An online petition pushing for UF's Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, or CARD, in Jacksonville to be reassigned to another university has gained momentum this week.
The petition, which gained about 190 signatures Thursday night, seeks to yield control of the center from UF's College of Medicine in Jacksonville to the University of North Florida, following financial stumbles and a push for local oversight.
The center, funded by the Florida Department of Education, serves about 1,900 patients and was established in 1993. It is one of seven regional centers of its kind in the state, according to its UF Web site.
Mark Hudak, the associate chairman for pediatrics at UF's College of Medicine in Jacksonville, said in a phone interview that UF officials are ready to talk with the petition's supporters even though UNF has not been lobbying to take the program.
"There are definite advantages in keeping it with UF," Hudak said. "Efficiency and quality will be lost if you separate CARD between different areas."
He said the college shares the center's resources with Jacksonville-area pediatric centers. Also, he said if a patient with multiple disabilities has to use more than one center for treatment, it's more efficient for all the services to be under the umbrella of UF.
But some of the supporters of the petition, which was reported by The Florida Times-Union on Thursday, believe the center's leadership has become a trust issue between the taxpayers and the stewardship agencies, including UF.
Julie Delegal, a 43-year old UF alumna and Jacksonville resident, initiated the petition.
"What I'm trying to do now is create awareness," Delegal said. "What they don't appreciate is that the program does not belong to UF - it belongs to the taxpayers."
Delegal's paper petition has received more than 130 signatures, but it is unclear how many people signed both.
Delegal's main qualm with UF's control of the center stems from a mishandling of grant money awarded to the center almost 10 years ago.
According to local news reports, between 1999 and 2004, Paul Wharton, a former professor and administrator at UF's medical school in Jacksonville, subcontracted more than $500,000 in grant money to the Florida Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association instead of the autism center and a CARD sister agency, the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System.
Wharton pleaded guilty to embezzling about $253,000 of the grant for personal purchases, according to his 2007 plea.
The petition's constituency board, which includes parents, physicians and psychologists in Jacksonville and throughout Florida, is still irked by money that was unaccounted for following a $400,000 settlement reached in 2005.
"UF was asleep at the wheel while this criminal took money away from our community," Delegal said. "I think of how many behaviorists could have been hired and deployed in public schools to assist with families hands-on and educate them in first choice treatment for autism."
Hudak said the money, which didn't amount to the $550,000 of funds that were illegitimately subcontracted, will be disbursed to the center and its sister agency, the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System.
The petition also disapproves of UF's decision to move the center to one location that housed multiple agencies of the college even though legislation passed this year rejecting multi-agency arrangements.
Despite the petition's call to change oversight of the center, Hudak said UF's Jacksonville medical school has received many letters about how well the program has served the autism center's patients and their families.
"There is a great deal more support than there is with the constituents of this petition," he said. "If it comes down to a decision to where CARD should reside, we will make a very strong case as to where the program will stay."
Still, Delegal and other petitioners want the Jacksonville center to be managed by UNF.
"I want for my alma mater to come clean and make good on the harm that has been done to this community," Delegal said.
