JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The top leader of a local city agency is now out the door.<\/p>\n
Kids Hope Alliance board members voted 6-to-1 to fire their CEO, Saralyn Grass, from her $216,000 job.<\/p>\n
Before she was removed from her position, she told board members she had been very transparent with the staff about what\u2019s going on and expressed that she is the right person for the job.\u2019<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n During the meeting on Wednesday, the board chair laid out issues of what they say was a lack of transparency from the CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cMy concern are the efforts that we have to put forward to ensure a leader understands the expectations,\u201d said Marsha Oliver, the board chair.<\/p>\n Grass\u2019s firing comes after Action News Jax\u2019s reporting, which was referenced during the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us to be linked to the failure and increased scrutiny as board members… it is disappointing,\u201d said Oliver.<\/p>\n Action New Jax told you that when Grass did not file the required secondary employment paperwork when she formed a consulting company with her husband, where he provides services. That could pose a conflict of interest for Grass.<\/p>\n But the Jacksonville Ethics Office and General Counsel eventually approved the outside job, with certain restrictions. <\/p>\n \u201cI have not violated any policies,\u201d said Grass.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n We also reported that KHA allocated over $12.2 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, raising questions because council president Kevin Carrico is an executive with the non-profit. The $12.2 million is three times more than any other organization KHA supports.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my mind, there is nothing to be concerned about,\u201d said Grass.<\/p>\n The city said CAO Kenneth Darity will assume responsibilities in the absence of the CEO. The KHA Board will work with the City\u2019s Employee Services Department on the process to select a permanent successor. <\/p>\n We also received a statement from Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan:<\/p>\n \u201cI respect the independence of the Kids Hope Alliance Board of Directors and today\u2019s decision that they believe was in the best interest of the organization\u2019s mission. I\u2019m truly grateful for Dr. Grass\u2019s many years of service to Jacksonville and her commitment to children and families. Our administration will continue supporting the city\u2019s vital non-profit partners and working with the KHA board to ensure Jacksonville remains a community where our young people and families can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The top leader of a local city agency is now out the door. Kids Hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14189,982,1131,14188,9322,2006,639,13977,969,14186,116,118,117,14187,12982,13651,634,5242,14185],"class_list":["post-17301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action","tag-action_news","tag-alexis_clevinger","tag-alexis_clovinger","tag-ceo","tag-doctor","tag-duval_county","tag-grass","tag-jack","tag-jacks","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-kevin","tag-kha","tag-kids_hope_alliance","tag-local","tag-president","tag-sarah_lynn_grass"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}