Bill Text: FL S0072 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relief/Karen W. Stripling/Department of Education
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-05-07 - Indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration [S0072 Detail]
Download: Florida-2011-S0072-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2011 (NP) SB 72
By Senator Wise
5-00042B-11 201172__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act for the relief of Karen W. Stripling; providing
3 an appropriation to compensate her for damages
4 sustained as a result of a breach of contract by the
5 Department of Education; providing a limitation on the
6 payment of fees and costs; providing an effective
7 date.
8
9 WHEREAS, Karen W. Stripling is the owner and operator of
10 Florida Read & Lead, Inc., a not-for-profit private faith and
11 community-based entity, and
12 WHEREAS, in June 2002, Florida Read & Lead, Inc., was
13 awarded a grant contract from the Department of Education to
14 assist persons in this state in obtaining high school diplomas
15 and developing literacy skills, and
16 WHEREAS, the contract grant was denominated as a
17 “performance-based” grant contract, providing that Florida Read
18 & Lead, Inc., would be paid after Florida Read & Lead, Inc.,
19 presented documentation to the Department of Education which
20 demonstrated that Florida Read & Lead, Inc., had achieved
21 certain required levels of performance by meeting specified
22 literacy and education benchmarks, and
23 WHEREAS, Florida Read & Lead, Inc., was not to be paid on a
24 “cash-advance” or “reimbursement” basis, and, accordingly, was
25 not required to provide receipts, invoices, or other
26 documentation showing its costs and expenditures, and
27 WHEREAS, during the first year of the contract grant, from
28 July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003, in full compliance with the
29 grant contract, Florida Read & Lead, Inc., submitted
30 documentation that showed it had attained the specified literacy
31 and education benchmarks, and
32 WHEREAS, upon receipt of the documentation submitted by
33 Florida Read & Lead, Inc., the Department of Education not only
34 approved and paid Florida Read & Lead, Inc., in full, but
35 confirmed in writing that Florida Read & Lead, Inc., met “all
36 the requirements, acts, duties, and responsibilities as called
37 for in the payment for” the invoices, based upon the
38 documentation, and
39 WHEREAS, upon the Department of Education’s approval of the
40 documentation during the first year of the contract, the
41 Department of Financial Services paid Florida Read & Lead, Inc.,
42 approximately $200,000 solely on the basis of documentation
43 substantiating the attainment of the specified literacy and
44 education benchmarks, and
45 WHEREAS, when in December 2003, March 2004, and June 2004,
46 Florida Read & Lead, Inc., submitted additional documentation of
47 progress toward meeting the specified literacy and education
48 benchmarks justifying a payment of approximately $200,000 for
49 each quarter, documentation that was identical in format to the
50 documentation submitted and approved for payment in the first
51 year of the contract, the Department of Education refused to pay
52 the documentation, wrongfully contending that Florida Read &
53 Lead, Inc., and Stripling were required to present detailed
54 itemized receipts documenting all of the costs Florida Read &
55 Lead, Inc., had incurred to achieve the specified literacy and
56 education benchmarks, and
57 WHEREAS, when Florida Read & Lead, Inc., and Stripling
58 objected to the attempt by the Department of Education to
59 convert the grant contract from a “performance-based” contract
60 to a “reimbursement-based” contract, the Department of Education
61 and the Department of Financial Services made numerous false
62 statements to federal and state criminal investigators,
63 including the erroneous assertions that Florida Read & Lead,
64 Inc., had been allocated and had received an additional $200,000
65 in federal cash-advance payments at the beginning of the second
66 year of the grant period; that all funds received by Florida
67 Read & Lead, Inc., and Stripling during the first year had been
68 federal cash-advance payments that carry stringent requirements
69 as to their use and separation from personal funds; that
70 Stripling had purchased a new car for her own personal use with
71 government funds; that Stripling had created a fraudulent “grant
72 slush fund” using her own personal Ameritrade retirement account
73 into which she deposited “advance government funds”; that
74 Stripling did not have a Doctorate of Philosophy as she asserted
75 in her application and had fraudulently manufactured her
76 educational background; that the financial operations of Florida
77 Read & Lead, Inc., were to be evaluated as if Florida Read &
78 Lead, Inc., were a school district, which, by definition,
79 includes only public and government entities; that Stripling was
80 to be evaluated as if she were a superintendent of a “local
81 education agency”; and that Florida Read & Lead, Inc., and
82 Stripling had commingled government cash-advance payments with
83 her own personal funds in violation of criminal law, and
84 WHEREAS, as a result of these false statements, Stripling
85 was subjected to extensive criminal investigations by both state
86 and federal law enforcement authorities, was notified she was a
87 subject of these criminal investigations, was specifically
88 threatened with a federal indictment carrying substantial fines
