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Your Proposition 98
Dollars at Work: San Jose Community College Chancellor Gets Huge Benefits as
Class Offerings Shrink.
As taxpayers know all too
well, education funding doesn't always make it into the classroom. The San
Jose Mercury News reports that Rosa Perez, the outgoing chancellor of the
San Jose/Evergreen Community College District, has enjoyed a 48 percent pay hike
in just four years, and currently receives $293,000 per year, plus a $147,000
bonus for staying on the job for four years.
That's not all. The paper,
citing documents uncovered by KGO-TV, reported: "She also has charged the
district and its foundation for lavish perks that included overnight stays at
San Jose's luxury Fairmont Hotel, a tour of El Salvador, and airfare to
Scotland. Perez's partner, Bayinaah Jones, a district administrator hired two
months after Perez, has seen her salary climb 35 percent to $122,688."
The Mercury News noted
that the chancellor's spending was "in contrast to the modest goals of the
community college system." For about $800, a student can earn a certificate in
cosmetology or dental hygiene. Ms. Perez, however, spent twice that much in
district money at the Bombay Company to furnish an office in her Bernal Heights
home in San Francisco. (Cal-Tax: Ms. Perez lives in San Francisco and
oversees a college in San Jose – and she billed the taxpayers for overnight
stays in San Jose? Seriously?)
She also spent $3,700 in
district funds for a painting – now hanging near the Evergreen Valley College
student center – showing Latinos in a crowded boat, using the American flag as a
knapsack.
While the administrative
spending was increasing, budget cuts forced the cancellation of 18 classes at
Evergreen and 20 classes at San Jose City College. Funding was cut for programs
for disabled students, low-income students and working parents.
Ms. Perez recently announced
that she will be retiring soon for health reasons. The community college
district said it has hired an outside investigator to review Ms. Perez's
spending. The district board's September response to a grand jury report on the
questionable spending indicates that taxpayers shouldn't expect much action even
after the investigation. In its rebuttal to the grand jury report, the board
wrote: "The Board of Trustees has reviewed the employment agreement with its
chancellor and sees no areas where reductions are appropriate." (Source: San
Jose Mercury News, November 23.)
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Pasadena School District
Squanders $15,000 on Parcel Tax Blunder.
After narrowly winning voter approval for a new parcel tax, the South Pasadena
Unified School District immediately wasted some of the revenue by failing to
fill out the necessary paperwork to have the tax included on the property tax
bills sent out by the county tax collector. The blunder necessitated an extra
mailing that will cost taxpayers $15,000.
The Los Angeles Times
reported: "The school district forgot to submit to the county assessor's office
the paperwork for the voter-approved assessment and the new tax of up to $288
for homeowners. The mistake wasn't discovered until the county bills were mailed
about a month ago."
If the district had submitted
its paperwork in time, the county would have charged $1,500 to collect the
exaction via its annual property tax bills. Instead, the district is paying
$15,000 from its general fund to hire a private company to send out a parcel tax
bill.
The district also will have
to absorb the cost of staff time to collect the money. This could be a
significant amount of time, as the parcel tax mailing is generating a number of
phone calls from people who aren't accustomed to receiving multiple tax bills
for their property, and who don't recognize the letterhead of the private firm
that is sending out the supplemental bills. The district's error could have a
major impact on tax compliance.
School board President
Elisabeth Eilers did not take responsibility for the mistake, but rather blamed
it on turnover of key personnel. "This happened at a time when we were going
through a lot of changes at the district," she told the Times.
The tax is expected to cost
property owners approximately $1.8 million per year. (Source: Los Angeles
Times, November 27.)
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Fresno School District
Misspent $1.3 Million in Tobacco Tax Money.
Schools in the Fresno Unified School District misspent $1.3 million in tobacco
tax revenues intended to help young children under the First 5 Program, an
auditor found. An auditing firm hired by First 5 Fresno County found major
violations at five elementary schools. Money intended to help young children get
ready for school instead was spent on cameras, computers and employee trips to
Napa and Washington, D.C.
Specific findings of the
audit:
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Greenberg Elementary didn't
provide attendance records to justify its expenses, and used money for
unapproved expenses including $1,700 for computer equipment and $650 for an
office chair. All of the school's program expenses, totaling $532,525 were
disallowed.
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Addams Elementary had
$377,168 in disallowed expenses, including $587 paid to Hungry Howie's Pizza and
Party City for a "family fair" that was not supported by documentation of who
attended.
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Lowell Elementary had
$266,639 in disallowed expenses, including $1,500 in travel costs for a
part-time clerical worker and $5,235 for umbrellas and umbrella stands.
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Mayfair Elementary had
$58,579 in disallowed expenses, including $3,500 for travel costs for employees
who were not eligible to have their travel expenses paid by First 5.
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Homan Elementary had $51,843
in disallowed expenses, including $6,000 for equipment.
First 5 Fresno County
deducted the disputed expenses from contract payments to Fresno Unified this
year. (Source: Fresno Bee, November 29.)
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Auditor Says State Agency
Lacks Controls to Prevent Misuse of Federal Funds.
The title of the state auditor's latest report pretty much tells the entire
story: "California Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission: It
Is Not Fully Prepared to Award and Monitor Millions in Recovery Act Funds and
Lacks Controls to Prevent Their Misuse."
The auditor examined how the
state plans to use taxpayer dollars from the federal American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, enacted in February. The money is supposed to go
toward purposes that include preserving and creating jobs, promoting economic
recovery and assisting those most affected by the recession. "One general
principle of the Recovery Act is that the funds be used to achieve its purposes
as quickly as possible consistent with prudent management," the auditor noted.
The Recovery Act designated
$3.1 billion for the State Energy Program, and California was awarded $226
million of that total. This money was awarded to the California Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission.
Auditors reviewed the
commission's readiness to administer the Recovery Act funds, and reported back
with these troubling findings:
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The energy commission has
made little progress in implementing its subprograms, and none of the Recovery
Act funds are currently being used to provide benefits to Californians.
