Here is how I fixed the issue. It was caused by a mysql default.
[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len=3 change to
[mysqld]
ft_min_word_len=1
However I do not have access to mysql settings on my production server for this project so I used the following to fix the issue.
edit classes/item.php line 557
$permission_sql .= ” OR MATCH($permissions_field) AGAINST (‘{$ur}’ IN BOOLEAN MODE)”;
Changed to:
$permission_sql .= ” OR $permissions_field LIKE ‘%$ur|%’ OR $permissions_field LIKE ‘%|$ur|%’ OR $permissions_field LIKE ‘%$ur|%'”;
Hope this helps if you run into this issue