Florida Atlantic University’s presidential search has not lacked for subplots. Here’s another.
Barbara Feingold is vice chair of FAU’s trustees and served on the search committee. Jose Mellado, a Miami-Dade County periodontist, also served on the committee.
According to reporting by the longtime investigative Florida Bulldog website, Feingold and Mellado apparently also are linked to a bizarre investigation carried out by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and labeled Operation Tooth Fairy. What follows is based on Florida Bulldog’s reporting.
In September 2022, Feingold donated $50,000 to Patronis’ political action committee as the CFO ran successfully for a second term. Mellado donated $2,000.
Seven months later, agents of Patronis’ office arrested five employees of a Miami-Dade County dental practice that caters to children of Medicaid patients. Patronis said the five had engaged in “a $1.3 million fraud related to insurance,” over which Patronis’ office has jurisdiction.
Eventually, however, the case collapsed. The charges were dropped, though Patronis reportedly kept shopping the case to other prosecutors. A lawyer for one of those arrested, referring to the donations from Feingold and Mellado, said it wasn’t just “pay to play.” It was “pay to arrest.”
At the time of the arrests, Mellado and his wife, Ania Cabrerizo, were involved in a lawsuit over the dental practice they had sold in 2020. The company that bought the practice fired them. The couple sued to regain control. The litigation had reached a key point when Feingold and Mellado made their contributions to Patronis. Those arrested worked for the company running the practice.
Feingold’s late husband, Jeffrey Feingold, founded MCNA, a nationwide dental chain that he sold in 2020 to UnitedHealthcare. Barbara Feingold and Mellado are longtime Republican Party donors in Florida and elsewhere.
Each has donated to Gov. DeSantis, who named Feingold to succeed her husband on the FAU board and Mellado to the Florida Board of Dentistry. Last spring, DeSantis touted State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Beach, to be FAU’s president. The committee did not name Fine as one of its three finalists.
A Republican fundraiser told Florida Bulldog that Mellado acted as Feingold’s “wingman in trying to get Randy Fine over the top,” meaning get him the FAU appointment. In August, Patronis posted on social media that he might join the investigation of the search, even though his office has no jurisdiction. Patronis said he was curious about “fraud, waste and abuse.” He took no action.
Florida Bulldog also reported that Feingold wants to get Mellado on the FAU board. His presence could help her become chair and increase support for the dental school that Feingold wants FAU to establish. In return for her $30 million donation, FAU would name the school for Jeffrey Feingold.
The State University System investigation into the FAU presidential search is not complete. As the university remains in limbo, the subplots keep coming.
Who will replace Fine in FAU search?
I wrote last week about talk that Feingold wants to find a replacement candidate for Fine, now that DeSantis has withdrawn his support and Fine has endorsed Donald Trump for president. I wrote that State Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Stuart, who in September wrote a letter to the trustees praising Feingold, attended the Nov. 14 FAU trustees’ meeting remotely during committee week in Tallahassee.
On Monday, Overdorf told me that he routinely “listens in” on such meetings. He has done it before with FAU, from which he has a master’s degree, and said he does the same with Indian River State College, which serves his Treasure Coast district.
I asked Overdorf if he has discussed becoming FAU president with any member of the trustees, Board of Governors or the DeSantis administration. He chuckled and said, “I’m flattered. It would be great. I’d love to be FAU’s president.”
Overdorf added, though, that he has had “no formal discussion” with anyone about the job. If the topic comes up, “I’ll talk about it then. Until that happens,” Overdorf said, “I have a company to run.” Overdorf is vice president of a consulting firm that works on land development projects.
Morrison drops from Delray Commission race
Christina Morrison dropped out of the Delray Beach City Commission Seat 3 race to keep a “destroyer” from winning.
That “destroyer,” Morrison said in an interview with Friends of Delray, is ex-Commissioner Juli Casale. Morrison and Casale were among four candidates seeking to succeed the term-limited Ryan Boylston, who is running for mayor.
Morrison called Casale a “destroyer” because of, among other things, her vote in 2021 to end the Old School Square lease. The item wasn’t on the agenda, Morrison correctly noted, and happened with “no backup.” As a result, Morrison said, “that debacle” has cost the public $8 million in expenses that largely were covered by Old School Square Center for the Arts.
Petrolia recruited Casale to run in 2020 against incumbent Bill Bathurst. That race also featured four candidates. Casale got just 36 percent, but it was enough to defeat Bathurst by 106 votes despite his considerable fundraising advantage. There are no runoffs in municipal elections.
“I have the same fear,” Morrison said of the 2024 election. “I can’t let that happen.” Accordingly, she made “the tactical decision to step aside.” Morrison, a Realtor who serves on the planning and zoning board, long has wanted to join the commission. “I wouldn’t be stepping back from my dream if I didn’t love this city.”
Morrison pointed out that she and the other two candidates, Anneze Barthelemy and Nicholas Coppola, filed their paperwork in mid-June. Casale didn’t file hers until Oct. 27, leading Morrison to conclude that Casale again saw a crowded field as her advantage. The pro-Petrolia faction isn’t large, but the bloc could be enough in a four-way race.
Qualifying ends today. Next week, I’ll have an update on who’s in the three races. Seat 1, which Adam Frankel must leave because of term limits, is also on the March 19 ballot.
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving. My next post will be Tuesday.
