Monday, April 30, 2012
The Perfect Storm
Four million dollars in the red and who is to blame? It is my understanding that the insurance reserve funds are held by the city. the Board of Education draws from those funds. It is the city's responsibility to inform the Board of Education that the funds are in the red, right? It appears the City might have issued one notice just when the COO was leaving. Perhaps the notification never got to him. Should the city have issued notices when the account kept running into the red to the tune of millions? I would have thought so! Is it a coincidence that the city has always wanted to take over the BoEd's finances? Is it a coincidence that this is what happened in Stamford when the city took over their Board's finances? Is it a coincidence that there is a Republican Mayor and a Republican Board? Has the perfect storm been created?
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Perfect Storm. Great movie. So Dick Moccia would be George Clooney? Don't think so. He'd have to drop a ton of weight, years, and trade up on his arm candy.
ReplyDeleteIt is the responsibility of the BOE to understand what impacts their budget. You can't simply point fingers and say..oh it's their fault they should have told us.
Bottom line is that the BOE voted for something they did not understand and have the details about. Honestly the candle power is so dim on the BOE I doubt even if they had all the information they would have been able to process it.
I agree with the candle power being dim. I am a registered independent and would love Steve Collorassi to step down. He is charge of the finance committee and doesn't seem to be asking the right questions or focused on the important issues. He seems more concerned with renaming schools and dogs for diabetes. I think the city should take over BOE's finances ultimately they are the ones responsible for coming up with the funds to pay.
ReplyDeleteTop 10 ways to close the $4MM budget gap:
ReplyDelete1. Rename the Brien McMahon baseball team to the Yankees and hope people are easily duped and pay full price for aluminum seats.
2. Close all the middle schools and give kids three years off before high school to just chillax.
3. Close every elementary school and deploy 100 pods on the Rowayton School infield.
4. No buses anywhere. Shotgun start. Run.
5. Sorry we can't come up with anything more than four. We are graduates of Norwalk.
The person that posted the top ten... I mean four list is a moron!
ReplyDeleteOf course I am a moron. Did you read number 5? Graduates of Norwalk?
ReplyDeleteI wonder why no one has looked at the Supt? She does have oversight of central office staff, budget, etc. she is going to get another pass on this one. I'm not saying she is to blame for all of it but she is in charge! 450k got Mann fired. 4mil should get at least 1 person fired.
ReplyDeleteWhen did a Board of Ed member become the chief accountant and auditor? Really- don't blame the paid staff who never budgeted for the retiree insurance, don't blame the superintendent who spent more than she was allowed to.
ReplyDeleteWell said. BOE is elected, but volunteer. Albeit lean, NPS has a paid Budget team, Finance Dept. and a Superintendent, who signs off on the school budget. Although it's hard to put blame on Elio when he's the one helping uncover the shortfall. The BOE can only go by the numbers they are presented.
DeleteFire them all including the BOE. They BOE seems to rubber stamp the issues that they should be asking questions about and drag out the insignificant issues. Steve C is the worst offender followed by his side kick "the preacher"
ReplyDeleteThe preacher? That's funny. Maybe you could use a good sermon. Sounds like you have issues.
DeleteThe COO is already gone, so they can't fire him. The superintendent should know better than to just sign off on the expenses. If her signature appears, hers should be the head to roll. She is directly in charge of the finance department. Oh, I forgot she is protected by the mayor. The Board doesn't have the ongoing budgets. They only see the figures given to them.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a good sign that the COO is uncovering all these problems. Maybe I'm alone thinking this, but hasn't Steve C. been complaining about lousy financial info since he got elected?
ReplyDelete