Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch

CASTING-ROOM COUCH blogs as champion of THE MINIONS OF LIGHT against THE MINIONS OF DARKNESS in the Tampa Bay FENS AND BOGS and will cover GRAMMAR, POLITICS, PAINT-BY-NUMBERS, HOUSEKEEPING TIPS, AESTHETICS, JUSTICE, BEE-KEEPING, INJUSTICE, FASHION, ETHICS, DEPILATORY, DIRTY TRICKS, PUNCTUATION, CUISINE, PEDAGOGY, WEIGHT CONTROL, OPERA, LOGICAL POSITIVISM, AROMATHERAPY, SOLIPSISM, NEEDLEPOINT, and all the GOSSIP THAT'S UNFIT TO PRINT.

Friday, November 16, 2007

A recent article in the Tampa Tribune by Marilyn Brown left the impression that Ms. Elia’s sole problem as superintendent is lack of tact.

Would that were Ms. Elia’s chief problem in running the district.

It is not. She has more debilitating traits than shoddy decorum.

When she was head of facilities, she overbuilt classrooms in the Westchase area. Then when she got the top job of superintendent, she hastened to cover up that gaffe: she tore up the Westchase community by changing the boundaries so that her classroom overbuilding would disappear.

La Elia didn’t care when distraught parents filled the board room to beg that the wrenching of their community be stopped. She was indifferent to the scenes of children clinging to their mothers’ skirts sobbing in fright at changing their schools. She had employed her usual flimflam on Westchase parents, who said Ms. Elia held community meetings on this disruptive move at irregular times which they could not attend and pretended she had meetings when she didn’t.

The potted-plant board slept on and rubberstamped the ripping off of Westchase families and their children. I believe Susan Valdes and Jennifer Faliera voted against the redistricting, but the rest rubberstamped the community disruption with a hey nonny nonny.

What traits did this incident reveal about the superintendent? Arrogance, cruelty to children, indifference to their parents’ opinions, duplicity, and sneakiness are on view.

Another situation reveals more of Ms. Elia’s character reflected in her management style. I witnessed this incident close up because it involved good friend Bart Birdsall, a media specialist in the schools and previously a teacher. I helped Bart protest the injustice to him.

Bart is gay and wrote emails from his home computer protesting the Storms disenfranchisement of gays by the county library system headed by another gay fellow, Joe Stines. Stines in Roy-Cohen manner presided over the removal from the library of the display on gay life by a South Florida student.

Stines didn’t answer Birdsall’s emails protesting the removal of the display. He instead turned them over to Elia. Or he put them in the hands of Elia’s buddy Pat Bean. We know that Pat Bean is Elia’s buddy because she allowed Elia to use her name as a reference for the superintendent job. Bean’s doing so was unprofessional, and I wrote to tell her so.

Whether the emails came directly from Stines or via Bean one does not know. But when Elia got them, she turned them over to the Professional Standards Abu Ghraib division headed by Ms. Linda Kipley with what one infers were instructions to go on a fishing expedition amongst Bart’s school emails to find some gnat that proved he had misused the school emails so that Elia could fire him and put the fear of God in all other school employees.

Elia is as rabid about controlling the publicity her administration gets as she is about bulling her way in every other administrative task she handles. She didn’t want gay publicity attached to her kingdom of the schools, so she lusted to grind Bart under her feet to squelch him and serve as warning to other school employees who might have the urge to express their opinions.

Kipley tied up the time of the computer people to search for something to pin on Birdsall so Ms. Elia could fire him. I think this was the time that a computer glitch kept teachers from receiving their paychecks on time. Squelching Bart would have a double use: getting rid of a gay who took his free-speech rights seriously and presenting a warning to the rest of the school plantation field hands that Ms. Elia would fire them at the least provocation. This role of instilling fear in the school family and making it afraid to protest the most flagrant abuses of the administration is the real purpose of the Professional Standards cell block. Ms. Kipley would have been right at home at Abu Ghraib. If called on to do so, she would have, I believe, draped that Arab victim in that obscene black sheet and hood that we all witnessed and shuddered at for what it said about American justice.

The school board knows this dirty secret about Professional Standards but looks the other way and allows its obscene punishment of teachers often on trumped-up charges to go on unchallenged. Candy South-Tampa Olson even screamed at Bart that he could lose his job at the gym they both attend to give one some idea of La Candy’s lockstep with her girlfriend Ms. Elia.

