Showing posts with label Megan O'Matz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Megan O'Matz. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

More business-as-usual at Broward School Board is NOT good news for students, parents or taxpayers; Why the need by Broward Schools officials to impose omertà on school volunteers in Broward?; the very curious Hallandale High School roof situation reveals much about School Board's culture; Why is South Florida news media largely ignoring Broward Schools Diversity Comm. and their Audit Comm.?



CBS4 News/WFOR-TV Miami video: Broward Committee Demands Action For Dilapidated School. Reported by Natalia Zea. February 28, 2011 10:42 PM. Article at 

Despite what she promised over 20 months ago, above, Broward School Board member Ann Murray never kept her promise to the community most directly-affected -Hallandale Beach.
In fact, she has assiduously avoided coming here and being subject to answering pointed questions from constituents about her behavior, judgment and votes.
It's an all-too-familiar refrain from Ann Murray -spouting nonsense, and thinking that the public will fall for her lies.

My last blog post, on various aspects of education policy, corruption and the recent election of new people to the Broward School Board, 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/speaking-of-diversity-and-backsliding.html
had far too much information to digest for for one post, so I've decided to split it in two and have migrated the second part of it  here so that the important issues I raised can get the proper attention they deserve.
Why the need to impose omertà on school volunteers in Broward?
Just for the record, I'd like to state that among sincere people I know who are very concerned about education in this city, for both educational and business reasons, they honestly feel they've never publicly received an adequate public explanation for the cancelling of the follow-up tour earlier this year by the Broward Schools' Diversity Committee at Hallandale High School, and the overriding of a vote to have the meeting.

So there's no confusion on this point, Supt. Robert W. Runcie and School Board member Ann Murray are the ones who specifically owe this community a full explanation, not staffers.
Runcie said nothing about it on his recent trip to Hallandale Beach City Hall.
But that doesn't mean that people here have forgotten.

According to people who are in a position to know, Ann Murray and her crew looked at the numbers at Hallandale High and made the decision that they were fine with what they saw, and then she made the decision to NOT have the School system's Diversity Committee re-visit the scene of the crime.

Now onto the case of the curious leaking roof at Hallandale High School...

  From: Michael J. Marchetti
To: andrew@addinsol.com
Cc: RR ; Ann Murray ; Laurie Rich Levinson ; Robin Bartleman ; Patricia Good ; Benjamin J. Williams ; Nora A. Rupert ; Maureen S. Dinnen ; Donna Korn ; Katherine Leach ; charlotte8@comcast.net ; Thomas E. Lindner ;mjmsplace9@aol.com ; Patrick O. Reilly

Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 9:47 AM
Subject: Hallandale High Re-roof Project


Andrew,

In reviewing the agenda items for tomorrow's board meeting I came across item number JJ7 to re-roof HallandaleHS. To my surprise FCM is utilizing the TPM delivery method which is something FCM management told the Board they would not use anymore. As you know TPM is almost identical to the CM@Risk delivery method that allows the District to negotiate as apposed to seeking the lowest contract amount through a competitive bid process. Again, FCM management when asked by the Board specifically said Cypress and Palmview were the last of these types of projects.

In review of the GMP numbers the proposed cost of work is 1,221,678.00 plus fees of 378,000. That translates to the District paying 30% of the cost of work in fees alone. Also noted FCM is justifying these numbers based on an audit done in 2007 by an outside firm when construction costs were at their highest. And finally FCM notes that the plans have been permitted under the old 2007 code but will be resubmitted to the new 2010 code. Why in the world would FCM negotiate a TPM contact with a roofing company as apposed to  hard bidding it after they had a permitted set of plans based on the new code? I suspect one of their answers would be that we came in under the approved budget. This is no special accomplishment when you consider that FCM establishes the budget themselves. If you set it high enough you can always look like a hero. The only way to get to the real number is to competitively bid the job.

It is hard for me to grasp the recent behavior of FCM management. They rushed to issue an NTP for the Zone 4 project when everyone knew there was a problem with the contract. I don't have exact numbers for the settlement but I am sure that cost the District needlessly as FCM management continued to argue on behalf of the contractor. They also continue to argue on behalf of the contractor for delays on the Cypress El. Kitchen project. This despite their own staff and now our internal auditors saying those claims are not justified. FCM and the contractor are claiming that a CCD was not promptly processed by the project manager that caused this extraordinary delay. If this were true FCM management should be held accountable for not having any kind of management report that would have red flagged this over site. The question is how does an important CCD go unprocessed for months without upper management not knowing this. Did they forget to discuss this issue in their staff meetings for six months?

Most recently I notified FCM staff and the Superintendent that they had issued a notice to proceed on the Cooper City HS phased replacement project with only a foundation permit. Again in complete contradiction to FCM management claims to the Board they would never start a project without a complete set of plans that was fully permitted. This past and now current practice of starting projects without complete plans and a permit have been denounced in the past two grand jury reports as always costing the District needlessly.

