Letter To Lynn Corazzi
I’m just going to reprint this in its entirety because it’s too beautifully detailed to summarize. I’ll work on verifying the details. Hopefully some readers can help me out there.
Good morning Lynn,
I am listing out the most obvious/egregious financial issues that I have identified via District documents. To be absolutely clear, none of the data below is from my sources and is purely and unequivocably extracted from District data and FOIA requested data.
A few points of information to insure that you are clear on my standpoint:
(1) If the Board intends to have “transparency”, then my FOIA requests should be unnecessary and a clear red flag to you that transparency is not happening. I have documented emails from myself to Adminstration staff requesting specific data and explanations and have received no responses. That is unacceptable as a community member and should be unacceptable to you as a representative of the community. I have alerted both yourself and Kris Beaver to this situation and continue to await a response and action. Failure to hold anyone in the Administration accountable for public responses is silent approval on your part.
(2) You stated that the District is a business. Then it should be run like a business. Of the 1 1/2 years of sitting on the CFAC committee, not once did we ever review the prior years actual financial performance to the budgeted numbers. Failure to hold department heads accountable to their budgets relegates the budget to be a moot point and useless. In other words, why spend months putting together a budget that nobody follows and nobody is held accountable? in business, an employee(s) get fired for failure to achieve their budgeted numbers. Again, lack of accountability is very apparent.
(3) Responsibility. Per the District charter, your “job description” as a Board member, and per the District Attorney, you have a responsibility to hold the Administration accountable for “use and disbursement of all public funds”. As you stated at the Jackson PTO meeting, “spending $50000 is easy” which makes me question your financial mindset. You took the job, you are accountable for doing the job. As the District Attorney reminded me, “ignorance is no defense in the eyes of the law”. As you will see below, there are multiple financial issues and now that you are being duly informed via this email, you can no longer claim ignorance.
(4) The files that are attached illustrate key points. The first one was published by the Milwaukee Journal in early December, 2009 (file name “tasr”). Other than listing the West Bend School District alphabetically, the true ranking of the District when it comes to average teacher pay and lack of tenure puts the West Bend District in the TOP 10% of the State Districts. This third party data clearly contradicts your mantra of being the lowest spending District in Wisconsin when in fact it clearly shows that we are paying more inexperienced teachers a higher average salary than the compared districts.
The other file is the recommended 2010-2011 capital projects requested by Dave Ross, District construction guy. As you can see, it totals $1,080,000 for all the projects listed. Going into the 2010-2011 school year with you telling us that we should be expecting another “tax to the max” tax levy coupled by a $2 million deficit makes me question the disconnect between the Administration (represented by Dave Ross in this example) and the financial realities of the District. I am not questioning the worthiness of the projects and have no knowledge about their impact, however, it is glaringly obvious that anyone who is blinded by the financial realities of the District and holds this type of leadership position should be removed from office. The logic of spending ourselves out of a growing deficit is contrary to every economic model and you, as a Board member, should be counseling Dr. Pat about the inappropriateness of these collective recommendations. Either she is disconnected or she is not actively managing this guy. Either way, the buck stops with her and that is your job to hold her accountable.
(5) Upon review of the 2008-2009 actual vs budgeted financial performance report provided via FOIA request (403 page document), I want to commend Mr. Heimark for being one of 3 principals who actually held to their budgets. The previous sentence should make you wonder….that means that ALL of the other department heads DID NOT. If you are running a business, 3 of roughly 20 managers hit their numbers and 17 did not. I would keep the 3 and fire the 17, including the General Manager (in this case, superintendent). As much as Mr. Heimark has cut services, decresed expenses, and run a comparatively stable expense rate for last year, his peers are spending money like it is going out of style. Since the District is not providing the date of actual expenses on this report, I can only go off when the journal entries are made and it is glaringly obvious that when the last entries in each sub section are massive dollar expenditures that those expenses are coming at the end of the school year and the person doing the spending is trying to use up all the money left in their budget because they have a “use it or lose it mindset”. That forces you, The Board, to give them the same amount or more the next school year because it makes it look like they really needed the money. Again, the problem is that there is zero accountability for this kind of spending.
