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

Sunday Epistle to Board Member and Potted Plant in Good Standing as Elia's Board Girlfriend Candy Olson

Date:	Sun, 4 Nov 2007 12:08:43 -0800 (PST)
From:	"lee decesare" View Contact Details Add Mobile Alert
Subject:	school board monkey biz as usual
To:	jack.lamb@sdhc.k12.fl.us, carol.kurdell@sdhc.k12.fl.us, doretha.edgecomb@sdhc.k12.fl.us, susanvaldes@sdhc.k12.fl.us, jennier.falierao@sdhc.k12.fl.us, april.griffin@sdhc.k12.fl.us
CC:	MBrown@tampatribune.com, denisepalmer@tampatrib.com, lstein@sptimes.com, ptash@sptimes.com, tobin@sptimes.com, tgonzalez@tsg-law.com, fred@fredburns.com, jamesalusio@sdhc.k12.fl.us, lisa.caminchos@sdhc.k12.fl.us, pmanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com, johnhill@sptimes.com

From Marilyn Brown column, Tampa Tribune: “Veteran board member Candy Olson said, ‘I think you have to balance how much time you want to spend with the potential competitive and potential savings are. I think we have a lot more important things to do.’"

Ms. Olson:

The above excerpt comes from Marilyn Brown's story on the bizarre bid process that allowed Ms. Luney to hire a buddy for the cushy wellness job on the taxpayer’s dime, for Ms. Elia to approve it post facto, for the board to rubberstamp it on Ms. Elia’s orders as usual--all despite the plethora of wellness factotums already on board. The public-affairs office says the job got no advertising.

I infer La Luney’s onomatopoeic surname coincides with her brain power. Her quotes were some of the looniest I have heard come out of the administrative playground. It seems she makes $130,000 tax dollars a year to engage in such fun-and-games larking at taxpayer expense and has been doing so for a long, smooth administrative career as a principal until Dr. Lennard recruited her—no advertising of the position, of course—to whatever she does now in the administrative funny farm of incompetent administrative dimwits.

I believe La Luney’s behavior models the “institutional memory” lore about which Ms. Edgecombe caterwauls without knowing what the term means. Such administrative skullduggery endorsed by the potted-plant board comprises the schools’ institutional memory as far as I can tell.

Pray at the next board meeting when the wellness mess comes up explain to the public what things are "a lot more important" than exploring a corrupt hiring system, the subsidizing of a dumb administrator for $130,000 a year, and, to top things off, an expensive-to-the-taxpayers featherbedding buddy job added to the pay roll in an area in which a plethora of personnel now exists.

I would also like to know what instructions Ms. Elia condescended to give you board potted plants on the wellness-hire vote in her zeig-heil debriefing that precedes each board meeting at which the superintendent hands down to board members their marching orders on how to vote on the podium and whether they can chew gum.

Did any board member rouse him- or herself from Stockholming coma to ask whether the district needs yet another wellness factotum or whether the job were advertised? Did any board member invoke the rights of taxpayers to more board scrutiny of such cockamamie proposals as is this wellness-consultant scam?

This whole mess-up would not have not gotten one question from the board had an alert reporter not done the board’s homework and put her research in the paper. Then, board members feared they looked bad, incumbency arose in their consciousness, and they issued muffled disclaimers or tardy indignation.

I also comment on your perpetual name-dropping of South Tampa.

One would think that area was the only section of the county you represent. When I looked at the board-member map, I was surprised to see you represent as well some of the poorest areas of the county. Why don't you ever mention them, and why don't you spend some of the time you consume on the podium in your frequent unconscious-train-of-thought-ramble-of-chit-chat-

on-the-Meaning-of-Life-and-other-odds-and-ends of important stuff that bore people out their minds to talk about the needs of the poor areas in your district?

Do you consider any show of concern for other than South Tampa MacMansion dwellers as slumming?