At the most recent Board workshop on the capital budget I spoke about the Stranahan HS funding of items that are clearly not an emergency or the most critical need of the District. This at the very workshop that Capital Budget came to announce to the Board that their intention was to only fund emergencies and equipment breakdowns because of the shortage of capital funds. Even the most casual observer could look at these events and see despite all of the verbose claims of being fixed and we have better processes now and better people in place are just empty words with no facts to substantiate them. It is clear to everyone that it is business as usual. It is especially clear to the employees who work hard and try to improve the organization that they must keep their heads down in fear and hope they are allowed to remain as FCM management is in the process of purging good employees while hiring more people they can trust to sing in the chorus of we are all better now. Singing in chorus will not change the facts that while claiming financial hardship FCM is authorizing and arguing on behalf of contractors to needlessly spend precious capital funds with no one holding them accountable.

Because the meeting is tomorrow and there is no time for discussion prior to the meeting I am copying the Superintendent and the Board on this issue so they are aware.          

Michael J Marchetti
Physical Plant Operations
Zone 2, Supervisor I

(I've deleted the email addresses and phone numbers that appeared above -except one.) 


In a related matter, who the hell in the Broward School system specifically told members of the Diversity Committee NOT to speak publicly to the news media about what they'd seen and what they knew? 
That person or group of people need to be publicly identified and fired -today!

And seriously, would it kill the local Miami TV stations and newspapers to get off their asses and actually try to find out why administrators feel there's a need for a system of omertà among community volunteers who are, alternately, getting stabbed in the back or getting the shaft from elected officials?

Some of the longstanding personal animus against Murray and which is starting to develop against Supt.  Runcie in this community is directly attributable to the way the Diversity Comm. has been handled and the general state of things at Hallandale High School, though in my case, it doesn't happen to be the only reason to be against Murray.
That's a much longer fact-filled bill of particulars!

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FDLE: Contractor allegedly billed school system for Hummer repairs, Disney trip
Records shed new light on district dealings
By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel
October 13, 2012

More than 250 pages of newly released interviews taken in the state's now-closed corruption probe of Broward Schools contain fresh allegations of a contactor padding bills, employees moonlighting on the job and managers shirking their duties.

Among the jolting assertions in the documents obtained by the Sun Sentinel are the reported actions of an executive of The Weitz Company, a construction firm that did considerable business with the school district.

Joanne M. Lenz, a former Weitz employee, told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents that her boss, Rick Kolb, had billed the school district about $5,000 for personal expenses, including repairs on his Hummer and a family trip to Disney World. The costs were hidden in invoices submitted to the district for new elementary school cafeterias that Weitz built, Lenz told FDLE under oath in June 2011.

She also told the investigators that in 2008 Kolb helped arrange for a golf tournament to benefit the Broward Education Foundation, a School Board entity that awards scholarships. Kolb recruited subcontractors he did business with to participate at a minimum cost of $2,500 for four players, she said.
When the subcontractors later were awarded school district jobs through the Weitz firm, Kolb added the golf tournament entry fees to the bills submitted to the district and then reimbursed the firms, Lenz said.

"The way the School Board was treated was unfair," Lenz, now a data processor at a Broward school, told the Sun Sentinel Friday.

Kolb was not charged with any crime. He could not be reached for comment Friday through his current employer, Suffolk Construction in West Palm Beach. The FDLE documents do not indicate whether Kolb was asked to give his side of the story.

Weitz's senior vice president of Florida operations, Jon Tori, declined comment Friday, saying he was unaware of the allegations made to FDLE.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, who took over the district last year after the investigation ended, said Friday he is working to eradicate mismanagement, corruption and fraud.

"The game's over," he told the Sun Sentinel. "There's a new sheriff in town. We're going to make sure we operate with integrity and that we focus our efforts on doing what's in the best interest of children. Always."

Among his priorities, Runcie said, is hiring additional internal auditors to ferret out waste and abuse.

The documents obtained by the Sun Sentinel are summaries of interviews FDLE conducted on behalf of a Statewide Grand Jury impaneled in February 2010 at the request of then-Gov. Charlie Crist to investigate public corruption.

The Grand Jury did not indict anyone but released a scathing report in February 2011 saying the Broward School District was so grossly mismanaged it could not be explained by incompetence alone but must involve "corruption of our officials by contractors, vendors and their lobbyists."

From the spring of 2010 through most of 2011, school employees, board members, and vendors were invited or subpoenaed to talk to FDLE.

Much of what the individuals told investigators has been widely reported: that the district was a place where contractors were paid in full despite not finishing jobs, safety inspections were compromised, shoddy workmanship was ignored, board members interfered in day-to-day operations and cronyism drove decisions.

But the fresh crop of documents from FDLE provides new insights into district practices and relationships. Often the information provided to state investigators dealt with the alleged misdeeds, large and small, of School District personnel.

Among the assertions: one district employee was selling hurricane shutters on school district time. Another: real estate.

One employee testified that his job included shuttling School Board members to and from the airport and escorting district "guests" around town.

Another described how a school roofing job, botched by one contractor, was given to another, which was found to be a paving company -- not a roofer.

In the process, the paving company hired an engineer, who hired a lobbyist: the husband of former Broward Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin, according to FDLE's report.

In the midst of the Grand Jury investigation, a secretary in the district's construction department reportedly was seen shredding documents.

Many of the interviews focused on the district's Building Department, which inspects school construction to ensure that the work is done properly and according to safety codes.

Employees described how at times district inspectors were furloughed and private companies hired to do their jobs at additional taxpayer expense.

Because of union rules, certified inspectors were laid off and replaced with uncertified staff with more seniority, FDLE learned.

