Bus Garage / C&E Investigation

(3reenfleet Garage was responsible for maintenance of our vehicles. The first thing I noticed was that our vehicles were in terrible and unsafe conditions. Greenfleet is an extension of the bus garage, which is a bigger operation that takes care of all the school busses in Hilisborough County.

They did an inventory and discovered that we were short over $50,000 in parts and I discovered that we were paying excessive bills for work to be done.

Idid research on an old truck with a blue book value of $600. We had spent over $42,000 in repairs including three new engines for that vehicle, in about a 2-year period. I also witnessed new tires being replaced with new tires. When I checked on the situation I was told by the person putting on the tires, that these were out of round, and had to be replaced. However, we were billed for 6 new tires.

I made my boss, Dr. Hamilton, Assistant Superintendent, aware of this. He chose to close that operation and told me to find an outside repair service temporarily.

In that transition, Richard Applegate, who was his chart of Greenfleet operation here, was transferred to the bus garage. He came and talked to me and said he didn’t want to go there. He stated that what I was seeing here was just very small in comparison to what was happening there and he knew all the theft that was going on, knew who was stealing and everything about that. I reported this. An investigation of the bus garage did occur. I was told by Dr. Hamilton that he felt that millions were stolen in that operation, however, after the investigation, which was done by Mr. Westerfield, a former FBI agent, and our security department, no one was prosecuted to my knowledge.

One gentleman got fired (Robert Delgado). I was told by our security and Mr. Westerfield, he probably bad less to do with it than anybody. I understand that he has a lawsuit going on at this time. Dr. Hamilton also told me that there was a reporter that the school system might have to hire that had gotten too close to the truth on that situation because we not only had problems on that end (on the receiving end of purchases) but the purchasing department had problems. Both of these departments are directly under Dr. Bookman who is Assistant Superintendent for Business & Finance.

Dr. Hamilton did not make any accusation that Dr. Bookman had stolen anything, but simply because so much had been stolen and two departments which were involved directly under him, could lead to the Superintendent. That could cause problems. At that time they did make personnel changes in the bus garage.

Another area I was requested to look at, even though it was not under my direct supervision, is C & E (Communications & Electronics Department). It was running out of money quickly and receiving very poor service. The first thing I discovered there was similar to Greenfleet operation. We found one school that had repairmen supposedly go to the same repair job 17 times. We found multiple duplicate billings.

Also a gentleman by the name of Mr. Schaf came forward and tearfully confessed to me that a company was dispatching work out of the C & E office and the lady that was working with that company was being paid $45 per hour to call her own imployees and sending them to the jobs. She was also responsible for the inventory that left the storeroom of C & E.

The gentleman shared with me that if they needed 25 phones for a school, they would take 100 phones, 75 would be dropped off at a private warehouse in Brandon and the other 25 On 10/20/2000,1 got anonymous inibçmation that Mr. McClelland was avery wealthy man and he had done it by stealing from the district.

This anonymous source gave me information that I had not heard before - that Mr. McClelland had been supplying fertilizer, pesticides and other materials to his nephew, Reese McClefland, and there was no real accountability of where these supplies and materials were being used.

Mr. Reese McCleIIand was under contract by the Grounds Department and there was no “conflict of interest” papers filed to my knowledge. What was more alarming about this latest information I got regarding the tractors that were stolen was there was a reputed drug dealer that has been involved with Mr. MeClelland for years in dispersing the materials Mr. McClelland had taken from the district.

I have been trying to get a last name. I’m not sure the first name is correct but the name I was given was Sergio. It was stated that Sergio was actually the one that had stolen the tractors and parked them on Mr. McClelland’s property while they were waiting for resale or use for parts.

I have no legitimate proof to offer. I don’t think adequate attempts have been made to prove that Mr. McClelland has stolen from the system over the years and I don’t really know where our security department is in the investigation right now. Assistant Superintendent of Operations, Jack Davis, was very supportive of the investigation.

Doug Erwin, General Director of Operations
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