A Request for Open Government

Date:	Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:21:12 -0800 (PST)
From:	"lee decesare"
Subject:	Fwd: Cronyism at the School Board
To:	candy.olson@sdhc.k12.fl.us, carol.kurdell@sdhc.k12.fl.us, jack.lamb@sdhc.k12.fl.us, april.griffin@sdhc.k12.fl.us, jennifer.falierao@sdhc.k12.fl.us, susanvaldes@sdhc.k12.fl.us, doretha.edgecomb@sdhc.k12.fl.us, "Tom Gonzalez"

Dr. Lamb:

At the last board meeting, you said that a citizen at the community speaker podium can’t “name a person.” I don’t know why not. That abridges a person’s free speech. Ask the board attorney for his opinion on this stricture as an abridgement of a citizen’s free-speech rights.

I also want to know why the attorney keeps his own personnel files and not the public-affairs office as is usual for other school employees. Is this privileged treatment due a state law, or is it a right that the attorney has arrogated from the school board? Or has the board extended this privilege to him; if so, why?

I have asked for public information from Mr. Gonzalez following his public endorsement of the crony awarding of contracts without bids that is the status quo in the board's handing out contracts to acquaintances, friends, and others with whom they are in rapport with no bids. I have received no data from him so far. Here is what I require:

1. Did Mr. Gonzalez get his board-attorney job through a no-bid appointment, or did the board advertise it?
2. If he got job by a no-bid appointment, who in the school board or administration was his referral?
3. If his job went out to bid, may I see the folder of the competing firms?
4. How much tax money did the board pay to Mr. Gonzalez and his firm last year for their services to the school board?
5. How much tax money total, if Mr. Gonzalez handled the trial of Mr. Irwin and its appeal, did his firm get paid from tax funds for those trials?>
6. What is Mr. Gonzalez’s hourly compensation for his board work and how does that compare to the average hourly compensation of lawyers in Hillsborough County?
7. How many people are on Mr. Gonzalez’s school-board staff in his firm?
8. What is their compensation and its hourly rate from tax money? Is this staff’s remuneration part (asked for above) of the total remuneration Mr. Gonzalez receives from tax money entrusted to the board for its dispensation?
9. May I have a copy of or a Web citation of the school bid laws or procedures that Mr. Gonzalez cited in his board oration opposing change because it was so difficult?

I would appreciate your seeing that the board attorney follow the public-information laws and provides me with these data in a timely manner.

In fact, I suggest you publish it on the board Web page so that citizens may have it, especially the school community of teachers and staff now kept in ignorance of what goes on in ROSSAC that affects their wellbeing such as the blitzkreig annoucement of the extra class imposed on teachers by Ms. Elia to solve her budget problems and approved by the board.

More Web data would be a step in opening up of the school board’s activities to the public which one newspaper editorial recommended.

Thank you.

Lee Drury De Cesare

15316 Gulf Boulevard 802

Madeira Beach, FL 33708