One of the lesser trained individuals told investigators he inspected fire dampers at a job site while the certified inspector "remained in the car."

Another trainee said after about two weeks of instruction, he was sent out to perform 50 to 70 inspections despite being unlicensed. His supervisor signed the reports, he told FDLE.

Investigators looked closely at relationships some School Board members had with lobbyists and vendors.

A former construction project manager, Sharon Zamojski, told FDLE she attended a political fundraiser at one lobbyist's home, where contractors doing business with the school district each donated the $500 maximum allowed by law.

Contractors at the event then telephoned subcontractors instructing them to show up and also make a contribution, FDLE quoted Zamojski saying. Subcontractors "began to arrive and as they were met at the front door, they delivered their contributions in the form of checks in the amount of $500," the documents state.

The documents also include new claims about the actions of School Board member Jennifer Gottlieb, who abruptly resigned in August 2011.

For example: Gottlieb allegedly did not like the color the newly constructed Beachside Montessori School in Hollywood had been painted and ordered it redone, at an additional cost of $1,500.

In an email to the Sun Sentinel on Friday, Gottlieb said: "I don't remember making any request for the color of the school, maybe someone misconstrued my comments about the colors."

FDLE also was told of the chummy relationship some School Board members, Gottlieb included, reportedly had with Kolb, the Weitz executive.

Lenz said under oath that Kolb regularly took board members to lunch. In one case, she said, Kolb and Gottlieb had a five-hour, $400 lunch at Le Meridien, then a resort in Sunny Isles Beach. She said Kolb was reimbursed by their company for the lunch.

Elected officials cannot accept gifts of over $100. Gift disclosure forms filed by Gottlieb do not reflect any lunches.

Gottlieb told the Sun Sentinel Friday: "I have no recollection of a $400 lunch, but I have no idea what he may have expensed. It was my standard practice to pay cash for what I ate."

In May 2010, district auditors reported that taxpayers overpaid $47 million for 15 cafeteria projects because School Board members added unnecessary playgrounds, bus loops and other items to the deals and doled out the projects to favored firms, Weitz among them, rather than award the contracts based on the lowest bid.

I made the last paragraph bold so it would be sure to catch your attention, since if anyone needed a contemporaneous snapshot of this dysfunctional school system, that's it!

-----

City of Hollywood residents and members of the community are invited to meet Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie on Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. at the Boulevard Heights Community Center, 6770 Garfield St. in Hollywood. Mr. Runcie will be available to answer questions from the public about local public schools and other education issues. Members of the public who are interested in attending and asking Mr. Runcie a question are encouraged to arrive early to fill out a question card. 
Light refreshments will be provided. 
For more information, contact Donna Green at hollyed1@aol.com.

Monday, August 8, 2011

When cities use taxpayers' money to pick winners & losers; Follow-up to my Public Records Request of July 22, 2011 to the City of Hallandale Beach

When cities use taxpayers' money to pick winners & losers; Follow-up to my Public Records Request of July 22, 2011 to the City of Hallandale Beach
This continues the tale of my email request of July 22, 2011 and subsequent blog post of July 26th titled, simply enough, Public Records Request of July 22, 2011: Debra Brown; Zamar, Inc.; Josh Brown; Lampkin’s Creative Arts 4 All; Joseph A. "Joe" Gibbons
I wrote and emailed my response to the city exactly a week ago today after getting something that in my opinion was completely non-responsive, and thinking that it was better to wait a while before sharing this with all of you, I've patiently bided my time.
But a week is long enough to keep you all in the dark, so now you'll know what's what.
Since I wrote this a week ago, thanks to concerned and well-informed friends, other upset HB residents and even some officials not from HB -elected and otherwise- I've learned even more troubling information, much of which I hope to share with you in this space in the near future.
Troubling, that is, if you are someone like me who believes that the city's own written rules and procedures must be followed whenever possible by everyone, not just some people.
Troubling if you believe as I do that the Hallandale Beach City Commission and the City Manager -past, present and future incarnations- should NOT be in the business of making excuses for those who consciously refuse to follow the rules or be entirely transparent with the public, whether applicants or city employees, when it comes to the use of taxpayer funds. Sunshine is almost always the best disinfectant!
Most of all, troubling , if you believe as I do that neither the elected City Commission or un-elected City Manager should be in the business of picking and choosing economic winners and losers in this community with taxpayers funds.

Crony capitalism as it has been practiced and honed to-a-T in Hallandale beach since Joy Cooper became mayor ten years ago, is NOT good for Hallandale Beach taxpayers, residents and business owners.
It's our money they're giving away, not their own.

For more on that subject of elected officials in Broward picking winners and losers with taxpayers' money, see the spot-on July 11th article by the Sun-Sentinel's Megan O'Matz and Georgia East following my response below.

