June 22, 2015
Dear
School Board Members In All Georgia School Districts:
If you were using education
funds to pay the salaries of executives at your local chamber of commerce,
classifying the salaries in your budget as banking fees, serving on a committee
that put in writing its willingness to lobby a judge in a tax apportionment lawsuit,
paying an organization that published a report telling you they would support
your effort to defeat the charter school constitutional amendment, and
blatantly violating the Georgia Open Records Act, do you think the Georgia
Department of Education and the Georgia Attorney General would look the other
way?
What if, when these actions were made public,
it was decided to “fix” the problem by creating a new entity called PG PFE?
Would you then enter into a contract with PG PFE to pay the salaries of its
employees, even if it had NO employees? Would you sign a contract with
and pay this entity that has no employees because it claims it could ENSURE that
public schools achieve award-winning success? Would you pay this entity with no
employees to provide businesses and residents with competitive infrastructure
capacity? (Is building bridges a school board responsibility?) Would you
violate the Open Records Act by saying you were not the owner of your own
documents?
When
asked why they were paying the salaries of Gwinnett Chamber executives, GCPS
released this statement:
Background
on Gwinnett County Public Schools’ Involvement in Partnership Gwinnett –
February 2012
In
2006, Gwinnett County did not have a coherent, proactive focus on economic development.
As a result, the county frequently lost new business to neighboring cities and
states with a more aggressive and focused economic development posture.
Additionally, insufficient attention was being paid to encouraging expansion of
local businesses already operating in the county. The consequence for Gwinnett
was that the county’s tax base was not as robust as it needed to be in order to
meet the demands of Gwinnett’s growing and changing population.
The
Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce responded to this negative reality by establishing
an innovative economic development vehicle within the Chamber. Partnership
Gwinnett was comprised of the Chamber, Gwinnett County Government, the Gwinnett
healthcare community, and numerous local businesses and community-based
organizations. Realizing the highly favorable reputation of Gwinnett County
Public Schools and its positive impact in attracting and retaining businesses
for the county, the Chamber invited the school district to be actively involved
in Partnership Gwinnett.
Due
to the funding restrictions and limitations on a local school district, GCPS
could not and did not make a monetary contribution to Partnership Gwinnett. The
funds we allocated to support Partnership Gwinnett had to be dedicated to
expenditures for which the district received a service in return. Therefore, we
elected to fund two positions for the Partnership Gwinnett initiative devoted
fulltime to economic development strategies. Increasing the county’s
business/industry tax base benefits all in the county. It promotes innovation,
creates jobs, increases the county’s wealth, and generates revenue that is
sorely needed to fund the services provided by entities like Gwinnett County
Government and Gwinnett County Public Schools.
In
response to the Chamber’s invitation, CEO/Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks
approached the Gwinnett County Board of Education about the district
appropriately joining the Partnership Gwinnett initiative. The Board agreed
with the benefits outlined and the funding approach identified. The Board
insisted that the funding be done on an annual basis and that the benefits of
the district’s involvement be evaluated each year.
With
the economic downturn that struck in 2007-08 and continues today, the
significant value of Partnership Gwinnett to our county’s economic vitality has
become even more apparent. In its first five years, Partnership Gwinnett
generated over $800 million in economic development, boosting the school
district’s revenue from the local tax base by more than $6 million. The
proactive and productive economic development posture for Gwinnett County
continues to reap benefits for the school district, which has been able to
balance its budget without raising the operational millage rate during these
difficult economic times. Unfortunately, this is not a joke.
An open records request to GCPS
turned up not one single shred of paper except for a chamber annual report to
substantiate their claim that they received $6,000,000 in return for paying
chamber salaries.
“As
indicated in our earlier conversation, these types of payroll expenditures do
not appear to meet the criteria in Official Code of Georgia Annotated §20-2-411
which states, "The school funds shall be used to pay the salaries of
personnel and to pay for the utilization of school facilities and for no other
purpose."
We
recommend the Department of Education seek legal advice from the State Attorney
General's office regarding the legality of these types of expenditures and take
appropriate action with Gwinnett County Board of Education based on the
outcome.”
Suzanne
L. Hatfield, CPA, CGFM
Deputy
Director
Department
of Audits and Accounts
Education
Audit Division
There are no minutes of a
meeting of the school board to document what was discussed even though board
members said they approved the plan and insisted that the benefits of the
district’s involvement be evaluated each year. “It was not a matter that we
took a vote on because, according to policy, there are some things I can do,”
GCPS Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks said in an interview with the AJC. Open
records requests show no evaluation was ever done, despite the board’s
insistence that it be done annually. GCPS Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks has a
spending limit of $1 million. By comparison, the State School Superintendent
has a spending limit of only $50,000.
After a complaint was filed with the Georgia
Department of Education in 2012, then-Georgia School Superintendent John Barge
requested that an auditor review the payments GCPS had made for salaries of
Gwinnett Chamber employees, using education funds. This is her 9-13-12 email
Thursday, November 01, 2012
7:48 PM To: Dennis Dunn (ddunn@law.ga.gov) Subject: FW: Funding of Two
Positions at Partnership Gwinnett by Gwinnett County Public Schools Dear
Dennis: In August, the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) received an
inquiry from a concerned citizen related to the appropriateness of Gwinnett
County Public Schools (GCPS) paying the salaries of two employees at the
Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. Later that month, in accordance with our general
practice, this inquiry was forwarded to the Department of Audits and Accounts
(DOA) for review as part of the annual financial audit of the school district.
