Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 8, 2006 FRINGE BENEFITS

Looking for a new job? Willing to commute?

From the Philadelphia Inquirer...

Schools officials say she flew in weekly from Chicago, lived in Center City, and rented a car - all on the district's dime.

By Ken Dilanian
Inquirer Staff Writer

For the last four years, the Philadelphia School District has paid a senior aide to fly to work each week from her home in Chicago, live in a district-funded Center City apartment, rent a sports car, and, in one case, use the health club at a New York hotel.

Yesterday, more than four months after The Inquirer first asked for district expense records, officials disclosed that the employee, Cozette M. Buckney - a special assistant to Superintendent Paul Vallas - had racked up more than $70,000 in expenses since she was hired under an extraordinary arrangement in July 2002.

School district officials said yesterday that Vallas, who worked closely with Buckney in Chicago, agreed to pay her commuting and living expenses as an exception to district policies.

But, Vallas said, he later found that some of Buckney's expenses were "inappropriate."

He ordered her to repay $19,286 for rental cars, room service, and airline change fees, and the two agreed that she would leave the district at the end of June.

"I assume if you're going to rent cars, you're going to rent conservative cars," he said. She preferred Ford Mustangs.

"I thought that [the expenses] were excessive. There was a lack of judgment, and that's unacceptable to me."

Reached yesterday at her home in Chicago, Buckney said she did not quarrel with Vallas' decision, though she said she never intended to take advantage of the school district. She said she needed to remain in Chicago to be with her ailing husband, who died last summer.

Asked why she didn't move to Philadelphia after that, she said: "Well, Paul only has a year left on his contract, so I didn't feel it was worth moving."

This disclosure comes at a difficult time for school district finances. Last week, the district closed a budget deficit in part by increasing bus fees by $36 per year for its mostly low-income student body.

Buckney served as Vallas' chief of staff when he ran Chicago schools, and also handled labor negotiations.

Vallas said he wanted to bring her in as a labor negotiator in Philadelphia.

When she did not want to move, he decided to cut her initial salary in half - to about $75,000 a year - make her a part-time employee, and pay travel and living expenses.

Vallas said it was perfectly appropriate to allow Buckney to continue to live in Chicago for nearly four years after she was hired, to pay her travel expenses between Chicago and Philadelphia, and to pay $1,400 a month for an apartment next to school district headquarters.

"She's done a splendid job managing our relationship with the unions," he said.

What she did wrong, district officials said, was to submit inappropriate and excessive expenses, such as a $134.54 bill for spa services at the New York Hilton while she was staying there during labor negotiations in 2004.

Asked about that, Buckney said the charges represented daily gym workouts. "That never should have been submitted," she said.

Among the other charges that raised red flags were car rentals in Philadelphia costing as much as $445 for five days. The bills don't name the car, but Buckney said she often rented a Mustang.

"They determined that was inappropriate, and I agreed to repay the money," she said.

She also billed the district to park her car at Chicago airports while she was working in Philadelphia and for taxi services to and from the Philadelphia airport.

All told, district officials asked her to repay $11,726 for car rentals, $5,642 for parking, $1,185 for taxis, and $733 for miscellaneous expenses.

Vallas said the district demanded repayment of the $19,286 because Buckney had "abused [our] trust" by billing for extravagances.

The remainder of the $70,000 included such expenses as airfare, apartment rental, conferences, and hotel bills for negotiating sessions in New York.

Buckney actually received more than $70,000 in expenses, but district officials couldn't say exactly how much. They said they couldn't find any expense records from 2002.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who has also requested documents about Buckney, said the arrangement raised a host of questions.

"It's extraordinary that after four years she would be described as so unique that we couldn't find somebody in this region who would live here and do a good job," he said.

Neither Vallas nor other district officials could explain why Buckney's expense practices went unchallenged for nearly four years.

"I think the chief financial officer should have been more aggressive about reviewing expenses," Vallas said.

For much of Buckney's tenure, the chief financial officer was Michael Harris, now a vice president at the University of Pennsylvania. Harris did not respond to a phone message left at his office.

Folasade Olanipekun, who replaced him in February 2005, said she flagged Buckney's records when she began reviewing expense reimbursements in December.

"It's never happening again, I'll tell you that," Olanipekun said.

Buckney repaid the money Feb. 17, nearly a month after The Inquirer made its request for expense records.

But the district then waited nearly four months - just after the controller issued a subpoena for the records - before disclosing her expenses.

Vallas promised that the school district would fulfill its obligations under the state right-to-know law by turning over expense records for all senior managers. He said he believed the records would show no other inappropriate expenses.

Among Buckney's expenses that were not challenged, according to school district records, was a $259 dinner at the Manhattan Ocean Club on the Upper West Side of New York on May 2, 2003.

Present were Buckney, teachers' union officials Ted Kirsch and Jerry Jordan - and Vallas.

Waiting for Records

In January, The Inquirer requested public records on travel and other expenses from the Philadelphia School District. More than four months later, the district still has not provided them.

The district provided only a spreadsheet listing dollars paid - without any explanation of how the money was spent. Yesterday, after also receiving a subpoena from City Controller Alan Butkovitz, district officials called a reporter to a meeting and explained that a senior aide to Superintendent Paul Vallas would pay back nearly $20,000 in questionable expenses. The district provided those records and promised the rest.

Why the delay? "I'll be honest: You weren't at the top of my list," said chief financial officer Folasade Olanipekun. "It kind of fell through the cracks." She pledged to improve the school district's response to public-records requests, which can be made by anyone, not just the news media.