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The energy commission has
approved the use of $51 million for Energy Program services, and of this amount
has entered into contracts totaling about $40 million; however, none of the $40
million has been spent.
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Although it began applying
for Recovery Act funds in March 2009, the energy commission has not yet
implemented a system of internal controls adequate to ensure that those funds
are used appropriately.
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The state is at risk of
either having the funds redirected by the U.S. Department of Energy or awarding
them in a compressed period of time without first establishing an adequate
system of internal controls, which increases the risk that Recovery Act funds
will be misused. (Source:
California State Auditor Report 2009-119.1,
December 1.)
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CSU Puts Out Misleading
Figures on Effect of Federal Stimulus.
California State University
officials have been caught providing misleading numbers to the federal
government on the effect of federal stimulus dollars on the sprawling
multi-campus system.
According to an investigation
by The Sacramento Bee, up to one-fourth of the total 110,000 jobs
reported saved by stimulus dollars in California never were in danger. CSU
reported that the money saved 26,156 jobs – one-half of CSU's statewide work
force, and more than the number of jobs saved in Texas and 44 other states.
On November 5, CSU admitted
that half of that total were not going to be laid off if the stimulus dollars
hadn't arrived. CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said: "This is not really a
real number of people. It's like a budget number."
The University of California
received $717 million in stimulus dollars – three times the amount of stimulus
dollars received by CSU – but reported only about 8,400 jobs saved. (Source:
The Sacramento Bee, November 6.)
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Dead-Head Archivist Wanted
for "Dead Central" at UC Santa Cruz Library.
The University of California
at Santa Cruz is listing a job opening for an associate librarian to be part of
a "dynamic, collegial and highly motivated department" dedicated to the newly
acquired Grateful Dead archives. The actual archive on the band's life and times
will be housed at "Dead Central," a dedicated area in the newly renovated
McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz.
The Grateful Dead archivist
will be paid $52,860 to $68,892 per year, plus fringe benefits. Some of the
proposed duties include: managing "Dead Central's open access hours" and Dead
Central exhibitions, as well as "maintaining Grateful Dead Archive Blog and
Facebook accounts." To qualify for the position, archivists must have expert
knowledge in the history and influence of the Grateful Dead, as well as
excellent analytical, organization, time management, oral, written and
interpersonal communication skills. Also, an eligible archivist must have a
master's degree from an accredited graduate archives management program.
The archive includes stage
backdrops, shirts, business records, flyers, posters, fan mail and other
materials from the Grateful Dead's glory years. Guitarist Bob Weir will initiate
a fundraising effort to help support the archive's costs. (Sources: Jon
Stewart's Daily Show, November 11; UC Santa Cruz Archivist for Grateful Dead
Archive, accessed November 12; UC Santa Cruz Press Release, April 24.)
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Placer County Spends More
Than $1 Million on Buyouts.
Placer County has spent more than $1 million in the past four years on severance
packages for local government and school officials.
The severance deals started
in 2005, with a $500,000 payout that the Sierra College board agreed to give
departing President Kevin Ramirez, the Placer Herald reported. Recently,
Roseville City Manager Craig Robinson was given $390,000 as his parting gift,
while Auburn Recreation District Administrator Alain Grenier was given $118,000
on his way out the door in 2006. Colfax Elementary School District
Superintendent John Ray received a severance package worth an estimated $73,000
this year. (Source: Placer Herald, November 10.)
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San Diego State Athletic
Director Accused of Charging Taxpayers for Personal Travel.
San Diego State University officials have announced that they are investigating
the travel expense records of Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel to determine
whether there is any truth to allegations that he charged taxpayers for personal
travel.
Very
personal travel, at that. The allegations were made by an Alabama man who is
suing to get Mr. Schemmel's travel records as part of a divorce proceeding. The
Alabama man said his wife was having an affair with Mr. Schemmel. His wife
testified under oath in a deposition that she met Mr. Schemmel for several
sexual trysts in Dallas-Fort Worth, and in Point Clear, Alabama, and that Mr.
Schemmel had no other business in Alabama except to see her. Still, a hotel bill
for $814 was paid with a credit card that lists Mr. Schemmel and San Diego State
University as the cardholders, with the university's address as the billing
address. (Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, November 7.)
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UC Davis Has More Staff
Than Students. The
headline in The Sacramento Bee read, "Another UCD employee accused of
public funds misuse," and the October 20 story discussed how three employees of
the University of California at Davis have been accused of fiscal wrongdoing
including embezzling $38,000, billing the taxpayers for $1,300 for meetings that
were not attended, and misspending $175,000 in grants intended to help abused
children.
But the real story is found
in a quote from Robert Loessberg-Zahl, the university's assistant executive vice
chancellor, who said: "This is a campus of 30,000 employees and we're talking
about three employees. … The vast majority of our employees do their jobs
honestly and competently and serve the university and the people of California
very well."
If Mr. Loessberg-Zahl's
figure is correct, UC Davis has more staff than registered students. A
publication on the UC Davis website lists the student population for the spring
2009 quarter at 29,311. To be fair, the school also runs a hospital, which
requires significant staffing. (Sources: The Sacramento Bee, October 20;
"UC Davis Student Population Headcount," Spring 2009.)
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Does Education Bureaucracy
Grow on Trees?
Parents who planted four semi-dwarf apple trees along the west wall of the
Robert H. Down Elementary School in Pacific Grove on October 25 have been told
by a district bureaucrat to dig up the trees.
Assistant Superintendent
Robin Blakley said the problem is that the trees were planted without going
through proper channels. He said that the sooner the trees are removed, the
better. He wants the trees removed before the next meeting of the Pacific Grove
Unified School Board.
Asked if fruit trees would
teach something valuable, Mr. Blakley said, "Theoretically, that's a
possibility." Parents are protesting Mr. Blakley's edict to the school and to
members of the school board. After a meeting on October 30, all parties agreed
to keep the trees in place until the school board can decide the issue on
November 12. (Cal-Tax: Mr. Blakley's action will contribute to global
warming, as trees remove carbon dioxide from the air. Perhaps CARB should
investigate!) (Source: Monterey County Herald, October 28 and October
30.)