89 and a lengthy prison sentence, and had to pay private criminal
90 defense and other counsel to defend her interests and show that
91 the statements of the Department of Education and the Department
92 of Financial Services were completely groundless, and
93 WHEREAS, in the course of defending herself against these
94 spurious allegations, Stripling suffered a complete mental,
95 physical, and emotional breakdown, was forced to the brink of
96 bankruptcy, was beset with chronic insomnia, suffered severe
97 anxiety and panic attacks, was subjected to the threat of
98 imminent indictment by a federal grand jury, was forced to move
99 from her lifelong home, was compelled to inform her three
100 children that she was quite likely going to prison, and suffered
101 the loss of her personal and business reputations, and
102 WHEREAS, as a result of the false statements of employees
103 of the Department of Education and the Department of Financial
104 Services, Stripling was threatened with federal prison for
105 stealing, “commingling,” and “misappropriating” advance
106 government money when, in reality, Florida Read & Lead, Inc.,
107 never received any state or federal advance money, and
108 WHEREAS, Dr. Pat McGill, Executive Director of the
109 Institute on Urban Policy and Commerce at Florida Agricultural
110 and Mechanical University, along with others inside the
111 Department of Education, created a bogus literacy group that
112 McGill controlled and that McGill subsequently began to call
113 “The Kay Stripling Group,” which McGill used to conceal her own
114 criminal actions and those of others, and
115 WHEREAS, this was unknown to the real Karen W. “Kay”
116 Stripling, who was an associate of McGill’s but worked in her
117 own separate literacy-related faith-based business group, and
118 WHEREAS, although McGill did not work at the Department of
119 Education, McGill was able to covertly exchange her files with
120 Stripling’s records within the Department of Education with help
121 from department employees in violation of federal statutes
122 protecting student identities, known as “FERPA,” and
123 WHEREAS, payments to Stripling’s faith-based business were
124 stopped through the actions of a criminal investigator at yet
125 another state agency, the Department of Financial Services, and
126 WHEREAS, the criminal investigator at the Department of
127 Financial Services was notified by the department’s chief
128 counsel that the investigator had no authority to withhold
129 payments to Stripling because the statute upon which the
130 criminal investigator rested his authority had been repealed in
131 1999, and
132 WHEREAS, upon said notification of his lack of legal
133 authority, the criminal investigator at the Department of
134 Financial Services ignored the legal recommendation by the
135 department’s chief counsel, and took no corrective action in
136 order to reinitiate payments to Stripling, and
137 WHEREAS, the investigator at the Department of Financial
138 Services noted that financial irregularities had existed in
139 McGill’s programs for years and years, but when new additional
140 irregularities surfaced decided to not place McGill under any
141 “undue hardship” and continued paying her in full while
142 Stripling remained unpaid, was falsely accused, faced certain
143 bankruptcy, and was a likely candidate for incarceration, and
144 WHEREAS, McGill realized she had preferential and priority
145 treatment from influential employees at both the Department of
146 Education and the Department of Financial Services and that an
147 opportunity existed to blame Karen W. “Kay” Stripling with
148 numerous crimes that she did not commit, and McGill continued to
149 facilitate this by calling Stripling the “Mastermind” of the
150 total scope of the McGill criminal operations, and
151 WHEREAS, a separate and independent investigation occurred
152 simultaneously, which was known as the “FAMU Payroll Scandal,”
153 during which McGill along with 41 employees from FAMU’s
154 Institute on Urban Policy and Commerce were fired due to
155 corruption within both FAMU and the Institute on Urban Policy
156 and Commerce, and
157 WHEREAS, the FAMU Payroll Scandal not only brought to light
158 McGill’s crimes, but caught scores of “ghost employees” at FAMU
159 who drew paychecks but did no work, including an attorney named
160 Shirley Cunningham, who was paid to teach at the FAMU School of
161 Law even though this individual was a multi-millionaire living
162 lavishly in Kentucky and spent such earnings on the triple-crown
163 winner Curlin and lived an international jet-setting lifestyle,
164 which included vacations in Dubai, and
165 WHEREAS, it appears that Cunningham was paid in a quid-pro
166 quo scheme created by McGill through her organization, the
167 Institute on Urban Policy and Commerce at FAMU, as well as her
168 literacy operations that operated throughout multiple counties,
169 which she bogusly named The “Kay Stripling Group,” and which
170 served to funnel millions of dollars in grant funds back to
171 FAMU, of which the real Karen W. “Kay” Stripling knew absolutely
172 and completely nothing, and
173 WHEREAS, Stripling became the subject of an illegal wiretap
174 called “Power Ring” that was instituted by the criminal
175 investigator at the Department of Financial Services, and
176 WHEREAS, Stripling was viewed as uncooperative by the
177 criminal investigator at the Department of Financial Services
178 because she knew nothing about Cunningham or the extent of
179 McGill’s fabrications, and this “uncooperative stance” motivated
