FAMU’s medical marijuana education program came under tough scrutiny Thursday morning from members of the Florida Senate’s Appropriations Committee.
For 38 solid minutes members of the committee got a status report on the program which was established by a 2017 law that directed the Department of Health (DOH) to fund the program with a portion of the $75 fee it collects from patient applications for identification cards.
The program is meant to educate Florida’s minority communities about the pros and cons of marijuana use.
Even though there were what should have been several friendly faces (African Americans), and Tallahassee Senator Bill Montfort, on the dias many of them left feeling let down by the presentation.
“FAMU was woefully unprepared,” said one Senator. “The presentation lacked substance and the director seemed to be flying by the seat of her pants ---- making stuff up as she went along.”
Most infuriating, was that FAMU had difficulty explaining its own budget presentation.
Senate Budget Chair Rob Bradley wouldn’t specify exactly what part of the program’s budget concerned him most.
“There's several things. The entire program brings concern to me,” said Bradley.
DOH and the university entered into an inter-agency agreement in February 2018 that required FAMU to provide detailed financial ledgers in order to draw down the funds.
FAMU can’t say how it spent millions
FAMU struggled to provide DOH with adequate answers on how it spent the $885,000 in state funds it received between May and August 2018. DOH stopped making quarterly payments.
FAMU subsequently provided incomplete budget estimates, receipts, invoice and expense spreadsheets. Despite the incomplete financial report, a fed up DOH gave FAMU more than $2.1 million on Aug. 29, 2019. In September, DOH updated its agreement with FAMU, stripping the financial reporting requirement and removing itself from oversight responsibility, essentially letting FAMU go it alone.
Overspending
Now records show that FAMU may have spent more than $260,000 more than it told the state Department of Health last August, with increases in line items including salaries, part-time wages and office rent.
FAMU delivered a presentation to the Florida Senate, which shows it spent more than $85,000 more on salaries for the marijuana education program than the payroll records it provided DOH.
The presentation claims more than $97,000 for part-time employees. However, a budget estimate obtained through a public records request accounted for only $6,000 from August 2018 to last week.
The presentation to the Senate reported spending $24,000 between October 2018 and October 2019 to rent office space inside the FAMU Foundation Building, however the program had agreed to pay $1,000 a month for the office starting Oct. 31, 2018, according to a copy of a signed lease.
While it is still early in the legislative process, FAMU has a short time to repair the serious misconceptions about how it handles money with FL Senate Appropriations Chair Bradley, who the university will surely need down the road.