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School Board Considers
Hiring Spokesperson to Talk About Budget Problems.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is considering hiring a
spokesperson to improve its ability to tell the public about its budget
problems. The proposed "director of communication, accountability and community
engagement" is needed to "communicate to our community the many issues we are
facing," said Superintendent Tim Cuneo. He noted that the position was
recommended by a consultant hired by the district to audit the district's
communications practices.
The superintendent also
mentioned that a spokesperson also would be used to discuss a potential parcel
tax that would fund the district. (Cal-Tax: We suspect that this type of
taxpayer-funded campaign work might be the first thing put on the spokesperson's
plate.)
The position would be funded
in part by money from bonds approved by voters to improve school facilities.
Reaction to Mr. Cuneo's
suggestion was mixed, and the board directed its president and vice president to
meet with Mr. Cuneo to discuss the idea further before bringing it back to the
full board. (Source: Santa Monica Mirror, October 22-28.)
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School District Overspends
by $16.6 Million in a Matter of Months.
San Diego Unified School District leaders announced October 20 that the district
already has run up $16.6 million in unplanned expenses for the school year that
just began. The costs included hiring extra teachers ($3.2 million), hiring a
consultant ($63,000) and adding funding for a position that was left out of the
initial budget process ($120,000). (Source: VoiceofSanDiego.com, October
22.)
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San Francisco School
Board Leader Uses District Credit Card for Shoes, Travel and More.
The San Francisco Chronicle revealed that a school leader has been
using her taxpayer-funded credit card for a wide variety of personal uses.
The newspaper reported: "As
San Francisco schools have cut budgets to the bone, the city's school board
president used her district-issued credit card to charge thousands of dollars
for personal items and thousands more at city restaurants and cafes, according
to a Chronicle analysis of financial records. Board President Kim-Shree
Maufas charged $4,300 on the district's Diners Club card for a wide range of
personal purchases. They included more than $2,000 for a cultural exchange
trip to China, $196 for tickets to the Florida Epcot theme park, $40 for black
Crocs, a $125 car battery and a $162 car windshield, $160 in U.S. passport
processing fees, a $37 medical visit in Los Angeles and $3 for Apple iTunes."
Additionally, Ms. Maufas
charged $3,000 on the district's Diner's Club for food and beverages to
conduct meetings across San Francisco, although the people with whom she met
and specific district purposes typically were not divulged. "The records
showed that she was often a big tipper with taxpayer funds," the paper
reported. "In more than 40 instances, a taxi or restaurant tip exceeded 20
percent of the final bill."
Ms. Maufas reimbursed the
district in four payments over several months for the personal expenses, even
as she continued to charge personal gas, food, parking and other items to the
Diner's Club card. Her repayments did not include interest. (Source: San
Francisco Chronicle, October 4.)
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UC Davis Treatment
Center Falsifies Progress, Mismanages $175,000.
Internal audits of a
University of California at Davis center responsible for treating abused and
neglected children show that the center falsified program progress and
mismanaged money, The Sacramento Bee reported.
The audits were released in
response to a whistleblower suit filed by Kristen Rogers, an assistant
pediatrics professor. She originally filed complaints with UC officials, but
said that rather than address her concerns, officials retaliated against her.
Ms. Rogers' lawsuit states
that Marilyn Peterson, a longtime director of the UC Davis Child and
Adolescent Abuse Resource Evaluation Diagnostic and Treatment Center, obtained
federal grants to develop courses teaching medical practitioners how to
properly conduct child sexual abuse exams. Ms. Rogers discovered that the
director's report on the progress of her program contained false information,
and improperly charged $175,000.
After the whistleblower
lawsuit was filed, Ms. Peterson allegedly cut Ms. Rogers' pay and violated UC
policy by identifying her as the whistleblower. (Source: The Sacramento Bee,
October 8.)
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Community College
Employee Suspended For Whistle-Blowing.
Peralta Community College District Trustees voted 6-1 Tuesday to suspend a
district employee for providing the media with embarrassing information
requested under the Public Records Act earlier this summer.
The information provided
the Bay Area News Group and the Contra Costa Times to investigate
questionable district management decisions, which included accepting a no-bid
contract to Mark Lindquist, a longtime business partner of the district's
chancellor.
Jennifer Lenahan, the
employee suspended, was the executive assistant to Vice Chancellor Tom Smith.
In addition to suspending Lenahan for two weeks without pay, the Trustees
requested that Lenahan be moved to another position. Upon receiving the Public
Records request, Lenahan compiled a list of payments that had been sent to
Lindquist. She was ordered not to give the list to the media.
In response, district
officials noted: "We don't create documents for [reporters]. He did not ask
for that. We only give him what he asks for."
The Trustee's decision was
the result of Lenahan providing the media with "sensitive and confidential"
information, and that such a "decision to manufacture a document that would
reflect negatively on the chancellor and the district is not acceptable," the
Trustees wrote in their decision. (Source: The Contra Costa Times,
September 28-30.)
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UC Berkeley Spends $3
million to Learn how to Stop Spending.
UC Berkeley will be spending $3 million plus expenses to have Bain & Co. tell
the university how to reduce its spending. Earlier this year, the UC campus
had to make $150 million in budget cuts, and hopes the Boston-based firm will
suggest further cost-effective solutions.
Senator Gloria Romero,
chair of the Senate Education Committee, told the Contra Costa Times: "UC
has hired managers at hundreds of thousands of dollars each. They should have
the expertise on campus already."
According to Senator
Romero, the funds used to pay the high cost of hiring outside consultants
could have been used to make up for state budget cuts, student fee increases,
furloughs and layoffs.
The full $3 million plus
expenses will be paid out over a two-year period, and was taken from the
campus infrastructure fund.