-----

Chris Talmadge
City Clerk's Office
City of Hallandale Beach
400 S. Federal Highway
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
August 1, 2011
Mr. Talmadge:
I find your official response to be my Public Records Request of July 22nd to be completely inadequate and borderline mendacious, besides just plain unresponsive.
In your so-called response, you do NOT provide me with any cost breakdown by individual item/request as I submitted it to you, something anyone would reasonably expect to see on any kind of invoice or bill, leaving me in no position to know whether I should do one or two items versus another, or none,
Or, frankly, whether you are simply trying to prevent me from getting the information I have a right to by intentionally sandbagging me thru vagueness.
1.) Debra Brown (a.k.a. Dr. Deborah R. Brown)
2.) Zamar, Inc.
3.) Josh Brown
4.) Lampkin’s Creative Arts 4 All, (a.k.a Lowell Lampkin)
5.) Joseph "Joe" Gibbons
I know for a fact that the funding two years ago for #2 Zamar, Inc., (for children's summer school), was for $25,000, and in fact went to #1, Debra Brown.
They're one and the same.
It was approved by City Manager Mike Good without a specific request by the HB City Comm., who, themselves, only found out about it a week after it was
approved.
I'm very interested in discovering how in this day and age a woman can simply ask for $25,000 in taxpayer dollars from a city, without ANY prior direction by an elected body, the City Commission, and have it all be approved and expedited by one un-elected person.
To me, that doesn't seem to provide much public accountability or much in the way of a checks-and-balance system to prevent financial abuse.
Logically, since Zamar IS, in fact, Debra Brown, the information should all be in one file or folder -or on one electronic disk- yet you see, to want me to imagine that there are, in fact, perhaps hundreds of documents associated with that one item request, since you do not even specify the number of extant pages.
In fact, to make it even worse, the city, thru the former City Manager, gave $25,000 to an entity that two years later STILL seems to have no known address or phone number according to the search engine Google, and you know what, lots of other residents and taxpayers in this city find that rather troubling, too.
No matter how long you look, there's nothing on Google that indicates the City of Hallandale Beach has even a single document with the word Zamar on it, despite the fact that they were given $25,000, or that Dr. Brown requested another $25,000 in March of 2010 for another purpose.
Hmm-m... how can there be no official record at all of $25k being disbursed?
Speaking of electronic disk, I never said in my request that I wanted a printout of every single document.
That would be ridiculous to agree to, sight unseen, and in any case, I did not ask you to copy a textbook from cover-to-cover.
I very specifically asked to have the documents "be made available for my inspection."
You also say nothing about the cost of providing information on an electronic disk even though I specifically asked about this.
As to Lampkin's Creative Arts 4 All, they were, in fact, asked to apply for city funds by Mayor Cooper within the past few weeks, a fact I know because she said so publicly at a public hearing, so how many documents could possibly have been created in about one month?
There's the original application, a few accompanying info, like IRS Form 990, for instance, and the letter of approval or disapproval.
Again, you do NOT specify in your so-called response the number of docs related to this specific request re Lampkin.
You also do NOT provide any information about my request for the mailing address used in documents sent to and from Hallandale Beach City Hall to Joseph "Joe" Gibbons in his capacity as a Broward County resident or property owner.
Mr. Talmadge, is that because Mr. Gibbons does not, in fact, live at the Hallandale Beach address he claims he does?
Does he, instead, receive any, some or all all official correspondence or documents from HB City Hall at his work address in Tallahassee, or, in the Jacksonville area,
where his wife and children actually live?
He's a former Hallandale Beach City Commissioner after all, Mr. Talmadge, so surely he receives at least one document a year from the City of Hallandale Beach.
But you don't say anything about that, do you, even though a simple mailing address in Hallandale Beach for Gibbons really ought to take no more than five minutes to find on the city's computer, given his unique status.
There's no confusion at all about who HE is.
In the matter of Joseph "Joe" Gibbons, you provide no information at all, not even a breakdown for costs associated with finding that simple address information I requested.
Given your completely inadequate response, Mr. Talmadge, I will have to re-think my options given your lack of salient information, and will be in further contact in the next ten days.
-----