Here are some obvious expenditures that should be questioned:
2008 - $674000 spent on land in Village of Jackson. Per your logic, if services drop, property values decline, families relocate to other districts, then we wont need the land to build a new school. SELL the land for $500000 and return the money to the general fund.
+
Insurance on the Village Land. Not disclosed. Guess $10000 annually
+
$100000 (salary, taxes, benefits) 2008 hired a marketing guy from Midwest Express to market the referendum. Referendum is done with. Why are we still employing a marketing director for a school district?+ $301000 VOIP phone system. District notes clearly show an expected ROI in 2010. Who made the purchase recommendation? Why havent they come forward to show the ROI? If there is no ROI, they should be fired.
+ $55000 Missing gasoline expenses in the Facilities Department. How many lawnmowers do we power with $55k in gasoline? If the District isn’t powering its own fleet of school buses, how is it that $55k was spent on gas and nobody knows for what?
+ $20000/month (240000 annual) spent on DELL computers. I called Dell. At that monthly expense, we would be spending identical to 3M corporate headquarters in Minnesota! What the heck are we paying for? I put in a FOIA request to find out….and the District says they have no record. How is that even possible?
+ $65000/month (320000 annual) spent on school buses. When I asked for copies of the competitive bids, it turns out there are none. How is it that the District does not bid out the school bus service annually? If there is no bid, I would like to submit one for 2010-2011 that will be $64999/month. I will be the winning bidder. Please send the checks to my house. Also, this is a year round contract. Then why did the District spend $25735 on a “summer school fleet” last summer?
+ ???? Valley Elliehausen Florida Trip to a conference a month ago. I stumbled upon a website advertising her as one of the speakers at a conference in Orlando, Florida. Her topic was along the lines of “How to do more with less”. So, I want to know if we the taxpayers paid for ANY part of her trip all the way down to candy bars and parking. If we are going into a $2 million deficit and the District paid for her (and who knows whom else) to go to Florida for 4 days, it will be a glaringly obvious example of the disconnect between Dr. Pat and the taxpayer. I can see the headlines now….“District going bankrupt yet pays for all expense paid trip to Florida”....as a Board member, you should be all over this one because it will land in your lap.
+ 14000 Middle School Crowd Control.
+ 7000 Fair Park Elementary -undifferentiated curriculum
+ 1900 Green Tree elementary employee travel
+5500 badger science equipment
+ 8317 Badger employee dues and fees
+6017 silverbrook field trips - why arent the students paying?
+21013 Central Office High School equipment
+4890 Combined High School foreign language equipment
+ 8919 combined high school property services
+5210 combined high school field trips - again, why arent the students paying?
+2345 spartan sun community program field trips - yet again
+6344 Vocational Education high school equipment
+1265 Vocational education high school drafting software
+7290 Vocational education high school equipment (yes, more equipment!)
+3676 Vocational education high school property services
+9210 Vocational education high school equipment (yes, a 3rd round of equipment)
+25000 Personal Services….account 253200
+24000 Property Services “other”....account 254490
+30000 Athletic Equipment ...account 162000+600000 (yes, $600k) early retirement benefits cost $600k more than budget….thats not even in the realm of a “ballpark” ....whomever figured out that budget should be fired
+19000 Operations Services equipment
+7475 Eisenhower Personal services
+536 AODA Employee Travel
+280000 (280k) OVERspent on account 122111
+280000 (280k) OVERspent on account 215000+43000 District subsection -employee relations
_______________Total OVER $2.1 MILLION dollars in either OVERspent dollars or money spent on items that have no clear explanation.
***The above list is not conclusive and ALL data other than the one for insurance on the jackson land and the salary/taxes/benefits for the Marketing Director are ALL based from District provided data.
As a taxpayer, I want to see a list of all the “equipment” purchased per school. I want to specifically know what “personal services” we are paying for and why. I want to know if the $43000 spent on employee relations is being spent on making staff feel good about doing a job at which financially they are failing to do.