Vice Chancellor Frank Yeary,
who left Citigroup to return to his alma mater said: "Self-diagnosis is not
always the most beneficial method. And the intensity of the effort does not
lend itself to asking our faculty to go offline for six months to help us."
Administrators expect that
the study will improve services. (Source: Contra Costa Times, October
2)
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UC Davis Official
Misrepresented Sex Crimes in Federal Report.
In filing reports required
by federal law, Jennifer Beeman, who retired as the UC Davis Campus Violence
Prevention Program director in June, grossly inflated the number of sex crimes
on the campus in the last three years. Reporting violations can result in a
$25,000 fine per incident.
Ms. Beeman reported 45
forcible sexual offenses in 2005 (actual 21), 68 in 2006 (actual 23) and 69 in
2007 (actual 33). Whether the misreported statistics had played a role in a
nearly $1 million crime-fighting award grant awarded to the UC in 2007 could
not be immediately determined, according to the Sacramento Bee.
University officials said
Ms. Beeman was placed on administrative leave in December 2008 amid separate
allegations that she improperly charged travel expenses to federal violence
prevention grants. (Source: Sacramento Bee, October 2.)
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CSU Backs Out of Lease
Deal, Causing Tax Dollars to Be Squandered.
Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard reported in his September 21
newsletter that California State University officials have backed out of a
lease arrangement with the BOE, resulting in a massive waste of time and money
for the tax agency.
Mr. Leonard wrote: "I have
learned so much since moving from the Legislative Branch to the Executive
Branch. One lesson is that faceless huge bureaucracies can be as unethical and
duplicitous as any individual. Our Board of Equalization has grown
tremendously over the last 20 years with not only the growth of the economy
but the dozens of new 'fee' programs assigned to us by the Legislature. So we
set out to find additional space to house these people.
"After jumping all the
hurdles to get permissions we advertised for new space in Sacramento. We found
a few worthy prospects and spent time reviewing them. In the end we decided
that a building owned by California State University, Sacramento fit our
needs. We told the other bidders the bad news and focused on the CSU property.
We have spent thousands of hours in space planning, building logistics of the
move, and details of the lease. It has now been two months of negotiations
since we chose this property and sent the others away.
"After leading us along for
all this time, some CSUS decision makers have now told us the property is no
longer for lease. It is unethical behavior of saying one thing and then doing
another that gives government bureaucracies such a bad name. And now another
government agency is the victim. It is a good lesson for the folks at the
Board of Equalization to know that government lies."
The property in question
reportedly is on Hornet Drive, south of the CSUS football field. (Source:
Leonard Letter, September 21.)
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University of California
Lays Off Teaching Staff, Hires Lobbyist.
The University of California system has so many budget problems that it has
laid off thousands of employees, furloughed faculty, cut class offerings,
reduced library hours and increased student fees. Still, UC President Mark
Yudof has found $121,000 to hire a new lobbyist, The Sacramento Bee
reports. Vince Stewart, formerly the governor's deputy secretary of higher
education and workforce development, started September 1. His annual salary of
$121,000 currently equates to take-home pay of $111,000 because of furloughs.
He also will receive generous fringe benefits.
The Bee
noted that two weeks ago, Mr. Yudof told students: "We are going to
Sacramento, but when you contact our political leaders, they flat out don't
have the money." The paper asked, "So why spend scarce funds to lobby
legislators who have no money?" A UC spokesman said lobbying is needed to
stave off reductions to the university's current budget. (Source: The
Sacramento Bee, September 24.)
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Despite Budget Problems,
State Universities Approve Paid Sabbaticals for Professors.
In a statement on the
California State University's website, the CSU Board of Trustees say they have
raised fees and ordered furloughs in response to "one of the greatest fiscal
emergencies in the history of California." Still, CSU campuses are adding to
the cost of educating students by continuing to allow faculty to take paid
sabbaticals – including sabbaticals dedicated to writing books on the
afterlife, illustrating children's books, writing operas and painting.
A Cal-Tax staff review of
just a handful of the 23 CSU campuses found:
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CSU Sacramento approved 51 sabbaticals.
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CSU Fullerton approved 43 sabbaticals, including
one for an art professor who will "spend the semester updating his skills set
by developing a story pitch, character description and illustrations to
propose a 32-page children's book."
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CSU Bakersfield approved 14 sabbaticals,
including one for L. Stafford Betty, who will use the time to work on the
book, "Mapping the Afterlife."
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CSU Los Angeles approved 31 sabbaticals.
A memo from the CSU Long
Beach Office of Academic Affairs notes that sabbatical leaves are subject to
furlough rules. "The salary the employee receives during the sabbatical leave
will be reduced by 9.23 percent," the memo says. (Cal-Tax: Wouldn't it
make more sense for the CSU leaders to simply cancel all sabbaticals when the
economic conditions are such that furloughs are necessary?)
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Illegal Fiscal Practices
Found by East San Jose Group Running Charter Schools.
A 45-year-old non-profit
agency running two East San Jose charter schools is being accused of "illegal
fiscal practices" and "misappropriations of funds" by the California Fiscal
Management and Crisis Team. Investigators found that $400,000 in employee
retirement funds were diverted to operate El Portal and Academia Calmecac
charter schools. The agency promised to restore the retirement funds as soon
as possible. (Source: San Jose Mercury News, September 2.)
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Some Teachers Get Pay
Raises While Colleagues Get Laid Off.
The Sacramento Bee reports that some teachers in Sacramento are getting
pay raises, even as other teachers are being laid off due to funding problems.
The paper explains: "Most teachers in the Sacramento area will receive raises
when they return to school. These increases are automatic 'step' increments,
and many teachers don't consider them raises. … Those raises will cost school
districts millions as education budgets continue to shrink." Sacramento City
Unified laid off 281 teachers in May and is discussing furloughs and salary
freezes for the 2010-11 school year. Still, step increases costing $2.5
million already have been approved. Elk Grove Unified laid off seven teachers
in May, and will issue $5.2 million in raises to teachers and counselors for
the upcoming year. (Source: The Sacramento Bee, August 10.)