In September the DOA responded indicating that, since GCSS was not denying the
payments were made to the local Chamber of Commerce, it did not believe any
additional review by the Department of Audits and Accounts would provide any
additional assurances regarding the propriety of these types of expenditures.
The DOA went on to recommend that GaDOE seek legal advice from the State
Attorney General's office about the legality of these expenditures since they
"appear" to violate O.C.G.A. Section 20-2-411. Following receipt of the
DOA's response, staff at GaDOE and GCPS began communications about these
expenses. During these discussions we learned, for example, that the two
employees were actually economic development specialists with Partnership
Gwinnett, Inc., which is an initiative of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. Our
communications culminated in GCPS submitting written documentation outlining
the nature, purpose and justification for these expenses. For your information
and consideration, I have attached hereto a copy of the school district's
written response, including a subsequent email from CFO Rick Cost. While the Attorney General's office has
previously opined about the use of taxpayer funds to pay dues to the Chamber of
Commerce, it appears that the issue presented here has not been previously
addressed. Accordingly, I write to ask for your guidance concerning the
appropriateness of these expenses. If you need additional information or
a more formal request for guidance, please let me know. Sincerely, Jennifer
Hackemeyer General Counsel Georgia Department of Education
More
details:
Did GCPS classify the chamber’s salary payments in their budget as
banking fees?
Reporting department -
Financial Services (300002-9990) on page 648.
Page 648, item 3000002-9990
Financial Services (3000002-9990-NA) FY2012 actual $258,771 FY2013 proposed
$245,687 FY2013 Supt. Recommended: $245,687 Description: Banking fees and services for central
office and local schools (includes investment advisor*)
*The investment advisor category was not for chamber
salaries.
Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks, School Board member Louise Radloff and GCPS
Principal Karensa Wing served on a Partnership Gwinnett committee that put in writing their willingness to lobby the
judge in the largest tax apportionment lawsuit in Georgia history. That
judge was subsequently forced from the bench by the Judicial Qualifications
Commission for an unrelated matter.
The contract between GCPS and
Partnership Gwinnett PFE (PG PFE) claims that in return for GCPS paying the salaries of employees who
don’t even work for Partnership Gwinnett PFE (the employees whose
salaries are being paid actually work for the Gwinnett Chamber), GCPS will
receive services including:
**If PG PFE can ensure a school district continues to
achieve award-winning results, shouldn’t ALL school districts in Georgia contract with them? ***How does an organization with no
employees provide infrastructure capacity and develop public spaces? Is this
organization with no employees really building bridges and parks? Why would a
school district pay them to do that?
PG PFE will ensure that public
schools continue to achieve award-winning success.**
PG PFE will provide businesses and residents
with competitive infrastructure capacity; foster next-generation and trusted
leadership capacity; and develop dynamic public spaces and activity centers.***
“In
its first five years, Partnership Gwinnett generated over $800 million in
economic development, boosting the school district’s revenue from the local tax
base by more than $6 million. “
--- Gwinnett County School
Board
“Each
party to this Agreement shall comply with all applicable local, State, and
Federal statutes, ordinances, rules, and regulations.”
—- Contract between GCPS and
Partnership Gwinnett PFE.
“Since
SACS CASI is not an investigative agency and this issue has been addressed by
the Georgia Department of Audits at the request of the Georgia Department of
Education and subsequently referred to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office
for an opinion, AdvancED will rely upon that agency to make a determination.
The opinion of the Attorney General will guide AdvancED as to next steps if
appropriate.”
—- Mike Bryans, AdvancED Georgia State Director
cc: Dr. Mark Elgart, AdvancED
President/CEO, Annette Bohling, AdvancED Chief Accreditation Officer, Dr. Billy
Floyd, AdvancED Southeast Regional Director
“We
have no legal authority to take enforcement action regarding a school
districts’ use of local education funds. Have you talked to Danny Porter?”
—- Jennifer Hackemeyer, General
Counsel, Georgia Department of Education
“I
have researched it thoroughly. Just because it violates the [Georgia]
constitution, it doesn’t mean there’s a penalty. Even if I can’t [do anything],
the Department of Education can.”
—- Danny Porter, Gwinnett
District Attorney
“I
have been fighting Wilbanks on everything. You know how powerful these people
are, right? I can’t even get a bill through against these people. They control
everything. Are the GBI or FBI involved in this?”
—- Renee Unterman, State
Senator
“I
can’t think of a better investment, save educating the kids.
—- Alvin Wilbanks, GCPS
Superintendent
DO
YOU? why is it a BIG SECRET?
* The
public is not allowed to know what the Attorney General told DOE. If it’s
LEGAL, “It’s really interesting to criticize my office for not taking action when
we weren’t given the documents. We asked for the documents.”
—- Sam Olens, Georgia Attorney General - May, 4, 2015
“The
use of school tax money for the chamber’s work is based on both the
Constitution and practical experience. An amendment to the state Constitution,
approved by voters in November 2008, authorizes local boards of education to
use tax funds for redevelopment purposes and programs.** The chamber is no
different than other companies who provide services, such as financial
advisors, investment managers, computer programmers, custodians,
groundskeepers, etc. We are confident that any objective review of the facts
will lead to a conclusion that the expenditures in question are legal,
justified and proper.” —- Rick Cost, CFO,
GCPS
**The amendment
does NOT allow the use of education funds in this manner
Source:
GEORGIA WATCHDOGS NEWS June 22, 2015
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