One supposes so. One infers you want to be on record—and frequent record at that-- as having only connection to or concern for people in your district likely to receive an invitation to join the pirates-and-rapists celebrants of Ye Mystique Krewe, who march down Bay Shore liquored-up in bespangled pirate droopy drawers that bag low and contain nothing. The Mystiques present the tackiest strutting of faux social superiority to ever come down the pike, with members' being but two generations away from sharecropping and pellagra.

Lee Drury De Cesare

15316 Gulf Boulevard 802

Madeira Beach, FL 33708.

Odds and Ends


Ms. Cobbe:

I understand that the district hired a wellness official who is also the friend of an administrator.

In what periodicals did the district advertise the job?. How long did the ads run? May I have a copy of them?

How many candidates' resumes are in the candidates' file for this job? When may I see that file?

Thank you.

Answer: no ad

Ms. Cobbe: What is the salary of Gwen Luney? Was she hired during the Lennard or Elia administration? Thank you. lee drury de cesare

Answer: (my summary of Cobbe's answer) $130,000; was a principal when Lennard recruited her into the administration. That makes sense. Luney is dumb enough to qualify as an administrator.

tampabaygrammargrinch.blogspot.com

candy.olson@sdhc.k12.fl.us,susan.valdes@sdhc.k12.fl.us,,jimalusio@sdhc.k12.fl.us,burns@burnsfor theboard.com,lisacomanchas@sdhc.k12.fl.us mbrown@tampatribune.com,lstein@sptimes.com,doretha.edgecombe@sdhc.k12.fl.us,carol.kurdell@sdhc.k12.fl.us,jack.lamb@sdhc.k12.fl.us,jeniffer.faliera@sdhc.k12.fl.us,april.griffin@sdhc.k12.fl.us,susan.valdes@sdhc.k12.fl.usMs. Brown: I finally found your article. The details you provided well document the Keystone-Kops administrative style of this administration.

Ms. Elia will probably hire a $350,000 consultant to straighten out this mess. Taxpayers pay bloated administrative salaries plus consulting fees because the buddy-sychophant hiring practices recruit some of the dumbest people in the education racket for the core administrators of the district.They are not smart enough to figure out how to solve even a low-level problem.

I note that you record that the Board rubberstamped this splendid idiocy. That's what the Board does: those potted plants would rubberstamp the execution orders for Jesus if Ms. Elia put it under their noses. Their idea of a board discussion of a proposal is zeig heil.

I don't understand why one of the board didn't ask if the job had got advertising. The board has inscribed on everything not nailed down "We are an equal-employment opportunity employer." Yet its members never insist that Elia advertise administrative jobs. Those they have handed over to La Elia as a patronage perquisite to dole out to her supporters and buddies, none of whom smash into the upper limits of the Standford Binet.

It would be nice to have just one board member not afraid to ask pertinent questions in cases such as this such as Who authorized this hiring? That board phenomenon hasn't turned up yet amongst the present potted plants. Maybe the elections will bring in the miracle board member smart enough and gutsy enough to speak up on the podium so that all the voters can find out what's going on. The current board seems to believe that parlimentary discussion constitutes bad manners especially if it makes anybody look bad. Breaking he equal-employment- opportunity laws is just swell with the board, but discussing the breach is bad manners.

If the voters catch on to to how negligent and uninvolved for the good of the students, teachers, and the community this board is, the miracle may happen of the voters' electing someone with enough concern for the community not to let such outrages go on. We await election day to see if this miracle happens.

lee drury de cesare

Ms. Cobbe:

What was the title and compensation for the job that Dr. Hamilton briefly held before his retirement? Who holds that job now? Is the title the same? What is the compensation?

Thank you.

lee drury de cesare

Note: this was the job Elia created for Hamilton while he was pondering his retirement. The Board said not a word about this boutique job and its assignment before it was even listed to Hamilton, whose magnum opus for the board of instructions on its obligation and decorum was marginally literate. When I have a slow day, I still plan to write Florida State's president with the evidence of Hamilton's lack of literacy that piece displays and ask him how dare Florida State issue a doctorate to such an illiterate candidate and foist him off on the taxpayers as holding a valid doctorate.