In conclusion, I am highly confident that you will not be asking me further details of the Districts expenditures nor solicting my input going forward on how the District spends our money since it would entail a degree of uncomfortability on your part and tacit acknowledgement that all of my data is accurate and correct. I hope that I am incorrect in my assumption, however, past history is indicative of future results.
As a taxpayer, voter, and father of three children in the District, the lack of leadership at the Board level is disappointing and there are many of us who believe that the Board has and continues to fail in its’ civic duties.
I will be publishing this email and circulating it to my friends and neighbors who are highly supportive of a significant overhaul within the leadership ranks of the District.
Sincerely,
Gordon Goggin
Father, Taxpayer and Voter
thank you for your work. MJS see what you could report on.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 14, 2010 at 2239 hrs
This letter was excellent. Great to see citizen taxpayers taking on specific spending oversight tasks. We need this across all areas of government at the moment.
The letter though was long to read. He should pick his top three points and then hammer, hammer and hammer them at the next meetings.
The ones that stuck out to me were: 17 of 20 administrators blowing their budgets, no record of why a quarter of a million went to Dell (should have been an easy explanation if anyone in the district knew their budget), and the $300k on the new phone system with perhaps no documentation as to whether it saved any money.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 14, 2010 at 2259 hrs
There must be some mistake all the money that goes to the school district is “for the children”
And if they don’t get more all they can cut out is football.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 0749 hrs
Beautiful!!! This is what’s needed. Concerned citizens to pry open the records and go through them line by line. Question everything. There is so much waste here it’s hard to comprehend. I’m sick and tired of hearing “it’s for the children”. Bull crap - we know it’s not for the children, it’s for the administrators and teachers. They think money grows on trees and the taxpayers are so dumb we won’t notice what’s going on. Well - times are changing, people are fed up, people are angry, people are not going to just sit back and take it anymore. Pitchfork alert!!!!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 0753 hrs
If the complaints in the letter are accurate, it could be a serious problem. There are a lot of organizations whose leaders think that setting up a proper internal audit program and an audit committee for the board are unneeded because everyone can be trusted and it would be a waste of money to hire someone to take care of this.
All organizations should expect to have minor changes in their expenditures from their original budget, but they need to track such changes and approve them as necessary.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 0754 hrs
It’s telling how lately these posts on B&S have had underwhelming response from the teachers, adminstrators, and board members.
(except JP)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 0912 hrs
What is to say they will do anything ? As always just brush it off and hire another PR firm to issue some feel good press. If Gordon found this on the surface imagine what lurks in a detailed audit.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 0915 hrs
What is to say they will do anything ? As always just brush it off and hire another PR firm to issue some feel good press.
They don’t have to. They still have the last guy they hired on the payroll. Now they don’t have to pay another signing bonus! See how smart they are?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1100 hrs
But the letter itself doesn’t prove any waste at all. Smeety, why should an administration spend any time (here) responding to this? Either 1) these questions are all accounted for or 2) they are not. In either case it seems a waste of valuable time for a member of WBSD administration to be responding on B&S to the questions raised in the letter, especially given the patronizing and hostile attitude expressed here.
Patronizing: The letter itself concluded with rather smug assertions that the letter writers concerns would not be addressed. Other commenters (reaper, keenor) have just rehashed conservative talking points.
Hostile:“Pitchfork alert!!!”
—I’m no longer surprised by the threats of physical violence that crop up here when it comes to discussing public servants. Public servants would be foolish not to begin thinking about how to protect themselves against such attacks
Posted by Mike on March 15, 2010 at 1126 hrs
Smeety, why should an administration spend any time (here) responding to this?
Mike, I think you misunderstand my comment. It is predictable that they are not responding to this post, as it should be.
Either 1) these questions are all accounted for or 2) they are not.
“Pitchfork alert!!!”
—I’m no longer surprised by the threats of physical violence that crop up here when it comes to discussing public servants. Public servants would be foolish not to begin thinking about how to protect themselves against such attacks…
Physical violence? Oh my god, talk about drama queen…
We don’t know, due to lack of response…Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1147 hrs
Public servants would be foolish not to begin thinking about how to protect themselves against such attacks
Yeah Mike, this is serious stuff. I think the benefits for public servants cover pitchfork perforation, though, so they they don’t have to worry, it is already covered.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1149 hrs
#p
They are all accounted for ?