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Officials in South Florida cities donate to charities with taxpayers' money
Local schools, clubs and churches benefit -- and so may politicians doing the giving
By Megan O'Matz and Georgia East, Sun Sentinel
9:30 p.m. EDT, July 11, 2011
LAUDERDALE LAKES
This town is broke, but that didn't stop Commissioner Gloria Lewis from spending $1,440 in taxpayer funds in February for 140 T-shirts for fifth graders at Oriole Elementary School's spirit-boosting event coinciding with the FCAT exams.
It was hardly an exception. Since January 2010, city records show, the mayor and the six city commissioners have used thousands of dollars from their city-funded expense accounts for charitable donations to which their names often are attached.
Early this year, for example, Mayor Barrington Russell Sr. dipped into his expense account to buy a $75 ad featuring his photo in the program for Merrell United Methodist Church's Pre-Valentine's Day Banquet.
The funds may serve a noble purpose. Few would deny they also may buy voter goodwill.
From city to city, amounts vary. Davie has a Community Endowment Fund from which it will dole out $390,365 this year. Upscale Boca Raton's charitable outlay totals about $450,000 annually, and is part of the public budget-writing process. Hollywood allocated $191,500 in this year's budget to 17 community groups that assist children, the elderly, the disabled, battered women and the homeless. But next year's proposed budget recommends eliminating the grants. Hollywood, too, is in dire financial shape
The charitable expenditures appear to be perfectly legal. But in an era of diminishing public resources, taxpayer-funded donations are open to question, as is every other government expense. Why does this charity benefit, and not another? Why this much?
"I give to anything that benefits the kids. I give to the children,'' Lewis told the Sun Sentinel.
In Lauderdale Lakes, officials are grappling with a $9 million deficit for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The city has cut jobs and salaries and unsuccessfully sought a county bailout.
Since 2010, the mayor and six commissioners have spent more than $19,000 from accounts set up to pay their on-the-job expenses. A review of the receipts shows that about 75 percent of the outlays are not ordinary job-related out-of-pocket expenses, but donations –in the elected official's name -- to churches, clubs, schools and other organizations.
In August after this financially strapped municipality had run out of money to pay the Broward Sheriff's Office for police and fire protection, Commissioner Patricia Hawkins-Williams used $700 from her expense account to pay for 200 T-shirts for a city youth football program. At the time, Hawkins-Williams said, she and other commissioners were unaware of the fiscal hardships the city was facing.
Along with such out-of-pocket donations of public funds by individual commissioners, Lauderdale Lakes in recent years has allocated roughly $25,000 from its annual budget to about 10 community organizations, such as the Kiwanis Club and Meals on Wheels.
Groups requesting such assistance are required to show how many residents they serve. In 2011, the city scaled back, reserving nearly all the funds for one group: the Area Agency on Aging, which helps the city's Alzheimer Care Center.
The use of elected officials' expense accounts to aid charities differs from community to community, the Sun Sentinel found.
In Hollywood, Delray Beach and Boca Raton, local leaders aren't provided with expense accounts.
In Lauderhill, the city manager has proposed that the city not make its customary annual contribution in fiscal 2012 to the Area Agency on Aging or to Family Central, which provides day care and other services for low-income families. The city commission must make the final decision.
Like in Lauderdale Lakes, however, Lauderhill's mayor and four commissioners do occasionally dip into their administrative expense accounts to purchase tickets to local fundraisers or to help aid groups that have modest requests. "We're basically micro-gifting," Mayor Richard Kaplan said.
In Lauderdale Lakes, the mayor and commissioners have been provided with non-vouchered accounts that they can spend any way they like, without needing to provide receipts, usually to compensate for wear and tear on their personal cars. The mayor received $10,200 and the commissioners $9,600 annually. Those amounts were reduced by 10 percent this year because of the budget crisis.
The mayor and commissioners also have vouchered expense accounts of up to $5,000 yearly, for which they must provide receipts to show how the money was spent. These accounts also were reduced 10 percent.
The Sun Sentinel reviewed about a year's worth of these expense authorizations, and found most went to pay for donations to schools, clubs and churches for events or specific projects.
Money spent by commissioners included $500 for an elementary school teachers award; two $50 half-page souvenir program ads for the inauguration of the new pastor at the First Baptist Church Piney Grove; $100 for the Caribbean Bar Association's scholarship and awards gala; $300 for a half-page ad and five tickets for a Caribbean American Democratic Club's awards luncheon; $300 to help buy "audio books, Kindles, and padded headsets" for Boyd Anderson High School, and $50 to a women's club for a senior citizens' prom.
SOS Children's Village, a Coconut Creek facility for foster children, asked Russell, the mayor, by letter in August to earmark $1,000 for it in the city's annual budget.
In November, Russell gave the group $1,000 from his expense account. He is on the facility's board of directors.
In September, then-commissioner David Shomers donated $500 apiece to the Lauderdale Lakes Basketball Association, Lauderdale Lakes Sports Club, and Wheels of Excellence, a charity that repairs abandoned bicycles recovered by the Broward Sheriff's Department and gives them to needy children.
State corporation records show Shomers and six others formed Wheels of Excellence about 15 years ago.
Shomers, who lost a re-election bid in November, said he never sought or received publicity for his charitable gifts. "I can't think of any way it would have helped politically," he said.
Susannah Bryan contributed to this report.
Reader comments at:
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See also: Lauderdale Lakes officials took 4-star trip as city finances sunk

Saturday, March 12, 2011

After receiving a weak response, FL Dept. of Education Sec. Eric J. Smith drops the hammer on the Broward School Board -An IG is on the way!

In case you forgot, last week there was nothing but optimism by Broward Schools Supt. James Notter & Company that their response to the statewide Grand Jury's pile-driving report on their longstanding corruption and incompetency-"gross mismanagement and apparent ineptitude"-at the Broward Public Schools would be viewed favorably by Florida Dept. of Education Secretary Eric J. Smith. (No relation.)
Apparently NOT!


The Broward School Board's March 2, 2011 Cover Letter to Florida Dept. of Education Secretary Eric J. Smith, accompanying the response below:

http://www.browardschools.com/pdf/grandjury/responseletter.pdf


The Broward School Board's March 2, 2011 "Plan of Action to Address the Findings and Recommendations of the Grand Jury":

http://www.browardschools.com/pdf/grandjury/planofaction.pdf


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
South Florida Schools
blog

State to Broward Schools: Plan to restore trust isn't good enough

By Cara Fitzpatrick
March 11, 2011 11:48 AM


Education Commissioner Eric Smith told the Broward County School District that its plan to "restore the public's trust" after a recent grand jury report isn't good enough.


In a letter sent to the district Thursday, Smith said he plans to send the state Department of Education's Inspector General to the district to review records, interview staff, and help him decide whether to launch a full-fledged investigation.


Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2011/03/doe_to_broward_school_district.html


South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-whatsnext-grandjury-20110304,0,5525884.story

No indictments from grand jury probe of Broward schools, so now what?

By Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel
7:37 PM EST, March 7, 2011


Two law enforcement agencies are looking at potential charges involving Broward Schools officials, though their focus is likely not the misdeeds cited by a recent grand jury report that was stingingly critical of the district.


