A court will have to decide who can crown the next Miss Jacksonville. By DEIRDRE CONNER, The Times-Union
Its titleholders may have stunning dresses and perfect poise, but the people behind Jacksonville's annual beauty pageant aren't smiling and waving. A fight over the Miss Jacksonville franchise has pageant pundits locked in a battle over who has the right to crown the young women who yearn to hear "There she is, Miss America."
A month from now, the dispute will take an ugly turn - into the Duval County Courthouse for the first hearing on whether a judge should decide who the Miss Jacksonville pageant belongs to.
The North Florida Scholarship Organization, the former organizer of Miss Jacksonville, is suing the Miss Florida pageant for breach of contract and discrimination. The lawsuit also names the group awarded the Miss Jacksonville franchise, the Jacksonville Scholarship Foundation, and Jennifer Herrington, a woman who used to help direct Miss Jacksonville, as well as two companies that run Internet forums.
Kevin Sanders, a Jacksonville attorney and director of the North Florida Scholarship Organization, said Miss Florida took the contract away from him after a dust-up this fall. Sanders and his wife, Cammie, ran the Miss Jacksonville/Miss First Coast pageant - it sends both winners to compete for Miss Florida - for the past five years. Cammie Sanders is a long-time contestant whose titles include Ms. US Continental 2002. Kevin Sanders has participated in pageants in some way for more than 20 years. The two used to coordinate Miss Jacksonville with Ruth Sidbury, whose foundation has the franchise once again. According to his complaint, the Miss Florida directors once tried to remove Sidbury after a board member alleged she used a racial slur to describe a black contestant.
Sidbury, co-executive director of the Jacksonville Scholarship Foundation, declined to comment. Mary Sullivan, who is the president and executive director of Miss Florida, also declined to comment. Both cited the advice of their attorneys.
Jennifer Herrington could not be reached, but is represented by the same attorney as Sidbury.
In a motion to dismiss the case, lawyers for the Miss Florida pageant said Sanders can't prove his allegations and that Sullivan never signed the contract for the 2007 Miss Jacksonville pageant.
Before the legal action and as the quarrel progressed, Sanders said, comments on several Miss Florida fan sites libeled him and his wife, and moderators refused to take down the messages. Forum pages were no longer active as of late Friday.
Internet message boards and forums have been damaging to the industry nationwide, said Penny Geiszler, publisher and owner of Turn For The Judges, an industry publication.
"They have totally trashed girls and been so rude and so mean before pageants," Geiszler said. Pageant directors have been attacked, she said, and it can be difficult to get postings taken down.
Geiszler said franchises in the Miss America local pageants come and go, but she said the lawsuit here is unlike anything she's heard of before.
Northeast Florida is home to an active pageant community and has been home to state and national-level competitors. In 2005, when Miss Florida Candace Cragg gave up her crown, the succeeding runner-up, Mari Wilensky, was also a Jacksonville-area native.
Sydney Keister, the reigning Miss Florida Oustanding Teen, is a Miss Jacksonville Teen. Leanza Cornett, who was crowned Miss America in 1993, hailed from Jacksonville.
Kevin Sanders said he and his wife would just like to continue helping the young women grow in their confidence. He points out that he and his wife were named the Miss Florida pageant's executive directors of the year in 2005, were recognized by Mayor John Peyton and City Council members, and have consistently donated their time and money to local and state organizations.
"All that doesn't add up," he said. "If I had done something wrong, I certainly wouldn't have filed something in court, which is public."
TKPNPageantCast HomeFrappr MapPodcast Pickle PageOur FeedOne Click Subscribe in JuiceOne Click Subscribe in iTunes
