A word on Open Meetings Laws

At the July 23, 2007, meeting of the Sun Prairie School Board, district resident and open government advocate Monte Couch made reference to a recent complaint made by district resident Rick Mealy to the Dane Co. District Attorney, alleging that members of the School Board violated open meetings laws.

The complaint was submitted early in June 2007 and was based on the fact that a meeting was held on May 9, 2007, by a sub-committee of the "High School Planning Team" for the purpose of devising questions to be posed to the "Community Response Team" (CRT). No public notice, as required by law, was prepared for this meeting, and the resulting questions were not made public before posing them to the CRT. At least 2 other meetings of this group had been similarly held without public notice.

Open meetings laws were enacted to ensure that government remains by the people and FOR the people. These laws require all government bodies to conduct their business in public setting. The public has to be properly notified.

This is not the first time that the Sun Prairie School Board has been the subject of complaints regarding violation of Open Meetings Law. The most recent prior incidence occurred in 2004. As a result of that complaint, the Board was required to undergo intensive re-training regarding open meetings law. Current board members Mary Ellen Havel-Lang and Caren Diedrich were on the board at that time, so they should certainly know better. That training costs the taxpayers approximately $10,000 at the time. Well, at least now, administration could pay such a bill without having to obtain school board approval first! The point is that these elected officials should know the law and abide by the law to avoid these costs to the taxpayers.

What SP-EYE finds most incredible regarding the current complaint, which was written up in the July 26, 2007 edition of the Sun Prairie STAR, is that if STAR readers check out the "Winnowings" column on page 5 of Section 2, there is a note that "10 years ago, July 24, 1997, the Sun Prairie School Board conceded that they "may have violated open meetings law" when they voted on a re-organization plan for District administration in an improperly closed session.

As President Bush was once quoted,

"There's an old saying ...that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

The Department of Justice has developed a great primer on open meetings law in Wisconsin that can be downloaded at:

http://www.doj.state.wi.us/AWP/OpenMeetings/2005-OML-GUIDE.pdf

Fiscal Responsibility: 7/23/07 School Board Meeting: ????

ADMINISTRATION GETS FULL APPROVAL AUTHORITY ON MAJOR BIDS.
Despite the Finance Committee voting to RETAIN the dollar level at which school board approval of bids is required at $10,000, the Board, behind the push of member Jim Carrel and Finance Committee chair Jim McCourt, voted to INCREASE the level to $25,000.

The rationale they cited for this change:

• the amount of time spent discussing bids between $10,000 and $25,000 at committee and Board meetings
• the Board needs to have trust in the administration and not "micro-manage" them
• the amount has not been changed in a number of years and represents only 0.068% of "non-salary/benefit" budget.

No one actually reviewed the number of bids that fall into this range to determine if a problem exists.

No one looked at what other similar size school districts do in theses cases for comparison. So, again, what value do we get for our $8700+ annual "membership" dues to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards?

The SP-EYE did the analyses that neither the Board or Administration did. In the past year, less than 2 of these $10,000-$25,000 bids per month have appeared before the FTT committee for review/approval. So, clearly, we're not spending a great deal of effort at the committee level on these bids. And at the Board level, even Board member Caren Diedrich admitted that these issues rarely become lengthy, time-consuming matters.

Other School District policies are all over the board on this issue, but few of the ones reviewed set the level for Board approval above $10,000-$15,000. Interestingly enough, Board President David Stackhouse wanted to have the level increased to $15,000 last fall and the motion failed. He said he thought $25,000 was excessive, yet voted with the gang to approve the motion less than a year later. What changed in 9 months? Maybe because Jim Gibbs was a voice of reason on these issues, and no the "governor" has been removed from this school board's engine?

Micromanagement is generally defined as exercising excessive control of a project or group of people. The fuzziness comes in to play when we try to determine what is considered excessive.

Mark Twin is famous for the quote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." The "fact" that 10,000 represents "0.068% of non-salary budget" is exactly what he was talking about. Does anyone care that the increase represents a whopping 250% above the existing policy level?

What's important here is that by increasing the point at which Board approval is required from $10,000 to $25,000 is that many big-ticket items could be purchased without the School Board's involvement. Several vehicles have been purchased for the district within that range. Shouldn't the Board approve such a capital outlay? What about high ticket items that are broken down into bite size (less than $25,000) chunks? Is there no concern that this practice could occur? Last, but certainly not least, shouldn't the public have an opportunity to comment on these purchases? It is, after all, THEIR tax dollars. It's fiscal IRresponsibility cleverly disguised as the reviled "micro-management". I wonder how Mr. McCourt would feel about allowing his personal finance manager to increase the level at which he makes his own investment decision's with McCourt's money by 250%.

What's the point of even having a Finance Committee, if you throw their recommendations to the wind? Carrel and McCourt got exactly what they want despite the committee and public input recommending otherwise. You want to save time? It makes equally as much sense to just dissolve the Finance Committee.

Sun Prairie Small Player's Theatre: "The Bungle Book"

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail submitted to the grassroots group, "One Community-One High School" by School Board member Jim Carrel (via his yahoo e-mail account) following the July 16, 2007 High School Planning Team meeting. One can't help but notice the similarity to the serpent Kaa of Jungle Book fame (the Disney version...not Rudyard's Kiplings original character!).

We have worked hard to keep 'agendas' out of the process.