The Florida Department of Law Enforcement's investigation of the Broward Schools is still "active," said agency spokesman Keith Kamet. He declined to provide further information.


And the Broward State Attorney's Office is "continually looking at possible School Board cases," spokesman Ron Ishoy said. The office currently is prosecuting former School Board member Stephanie Kraft on bribery charges. She has pleaded not guilty.


"We interacted with the statewide grand jury staff throughout their investigation, we spoke with them after their report was issued, and we will continue working with them going forward," Ishoy said.


The grand jury's 51-page report, released Feb. 18, slammed the School Board for "gross mismanagement and apparent ineptitude," saying the litany of problems was so great it could only be explained by "corruption of our officials by contractors, vendors and their lobbyists."

Yet the grand jury's year-long investigation did not result in criminal charges. Then-Gov. Charlie Crist, who created the panel, had said it would have the authority to "root out public corruption" and bring indictments.

But the grand jury was led by the Florida Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution and could only indict if the suspected criminal activity crossed county lines.

The grand jury could refer narrower matters to local authorities to pursue, but the Attorney General's office informed the Sun Sentinel on Feb. 21 that the panel made no such referrals.
The grand jury's report landed like a grenade, leaving many people stunned and outraged. Yet for all its strong verbiage, some veteran prosecutors and defense lawyers said its findings likely will not lead to future criminal charges.

Noted Broward defense attorney David Bogenschutz said prosecutors are unlikely to file charges in areas where the grand jury looked at suspicious conduct but elected not to act. That's because it would probably be harder to win a conviction in open court than an indictment from a grand jury meeting in secret, Bogenschutz said.


"If you can't convince 18 people when you're in there alone [as a prosecutor] how are you going to with a judge and defense attorney?" Bogenschutz said.


In fact, in the view of one former federal prosecutor, the mere fact that the grand jury mentioned certain acts of alleged official misconduct is a clue that they are not subjects of an ongoing criminal probe by law enforcement. According to Bruce Reinhart, of West Palm Beach, prosecutors don't want outside groups getting involved in taking testimony or gathering evidence on acts they have targeted because that could jeopardize their case.


"If I'm the FBI or BSO [Broward Sheriff's Office] and I've got a serious investigation of criminal conduct, I'm not going to let the grand jury have it, to the extent I can," Reinhart said.


The grand jury did not address several well-publicized controversies involving the school district.


Those issues include a dispute over billings by AshBritt, a Pompano Beach debris-removal company that district auditors found "grossly overcharged" for Hurricane Wilma repairs, and the $47 million auditors said the district overpaid for 15 new elementary school cafeterias.


Overall, the grand jury lambasted the School Board for pushing unnecessary building projects against staff advice, handpicking building contractors, hiding big-ticket items on a "consent agenda" with no public debate, failing to collect financial penalties from builders for projects that come in late, using untrained inspectors, and opening new schools without fixing safety problems.


For a grand jury to indict, it must have "probable cause" that a crime has occurred. State prosecutors are supposed to proceed with a "good faith belief" that they can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — and win a conviction from a jury, said Jennifer Krell Davis, press secretary for the state Attorney General's Office. That is a tougher standard.


To secure a conviction for corruption, prosecutors usually want evidence that the official in question received some compensation — such as money or home improvements or trips — in return for their vote or influence. That clear proof of corruption was apparently not established by the grand jury.


In one case enumerated in its report, an unidentified School Board member arranged for a California consultant who socialized with her and her lobbyist husband to secure a school district leadership training contract, paying him $325 an hour and his wife $160 an hour to take notes.


The board member did not disclose the social relationship with her family or abstain from voting, but the grand jury did not indicate that it found any money changed hands between the consultant and the board member.


In another example of questionable spending, an unnamed board member was criticized by the grand jury for pushing a $25 million new Hollywood elementary school that was not supported by plunging enrollment numbers. Board member Jennifer Gottlieb, whose son attends Beachside Montessori Village, has acknowledged championing the new school, saying it's a successful academic program.


The report makes no suggestion that the board member received any payment for advancing the building of the school, which the grand jury called her "pet project."


The grand jury said much of what it learned regarding the Broward school system appeared to fit the definition of corruption "as understood by regular citizens." But it said those acts could escape criminal punishment because of "weaknesses in state law."


In a prior interim report, released in December, the grand jury described those deficiencies in the justice system, saying some reprehensible acts by public officials are not crimes under Florida law, that corruption cases are often difficult to prove given current legal definitions, that punishments are too lenient and that plea deals are common.


It cited one "appalling loophole" in state law — Florida's definition of "public servant" is narrow, allowing employees of certain private companies contracted to do government work to avoid prosecution for crimes such as bribery or unlawful compensation.


According to the report, an unidentified veteran prosecutor told the grand jury that his office receives many complaints alleging bid tampering but rarely prosecutes them because Florida law is toothless. Federal laws are stronger, and bid rigging is a common offense charged by the U.S. Department of Justice.


In 2009, the FBI took down Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher in a sting operation that caught her taking cash in exchange for her promises to help rig the awarding of construction contracts. She is now serving a three-year prison term.

Famously tight-lipped, the FBI won't say if its probe of Broward Schools officials and operations is ongoing. The FBI "can't confirm or deny any investigation," said agency spokesman Michael Leverock.