180 the department’s criminal investigator to move the investigation
181 forward into the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
182 and place Stripling as the central target of a major federal
183 corruption probe, and
184 WHEREAS, further criminal activity was also occurring
185 simultaneously within the Department of Financial Services
186 itself within the area that processes invoices, which led to
187 hundreds of employees being named “persons of interest” by the
188 FBI, with the subsequent incarceration and firing of several
189 employees, including an executive of the department, and
190 WHEREAS, this activity occurred covertly under the nose of
191 the criminal investigator at the Department of Financial
192 Services, but all the while he focused on Stripling who was
193 innocent, and
194 WHEREAS, when it was discovered that evidence was mounting
195 which would exonerate Stripling, the criminal investigator at
196 the Department of Financial Services began to shred documents,
197 and
198 WHEREAS, both McGill and Cunningham, along with other
199 individuals, are in federal prison serving sentences ranging
200 from 7 years to 20 years, and
201 WHEREAS, this is a factual account of an organized scheme
202 that existed between the Department of Education, the Department
203 of Financial Services, and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical
204 University and that violated the racketeering statutes of the
205 United States of America of which Stripling was a victim, and
206 WHEREAS, although the Department of Education has now
207 acknowledged that Florida Read & Lead, Inc., has fully performed
208 under the grant contract and has met all of the specified
209 literacy and education benchmarks that are set forth in its
210 grant contract, the Department of Education and the Department
211 of Financial Services have both refused for more than 7 years to
212 pay Florida Read & Lead, Inc., the money it is owed as
213 documented in its submissions for December 2003, March 2004, and
214 June 2004, and
215 WHEREAS, Stripling is also entitled to compensation for the
216 shame and humiliation that she experienced as an innocent
217 subject of a federal and state criminal investigation; for the
218 total destruction of her personal and business reputations,
219 which taint follows her throughout this state and the eastern
220 United States; for the overwhelming mental anguish and emotional
221 distress that ultimately led to her total physical and emotional
222 breakdown, along with associated medical expenses and lost
223 income; for the loss of income in the past and the loss of her
224 ability to earn income in the future since the only profession
225 for which she is trained has been utterly destroyed; and for the
226 attorney’s fees and costs she incurred in defending the
227 unwarranted criminal investigation facilitated by the false
228 accusations of employees of the Department of Education, and
229 WHEREAS, although a lawsuit was filed, the Department of
230 Education has offered to pay only $163,000, which does not even
231 repay Florida Read & Lead, Inc., and Stripling for the
232 approximately $260,000 owed for fully performing under the grant
233 contract plus 41 months’ interest; the loss of income of
234 $700,000 to Stripling as an independent contract grant writer,
235 which is a conservative estimate of the income she lost over the
236 last 5 years; the $160,000 she incurred in fees and costs to
237 defend the false criminal charges against her; the more than $1
238 million in lost future income as an independent contract grant
239 writer, which is a conservative estimate of lost future income
240 from her inability to secure any additional grants due to the
241 taint of being labeled a felon who undertook criminal activity
242 and the consequent loss of her personal and business
243 reputations; the $100,000 in fees and costs associated with her
244 effort to secure payments of the amounts owed to her and Florida
245 Read & Lead, Inc., under the grant contract with the Department
246 of Education; and the conservative estimate of $500,000 that she
247 is owed for the pain and anguish she endured which resulted in
248 her physical, emotional, and mental breakdown from being falsely
249 accused of committing serious federal and state felonies and
250 becoming the subject of a federal corruption probe, NOW,
251 THEREFORE,
252
253 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
254
255 Section 1. The facts stated in the preamble to this act are
256 found and declared to be true.
257 Section 2. There is appropriated from the General Revenue
258 Fund to the Department of Education the sum of $2,720,000 for
259 the relief of Karen W. Stripling for damages sustained due the
260 breach of contract described in this act.
261 Section 3. The Chief Financial Officer is directed to draw
262 a warrant in favor of Karen W. Stripling in the sum of
263 $2,720,000 upon funds of the Department of Education in the
264 State Treasury, and the Chief Financial Officer is directed to
265 pay the same out of such funds in the State Treasury.
266 Section 4. This award is intended to provide the sole
267 compensation for all present and future claims arising out of
268 the factual situation described in this act which resulted in
269 this claim by Karen W. Stripling. The total amount paid for
270 attorney’s fees, lobbying fees, costs, and other similar
271 expenses relating to this claim may not exceed 25 percent of the
272 amount awarded under this act.
273 Section 5. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
