Common Council Calls for Answers

The Common Council met on Monday, October 18, and at least two items on the calendar remained unresolved.

Councilman Stephen Stat Smith had requested that a member of the School Department attend the meeting to answer questions concerning Everett’s MCAS standings. There was also an item on the calendar to transfer $540,000 to the School Department to cover unpaid invoices from fiscal year 2004, and some members of the Common Council, particularly Councilwoman Cathi Gover, had questions for the School Department on that subject as well. However, no one from the School Department or the School Committee showed up to the meeting. In fact, according to Councilwoman Gover, the City Council office had received communication from the School Department indicating that if the Council wanted answers to their questions, they should attend a School Committee meeting.

The two issues were laid on the table for two weeks and will be brought up again at the Wednesday, November 3 meeting o the Common Council.

The following is a synopsis of the discussion:

MCAS

Councilman Smith had raised the issue of the MCAS scores previously and had hoped to receive some clarifications from the School Department. Clearly disappointed that the School Department did not send a representative, Smith pointed to what he considered to be troubling MCAS statistics obtained from the Department of Education. “There are 275 high schools rated,” said Smith. “Everett ranked 191st . . . and out of 373 school districts, Everett ranked 304th .” Smith referenced an explanation offered by the School Department that the MCAS scores were a direct result of a lack of funding for MCAS tutors and stated his feeling that this was not a legitimate rationale for the poor showing. “I believe Mayor Ragucci has said that 47% of tax dollars goes toward education,” said Smith. “The taxpayers deserve more for their money.”

Smith initially laid the matter on the table in the hopes that a School Department or School Committee representative would arrive; when that didn’t happen, the matter was laid over for two weeks. It will appear again on the November 3 calendar, and the Chairman of the School Committee, David Ela, has been requested to attend.


A $540,000 Transfer

Up for vote was also an order “that the amount of $540,000.00 be transferred from Reserve Account into a special Reserve Account established to pay FY ’04 School Department invoices exceeding their budget. Any remaining balance in this account after all obligations are paid will then be transferred to the School Department to be used during FY ’05 in their operating
budget . . . “ This order sailed through the Board of Aldermen at their October 12 meeting, but such was not the case with the Common Council. There were many questions raised about the overall health of the School Department budget and the ability of the School Committee to fulfill their responsibilities as overseers.

Councilwoman Cathi Gover led the charge, presenting facts about overspending in the School Department above and beyond the $540,000 being requested, particularly in central administration salaries.

The invoices in question, amounting to $527,000, were incurred in 2004. The largest invoice, from Keyspan, amounted to approximately $190,000 and, according to the City Auditor, was sent late by Keyspan, explaining its late submission for payment. However, Councilman Peter Napolitano pointed out that it did not explain why there was no money left in the budget to pay a previously budgeted expense or why no one in the School Department had questioned not receiving the bill in the first place.

The overspending on the part of the School Department has been a bone of contention with the City Council for several months, and Monday night’s meeting brought forward additional facts that caused more than one Council member to question the fiscal management of the School Department.

The focus of the discussion centered on the overspending for central administration salaries. According to information obtained from the Treasurer’s Office and the Auditor’s Office, and a review of the past three fiscal years, the School Department has consistently overspent this line item. Of particular concern to Councilwoman Gover, however, were the discrepancies in salary increases in central administration for fiscal year 2005, which runs from July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. According to budget and payroll records, the School Department submitted a budget to City Government that called for 4% increases for all central administration employees. The City Council approved this budget, which was to take effect as of July 1, 2004.

However, the Payroll Change Sheet for the 7/8/04 payroll for Central Administration tells a different story, according to Mrs. Gover . . . and copies of the documents obtained by the Everett Mirror bear her out. These records indicate that Mr. Foresteire received a 3.4% raise – slightly less than that budgeted but in spite of assurances from the School Committee that he would not receive his raise until his legal issues had been resolved. These records also indicate that the three assistant superintendents each received salary increases 7.4%. In addition, all other employees on the central administration payroll received salary increases of 7.1% - 11.4%. These increases range from 3.1% - 7.4% above the approved budgeted increases. The records also appear to bear out Mrs. Gover’s assertions that, in spite of budgeting salaries for 18 central administration employees, the School Department is actually paying 27 employees out of the central administration salary account – 9 people not included in the approved budget for fiscal ’05 but who have been on the School Department payroll for a number of years.

Because of these discrepancies, Councilwoman Gover and Councilman Steve Smith, who had alluded to salary overspending in his discussion of the MCAS scores, pushed for the matter of approving the $540,000 to be sent to the Administrative Affairs Committee for further review, with the request that School Committee Chairman David Ela and School Committee Finance Chairman Robert Alconada attend. However, Councilman Anthony Ranieri suggested a compromise of laying the matter over for two weeks to the next Common Council meeting, inviting Mr. Ela and Mr. Alconada to attend. The proposal to postpone the vote on the transfer was bolstered by the appearance of Mayor Ragucci, who agreed that the members of the Council deserved answers and that, in spite of the fact that the bills have to be paid and that there were daily phone calls being made to City Hall looking for payment, he also would not vote for the transfer until the School Committee representatives appeared to answer the questions being raised. The motion to lay the matter on the table for two weeks passed, with Councilwoman Kay Hicks and Councilman Lou Sierra voting no, wanting the motion passed and the bills paid.

The Everett Mirror will provide a more detailed analysis of the purported overspending in a separate piece.