Bart’s savaging coincided with the first days of Ms. Elia’s reign. He and I went to Tiger Bay when Elia spoke shortly after her hiring.

At Tiger Bay, Bart sat with me and my husband while all the union people sat with the school board-administration claque. The union ignored Bart, who was under fire from Elia and Kipley at this time. Instead, its sycophants followed the school board royal enfilade as it exited at the end of the meeting, metaphorically holding up the train of the school brass's royal ROSSAC robes.

After the meeting, Bart and I had approached Elia. Bart asked Elia whether she turned over to Kipley emails generated from his home to look for some way to punish him. Elia said she gave them to Kipley because she didn’t know what else to do with them; she claimed that she was too unsophisticated about emails to know that the “from” line of the emails showed that they came from Bart’s home computer. This was a bald-faced lie, of course.

So Elia lied to our faces about her lack of knowledge of the transmission path of emails stated on their face. That she had functioned in the schools for so many years without mastering this elementary piece of technology strains credulity.

Elia’s lying to to us shows what contempt Elia has for anyone’s intelligence who questions her squalid methods—ones on which she rode into the superintendent’s job with the board’s complicity.

The board is co-defendants in Elia’s terrorizing of the school family as her mode of management. The board had spent $30,000 on Lennard’s cooked hiring and $35,000 for Elia’s with no qualms about lying to the taxpayers and having them foot the bill for a show of equal opportunity with “nation-wide” ads when it had already picked the inside candidates Lennard and Elia before the ads went out; the board figured in-house poltroons were the best insurance for its members’ continued incumbency. Lamb, Olson, and Kurdell have been ensconced on the board since Lennard's hiring.

Finding no means of punishing Bart or firing him, Elia and Kipley had to give up on this grinding under their heels a school employee who refused to let Kipley and Elia bully him by not fighting back.

Consigliore Tom Gonzalez assured Bart that Ms. Kipley would write him a letter of apology. She never has.

Elia also failed to inform Bart that he had a right to file an appeal in a specified period of time. So when it finally occurred to him to try filing an appeal to get some justice, Ms. Elia could write him in gleeful triumph that his appeal was too late. Her not informing him at Tiger Bay that he could appeal meant his appeal time had run out the clock just as Elia planned.

For an accurate picture of Ms. Elia’s disabling flaws as superintendent, Ms. Brown’s article should have added Elia’s more numerous defects than mere lack of tact. They are lying, sadism, and abuse of power to preen before a buddy shortly after Elia got the job of superintendent.

In addition to her relatively innocuous lack of tact, Ms. Elia has an additional litany of more lethal qualities and character flaws that should have rendered her ineligible for the superintendent’s job had the board been concerned about the welfare of the students, teachers, and whole school family instead of concerned to get an inside candidate who would augment their chances of remaining incumbent.

These Elia qualities are arrogance, cruelty to children, indifference to their parents’ opinions, duplicity, sneakiness, outright lying, and obscene sadistic desire to show a buddy how Ms. Elia could kick around a little school employee for the county library’s Joe Stine since he lacked guts to answer Bart’s emails.

Ms. Brown’s portrait below (copied for academic purposes) of Ms. Elia as suffering from mere lack of tact presents a truncated picture indeed of the superintendent’s personality flaws that insure that her job as superintended has been and will continue to be a disaster. These lethal traits should end her tenure as superintendent for the good of the whole school family.

The ball is in the board’s court. Three are up for re-election: Edgecomb, Lamb, and Kurdell. They should pledge voters on the stump to fire Elia, or opponents should replace them.

By MARILYN BROWN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 13, 2007

TAMPA - The grit and independence that drew Hillsborough County School Board members to hire Superintendent MaryEllen Elia two years ago is wearing thin.

Teachers started protesting in February when she determined they would teach more class periods this year.

School nurses have rebelled, warning that Elia's depletion of their ranks is a danger to student health and safety.

Parents are sick of late buses and unanswered phone calls.

Considered a dynamo among education leaders statewide, Elia, 59, has excelled in her focus on student achievement, using data to target individual student needs and landing tens of millions in grants.

It's how she goes about it that rankles those at home.

"MaryEllen doesn't take time to listen," board member Candy Olson said. "Sometimes she's so busy explaining why you're wrong she's not getting the piece I have to say."

