Health agency scandal growing

After an internal review, the Pinellas agency is asking the state to investigate.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published February 1, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Marva Dennard, 68, is accused of stealing $250,000.

The Pinellas County Health Department will request an investigation into how it handled hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for programs for disadvantaged children and minorities.

The latest investigation comes after the Florida Department of Financial Services had already begun a probe into Health Department grants.

The two investigations raise questions about the financial oversight at the Florida Department of Health and the Pinellas County Health Department.

The investigations also come on the heels of the December arrest of Marva Dennard, a 68-year-old St. Petersburg community activist and former private school principal accused of stealing more than $250,000 from a state Department of Education voucher program intended to help low-income and disabled students.

The Health Department's request for an investigation, expected to be made formally today, came after inquiries from the St. Petersburg Times about Dennard's work for the organization.

"I want to tell you that as we gathered information to give you, we came across information that caused us concern," said spokeswoman Jeannine Mallory.

As a result, Dr. Claude Dharamraj, director of the local department, "has now contacted the Florida Department of Health's Office of the Inspector General to request an independent, third-party review," Mallory wrote Thursday,

Both state and local health officials say that Dennard delivered the services she provided. A few days after her arrest, Dennard sent a letter to Tallahassee ending her relationship with the Department of Health, "due to circumstances beyond my control and explanation."

The Florida Department of Health soon sent a team to the Pinellas offices on what spokeswoman Judi Spann referred to as a routine visit to monitor Dennard's grants. The timing was coincidental, she said.

Steve Horn, bureau chief with Florida Department of Financial Services' office of fiscal integrity, said the probe into Dennard's grants is in its early stages. Horn said the investigation was begun because of a complaint, but he declined to say whether his office was also taking a look at past or current staff members in the Pinellas Health Department.

Other problems have surfaced.

Carrie Nero, the former director of the county department's office of minority health, signed off on at least one contract for a business she owned with her husband, Joe.

Department director Dharamraj said her office was unaware of the apparent conflict until the Times asked about it. She said she is putting into place new oversight measures.

Also, Dennard and her school, Bishop Academy II - which closed in 2005 - received several grants to run from January 2006 to June 2008, according to department records.

In 2006, the Florida Department of Health awarded Dennard's school a three-year grant for $150,000 a year to provide dental health education to African-American children in poor St. Petersburg neighborhoods.

The Pinellas County Health Department, which acted as the subcontractor to provide the actual dental care, got $63,000 from the grant.

Ghost students

In December, the Florida Department of Financial Services accused Dennard of taking funds from the John M. McKay Scholarship for students with disabilities program and the Corporate Tax Credit scholarship program.

The office said she pursued low-income minority students who qualified for McKay and CTC scholarships by offering "free scholarships." From July 2002 through June 2005, her school received $782,896.75 in McKay funds and $225,904 in CTC funds.

Dennard is accused of inflating student numbers, submitting scholarship applications that falsely indicated tuition at $3,500 or $7,500 when the actual tuition was $2,600, and of simultaneously collecting funds for students receiving both McKay and CTC scholarships. She's also accused of failing to provide the professional services prescribed and paid for by the Department of Education.

Dennard built a name for herself as a community activist with a special concern for African- American children. She coordinated Jesse Jackson's visit to St. Petersburg during a period of racial tension, picketed an Asian-owned business that she said was disrespectful to African-Americans and ran a school whose goal was to nurture black children. In 1999, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the St. Petersburg City Council and was a finalist in 2004 for business woman of the year.

A St. Petersburg native, she lives in the St. Petersburg home where she grew up and where her mother operated a beauty salon.

She became chief executive officer and director of Bishop Academy II in 2002, after it had made a rocky start under previous owners. She talked about restoring something that had been lost in the black community after desegregation.

"We are almost going back to where we were, the nurturing and caring that I had in the school system," she said then.

To attract students to the school, she put up fliers at the 34th Street beauty salon she patronized, saying, "Free private school education for your child/children. Scholarships available K-12. Good schools for all. Call Marva Dennard."

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com or 727892-2283.

[Last modified February 1, 2008, 00:01:13]