55k in gas? per year. Do the the school administers get free gas?Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1216 hrs
Mike
Nobody is stupid enough to threaten any type of physical violence, its just you stirring the pot as you have no other leg to stand on. Besides Mike it originated on facebook, now go ahead and claim people on facebook also scare you.
If the author has an argument and records are not released maybe the DA will step in?Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1217 hrs
If the author has an argument and records are not released maybe the DA will step in?
Sorry, Crusher, but that would take a miracle. Martens is not noted for taking action on ORR (or any other) issues. Weenie.
Posted by GAMazy on March 15, 2010 at 1228 hrs
$65000 Bussing : I believe bussing bills are compared with other bussing services’ bills in other areas. Significant fee increases (compared to the prior years’ fees for similar services) would be “generally” caused by bus co. staffing pay increases, insurance increases and fuel surcharges - increases that districts receive forewarnings about and transparency. I have not heard of two bussing competitors in cities WB’s size or smaller: geographically convenient competitors are rare here.
The Jackson land purchase is next to a youth center in the city with all the sewer and electric building conveniences, the price was right, and other land opportunities were much more expensive. If it’s sold now, 10 yrs later someone will be complaining the district didn’t enough in the past (like they do now).
VOIP phone system – Bidding was documented somewhere. The accepting of the bid occurred at a board meeting with Mr. Hillman as president. I was there. Mr. Hillman grilled several people recomending the purchase from the contractor. And I do mean grilled because they became red-faced during the public Q&A.
For 5+2+2 schools: computers and computer program licensing are costly.
“field trips - Why aren’t the students paying?” Field trips are kept low to minimal cost or they are dropped. Students do often pay, but trips may be subsidized. Students on free and reduced lunch often may have their trips subsidized. Fields trips have been becoming eliminated: EX HS British Literature no longer takes a file trip to a Shakespeare play.
“OVER $2.1 MILLION dollars in either OVERspent dollars” - Dept sub-Budgets may be overspent when some of the other dept sub-budgets are underspent. It’s the overall dept budget that can’t be overspent..
This letter is asking a lot of questions at once and then leaping to the assumption foul play is committed; thus, I’m not taking my time to deal with it. I’m not saying something negative will not be gleaned, and by the looks of things, some here have already made that leap. M any public employee hours will be needed to answer the questions, but I’m sure it’ll get done. ...and I’m betting if some here get their board picks in they will hold the newbies to the same scutiny, because otherwise that would be hypocritical.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1250 hrs
lunch break by the way
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1253 hrs
Some valid points seem to be raised, but I mean come on, bitching about drafting software? We could probably get by with tree bark and charcoal if we really tried.
And Ginny for you of all people to talk about someone’s lack of follow through… really? I’m still waiting for you to come through on about a million promises you made about your whole library deal there. Where are all the ethics complaints? I need you to protect my children from gays, so hurry up already!!!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1548 hrs
I need you to protect my children from gays, so hurry up already!!!
... talk about out of context…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1554 hrs
“OVER $2.1 MILLION dollars in either OVERspent dollars” -
I’ll reiterate: Dept budgets’ line items may go over budget; however, other line items must be under-budget. The overall dept budget can’t be overspent without admin approval. For example, I have one budget for library resources with several line item budgets I allocate by the prior year’s purchases: video, books, periodicals, etc. Still, patron needs and what’s worthwhile purchasing will cause me to go over on one line item and under on another line item, but never over on the whole budget.
In week 2 of April, dept purchase orders are to be completed so that central office can finalize.
Being without all the answers (sorry), the March 22nd School Board Meeting would be the ideal place to pursue answers to many of the questions Mr. Goggin has posed. Hopefully, the Q&A would be shared.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1611 hrs
Smeety, TUERQAS-
I’ll grant you it sounded a bit over the top as a response to the pitchfork comment which may well be benign. But no fewer than three times now, this site as produced threats of physical violence, always in the context of discussions of public servants. Its starting to be a pattern. Ignore it. It won’t be a problem for either of you, I would guess.I just decided I’d call it out every time it happened.