District nurses who met with Elia in August to plead for help after she cut their ranks said they, too, felt that Elia doesn't listen.

"She expected us to just listen to what she said and go out and be pacified," registered nurse Karen Tansky said.

More recently, Elia has angered supporters with a decision to hire a $54,000 consultant to provide a wellness program after three committees packed with parents and community members had worked years on such plans. They were not asked what they thought before Elia recommended the consultant.

"Parents are led to believe their voice is important," said Sharold Allen, who serves on the School Health Advisory Committee. "They don't feel they have the importance that is portrayed. A lot of parents feel it's a lot of lip service."

In a recent interview, Elia said she agrees that district communication needs improvement, but disagrees that she doesn't listen or that employees don't share their real concerns.

"I certainly have heard from the teachers," she said. "I'm out in schools a lot. They're telling me they know we are focused on student achievement. They tell me they appreciate that we are able to give raises of approximately 18 percent over two years.

"People tell me good, and people tell me bad," Elia said.

Her Appointment Surprised Many

Elia's appointment as superintendent in 2005 stunned even some of her biggest supporters.

A nationwide search had included two superintendents from other states plus a favored inside candidate to lead what is now the nation's eighth-largest school district with 192,000 students, more than 25,000 employees and an annual budget of $3.2 billion.

Known as a driven, determined administrator, Elia had quietly worked her way up in the Hillsborough school system more than 19 years, starting as a reading resource teacher at Plant High School. She held various supervisory positions before becoming chief facilities officer in 2003.

When Elia became Hillsborough's first female superintendent, some celebrated the gender shift. Others were put off with her credentials - two master's degrees but not the traditional doctorate.

But it was her direct management style and diverse experience that won her the job, board members said at the time. She didn't shy away from controversy and was able to make tough decisions, they said.

Elia was a sharp contrast to her predecessor, Earl Lennard.

"They are as different as night and day," said Yvonne Lyons, executive director for the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. Lennard built consensus before acting, sometimes drawing criticism for moving too slowly.

That can't be said of Elia. "Sometimes her methods aren't appreciated by everybody," Lyons said. "Some hard decisions have to be made. So far, she's been willing to make those decisions and take the fallout."

Jim Aulisio, a chemistry teacher at Freedom High School who publicly protested Elia's decision to add a class period to the high school teachers' day, likens Elia to a bull. "She just rams it her way," he said. "She could have come to us."

At the same time, Aulisio acknowledges Elia's strengths.

"She takes a lot of heat, and she never flinches. I've got to give the woman credit. She just got 20 percent more work out of high school teachers. That would be an educational brilliant maneuver if there were no negatives."

'I'd Hate To See Us Go Back'

As she races through her third year as superintendent, Elia's take-charge style has drawn public criticism along with the employee backlash.

Communication has to improve, board members say.

"If she doesn't listen enough, somebody will make a motion to fire her," Olson said.

School board chairman Jack Lamb said public perception matters when the national average for superintendent tenure is less than three years.

"It scares me," Lamb said. "We've made such progress. I'd hate to see us go back."

Board member Doretha Edgecomb said this week that communication continues to be an issue. "She works hard at it. People just don't feel they have enough information," she said.

Board member Carol Kurdell and Lamb said Elia has discussed controversial decisions with them in one-on-one sessions before they became public. But other board members said they don't get all of the information they need.

Faliero said she has returned to gathering her own information on issues, as she did when first elected in 2002.

"Gone are the days - 'Please just trust us on this one,'" she said.

Lyons, the teachers' union official, said Elia needs to slow down a bit and reach out more to people before making decisions. "Get more input from the stakeholders," he said. "Get people involved who are doing the job."

When asked why she didn't do that while deciding how to handle several controversial issues this year, Elia responded, "We had a lot of input into the issues," naming principals and administrators.

Elia acknowledges that her style sometimes rubs people the wrong way.

"I don't take it personally when someone is upset," she said.

Supporters say her decisiveness is a bonus.

Bill Montford, chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said Elia is "one of the brightest superintendents we have."

What others characterize as problems or concerns, Elia prefers to call challenges.

"This district is a model district in many, many areas," Elia said. "We have a lot of successes - we have challenges every day. You have to keep moving in the direction of being successful for our kids,"

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

By MARILYN BROWN The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 13, 2007

TAMPA - The grit and independence that drew Hillsborough County School Board members to hire Superintendent MaryEllen Elia two years ago is wearing thin.

