Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:32:07 -0800
From: Gene
Subject: State auditor recommends Chatham School board take disciplinary action against school superintendent
More information on the state auditor’s investigative report. The report is several pages long, so I am just posting the auditor’s recommendation and pertinent notes here.
You can read the entire State Auditor’s Investigative report at
http://www.ncauditor.net/EPSWeb/Reports/Investigative/INV-2011-0369.pdf
Auditor’s recommendation
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association should terminate its agreement with Chatham County Schools to prevent future transfers of funds to Chatham County Schools on behalf of the Associate Commissioner. The Athletic Association’s Board of Directors should exercise greater oversight and due diligence regarding agreements involving senior Athletic Association employees. The Athletic Association’s Board should also consider taking disciplinary action against the Commissioner who initiated the arrangement and Associate Commissioner who benefited from it.
Chatham County Schools should remove the Associate Commissioner from its employment payroll and should not make any additional contributions to the Retirement System on behalf of the Athletic Association’s Associate Commissioner. The Chatham County Board of Education should exercise greater due diligence when approving individuals for employment with Chatham County Schools who have unusual position titles or responsibilities. The Chatham County Board of Education should also consider taking disciplinary action against the Superintendent for facilitating the approval of the arrangement.
It appears that the State auditor did not find the responses from Chatham County Schools and the NCHSAA to be very truthful –
State Auditor’s Note
Consistent with our standard practice, the Office of the State Auditor provided draft reports to the governing boards of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (Athletic Association) and Chatham County Schools. A primary purpose of providing draft reports to responsible officials is to ensure that our reports are complete and objective. An equally important objective of providing draft reports to responsible officials is to include in the final report the corrective action the organization has taken or plans to take in response to the report’s findings and recommendations.
Both the Athletic Association and Chatham County Schools elected to engage legal counsel to provide responses to our investigative report. Instead of an outline of corrective action, the responses from both attorneys attempt to rationalize the conduct of the Athletic Association and Chatham County Schools. Moreover, the responses include statements or implications that are misleading or inaccurate and warrant the following comments.
Here is some pertinent information from the auditor’s notes about Chatham County Schools response.
The response also claims that “As soon as the Board learned that the Retirement System did not approve of the arrangement…, the Board voluntarily corrected the mistake” and “When questions were raised, the Superintendent immediately called the Retirement System and learned, for the first time, that the arrangement was viewed differently…The Board and NCHSAA then immediately and voluntarily rescinded the contract.” As such, the response attempts to indicate that Chatham County Schools proactively contacted the Retirement System. To the contrary, no such contact occurred until almost a year after the arrangement commenced and after we met with the Superintendent as part of our investigation on April 7, 2011.
Chatham County Schools should have performed its due diligence and requested approval from the Retirement System; the failure to seek such approval suggests intentional deception or, in a light most favorable to Chatham County Schools, negligence.
The response on behalf of Chatham County Schools also attempts to portray the arrangement as “an open and transparent” matter. The response cites that the Chatham County Schools website “clearly stated” the Associate Commissioner’s “role” and “affiliation with the NCHSAA…for easy public access.” However, the only references to the Associate Commissioner are buried within the “Personnel Agendas” and “Meeting Files” for the specific Board meeting at which the arrangement was approved.