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Community Colleges Hand
Out Millions in Raises While Eliminating Classes.
The Sacramento Bee reports that the California Community College system
has been handing out pay raises even as it has been "cutting thousands of
classes, reducing hours for part-time teachers and forcing students to wait
longer to get courses they need to graduate, transfer or get jobs." The Los
Rios Community College District, in Sacramento, is cutting 630 class sections
this year, but still plans to spend more than $3 million to give employees
their annual pay raises of 2 percent to 4 percent based on time on the job.
Community colleges in Rocklin, Woodland, Marysville, Los Angeles, Orange
County and San Diego also are handing out pay raises. (Source: The
Sacramento Bee, July 30.)
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Modesto School
Administrator Paid $190,000 to Resign.
On August 3, Modesto City
Schools trustees publicly released the details of a settlement with the
district's former second-in-command, showing that she will be paid $190,000 to
resign.
As part of the settlement,
Debbe Bailey, who served as deputy superintendent of business services for
eight years before she was placed on paid leave in April, agreed not to sue
the district.
The administrator's
problems with the district began after school officials uncovered e-mails
between Ms. Bailey and teachers' union officials. Some of the e-mails were
critical of one of the school superintendents, who called the conduct
disloyal.
Ms. Bailey's last day was
July 31, but she will remain on unpaid leave through July 2010 or until she
can settle her retirement credits. The district will pay for the settlement
through funds in its self-insurance pool for liability claims, officials said.
(Source: The Modesto Bee, August 4.)
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Confessions of a College
Trustee Shopaholic.
Since January 2008, Peralta
College District Trustee Marcie Hodge has charged more than $4,000 in personal
charges to her public credit card.
Ms. Hodge put the following
purchases on her publicly funded card:
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$355 at Marshall Rousso,
a dress shop at the Venetian Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
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$278 at Privilege,
another dress shop at the Venetian.
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$1,763.32 spent on
clothing at four New York Look stores in Manhattan.
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$650 paid to Alpha Kappa
Alpha sorority.
Other charges included
purchases at Best Buy, gift stores in Georgia and Washington, and Coach
Leather of Napa.
After an account of these
expenses was released, Ms. Hodge said the charges shouldn’t be a problem for
the district, because she paid the bills. She said she didn't use a personal
credit card because, "I didn't know this was going to be an issue." She added:
"I ran for the Peralta board to stop waste. I didn't run to live off the
taxpayers."
On July 28, the Peralta
College District Trustees approved a ban on the use of public credit cards for
personal purchases. The ban will be added to the district's ethics policies.
(Source: Oakland Tribune, July 23.)
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UC Riverside
Pays $355,000 to PR Firm While Keeping Communications Employees on Payroll.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports that the University of California
at Riverside is spending big bucks on a no-bid contract with a public relations
firm, even though the university has in-house staff who are paid to perform many
of the same functions.
The paper
reports: "UCR contracted with Riverside-based O'Reilly Public Relations in April
last year to help win Board of Regents approval for the creation of (a) medical
school. Regents approved the school last July, but UCR continued to pay the
O'Reilly firm $20,000 a month through June, the end of the $280,000 contract."
The university
also paid the PR firm $75,000 in a subcontracting arrangement to procure the
lobbying services of a former state lawmaker, who was more effective than the
UC's government relations staff at securing state funding for the medical
school, a school official said. (Source: Riverside Press-Enterprise, July
6.)
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Peralta
Community College Chancellor Sticks Taxpayers With a Big Travel Bill.
Former Assemblyman Elihu Harris, now chancellor of Peralta Community College in
Oakland, has been travelling well at taxpayers' expense. According to the San
Francisco Chronicle, there have been lavish trips where Mr. Harris and his
wife were lodged at five-star hotels, including a three-night stay at a posh New
York hotel at a cost of nearly $1,500. In January, Mr. Harris and his wife spent
nearly $5,000 on one trip alone. The expenses included a stay at a $400-a-night
hotel and $1,000 in unspecified expenditures. (Source: San Francisco
Chronicle, July 17.)
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UC Merced
Spends $1 Million for Michelle Obama to Speak at Graduation.
The tab for the
University of California at Merced for first lady Michelle Obama to speak at the
campus graduation May 16 was $1 million, considerably more than the $100,000
originally budgeted for the event. UC said the cost was absorbed by $500,000
from endowment fund interest and other non-state dollars. (Cal-Tax: While
we are pleased that Michelle Obama was able to be present to give this UC campus
some needed publicity, it seems to us that: the federal government should pay
for the costs associated with the first lady's visits; at a time of severe
budget problems, having a general fund agency spending big bucks is unseemly;
and the UC needs to abandon the charade of funds coming from other sources. The
public knows that money is fungible, and the "non-state funds" spent on this
event could have been used to backfill some of the cuts made in the university's
budget that affect the educational program.)
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State
University Chancellor Hires Lobbyists Without Competitive Bids.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports: "California State University
Chancellor Charles Reed has retained high-priced lobbyists without competitive
bidding, even though CSU has a Sacramento office where it runs a $1.1
million-a-year, in-house lobbying unit whose state employees monitor CSU-related
bills and follow state budget hearings. In the last decade, the university
system has paid more than $2 million in public funds to two Sacramento lobbying
firms … to influence the policies and budget decisions of the governor and state
lawmakers. At a time of state budget cuts, student tuition hikes, canceled
classes, faculty hiring freezes and layoffs, CSU's lobbyists have been paid to
defeat bills designed to shed more light on CSU executive salaries and perks as
well as public records."
The paper noted
that the outside lobbyists were paid not just to work on CSU-related bills, but
also "to monitor nearly a dozen bills that had little or no direct connection to
the university, including legislation on affordable housing for Iraq veterans,
money laundering, terrorism, sex offenders and sacred Indian grounds."