Posted by Mike on March 15, 2010 at 1721 hrs
Sorry. Meant to say
Pope John - Weenie.
Posted by GAMazy on March 15, 2010 at 1808 hrs
From your mouth Ginny:
“We are working on filing ethics complaints that will be numerous and involve many people. One at a time. These issues need to come to the forefront. We were treated unethically, and the library board, library director, and Mayor need to be called on it.””
What happened? Please, please help me protect my children and follow through on this!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1935 hrs
The sock puppet speaks, but nobody can hear him.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Sock-Puppet
I think it might be because he is off topic.
Posted by GAMazy on March 15, 2010 at 2029 hrs
Or because you can’t defend any of your positions. Open up comments on your blog again and I’ll stop making you look like a fool here!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 2146 hrs
Obsess much, Pope?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 0755 hrs
Ginny is a hypocrite and has not followed through on th promise of filing all sorts of ORR’s to “expose” the inner workings of local government. She will come here and criticize, but won’t allow anyone to criticize her on her blog. as the kids like to say “she’s lame.”
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 0934 hrs
Hummm…. lets see….....
Ginny is on topic, and she openly defends her positions.Who’s the fool ????
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 0940 hrs
Geez…can we stop the character assassination, already? It’s unseemly and doesn’t belong on this blog.
Posted by Mike on March 16, 2010 at 1011 hrs
Sorry, but I think the VERY important subject of protecting children from a liberal-infested library is never off topic. I simply was counting on Ginny helping raise my kids since she knows better than me and I am not sure what I should be telling my kids now that Ginny has stopped fighting for them. What should I tell them Ginny?
See you at the meeting tonight?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 1052 hrs
Must be something wrong with my puter, I thought this thread was in regard to the Corazzi letter.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 1108 hrs
Here is the thing pope, and I hope you can follow because I am in a similar position as Ginny. Some of us have families, jobs, lives, and so on. I am a farmer, am in the reserves, work a salaried day job where minimum hours worked per week are expected to be 55 to stay employed, I have a small business that grew out of a hobby, and have 3 kids under 3 and want to have some free time. Am I asking for a medal? Absolutely not. Do I have complaints? Hell yes. Trouble is that there are only 24 hours in a day and I have many of them filed. I would like a day off but I have obligations that don’t even apply to my family. I can make threats and can and will get to them when I get to them. On the other hand the issues contained in in this thread are the responsibility of someone’s JOB. This is what they are paid to do. Ginny has her reasons for doing something on her own time at her own speed and at her own expense but the folks that you are diverting attention from and who are F*CKING up this country are PAID to do their job and be accountable. Bloggers, private citizens, letter writers and so on on the right usually have the one thing that separates them from many of their lessor counterparts on the left. They do it as a sacrifice. When union members get paid days off to go to protests, or welfare rats are bussed to rallies, or paid protestors fill the ranks I ask myself what the purpose is. These folks that are doing the public budgets are being paid to do that and at the end of the day they can go home and relax(though if I had just raped a community I am not sure I could) the rest of us can’t pick up their mess until we get home from our day job, have some time with the family, and maybe have some down time.
Yes these are strong words but I am really ticked off at all the lefty types saying that A)if we want change we need to step up to the plate and run for office. B)are hypocrits because we do not sacrifice more for the cause we believe in. If I want my barn floor in(and I do need to put concrete in my new barn but I am really strapped for cash and so I am contemplating doing it myself) I can do it myself or hire someone. Can I tell them that they are doing a crappy job and fire them if they are? Yes. Can I complain if they do a crappy job? Yes. Do I have to then do it myself then if I complain? No. Do I have the right to complain if I decide to get someone else to do the job if I do not have the time to do it myself? absolutely. If I decide to complain and threaten to do it myself but find that I do not have the time and hire someone else and hold them to do the job that they were hired to do am I a hypocrit? No.
