WE EXPOSED HOW EASY IT IS TO SLIP CONTROVERSIAL CONTRACTS PAST SCRUTINY FROM TAXPAYERS. NOW, ROCKWOOD'S SCHOOL BOARD IS CHANGING PROCEDURE.
GOOD NEWS FOR TAXPAYERS: ROCKWOOD IS CLOSING THAT BACK DOOR WE TOLD YOU ABOUT.
We previously exposed how the "back door" (as this site described it) allowed hundreds of thousands of dollars in controversial, no-bid contracts to get easy approval during Rockwood's Board of Education meetings.
This went on for years, virtually unnoticed by taxpayers, because of the way meeting agendas were formatted. It finally came to light October 6th, when Rockwood's Board of Education voted to reject 3 controversial contracts that had been submitted again, through that back door.
One contract they rejected would have REhired a vendor to teach "responsible decision-making" and empowerment to students, even though there were active warrants for her arrest (for unpaid traffic fines). She also had government actions against her company.
Proof of all this, her no-bid contracts, the no-bid contracts of other vendors, and, her "in" with a Rockwood administrator can all be seen here, in our previous post.
-----------------
All of this has led to public, vocal concern and frustration from Rockwood taxpayers.
Some say they emailed the BOE about it. Others spoke about no-bid contracts and the arrest warrants during patron comments at the October 20th meeting. Another wrote a scathing letter to the editor (scroll down to the second one) and called out the chaos and corruption in the district, as well as the academic decline.
(Staff at Rockwood: What's Going On have reported extensively on dropping scores in the district. You can see the latest post here: DECADE OF DECLINE)
THE CHANGE
We don't know if the frustration from parents and taxpayers played a role, but, starting tonight, the BOE agenda format is changing, which means the back door is closing, at least partially.
Specifically, the change is in the section of the agenda called "consent agenda" items.
Consent agenda items are the BOE's method to approve or reject dozens of items with one vote. The items are presumed to be ready for a vote with no discussion because BOE directors trust that the people who submitted them, also vetted them and reviewed them.
WHY IT MATTERS
The agenda format is one part of the back door. (The other is labeling a contract as a "single source vendor" so you don't have to get any other bids; an abuse easily missed because of the consent agenda item format.)
With the old format, even if you watched the vote, you would have no idea the board had just approved millions of dollars worth of contracts.
That's because the BOE didn't say it, and, you couldn't see it, even if you looked at the agenda. With nothing to get your attention, there's nothing to question. Even when the contracts don't have any other bids.
The above example is not hypothetical. It's what happened at the last meeting, October 20th.
-----------------
QUICK EXPLANATION OF THE AGENDA FORMAT CHANGE
THE BEFORE
You can see there were 13 items.
All 13 were approved with one vote, as well as all the sub-items that went with them.
What you can't see:
There are also 22 contracts totaling more than 3 million dollars ($3,276,672.02) hidden behind line item 7.05, "Purchases and Related Contracts $7500 or Greater."
All of it was approved with that same, one, vote.
If you knew to click on the heading, you would have seen this:
 |
| How the agenda looked for the October 20th meeting, if you clicked on the Purchases and Related Contracts heading. |
As the above screenshot now shows, 9 departments had submitted contracts. It would take you another click, on each department heading, to be able to scroll through pages of contracts.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT
Now, starting tonight, the departments have been moved to the main section of the agenda, and have their own line item, so you immediately know there's more to look at.
NEW FORMAT ON TONIGHT'S AGENDA:
 |
| Previously, 7.05 would have been the only line item and items 7.06 - 7.09 wouldn't be listed. The lower items would have been in their place. |
The actual contracts from the departments are also now separated into their own items, instead of being lumped together to look like one document with multiple pages.
These are small changes, but, they make more obvious what the BOE is voting on.
It's a step toward more transparency.
The before and after formats are pictured here:
| ||
The contracts aren't visible.
|
NEW VOTE PROCEDURE, TOO
Additionally, President Jaime Bayes says, they will be changing how they vote on consent agenda items from now on. We'll see what that means tonight.
In case you're interested, in total, there are 16 contracts on tonight's agenda that total $ 386,124.53. Check out tonight's agenda here.
If this new format had been in place years ago, it would not have been as easy for controversial contracts to go through, unseen.
NOT ALL BAD
To be clear, just because a contract is a consent agenda item doesn't mean anything's wrong with it.
But, because there are so many, it's been an easy place to hide contracts that did have something wrong, such as those with a "single source vendor" designation that should have had other bids.
Not all "single source vendor" contracts are problematic, either, but, it's easy to abuse the designation as a way to avoid getting bids.
Example: 3 companies that offer student empowerment sessions are all called "single source vendors."
They can't all be the only vendor that offers student empowerment sessions...because they all offer them.
But, that's how they were labeled, and went undetected, under the old agenda format.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR IN WEST NEWS MAGAZINE
Here's that letter mentioned above, written by Dennis Ganahl, PhD:
