Local group questions New Hanover Community Endowment leadership, grants

Heal Our People’s Endowment, or H.O.P.E., held a rally Sunday afternoon to talk next steps and address concerns regarding the future of the New Hanover Community Endowment.

The endowment was started four years ago after the sale of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health.

The endowment’s intended purpose is to provide money to charitable organizations with a focus on education, equity, community safety and community development, but with changes on the endowment’s board and lack of community involvement, some community leaders and members feel that something has to give.

Former mayor and state senator Harper Peterson, who is the chairman of H.O.P.E., said there are four main concerns the board of the organization and community members share when it comes to the actions of the endowment.

Peterson said there are concerns about the endowment’s leadership as former endowment board member Virginia Adams, who was the only Black woman on the board and was dean and professor at UNCW’s School of Nursing, was removed and replaced by former New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Chairman Woody White.

In February, the president and CEO of the endowment, William Buster, resigned from his position.

There has also been concern about the lack of community inclusion in the endowment's actions. Peterson said the endowment has a citizens advisory council but described it as “essentially window dressing.”

Peterson said the council has not been engaged with leadership or staff and that’s what their purpose was supposed to be.

“The heart and soul of this endowment is the community communicating with the board of directors on how they feel their public assets, the people’s assets, should be handled and managed going forward,” Peterson said. “This is a big deal. This is $40 to $50 million a year.”

More: How 19 New Hanover Community Endowment grants totaling $53 million will be spent

Peterson said that the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners' attempt to align the endowment’s strategic plan with the county’s strategic plan is crossing the line because it will increase politicization.

Leadership changes, funding priorities, citizen involvement and independence of political persuasion are the four main issues that H.O.P.E. and their attorney Robert Zaytoun, are working to bring to the attention of Attorney General Josh Stein, who, under statutory authority, according to Zaytoun has the responsibility of making sure that charitable funds are spent correctly.

Zaytoun served on the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund for 10 years, which is a similar sized foundation as the endowment.

Zaytoun said there are a lot of powerful people in the local community who back the endowment's actions and that they will say "Rome wasn't built in a day," but Zaytoun said that what he and H.O.P.E.'s leaders see are some bad habits.

“It’s not their (the endowment) private money, and they’ve made it privatized and that’s incorrect,” Peterson said, “so we think we’d have a case to present to the attorney general. It’s not an emotional outcry.”

Sonya Patrick, member of H.O.P.E's board of directors, said the purpose of the movement is to "give power back to the people." Patrick is the chair of the New Hanover County chapter of the National Black Leadership Caucus and has received recognition from President Joe Biden for her work in the community.

H.O.P.E. has created a petition for the community to sign that includes a letter that community members can send to Stein. The petition has received nearly 900 signatures and Peterson said he hopes to increase that number to 5,000 in the next two months.

"No politician should have their hands or have access to this money or this grant-giving process." Peterson said.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Local petition calls for change to New Hanover Community Endowment