This comment appears in the most recent La Gaceta.
The Hillsborough County School System has a reputation with those who work there of hiring and promoting people who are connected or related to those in charge. Stories of favoritism are rampant. This reputation and practice creates an unhealthy work environment. Many employees feel blackballed and trapped because they offended the wrong person.
Most know loyalty to the right boss is more rewarded than proficiency or honesty. In this atmosphere, how can the school system claim to be an equal opportunity employer?
The school district needed an accountant II in the District Auditing Office. The individual would perform audits that could involve worker's compensation, health insurance, transportation, textbook,inventory, maintenance, nutrition service and a host of other areas.This individual could perform audits that encompass budgets from $50-$500 million. Skills needed are organizing documentation, writing procedural memorandums and communicating with audiences of differing
accounting backgrounds. Four years of college or acceptable accounting experience are required. Nineteen people applied, many already in the system, and some with applicable experience.
The $36,000 job was awarded to Tom Kipley. His resume documents jobs at Home Depot Pro Sales, Robbins Manufacturing, and a host of electrical and air conditioning contractors. His experience is inside and outside sales, construction and customer service. He did not graduate college and has no clearly listed accounting experience. So why did this guy get the job over others, some who clearly have related experience?
Some speculate that Tom Kipley being the husband of Linda Kipley could have influenced the outcome. Linda Kipley is the general manager of professional standards for the school district. She's the one who investigates employees for wrongdoing. She is the district's top internal affairs cop.
We'd ask the district to investigate if favoritism occurred in this
hire, but we have a feeling that Linda Kipley would find no evidence that her husband Tom received any special consideration.
The board now can boast the gifted couple of Linda Kipley with a home-ec degree overseeing, judging, and punishing teachers for misconduct when she is not educationally or intellectually or ethically capable of the job.
She is one of the three most hated people in the school district my poll says. MaryEllen Elia and Tom Gonzalez are the other two. All three got their jobs in unorthodox ways that violate equal opportunity.
Kipley's spouse without a college degree or relevant experience now joins in this nepotism hoedown. ROSSAC runs a jobs programs for buddies and sycophants. Skill and education do not matter diddly. So taxpayers pay for deficient candidates for jobs who need consultants to rush in with flash cards to teach them the basics of what they are supposed to be doing and getting paid to do.
This is shameful arrogance on the board's part. Its members cannot mount the hustings for the election in August and tell the voters they are looking out for their interest.
What ails the board? Does it agree with this disgraceful behavior? Is it paralyzed? Why hasn't at least one member raised a protest in public? The problem with the board members who would like to do things differently is that they lack the stomach to face down the board rubberstampers.
I am especially disappointed in April Griffin and Susan Valdes. This is the kind of outrage people who supported them thought they would confront. Let's see if they have the guts to do it and serve the taxpayers who voted for them.
To: Linda Cobbe, public affairs
Linda, I understand that Linda Kipley’s husband has got the job of accountant without relevant experience or a college degree.
Who signed off on his hiring? That has to be written down someplace.
I assume literacy is a requirement of the job. Does his application have a writing sample that I could see?
May I see also the job description?
Could I see the applicant folder?
I will come in early tomorrow to examine these items if they are available. ldd
1 comment:
Typical! The Kipleys sound like white trash! No college degree on the one hand. A Home Ec degree on the other. I bet this Tom Kipley will be moved up in the next 5 years. Eventually, he will be moved up into a position of supervisor making over $100K and board members will see nothing wrong with this. They believe that people should be able to work their way up the system.......but they don't see the flaw. They allow people they KNOW to work up into plum positions and everyone else gets screwed.
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