School Board Meeting November 6th

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Date:	Wed, 7 Nov 2007 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)
From:	"lee decesare" View Contact Details Add Mobile Alert
Subject:	Re: public information
To:	"Linda Cobbe"
CC:	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, lstein@sptimes.com, montolino@aol.com, tobin@sptimes.com, pmanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com, mbrown@sptimes.com, dpalmer@tampatribune.com, druth@tampatribune.com

Ms. Cobbe: I don't think so. I have the compensation of a city attorney down the beach in a town accused of tolerating sexual harassment listed in my files, but I don't find Mr. Gonzalez's. However, your efficiency in these matters exceeds mine, and I stand ready to be corrected.

I also want to see the Gonzalez contract with the schools. I assume it outlines his duties to the board. You have that don't you? If so, if it is not too long, could you duplicate it, send it to me, and bill me?

Is there any reference you know of in which I can discover the professional duties and ethical parameters of a school-board attorney in the state of Florida? Give me that too, pray. Also, I want to see the file containing the firms' applications that applied for the school-attorney job in competition with Mr. Gonzalez. That must be around still in storage.

I want to discover if Mr. Gonzalez benefit-ted from the system he defended at the board meeting last evening. If Mr. Gonzalez's were the customary school-board-administration-acquaintance-relative- buddy-sycophant referral, is there a record of who in the school administration or on the board made the referral? Additionally, do you know what position in the schools' system the guy getting the contract without a bid for $157,000 from Ms. Valdez's office held before retiring?

This contract passed 4 to 2 last night, the pro side's getting a spirited quasi-legal advocacy from the board attorney for continuing the system of handing out contracts to buddies, acquaintances, sycophants, and hangers-on instead of bidding out contracts.

The attorney volunteered comment at the end of the board discussion as I recall. He eshewed the blandishments of lowest bidder in the hallowed system of school-board-buddy-acquaintance-sycophant awards; he pooh-poohed taxpayer-money economy with a hey nonny nonny, giving the heft of his legal gravitas to continuation of the incestuous auld-ange-syne status quo of what Ms. Edgecombe invokes as venerable "institutional memory."

The attorney frightened everyone. People are scared of attorneys. They fear they are revving up to sue them, and they usually are. Anybody who doubts this should read Dickens Bleak House and Pickwick Papers. These are not so much literature as indictments of the ethics of the legal profession.

Mr. Gonzalez is possessed of other intimidating attributes besides his lethal attorney status. The guy's big. I would not engage in the rhetorical barbarity of saying he is as big as an ox. But I will say that he is not much smaller. Mr. Gonzalez also has a stentorian Clarence-Darrow voice in which to deliver his animadversions with cadences of echoing inevitability that would put Demosthenes in the shade.

In short, Mr. Gonzalez is a man to whom one should give wide berth. I know I do. I shake in my Manolos every time I step into a room with him. I stutter like a child when speaking in his presence despite my senior vintage.

But enough of fear and trembling.

On the next board meeting date, I will come in before the meeting to review Ms. Valdez's employment file. Did Ms. Elia hire her? Was her job advertised? If so, I request to see the applicant finalist file. Thank you for your help with these public records. lee

Linda Cobbe <lcobbe@sdhc.us> wrote:

Lee - Didn't I send you the compensation information?

Linda Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Office of Communications
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602
813-272-4510 FAX

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Florida has a very broad public records law. Most written communications (including e-mail) to or from public employees are public records available to anyone who asks. Your e-mail communications and your e-mail address may therefore be subject to public disclosure.



lee decesare <lee_decesare@yahoo.com> writes:
Mr. Gonzalez:

I asked Ms. Cobbe for your firm's remuneration last year. She said she didn't have information but that you did.

Could you tell me how many people are on your legal team for the schools at the firm. What is the total remuneration your firm received from the board work last year?

You handled the Erwin case, I infer. What was your firm's total remuneration from the case including the appeal work?

Everybody on the board keeps saying "make a motion." Can't you tell them that one moves something and does not "make a motion"?

lee drury de cesare


lee drury de cesare