PUNCHING BACK

Moore-Joseph saw shocked her. When she sounded the alarm, Moore-Joseph was informed that the Board was going to be getting a loan."

The next day, Moore-Joseph texted the Executive Committee, "Emergency: if our loan does not deposit by tomorrow, we will not make payroll on Thursday. We had auto payments to credit cards set up prior by Jenn (Bittner, the executive director who left in April 2021), and unfortunately, those went through."

That text prompted the interim executive to be summoned to meet with Adcox and Board member Hank Gonzalez at The First Bank. She claimed the men were immediately hostile. According to her, at the beginning of the meeting, Adcox said to her, "Manda Moore-Joseph Tom Dick Harry, however many husbands you have?" The conversation went down from there, allegedly leading to behavior that Moore-Joseph believed violated the National Labor Relations Act.

Pensacola Humane Society filed a counterclaim against PHS, its board president Gerald Adcox and treasurer Barbara Sawyer.

In February, the PHS Board of Directors filed a lawsuit against Interim Director Manda MooreJoseph and five other ex-employees, charging that accusations made and actions taken by former employees caused reputational and financial damage to the organization. In mid-December, a group of staff and volunteers—under the banner We The Organization—released an open letter accusing the board of financial mismanagement and making several requests, including the removal of board president Gerald Adcox.

"The board agreed to move forward with the filing of a complaint due to the numerous wrongful attacks in the press and social media postings by the named defendants as well as a plethora of other reasons that are detailed in the Complaint," Adcox told Inweekly via email on Feb. 2.

In the 53-page counterclaim filed on Monday, March 13, Moore-Joseph fired back and asserted that she engaged in protected activity under the Florida Whistleblower Act when she pointed out the alleged misappropriation of restricted donor funds and grants and the mismanagement by the board and its officers. She provided a narrative that appeared to show how poorly the nonprofit was run and defended herself against personal attacks made in the media.

The court documents included 35 exhibits supporting her statements, including text messages, board memos, excerpts from the bylaws and memos. Russell Van Sickle of Beggs & Lane represents Moore-Joseph.

Possible Conflicts Of Inter Est

Moore-Joseph described how a Lexus RX350—that was donated with the restriction that it wouldn't be sold—was sold by Adcox after storing it on his car lot. She alleged the board ignored its conflict of interest policy in the bylaws. The board minutes don't explain why the donor's restrictions were ignored. Moore-Joseph claimed Adcox did not submit to PHS staff the paperwork on the sale of the Lexus or any documentation to validate it was sold for market value.

an extension was taken. Though the PHS's fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, the board didn't have a budget at the time. However, the board voted also to give Jan Castillo, the executive director, a raise. The budget was approved on Jan. 27, 2022.

She alleged that in March 2022, PHS bought from Adcox a used Mercedes Sprinter van, "with an accident history," for a little over $61,000, though "the original MSRP of the van was about $41,000." The board minutes don't reflect the purchase or the conflict of interest, and PHS didn't receive the title from Adcox until July 2022. Moore-Joseph asserted the board gave Castillo another raise in July 2022 but failed to include it in the minutes.

Timeline

Three months later, Castillo was on the outs with the board. Moore Joseph gave a detailed timeline of Castillo's departure, her promotion to interim executive director and the unraveling of PHS operations that led to the memo from We The Organization.

On Nov. 9., Adcox and board member Eloise Lautier informed Moore-Joseph they wanted her to call a full staff meeting the next day "because Castillo resigned 'in the middle of her firing.'" At the staff meeting, the board president announced that Moore-Joseph would be the interim executive director without Moore-Joseph's permission or discussing how she would be compensated for the additional role.

On Nov. 16, she was invited to an Executive Committee meeting where she presented a proposal for her to be paid for holding the dual roles of development director and executive director. Moore-Joseph had discovered the absence of restricted funds when she needed emergency care for a dying dog and had to use her credit card. A full board meeting was called to discuss PHS's financial situation on Dec. 8.

On Nov. 17, the interim director notified the Executive Committee the shelter could not take in any new animals due to the lack of essential supplies. They would be closed on certain weekdays, and all overtime had been halted.