Nearly $400,000
was paid to the two lobbying firms as retainer fees during months of the year
when they performed no services for the CSU system regarding administrative or
legislative actions.
"There is no
need for these lobbyists," Senator Gloria Romero said. "There is no need for us
to spend this money." (Source: San Francisco Chronicle, July 6.)
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Are School
Tax Dollars Wasted in Chaotic Classrooms?
Voters assume
their tax dollars that go to schools are being spent to educate students. That
is not always the case. In Contra Costa County, a Clayton High School math class
is a good example.
The school
suspended a girl for videotaping in the class, despite the fact that she was
videotaping in order to prove that the classroom was out of control, and was not
a suitable learning environment – a complaint she previously made multiple times
to school officials, who did nothing to address the problem.
In the
third-period algebra class, the teacher couldn't control students, who were
throwing things and making a ruckus every day. Students told the Contra Costa
Times that shortly after Christmas, someone put Play-Doh in the microwave,
causing the substance to explode. This resulted in a smoke-filled classroom that
the teacher refused to air out. In other classes taught by the same teacher,
students reportedly lit trash can fires and smoked cigarettes and marijuana in
the classroom.
Having been told
about this state of affairs by her daughter, Allison Moore alerted the school
administration to the problem. By May 15, with less than a month left in the
school year, the classroom atmosphere had not improved, Ms. Moore said. That
morning, when students flicked the lights on and off and began a paper-ball
fight with no intervention by the teacher, Ms. Moore's daughter caught the chaos
on video with her cell phone.
When the video
footage was sent to the acting principal, Dick Nicoll, by a friend of Ms. Moore,
the acting principal suspended the daughter for two days. The suspension notice
said she "had participated in major paper throwing," which her parent said is a
false allegation.
Five other
students throwing paper were suspended, but three shown in the video doing the
same were not, Ms. Moore said. School officials initially upheld Ms. Moore's
daughter's suspension, but changed their mind after the incident was widely
reported in the media.
(Cal-Tax:
We suspect this is not an isolated incident. The Legislature should look into
how to improve the learning environment in classrooms.) (Source: Contra Costa
Times, June 23.)
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To Address
School Officials' Error, District Asks Kids to Come Back to Class for 34 Days.
Summer vacation may be delayed more than a month for many students in Southern
California.
The
Associated Press reported that students at Dickson Elementary in Chino and
Rolling Ridge Elementary in Chino Hills were supposed to be done with school
this week, but are being asked to spend another 34 days in the classroom so the
school district will not lose $7 million in state funds.
The problem is
that the schools shortened school days by 5 minutes to 10 minutes on 34
occasions to give teachers more time to prepare for upcoming classes. Under
state law, a day that is a few minutes too short doesn't count at all toward the
required number of school days. So in order for the district to receive state
funding for the shortened days, district officials said all 34 days must be made
up, even though the time missed could be made up in one or two school days. The
extra instructional days will cost roughly $200,000 total, and will be packed
with art, music, experiments and other activities that students tend to enjoy
more than solving quadratic equations or conjugating verbs.
The school
officials' blunder affects approximately 500 students in the fourth through
eighth grades. However, media reports indicate that many parents are planning to
let their children take planned summer vacations, and are not going to force
their kids into hot classrooms for more than a month to make up for the timing
mistake, which has been admitted by an associate superintendent who is retiring
this year.
Assemblyman Curt
Hagman has introduced legislation (AB
X3 35) that would allow the district to receive full state
funding if it makes up the time with two extra school days. (Source:
Associated Press, June 16.)
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Vallejo
Superintendent and Spokesman on Paid Leave.
Vallejo's school
board voted to place district Superintendent Mary Bull and district spokesman
Jason Hodge on paid leave pending the results of an investigation for
unconfirmed claims of a hostile work environment.
Neither school
employee would comment on their recent absences, and Vallejo City Unified School
District Board President Cris Villanueva would not comment on the specifics of
the board's action or the source for the investigation.
Ms. Bull was
hired in September 2007, and is paid $200,000 per year. Mr. Hodge is paid
$100,000 per year. Both will continue to collect pay despite their leave.
Vallejo schools
are still under partial state control after the district needed a $60 million
bailout in 2004 due to its fiscal collapse.
Before coming on
board with the Vallejo school district, Ms. Bull was employed as curriculum
director of Carmel Unified School District, where she faced a number of verbal
abuse lawsuits. (Source: Contra Costa Times, June 16.)
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San Diego
School Officials Junket on Federal Funds.
While San Diego
Unified School District's schools were attempting to survive a $106 million
deficit, school administrators spent more than $2,000 in federal funding for
disadvantaged students to send Superintendent Terry Grier to a conference in
Washington, D.C., possibly violating federal regulations that prohibit such
funds from being used for lobbying.
Several district
staff and trustees who accompanied Mr. Grier enjoyed more than $550 in meals,
which included a hefty tab at a posh Georgetown restaurant.
Previously, Mr.
Grier's contract limited him to a $25 meal limit. However, his contract was
amended last year to allow for "reasonable out-of-pocket costs," with no
specific limit. In regards to the change, Mr. Grier commented, "Have you ever
tried to eat on $25?"
The
superintendent said the trip may save their district millions of dollars through
their lobbying efforts to sway Governor Schwarzenegger to send stimulus money to
schools. District Spokesman Bernie Rhinerson said district officials were able
to build valuable relationships with legislators and their staff while in D.C.,
and that focusing on meal expenses was "losing the point."
School board
members Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans also have lobbied on behalf of the
district, but when they traveled to Sacramento, they paid for their own meals.
Mr. Barrera called the district's expenses while in D.C. "just not appropriate."
Deputy
Superintendent Chuck Morris told the Voice of San Diego: "I screwed it
up. I should've have done that." Mr. Morris said he originally approved the
spending thinking that the conference was related to federal funding for
disadvantaged students. He said he will bill the superintendent's office to
correct the error. (Source: Voice of San Diego, June 9.)
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School Spent
Funds for Race-Based Rallies.
