Putting the Screws to Free Speech

Dave Schmidt, Bay Area Nobel Laureate in Free Speech

April, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are lying. Lying. Lying is not the kind of ethics people need in school board members. I hope one of your opponents beats you. Nobody could be worse than are you. You are unfit to serve on a school board. I want you to define "appropriate" as in "appropriate comments."

Who's to decide? You are weaseling out of denying free speech, and you are not clever enough to disguise what you are doing. lee

Mr. Schmidt:

Whoopee. Keep up your blog.

The ROSSAC thugs have gone over your record with a fine-tooth comb, and they used negligible things they eked out to try to terrify and humiliate you and shut you up.

Don't let them. Just don't.

April has lied like a real ROSSAC habitué in her Times quotes. I was dumb enough to support her with money and encouragement when she ran. Live and learn.

La Griffin has rolled over and defected to the Dark Side.

Say the word, and you and I will go leaflet April's kickoff luau on Tuesday. We can put on the leaflet: "Lies to get a fellow fired and then lies about lying." Vote for one of her opponents.

Your treatment was much different from Principal Smith's whom Alafia parents would not have preside over their children's education any longer.

The superintendent gave Smith a pricey consultant to teach her how to be a human being. Ms. Elia tried to bribe the parents into keeping Smith by promising that the board would send Smith and her

vice-principal to Eckerd at $4500 a pop to take Eckerd's mind straightening-out course.

When the parents wouldn't budge, Ms. Elia created Smith a new job in the book depository at her principal's salary of $60,000 a year. April nor any board member protested this stain on equal-employment opportunity and budget probity.

In fact, April and Pole Girl Falliero went out to Alafia on a top-secret mission to charm Smith into resigning from Alafia with the carrot of being eased into a new job at the same salary. Elia didn't fire Smith as she should have done. Nor did she lower her salary as she did yours. She created this incompetent administrative critter a new job with a principal's salary intact.

The Public Affairs office could not give me the job description until Valdez had a couple of weeks to compose it; the Public Affairs office never answered my questions of "Who held this job before?" That response would have been "nobody" if truth were told.

Send me your blog address. Mine is leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com

Blog on, Mr. Swartz. The ROSSAC sadists, mad to keep their jobs and the power that tax dollars lend them, have now backed themselves into the cul-de-sac of saying they don't oppose free speech. Liar, liar, pants on fire is my riposte to that. Free speech terrifies them. Somebody may tell the truth about what they do in the bowels of ROSSAC.

lee

Demoted but not silenced, Hillsborough School Board critic blogs on

By Tom Marshall, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

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Dave Schmidt once managed a multimillion-dollar federal program in county schools. But he got a pay cut and a new job as a school bus inspector after a controversy. 

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TAMPA — Not so long ago, Dave Schmidt was something of an expert on refugee education in Florida.

For nearly 12 years he managed CARIBE, a federally funded program within the Hillsborough County school district that helps legal immigrants learn English and develop job skills on a budget of $2.3 million.

But in his free time, he had hobbies: running for a seat on the School Board, blogging for Republican causes, and calling out board members whom he'd opposed in past races. And he may have pushed the envelope a bit too hard.

This fall his pay was cut and he was demoted. His blogging may have drawn attention and complaints, but a subsequent investigation revealed he paid his son-in-law to design and maintain the program's Web site for around $16,000 beginning in the late 1990s, and never filled out the district's conflict-of-interest form.

These days he has a new job: school bus inspector. He spends his days making sure bus stops and ramps are safe, finding substitute drivers, and helping make sure the buses run on time.

District officials say Schmidt, 60, was demoted for failing to fill out the conflict-of-interest form, and that it had nothing to do with his blogging.

"As a result of your failure to comply with School Board policy, the district has determined that it is not in their best interest to continue you in your current or any future managerial position," professional standards manager Linda Kipley said in a letter.

Schmidt sees it differently.

"I always felt I was on safe, free speech ground," Schmidt said. " I think this whole thing was politically motivated. I think it's reprisal."

• • •

Schmidt's early career path showed few hints of politics. He worked for years as a factory foreman for defense contractors in the Tampa Bay area, supervising the production of jet fighter simulators and other components.

But those jobs moved offshore, and in 1998 he applied to manage the new CARIBE program.

It was far from glamorous, with offices in trailers outside the Erwin Technical Center building on East Hillsborough Avenue. On any given afternoon or evening in recent years, those trailers were often filled to capacity with adult students learning English at computers or in small groups.

Schmidt said he was proud of what he accomplished with CARIBE, growing the program from around 150 students to nearly 2,000.

"The purpose is developing economic self-sufficiency for everyone who comes through," he said. "And learning English is certainly part of that."

But the more he saw of the Hillsborough County School Board, the more he came to believe that he could do a better job than incumbents. In 2006 and 2008 he ran for a seat on the board, but fell short.

"I was not running for a job, I already had a job," Schmidt said. "I thought I could lend my expertise to raise high school graduation rates and reduce dropout rates."

He started his blog last winter, and immediately went after incumbents April Griffin and Susan Valdes.

"I must be doing something right by annoying the pro-Valdes and pro-Griffin folks," Schmidt wrote in an early posting. "Even a good friend suggested my Web address be sourgrapes.com. Oh, yeah. … well maybe. It is still fun telling the truth."

Not fun for everyone. In June, he learned that he was being investigated by the district for both the conflict of interest and for "inappropriate comments" made about School Board members on his blog.

"Things were brought to my attention, and I turned it in to the superintendent, as I would for anybody who works for the school district," said board member Griffin. "It was someone from within CARIBE that reported it to me. Someone who didn't like the fact that he gave a no-bid contract to his son-in-law."

She declined to comment on his blog postings, but defended his right to free speech.

"As someone who has and maintains a blog, I truly support a person's right to discuss whatever they want — whether it's positive or negative — about the district," Griffin said.

Schmidt told the district his supervisors had known he was employing his son-in-law, Thor Torgersen, but his bosses told investigators they had no such recollection. He said he hadn't been aware of the conflict form.

In her September report, Kipley said he wouldn't be punished for his blogging — as long as the information was accurate and he didn't speak for the district or as an employee.

"You are reminded of that obligation," Kipley wrote. "No further action will be taken based on this conduct."

Schmidt chose not to fight it. He's glad to have a job, even with the $10,000 pay cut to $27,546.

But he has no intention of ending his blog.

"I think a lot of the things I wrote were humorous," Schmidt said. "I never thought it would come back and bite me."

Tom Marshall can be reached at tmarshall@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3400.

[Last modified: Mar 29, 2010 11:48 PM]