On Nov. 28, she was finally given access to the bank account info. The counterclaim states, "What

On Dec. 5, she notified the Executive Committee in a meeting that she didn't have the funds to cover payroll and that the restricted funds she had deposited had been used for operating expenses because of the auto-pay drafts set up. MooreJoseph asserted Adcox became agitated and dismissed her concerns.

At the Dec. 8 board meeting, Moore-Joseph told the board that the operating account had a negative balance of $11.243.12. Adcox volunteered to conduct a forensic audit in response to other board members suggesting one be conducted. PHS voted for Moore-Joseph to serve as Interim Executive Director in addition to her duties as Director of Development without additional compensation. The board approved a $100,000 line of credit, but only $20,000 was transferred from the line into the bank account. The We The Organization memo was sent out that night.

On Dec. 9, the PHS board sent an "Immediate Cease and Desist" letter to the email address for We the Organization, Moore-Joseph and three others. The board's focus was finding out who wrote the memo. The board directed MooreJoseph to "hold no meetings, formally or informally, with staff, volunteers or donors, either in person or by telephone, without at least two members of the Board of Directors in attendance."

A day after the board made her interim executive director, Moore-Joseph was placed under restrictions that made running PHS impossible. The interim director asserted that she made multiple calls to LandrumHR, PHS's human resources provider, to report retaliation and seek assistance, but LandrumHR would not discuss the situation.

On Dec. 12, a mandatory staff meeting was called. Board members wanted to know who wrote the memo, and staff and volunteers wanted to know what would be done to repair the organization. Moore-Joseph laid out her version of the meeting in court documents. Adcox told WEARTV that there was "zero evidence" to support the allegations in the memo.

Three days later, the board notified the director that she had failed to submit a required weekly written summary of all issues, concerns, questions and activities of PHS to the Executive Committee.

She had only served officially in the role for one week. Moore-Joseph was given one day to provide information on 25 items.

On Dec. 16, Moore-Joseph notified the Executive Committee that she would not take the interim director position but would like to remain development director.

On Dec. 28, she was told the board had terminated her employment. The remaining staff quit over the new few days, animals were transferred to foster homes and other shelters, and PHS shut down in January.

Sort Of An Audit

In late February, PHS released a report produced by Saltmarsh, Cleveland & Gund that the nonprofit called a "type of financial audit," only it wasn't an audit. The CPA firm only focused on the specific areas of accounting that the PHS board permitted Saltmarsh to review. The report was titled "Independent Accountant's Report on Applying Agreed Upon Procedures."

Unlike traditional audit reports, the Saltmarsh report didn't include balance sheets or income and loss statements for 2021 and 2022. There were no footnotes to provide more detailed information that would be found in a traditional audit.

In her filing, Moore-Joseph alleged PHS, Adcox and Sawyer misled Saltmarsh "for the purpose of presenting falsehoods to the press and others to defame and retaliate" against her. To support her claim, she said Adcox and Sawyer failed to tell that CPA firm that the Lexus sold had been donated with a restriction that it not be sold and was done without the donor's permission.

Moore-Joseph asserted that the PHS board, Adcox and Sawyer intentionally avoided having Saltmarsh review restricted donor funds when the funds donated were less than $5,000 to avoid having to show those funds were missing and unavailable to the staff for their intended purposes.

She has asked the court for a restraining order, lost wages and benefits, compensatory damages for mental and emotional distress, reinstatement of job and benefits, attorneys' fees and any other relief the court deems appropriate.

Adcox responded to the counterclaim on ricksblog.biz. He wrote, "Did not happen at all, ridiculous from a woman who has been terminated from the last three jobs, and claims same thing exactly happened again at PHS."

He continued, "We were polite at all times to her in the meeting(s) she was in and even encouraged her to apply for permanent director job, not happy we were going to advertise for best candidate though. We also discussed that she would not receive a 110% raise even if she was selected by the committee we did not sit on, that's all that occurred."

Adcox added, "Sorry this is happening to an all-volunteer unpaid board who cares greatly about our animals."

Long-time supporters of PHS are also sorry for how this has been handled. Stay tuned. {in}

*Note—The counterclaim and exhibits can be found under "PHS" in the navigation bar on ricksblog.biz.