The Elk Grove
Unified School District in southern Sacramento County has been segregating
students based on race for rallies prior to taking state exams. The rallies,
held in April, separated African-American, Pacific Islander, Asian, Latino and
white students. After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the Pacific Legal
Foundation, the district said it will abandon the practice. "It's surprising
that in this day and age a school district would make a distinction of students
based on race," Ralph Kasarda, an attorney for the legal foundation, told The
Sacramento Bee.
Superintendent
Steven Ladd said he is recommending that district trustees amend board policy to
ban the separation of students by race "for educational opportunities or
activities." The board is expected to take up the issue this summer. (Source:
The Sacramento Bee, June 11.)
-
Sacramento
Grand Jury Critical of School District Land Purchase.
In a report
filed May 27, a Sacramento grand jury is highly critical of the Natomas Unified
School District for purchasing 41 acres of farmland for $13.4 million. The grand
jury said the property was worth $2 million.
The grand jury
pointed out that the land was not incorporated, had a number of environmental
issues, is part of a state flood plain and is partially protected under the
Endangered Species Act and the Williamson Act.
According to the
grand jury, school officials told the appraiser to use certain assumptions that
greatly inflated the appraisal. Also, the superintendent was soliciting funds
for a school foundation and had approached a partner with the sellers of the
land.
-
Los Angeles Unified Policy to Dictate What Students Eat Is a Failure.
It comes as no surprise
that an effort by Los Angeles Unified School District to tell students what they
should eat is a failure. An audit released May 5 by the district's inspector
general found that a school policy to restrict student access to certain foods
was a dud, as "most schools were not in compliance with the LAUSD's (2002)
Motions to Promote Healthy Beverage Sales and Obesity Prevention." The audit
team visited 70 schools sites to gather data. (Source: Los Angeles Unified
School District, Office of the Inspector General.)
-
Los Angeles School
District Pays Teachers Not to Teach.
In an excellent investigative
piece published May 6, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Los
Angeles Unified School District is paying approximately 160 teachers and other
school staff not to teach, giving them their full pay while allegations of
misconduct – including alleged sexual contact with students, harassment, theft
and drug possession – are resolved. "All told, they collect about $10 million in
salaries per year – even as the district is contemplating widespread layoffs of
teachers because of a financial shortfall," the Times reported.
The school district refers to
these employees as being "housed," and typically places them in district offices
where they are required to show up during regular school hours, but are not
given any responsibilities. They have the same schedules as teachers, with
30-minute lunch breaks and school holidays off, but perform no work.
This situation was created by
an agreement between the district and the teachers' union. Under the agreement,
the "housed" teachers cannot be assigned tasks such as making photocopies,
stuffing envelopes or mowing a school's baseball field.
One of the teachers
interviewed by the Times complained that he has been "housed" for more
than two months, but has not been informed why he was removed from his
ninth-grade teaching duties.
In a case highlighted by the
paper, teacher Matthew Kim has been "housed" with pay and benefits for seven
years. The Times noted that the 41-year-old, who suffers from cerebral
palsy, "has been accused of inappropriate behavior with two aides and six
students, including groping them with his left arm, the one limb over which he
has limited control." As suits, countersuits and appeals have been winding
through the district's bureaucracy and the courts, the district has spent more
than $2 million in salary and legal costs in this case alone. Two weeks ago, the
school district decided that Mr. Kim would be allowed to stay home – rather than
report to a district office – and still will be paid. (Source: Los Angeles
Times, May 6.)
-
Kudos to Two California
Schools. Bravo for
tax dollars being well spent. Two California schools won the National Science
Bowl competitions May 4 in Washington, D.C.
Mira Loma High School, a
school in the San Juan Unified School District in suburban Sacramento, won the
high school division, defeating Lexington High School of Massachusetts. In the
intermediate school division, Hopkins Junior High School, in the Fremont Unified
School District in Southern Alameda County, came home with top honors. (Source:
The Sacramento Bee, May 5.)
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School District Paid
$720,000 for Pizza Machine, Then Took Pizza Off School Menu.
The San Jose Unified School
District paid $720,000 in 2006 for a machine that was supposed to churn out 800
pizzas a day to sell on various campuses in the district. But the San Jose
Mercury News reports that the machine has made only 2,000 or so pizzas in
the two years it has been in place. (Cal-Tax: At a cost that works out to
$360 per pizza, let's hope the kids got extra cheese and generous toppings.)
One reason for the low output
is that the machine breaks down frequently. In the words of a district
spokeswoman, it is "sensitive."
Another problem, apparently
unforeseen by the officials who approved the purchase: the district doesn't have
enough trucks to deliver hot pizza to different campuses in time for lunch, and
late deliveries aren't feasible since students have a strictly enforced time
period for lunch.
Lastly, the district made an
interesting management decision and took pizza off the daily menu shortly after
it purchased the costly pizza machine.
Now, the machine is used on a
very limited basis – one day a week, for Friday "pizza parties" that rotate
among the district's 26 elementary schools. (Source: San Jose Mercury News,
April 26.)
-
Schools Spent $3.7 Million on Superintendent "Buyouts."
School districts throughout the state have spent $3.7 million in recent years to
pay superintendents to leave, according to data compiled by Assemblyman Tony
Mendoza. The Democratic assemblyman has introduced legislation,
AB 164, to eliminate "buyout"
provisions from superintendents' contracts. He cited 13 buyouts that have been
approved recently, in just about every region of the state. So far, the bill has
received very little support from the legislator's colleagues, and it appears to
be dead for the year.
-
Los Angeles Schools Using
Costly Outside Consultants.
The Los Angeles Daily News reports: "An audit detailing Los Angeles
Unified's reliance on costly outside consultants to build schools has raised
such concern for Superintendent Ramon Cortines that he called in a former bank
executive to review the findings."
The story continued:
"According to district sources, the audit found that $186 million was paid to
1,277 outside consultants in 2006-07, averaging $145,653 per person that year.
