Former board member of addiction treatment center said he heard complaints of issues before facility suddenly shut down

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Following the abrupt closure of a local non-profit’s substance abuse clinic, a former board member of River Region Human Services said he saw it coming.

Richard Preston said he owes a lot to River Region Human Services. Until the past few weeks, it ran the residential campus where he got sober 18 years ago.

MORE: Current, former employees of Jacksonville substance abuse facility say mismanagement led up to abrupt closure, CEO exit

“Very few people get it the first time. But when you get it, it changes lives,” Preston said.

So it was a full-circle moment when he was invited to join the nonprofit’s board in 2019.

But soon, he said, employees started coming to him with concerns about how the organization was being run.

“People started sharing their stories, pulling me aside, calling me clandestinely,” Preston said.

According to Preston, employees complained about the work environment and its financials. The I-TEAM has heard similar complaints from current and former River Region employees in recent days.

“A lot of the letters were about paychecks not getting their money and owing people, owing vendors,” he said, but the board never investigated those allegations.

He said they were told to forward any complaints to the board chair, who would send them to human resources.

The non-profit’s Deryla Williams Campus residential treatment facility abruptly closed in December because of a safety issue, even though this year’s state budget allocated $500,000 for renovations. A spokesperson with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue said when the facility didn’t pass a recent fire inspection, the Department of Children and Family Services pulled its license.

“That building is historical and monumental,” he said. “And it is a focal point in the recovery community in Jacksonville. There’s been thousands, tens of thousands of people that have come through there and have been successful and are still sober.”

The River Region Human Services CEO of five years was also replaced around the time the facility shut down.

News4JAX tried to speak to the current board chair and others at River Region but they did not immediately respond.