Staff writer Paula McMahon contributed to this report.


Reader comments at:

http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-whatsnext-grandjury-20110304/10



South Florida Sun-Sentinel

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-broward-doe-20110302,0,5860365.story

Broward Schools propose training, ethics to combat problems listed in grand jury report
By Cara Fitzpatrick and Megan O'Matz, Sun Sentinel

11:07 AM EST, March 3, 2011

To combat the pervasive "gross mismanagement and apparent ineptitude" identified in a recent grand jury report, the Broward County School Board proposes to increase training, create an ethics policy for board members, improve record-keeping, and discuss all construction and facilities items in public.


Those recommendations and others were included in a 20-page summary sent late Wednesday to the state Department of Education, along with a cover letter in which board members promised to take "corrective action" and "restore the public's trust."

The summary, which included 250 exhibits, packed no major punches and included few surprises. The word "training" is mentioned more than 60 times in the summary, and no major leadership or organizational changes are proposed. Superintendent Jim Notter has resisted calls for his resignation.

But Notter said Wednesday that the report establishes the "rules of the game." Board members and employees will receive training, and policy changes will be proposed so that areas identified in the grand jury report as lax are "more tightly controlled," he said.


Building and construction departments in particular could see more stringent enforcement of district policies and procedures for better record-keeping. Board members should be able to see certificates of occupancy and other paperwork when they vote on agenda items, he said.


According to the School Board's report, members will consider a draft ethics code at their meeting next week. They also will have a workshop no later than April 29 to publicly discuss how the district will respond to the grand jury findings, something they haven't done yet.


To protect whistleblowers, Notter will send a memo this week to employees to remind them of the district's anti-bullying policy, which was approved in 2008. To promote better relationships between the district's building department and its construction management division, a meeting will be held to "emphasize the need to work more cooperatively," the report said.

The grand jury found such "malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance" that it could only be explained by "corruption of our officials." It said the board has demonstrated an appalling lack of both leadership and awareness, and it bashed Notter for letting board members meddle in the operation of the district.


Notter said he and board members will participate in a 22-hour master board training course in September. He acknowledged Wednesday that training can only do so much, and said when it comes to district staff, reorganization is "ultimately" an option.


"Those that don't want to abide by the rules have to work somewhere else," he said.


State Education Commissioner Eric Smith will use the district's response to decide whether his department's Office of Inspector General should conduct its own investigation into the grand jury's findings. The district's report was due Wednesday. The district released it on its website just before 5:30 p.m.


It wasn't clear Wednesday when Smith would make a decision or what consequences could come from an Inspector General investigation. A department spokesman confirmed that the report had been received and said it was being reviewed.


Notter also has promised to provide a more detailed response to the grand jury report within 30 to 45 days of its Feb. 18 release.


On Tuesday, board members seemed all-too-aware of the grand jury report as they pulled facilities and construction items from the consent agenda. Robin Bartleman told staff members that she needed to have all necessary paperwork before she could approve anything, and said she "can't be involved in the day-to-day operations of the district."


Reader comments at:

http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-doe-20110302/10



Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/02/2094613/broward-school-board-responds.html

Broward School Board responds to grand jury complaint

By Carli Teproff
March 2, 2011


Saying it took a state grand jury reprimand “very seriously,’’ the Broward School Board sent a letter Tuesday to the Florida Department of Education outlining the steps it has taken to address allegations of wasteful spending and corruption.

“I assure you , the School Board, Superintendent of Schools, and the District’s administration take the findings and recommendations of the Grand Jury very seriously and will take corrective action as appropriate to address the issues and restore the public’s trust in Broward County Public Schools,’’ School Board Chair Benjamin Williams wrote.

Last month, a Florida Grand Jury released a scathing report that criticized the district for spending money on unneeded schools, chided the board members for meddling in day-to-day issues and singled out Superintendent Jim Notter as not being a strong enough leader. It also reprimanded the board for allowing schools to open before they were complete and called district paperwork lax.

The report went so far as to say if the state constitution allowed it to, the grand jury would recommend abolishing the School Board.

On Feb. 22, the state Department of Education got involved, requesting the district to write up a plan detailing how it would address the problems. The deadline was Wednesday.

“The plan of action should include specific steps taken or planned by the District School Board to correct each of the Findings and Recommendations,’’ Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith wrote.

In his response to Smith, Williams explained the district needed more time to fully analyze the problems, but had already initiated some changes.

Among them:

• Board members are no longer allowed to sit on committees that select contractors.

• The board will no longer be able to reduce the amount of money it is withholding from a contractor pending completion of a project without public comment. State law says government agencies can retain more than 10 percent of a contract amount until up to 50 percent of a project’s completion, and allows for withholding 5 percent after that.

• Schools will no longer be issued temporary certificates of occupancy.

Following the arrest and conviction of former board member Beverly Gallagher on bribery charges, the district started the process of developing an ethics code. The board will discuss the proposed code by the end of March.

In the letter, Smith said he needed the response in order to decide if the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General should begin its own investigation into the district. The law allows him to request an investigation if the board is “unwilling or unable to address substantiated allegations made by any person relating to waste, fraud or financial mismanagement within the school districts.’’

The district’s response included a 20-page plan of action compiled by district staff. It addressed the 20 recommendations from the grand jury – including reducing the number of board members from nine to five and having an elected superintendent.