So pope and anon I do not see the issue here. In fact I do see that Ginny is on topic and well withing the parameters of proper complaining. You, on the other hand are outside the bounds(but true to the bait and switch mentality) of this thread by trying so redirect attention from the topic on hand.
J, the public sector is the only budgeting process that assumes the prior year’s budget + and increase. No private sector business could survive on that model. Each budget I do is independent of the previous year. I take those expenses into account and may use them as rational for future expenses but I cannot say it cost me X last year so I have to have X+ this year to account for inflation of cost. My superiors also take my budget and cut(actually cut) things out. I have not had more than $7000 dollars for a 48 member IT division for the last 3 years. I put in for more but it comes back cut. Travel? none. FYI for the district, try to get a corp license for your software. In fact group together with other districts to share a corp license. A bit of investigating can find savings. You can also cut. Actually cut. You bought the land low and had the oportunity to sell high a year ago when folks put up a fuss about the fact that the property sat. 10 years? Really? My company is selling buildings to shed waste and leasing…55K for gas? Again really? for what? driving over 1300 miles for a school district?
I could go on but the thread really does beg for answers and while we are taking time out of our busy schedules to ask the questions, we are paying others to actually supply the answers.
Posted by fishaddict on March 16, 2010 at 1120 hrs
Please, please help me protect my children and follow through on this!
Pope, do you have children of age to read in the kids’ section of the public library?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 1201 hrs
Smeety,
Not sure why it matters, but I’ll play. I don’t, but my sister does and I spend a lot of time taking care of them. Your turn.
Fishaddict,Wow. Nice.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 1320 hrs
Pope, I was just curious to whether you really had kids or were making it up. I had a hunch. That’s all….
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 1822 hrs
“the public sector is the only budgeting process that assumes the prior year’s budget + and increase.”
Fish Addict, do you have any examples of this? I’ve done public sector budgets for 26 years and never made that assumption.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 16, 2010 at 2111 hrs
Smeety - if the fact that I don’t have kids means my opinion doesn’t count, then why would Ginny’s input into public school curriculum matter when she home schools?
ZING!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 0940 hrs
Pope,
I know nothing about Ginny’s kids and never questioned the value of your opinion. I was merely noting on your lie about having kids…
Please, please help me protect my children and follow through on this!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 0954 hrs
that statement was sarcasm you idiot.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1000 hrs
Pope, because Ginni still pays taxes for those public schools she does not use.
UNZING!
Mike, using the term ‘pitchfork’ in the manner above is a metaphor for taking up arms and mob mentalities that is literally out of the movies. It is like saying “And there was much rejoicing” to mean that there is nothing to rejoice about(also out of a movie which you very possibly have never seen). To take that at as a literal threat of violence is exactly the type of unlettered thinking that lefties like to refer to when they misuse the term elitist to infer that conservatives are anti-intellectual. To simplify, if you think that “Pitchfork alert” as used above was even jokingly meant as a personal threat, you are an idiot.
Go ahead, call out the threats, but if you have the wit to understand the difference between threats and metaphor, use them.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1002 hrs
@anon: temper, temper…sarcastic or not, it was a lie…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1014 hrs
And I still pay taxes for the library.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1038 hrs
And I still pay taxes for the library.
More sarcasm and lies or truth? But of course your opinion counts.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1110 hrs
Pope,
I didn’t say you didn’t have a voice. I merely said your zing was not a zing and not clever, as you seemed to think it was.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1111 hrs
Listen, TUERQAS-
You don’t need to call names. The explanation for my call out stands. I’m not incapable of understanding the references.Why did you feel the need to point them out? Did I offend you in my original statement and subsequent explanation? Does it surprise you that folks make physical threats against public employees during a time when the public employees enjoy job security and benefit packages that are often the envy of others? That these salaries and benefits are funded by the very tax payers complaining is often what raises the anger of the folks making the threats. I get it.
I’ve already recognized that the pitchfork comment may well have been benign. So I am wondering what your purpose in posting is, beyond taking the opportunity to call me an idiot.
Posted by Mike on March 17, 2010 at 1138 hrs
Does it surprise you that folks make physical threats against public employees during a time when the public employees enjoy job security and benefit packages that are often the envy of others?