The audit's findings mirrored an earlier analysis by the Daily News that
found the district spent $182 million on 849 consultants – about $215,000 each –
in the 2007-08 year."
"For almost 10 years, we've
been telling the district that it's a waste of money to use contractors and not
district employees," said Connie Moreno, a representative for the California
School Employees Association. "We've seen Facilities Division management take
work away from district employees and give it to their contractors." (Cal-Tax:
While the union is concerned primarily about union jobs, taxpayers should be
concerned that there doesn't appear to be enough scrutiny of the spending. If
contractors are being used to replace more expensive government workers, thereby
saving money for taxpayers, that would be laudable. If they are simply adding to
the cost of government, taking on duties that public employees still are being
paid to perform, then something needs to change.) (Source: Los Angeles Daily
News, March 26.)
-
Follow-Up: Alum Rock School District Repeals Superintendent's Buyout.
Last year, the Alum Rock
School District gave former Superintendent Norma Martinez a $500,000 buyout,
approved at an illegal December board meeting (see Cal-Taxletter of
December 5, 2008). This created a public outrage, and as a result, new members
of the school board have declared the agreement non-existent because it was
adopted illegally (before the December meeting where the buyout was approved,
the contract was not listed on the agenda). (Source: San Jose Mercury News,
February 8.) (Cal-Tax: Publicity about outrageous government spending
sometimes gets results.)
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Fresno's Accounting Errors Led to $34 Million in Overpayments to Schools.
An accounting error by the Fresno County Auditor's Office led to the county
overpaying schools $34 million in property tax revenue over four years, the
Fresno Bee reports.
"The
county will be sending a letter to the school districts in the next few days
telling them how much they have to pay back," the newspaper reported. "Although
the Auditor's Office first notified the Fresno County Office of Education about
the possibility of repayment last April, the county needed to figure out how
much was owed before contacting the school districts."
Ultimately, the state will repay the schools. The Bee explained:
"Whenever property tax revenues come in lower than budgeted, the state is
required to make up the difference to school districts. Because the county
overpaid property tax revenues to local districts, the state didn't have to kick
in any money during the past four years. Now that the overpayment has been
uncovered, the state is obligated to reimburse the districts." (Source:
Fresno Bee, February 3.)
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Kern County Taxpayers Paying Part of Teachers' Union President's Salary.
Taxpayers in the
37,000-student Kern Union High School District are paying 60 percent of local
teachers' union President Mitch Olsen's salary. Mr. Olsen is working for the
union full-time and does not teach any classes.
School board member Ken Mettler is suggesting that the union, which he says
receives $1.6 million in dues, pick up the full tab. Mr. Olsen said he would not
respond to comments by one board member, but would deal with the board as a
whole.
(Cal-Tax:
We do not believe this situation is unique to Kern High School District. At
a time when schools are making cuts in instructional services to students, it is
outrageous that taxpayers are funding the operations of a flush teachers' union.
In fact, it is inappropriate at any time.) (Source: Bakersfield Californian,
January 27.)
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Community College Chancellor May Get 18 Percent Raise, Retroactive to July.
Budget problems? What budget problems? The Contra Costa Community College
District is scheduled to vote January 28 on whether to give the district's
chancellor an 18 percent raise, increasing her current $209,000 salary to
$247,000. The raise would be retroactive to July 1 of last year. The chancellor,
Helen Benjamin, also receives generous fringe benefits as compensation for
overseeing the three-college district. The district's board members said the
raise is intended to keep Ms. Benjamin from leaving for a higher-paying job, and
they said her salary is lower than nearly every other Bay Area chancellor's pay.
(Source: Contra Costa Times, January 20.) (Cal-Tax: The district's
logic makes no sense. If the pay is intended to keep the chancellor there, why
is the raise retroactive to a period of several months that she already worked?
It also is troubling when taxpayer-funded agencies get into bidding wars, real
or imagined, because the taxpayers will lose that battle every time.)
-
UC
Davis Turns Private-Sector Food Servers Into Government Employees.
The University of California at Davis has chosen to make a transition that has
turned hundreds of private-sector workers into UC employees, adding to the
university's spending for salaries and fringe benefits. On January 2, nearly 200
food-service workers and 400 student employees received their first paychecks
from UC Davis, having transitioned from working for Sodexo Inc., which continues
to have a four-year contract to manage the campus' general food service program.
The contract calls for the company to be paid approximately $23 million a year.
In
2006, some workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees complained about a lack of union representation for the workers, and
said the employees deserved better pay and health care benefits. The next year,
UC Davis and Sodexo agreed to provide higher pay and fringe benefits, thereby
increasing the cost to taxpayers at a time when the state budget is far out of
balance.
On
January 14, the UC Board of Regents announced a plan to reduce enrollment of new
California resident freshmen by 2,300 students systemwide for the 2009-10
academic year in order to "cope with insufficient state funding." (Sources:
The Sacramento Bee, January 17; University of California Board of Regents,
January 14.)
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Ventura County Schools Pay $396,000 for Lobbyists, Get Little in Return.
The Ventura County Board
of Education voted unanimously January 9 to terminate its contracts with two
lobbying firms, acknowledging that the $396,000 spent over the past 18 months
has yielded no benefit for students. One of the only accomplishments reported by
the lobbyists was setting up a meeting last month among county staff, school
trustees and a Wal-Mart representative to discuss possible funding
opportunities, none of which have yet been realized.
It
takes three months to cancel the contracts, so the total cost will grow to
approximately $443,000. The money comes from a $1 million pot of funds that
originally was intended to pay for technology upgrades in the schools, including
upgrades that would benefit students in vocational education programs. (Cal-Tax:
We wonder how many other school districts are spending thousands of dollars on
lobbyists who aren't producing any revenue that the schools wouldn't receive
even without the lobbying. We also congratulate the Ventura board for doing the
right thing, even if it took a major budget problem and 18 months of
overspending to come to the proper conclusion.) (Source: Ventura County Star,
January 10.)