Date:	Fri, 2 Nov 2007 21:33:16 -0700 (PDT)
From:	"lee decesare"
Subject:	Re: WEDU's Weekly eNewsletter
To:	website@wedu.org

I see that WEDU's "Tampa Bay Week" has Wayne Garcia as guest this week.

See http://tampabaygrammargrinch.blogspot.com/ for a feminist view of his blog title's psychological implications.

I am grateful to see two women to balance the two male guests for a change. The problem is that one of them--Saul-Sena is an Aunt Tom who made two promises to meet with rape victim Bobbie Ward--one at Saul-Sena's backyard reception for Phyllis Busansky-- and then didn't see her at all.

I renew my request for you to have a program on the turbulence at the School Board. If you pay attention to Marilyn Brown's column in the Times, you will get some idea of the rumbles of revolt. I suggest you have Superintendent Elia, Candy Olson, April Griffin, and teacher Jim Alusio as guests.

I predict a lively show: since these have quite opposing ideas on how to run the school system. Schools are always at the top tier of people's interest in politics according to polls. So I bet people will be much more interested in the school discussion than the tax upcoming tax-snooze program. lee drury de cesare WEDU <website@wedu.org> wrote:

Readers of this blog should repeat the request above to WEDU. The community needs to know what straits the board and administration are in and how badly both serve the students, teachers, and the commumnity. Call or write "Tampa Bay Week." We must shine a light on the school system as many ways as possible. lee

candy.olson@sdhc.k12.fl.us,susan.valdes@sdhc.k12.fl.us,,jimalusio@sdhc.k12.fl.us,burns@burnsfor theboard.com,lisacomanchas@sdhc.k12.fl.us mbrown@tampatribune.com,lstein@sptimes.com,doretha.edgecombe@sdhc.k12.fl.us,carol.kurdell@sdhc.k12.fl.us,jack.lamb@sdhc.k12.fl.us,jeniffer.faliera@sdhc.k12.fl.us,april.griffin@sdhc.k12.fl.us,susan.valdes@sdhc.k12.fl.us

Ms. Brown: I finally found your article. The details you provided well document the Keystone-Kops administrative style of this administration.

Ms. Elia will probably hire a $350,000 consultant to straighten out this mess. Taxpayers pay bloated administrative salaries plus consulting fees because the buddy-sychophant hiring practices recruit some of the dumbest people in the education racket for the core administrators of the district.They are not smart enough to figure out how to solve even a low-level problem.

I note that you record that the Board rubberstamped this splendid idiocy. That's what the Board does: those potted plants would rubberstamp the execution orders for Jesus if Ms. Elia put it under their noses. Their idea of a board discussion of a proposal is zeig heil.

I don't understand why one of the board didn't ask if the job had got advertising. The board has inscribed on everything not nailed down "We are an equal-employment opportunity employer." Yet its members never insist that Elia advertise administrative jobs. Those they have handed over to La Elia as a patronage perquisite to dole out to her supporters and buddies, none of whom smash into the upper limits of the Standford Binet.

It would be nice to have just one board member not afraid to ask pertinent questions in cases such as this such as Who authorized this hiring? That board phenomenon hasn't turned up yet amongst the present potted plants. Maybe the elections will bring in the miracle board member smart enough and gutsy enough to speak up on the podium so that all the voters can find out what's going on. The current board seems to believe that parlimentary discussion constitutes bad manners especially if it makes anybody look bad. Breaking he equal-employment- opportunity laws is just swell with the board, but discussing the breach is bad manners.

If the voters catch on to to how negligent and uninvolved for the good of the students, teachers, and the community this board is, the miracle may happen of the voters' electing someone with enough concern for the community not to let such outrages go on. We await election day to see if this miracle happens.

lee drury de cesare



Note: forwarded message attached.

lee drury de cesare

Forwarded Message

Date:	Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:19:21 -0400
Subject:	Re: Hiring of Welless Director
To:	"lee decesare"
From:	"Linda Cobbe"

HTML Attachment [ Scan and Save to Computer ]

I think the answers to all your questions are in Marilyn Brown's article in today's Tampa Tribune. It does not appear that it was advertised.

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