Superintendent Notter said he and staff have worked around the clock to pull documents and give examples of what has changed.

“We have done a huge chunk of what we have to do,’’ Notter said. “But there is still a lot left to do.’’

Notter promised he will have a complete review of the grand jury report within 45 days. “It takes time to go through everything we have to go through to give a proper response,’’ he said.

The district also promised it would have a new “project closeout procedure plan’’ by March 25, which would detail the procedures for using occupancy certificates.

Although acknowledging students were brought to schools where construction projects were not completed, the district said the facilities were safe.

“The District contends all life safety items were addressed prior to the issuance of a [Temporary Certificate of Occupancy] or appropriate actions were taken to allow safe occupancy.’’

The letter also said the board will discuss the district’s retainage policy, which dictates how much money it can withhold from a contractor until unresolved problems are solved, at its March 29 workshop.

The board has also agreed to undergo training to address the grand jury’s concerns about in-fighting and meddling.

And the board said it will discuss reducing the number of board members and having an elected superintendent – both of which will have to go to a voter referendum – by April 29.

“The board gave me clear direction to accelerate the time lines,’’ Notter said.



BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Daily Pulp blog
Note to "Distressed" Dinnen: No More Tears
By Bob Norman, Wed., Mar. 2 2011 @ 8:56AM---
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/03/maureen_dinnen_school_board.php




Sun-Sentinel video: Maureen Dinnen crying over grand jury report critical of the School Board
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobeta/e10ca0ed-e4b1-4562-9e8c-268808bdf266/Community/


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/fl-schools-apathy-mayocol-b030311-20110302,0,7962956.column
Latest Broward schools meeting? Shameless and shameful
After blistering grand jury report, apathy and self-interest rule

Michael Mayo, Sun Sentinel Columnist
7:33 PM EST, March 2, 2011


Two words to sum up the Broward School Board meeting this week, the first since the release of a blistering statewide grand jury report: Shameful and shameless.

Shameful: Only one measly member of the public — a teacher turned out to express outrage over the grand jury's findings of gross mismanagement and malfeasance in the school system.


Shameless: Embattled School Board members and Superintendent Jim Notter apparently rallied their loyal troops, with community business leaders showing up to heap praise upon them. And tone-deaf board member Maureen Dinnen threw a pity party, breaking into tears as she criticized the report for bordering on "gossip and hearsay."


"Some of these people don't get it — they're almost in denial," Charlotte Greenbarg, an activist who serves on several school advisory boards, told me Wednesday. "Until there's a shift in the majority of the board, it will be business as usual."


All I can say is we deserve what we get when it comes to Broward schools.


After this latest apathetic display, it's no wonder the folks running things seem to cater more to vendors and contractors than taxpayers and the general public.

Greenbarg couldn't attend Tuesday's meeting, but she listened on the School Board's radio station. She said the lack of outraged citizens — and the pack of fawning business leaders — didn't surprise her.


"The business community are the ones who've been profiting from all this activity all these years — of course they're going to show up to sing the School Board's praises," Greenbarg said. "These people come and speak out at the drop of a phone call or e-mail."


As for regular working people, Greenbarg said the board's daytime meetings and downtown Fort Lauderdale location create hurdles.


"You have to pay to park, it's in the middle of the day," Greenbarg said. "It's an inconvenience."


True. But in a county with 1.8 million people and a school district with some 250,000 students, I expected more than just one dissatisfied voice to sound off.

"I was a little surprised and disappointed that I was the only one who spoke out," Sharon Graham, a 21-year Broward teaching veteran who called for Notter's ouster, told me Wednesday.


If people are this uninterested, even after the stinging grand jury report that said the mismanagement and waste of millions of dollars could only be explained by "corruption of our officials," it's no wonder the powers-that-be feel they can act with impunity.


"We're at the point where this is what— grand jury No. 3 or 4? — and nobody ever gets indicted," Greenbarg said. "All the outrage, is pretty much useless. But the fact that the public wasn't there to castigate them doesn't mean people don't care. This [the grand jury report] has been the talk of the town everywhere I've been."


Dinnen, a School Board member since 2004, is emblematic of the dysfunctional board's mentality.


Instead of owning up to mistakes or apologizing, she acts like the victim.


Dinnen's teary breakdown was a poor follow-up to her showing at a workshop last week, when she fretted that a proposed new ethics policy might be too complicated: "Let's make it crystal-clear so I don't have to ask my secretary what is proper and what is not."


Sorry, but if you have to ask a secretary what's proper, maybe the secretary should be on the School Board, not you.


At this week's meeting, superintendent Notter said he would soon propose some policy changes to address the grand jury's concerns.

Here are two that the board should pass pronto:

Any action that would cost the district more than $75,000 should be required to go on the regular agenda for board approval. As it stands, items costing as much as $1 million can be placed on the consent agenda, where they can be passed without debate. One million dollars is way too high a threshold.


The addition of late items to the consent agenda should be banned. That's another way things get snuck past the public. Late items should only be permitted on the regular agenda, and only for reasons that are clearly explained at meetings.


It's time the School Board, pushed by the four new members elected in November, makes some meaningful changes.


Otherwise an apathetic public has mainly itself to blame.


Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-schools-apathy-mayocol-b030311-20110302/10