No, it surprises me that you took the above comment for one. You keep using the word ‘may’ in your explanatioon. This infers that you are not convinced. That is reinforced again by you saying that your call out stands.
I specifically said if you think that the pitchfork comment was or could be a threat of violence you are an idiot. Since you are accusing me of calling you an idiot, I am assuming that you, in your heart, still think of it as a threat to public servants. If that is not true, I did not call you a name, you are mistaken. If your ‘call out’ still stands with a caveat that it may not be malificent, then yes, I did call you a name. I may apologize. (See how that ‘may’ just ruins a good sentence?)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1157 hrs
I do think the comment could be a threat. That makes me an idiot to you. So be it.
Posted by Mike on March 17, 2010 at 1205 hrs
I do not home school my kids. ZING!
Posted by GAMazy on March 17, 2010 at 1231 hrs
Mike,
When is the last time a public employee was attacked with a pitchfork?
Makes you sound kind of reedick, doesn’t it?
(This conversation is so far off track at this point)
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1240 hrs
Agree, Smeety. Let’s get back to Corazzi. The whole issue of transparency is a red flag in and of itself. I know that if you do some investigating, Gordon Groggin is not the only person who is having these issues with FOIA requests. What is there to hide? Why the silence? Unanswered ORR’s and ignored emails are unacceptable.
Moving to accountability, it appears that Corazzi is part of the head-nodding team. Spend, spend, spend. “Easy to spend $50,000”??? I guess if you are buying unnecessary chunks of land….
Corazzi lacks leadership ability and is out of touch with district needs versus wants or nice-to-haves. He has said yes to referendums and the tax levy. This is not the representation the taxpayers want. Past spending did not get more bang for the buck; it got more debt for the District. This job is too big for Corazzi.
Posted by GAMazy on March 17, 2010 at 1333 hrs
When is the last time a public employee was attacked with a pitchfork?
I’m gonna go with 1898 when the good people of Waukesha met the World’s Fair people at the town line with pitchforks in their hands to turn them away from tapping the springs out there for the fresh water to be piped back to Chicago’s Columbian Expo.
Makes you sound kind of reedick, doesn’t it?
Gonna let you be the judge of that.
This conversation is so far off track at this point
Truer words have never been spoken!
Posted by Mike on March 17, 2010 at 1409 hrs
Truer words have never been spoken!
Says one of the people to get it off track. It obviously doesn’t matter to the Pope, but if you care, pick your words more carefully. If you don’t care, you don’t. Great, but why comment on it?
Or am I just being mean now? Seriously, sarcasm is a failure of mine. It really was your on topic comments back in post 9 that made me say something:
But the letter itself doesn’t prove any waste at all. Smeety, why should an administration spend any time (here) responding to this? Either 1) these questions are all accounted for or 2) they are not. In either case it seems a waste of valuable time for a member of WBSD administration to be responding on B&S to the questions raised in the letter, especially given the patronizing and hostile attitude expressed here.
True, the letter does not prove waste. If the questions are accounted for then there would have been a high likelihood that a school board (or former member) would have answered something on this blog, because in the past, they have. Your assertion that ‘it is or it isn’t accounted for’ is not important doesn’t make any sense. If they are accounted for someone would have piped in. If they are real issues that have not been accounted for how would it be a waste of valuable time to consider them?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 17, 2010 at 1438 hrs
I appears Gordon’s letter has generated a lot of discussion. In case you have not been copied on the response here is a link to it.
http://www.supportwestbendschools.com/downloads/HerdrichResponse.pdfLooks like most of the conclusions Gordon made were a bit of a reach.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 20, 2010 at 1617 hrs
That’s a very thorough response. I presume Mr Goggins has much to go forward with now. It would be interesting to hear whether or not he makes an appt. with the business office folks to go over his concerns there.
Public employees like Dr. Herdrich work very hard to keep their districts healthy despite difficult social and economic barriers to their success. Its what I expect from my tax dollars.
Posted by Mike on March 20, 2010 at 1716 hrs
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