[SP-EYE note: How can he possibly say this without fear of a lightning bolt from above? He was at the meeting when Planning Team members, as soon as they realized that Steve Havens' "CBA" system caused the 1-school option to rise to the top, rushed to re-evaluate scoring to elevate the 2-school option. The agendas are still very much present. ]

This really is the best solution, admitted to by even some of the most staunch two-school supporters. Please continue to stay positive in your thoughts and words. As we move forward, many will try to fault the process and lay undue (and sometimes contrived) blame at the feet of the HSPT members and the Board. Don't listen to them anymore. Their message is old and mildewed.

[SP-EYE note: Now there's a model elected official for you. "It's our way or the highway. Ignore anybody who isn't marching to our beat." It's not the message that's mildewed...it's your brains, if you follow this kind of Jim Jonesian logic. Can you bring us a round of those nice purple drinks, Mr. Carrel? ]

In fact, one very outspoken critic of our progress has filed a formal complaint with the State Attorney General's office against me. His 'civic' response to what we have done will cost me $500 in fines. Thanks.

[SP-EYE note: A complaint has been filed with the Dane Co. DA--not the Atty. General--for violations of open meetings laws. No further information can be provided as this case is still pending. Note however, that Mr. Carrel's comments suggest he was the only indivdiual named. Not true. We hope Mr. Carrel also considers changing the source of his legal advice, because statutes only allow for a minimum forfeiture (not a fine) of $25 per violation and a maximum of $300. Don't shoot the messenger, Jim. Elected officials need to be aware of the laws that govern them and not violate them.]

I'm not sure what his agenda is, but I would recommend you contact me and not others anytime you have a question about the process or progress. I promise to be honest and prompt.

[SP-EYE note: Can't you just hear Kaa singing "Trus-ss-ss-st in me" to Mowgli? Listen only to me. I'll tell you the truth. Didn't Nixon insist he would always tell the truth? SP-EYE will ALWAYS provide you with facts that you can independently verify; then YOU decide what to believe. That's the what we SHOULD expect from elected officials. ]

I also promise not to give ear to those who would try to destroy our progress just because of a few sour grapes.

[SP-EYE note: So he's not going to listen to taxpaying citizens that disgree with things? We're not sure what sour grapes he's talking about, but it seems to be more of the same, "Don't listen to anybody but me" spiel. ]

Thanks,

Jim Carrel

Like Mowgli's interactions with Kaa, citizens that place value on integrity may soon have to push this elected official's coils out of the tree. The time may be coming to change the tune from, "Trust in Me" to the familar cry of, "Ooh, this is going to slow down my s-s-slithering."

HS Planning Team moves towards High School solution

On Monday night, Bray Architects unveiled their current draft plan for the proposed 2000 student capacity high school or grades 10,11, and 12. The plan calls for the school to be located on the "East" side property south of Angell Park. While the details are still in a state of flux, what was presented last night included:

• 409,000 sq. feet(SF) (that's 204.4 SF per student at capacity vs. a national median of 156 SF/student for high schools being built for a median of students.
• 409,000 total SF comapres to a national median of 325,000 SF for buildings this size.
• Estimated cost (school alone) ranges from $73.2M to $78.75M. That amounts to $36,600 to $39.375 per student compared to a national median of schools this size of $22,861.
• A cost per SF of $ 178.97 to $192.54 as compared to a national median of schools this size of $148.86.

It should be noted that this plan increases the square footage by just under 50% when the school is being built for only an additional 10% of students at capacity. The current high school is 275,000 SF with a capacity of 1816 students. This plan calls for an additional 133,300 SF over the exisiting high school. At a cost of $178.97 to $192.54, this translates to a cost of $23.9M to $25.7M.

If the issue has mainly been lack of spacxe in corridors during passing, do we really need to spend this much? Always bear in mind that the architects get paid as a percentage of the building cost. If Letterman did a top 10 list of things you'll never hear architects say, #1 would be, "we could build it smaller and save you money".

Additional costs that could be added include the following:

• Field house: $1.295M to $1.5M
• Fly loft addition to performing arts center (included ): $600,000
• 8 lane swimming pool with exercise pool: $4.0 to $4.5M

These costs do not include costs to rennovate the existing high school for grades 8-9.

The next meeting is schedule for July 30th at the District office. Final cost figures are expected at this time.

Top 5 things to know...

1. District Administrator Tim Culver's salary is higher than that of Governor Doyle. The combined salaries of the top 4 administrators in the district exceeds one-half MILLION dollars.

check it out:
http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/lbstat/newasr.html

2. While the rest of the world , including state employees, pays some or all of their health care costs, we, the taxpayers, covered 100% of school district employees' health benefits up until this year. Now they still pay only 2-4% of health care costs. State employes typically pay 6-8% or more.

3. During the past school year (2006-07) taxpayers paid for over $7000 worth of pizza, subs and other food for administrators and staff, typically charged to "[Department] Supplies"

4. Instead of appointing an individual who narrowly missed election in both 2006 and 2007 to a school board vacancy, the School Board appointed an individual who has lived in Sun Prairie for less than 3 years, and whose career experience is in school administration. Think we got a vote for taxpayers here?

5. It's budget time again! The annual public meeting is in October. Did you know that when the rest of us have a co-worker who loses a family member or celebrates some big event, we all chip in and buy flowers. The School District, however, has a policy that allows it to purchase flowers for its employees on these occasions on the taxpayers' dime.