policies. Nor did the board set a timetable for adding any more directors, who serve three-year terms.
Last fall, Ministries president Morris Hintzman asked executives at TECO Energy, which had donated $1-million to the charity, to suggest names for the board.
TECO offered Karson as a candidate. The wife of a TECO senior vice president, Karson had worked for the homeless and pregnant teenagers in Washington D.C. before moving to Tampa a year-and-a-half ago.
That's when Karson learned about the group's bylaws, which said only "professed Christians" could serve.
Stunned, TECO told the nonprofit it couldn't continue donating to a group that discriminates. Other donors said this week they were re-evaluating whether to continue giving.
On Thursday, executives at TECO and some other companies weren't sure how to react to the board's new rules.
"We will certainly take the change that was made today into consideration when we make future decisions about supporting the organization," said TECO spokeswoman Laura Plumb. "But we hold up all requests against certain standards, and one of those for us is inclusiveness."
Other donors said they would reassess contributions.
"It definitely is better than what it was," said Jim Shimberg Jr., one of the trustees of the James and Amy Shimberg Charitable Trust, which has donated more than $100,000. "But I would like to think about it a little bit."
When the ministries asked the Shimbergs, a well-known Jewish family in Tampa, to contribute, no one told family members they weren't eligible to serve on the board because they were Jewish.
"I was disappointed to find that out," said Shimberg, a lawyer who is head of the Tampa office of Holland & Knight. "If they are reaching out to the whole community, I would think their board ought to represent the whole community."
Others said they were shocked to learn about the ministries' restrictive policies. Karson said people have been asking her about it all week.
Despite being rejected, Karson said she supports the organization's work. But she said it was sad the board set limits on non-Christian membership.
"There are a lot of other wonderful charities who do great work and feed the homeless and are not exclusive," she said. "Exclusionary practices are not what charity means."
Karson will still get a chance to help the homeless. This week, she got a letter from Catholic Charities, inviting her to visit the organization and join its board.
Ministries officials, meanwhile, said they never intended to exclude anyone. They said they also did not conceal their religious roots and would have shown donors the bylaws if anyone asked.
Founded in 1972 by 13 downtown churches, the ministries raised about $7.8-million this year to feed the hungry, house the homeless and provide social services to the needy of all faiths.
"I don't believe we have ever hidden the fact of what we are doing," said David Shobe, the board chairman.
But somehow, the ban "came across as an intent to exclude," said Kos, the executive vice president. "It's more that our arms were not reaching wide enough."
A committee formed to study the issue recommended the board eliminate the ban without creating a cap on the number of non-Christians. But after a three-hour, closed-door meeting Thursday, the board emerged with a different decision. Even then, one person dissented.
At a press conference after the meeting, officials did not include the two-third Christian rule in a statement. Near the end of the conference, Shobe mentioned it, almost as an afterthought.
He said he was offended by the suggestion that the group's policies were anti-Semitic. Asked why the ban shouldn't be seen as anti-Semitic, Shobe replied, "I don't believe that deserves an answer."
-- David Karp is at (813) 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com.