Teachers started protesting in February when she determined they would teach more class periods this year.

School nurses have rebelled, warning that Elia's depletion of their ranks is a danger to student health and safety.

Parents are sick of late buses and unanswered phone calls.

Considered a dynamo among education leaders statewide, Elia, 59, has excelled in her focus on student achievement, using data to target individual student needs and landing tens of millions in grants.

It's how she goes about it that rankles those at home.

"MaryEllen doesn't take time to listen," board member Candy Olson said. "Sometimes she's so busy explaining why you're wrong she's not getting the piece I have to say."

District nurses who met with Elia in August to plead for help after she cut their ranks said they, too, felt that Elia doesn't listen.

"She expected us to just listen to what she said and go out and be pacified," registered nurse Karen Tansky said.

More recently, Elia has angered supporters with a decision to hire a $54,000 consultant to provide a wellness program after three committees packed with parents and community members had worked years on such plans. They were not asked what they thought before Elia recommended the consultant.

"Parents are led to believe their voice is important," said Sharold Allen, who serves on the School Health Advisory Committee. "They don't feel they have the importance that is portrayed. A lot of parents feel it's a lot of lip service."

In a recent interview, Elia said she agrees that district communication needs improvement, but disagrees that she doesn't listen or that employees don't share their real concerns.

"I certainly have heard from the teachers," she said. "I'm out in schools a lot. They're telling me they know we are focused on student achievement. They tell me they appreciate that we are able to give raises of approximately 18 percent over two years.

"People tell me good, and people tell me bad," Elia said.

Her Appointment Surprised Many

Elia's appointment as superintendent in 2005 stunned even some of her biggest supporters.

A nationwide search had included two superintendents from other states plus a favored inside candidate to lead what is now the nation's eighth-largest school district with 192,000 students, more than 25,000 employees and an annual budget of $3.2 billion.

Known as a driven, determined administrator, Elia had quietly worked her way up in the Hillsborough school system more than 19 years, starting as a reading resource teacher at Plant High School. She held various supervisory positions before becoming chief facilities officer in 2003.

When Elia became Hillsborough's first female superintendent, some celebrated the gender shift. Others were put off with her credentials - two master's degrees but not the traditional doctorate.

But it was her direct management style and diverse experience that won her the job, board members said at the time. She didn't shy away from controversy and was able to make tough decisions, they said.

Elia was a sharp contrast to her predecessor, Earl Lennard.

"They are as different as night and day," said Yvonne Lyons, executive director for the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. Lennard built consensus before acting, sometimes drawing criticism for moving too slowly.

That can't be said of Elia. "Sometimes her methods aren't appreciated by everybody," Lyons said. "Some hard decisions have to be made. So far, she's been willing to make those decisions and take the fallout."

Jim Aulisio, a chemistry teacher at Freedom High School who publicly protested Elia's decision to add a class period to the high school teachers' day, likens Elia to a bull. "She just rams it her way," he said. "She could have come to us."

At the same time, Aulisio acknowledges Elia's strengths.

"She takes a lot of heat, and she never flinches. I've got to give the woman credit. She just got 20 percent more work out of high school teachers. That would be an educational brilliant maneuver if there were no negatives."

'I'd Hate To See Us Go Back'

As she races through her third year as superintendent, Elia's take-charge style has drawn public criticism along with the employee backlash.

Communication has to improve, board members say.

"If she doesn't listen enough, somebody will make a motion to fire her," Olson said.

School board chairman Jack Lamb said public perception matters when the national average for superintendent tenure is less than three years.

"It scares me," Lamb said. "We've made such progress. I'd hate to see us go back."

Board member Doretha Edgecomb said this week that communication continues to be an issue. "She works hard at it. People just don't feel they have enough information," she said.

Board member Carol Kurdell and Lamb said Elia has discussed controversial decisions with them in one-on-one sessions before they became public. But other board members said they don't get all of the information they need.

Faliero said she has returned to gathering her own information on issues, as she did when first elected in 2002.

"Gone are the days - 'Please just trust us on this one,'" she said.

Lyons, the teachers' union official, said Elia needs to slow down a bit and reach out more to people before making decisions. "Get more input from the stakeholders," he said. "Get people involved who are doing the job."

When asked why she didn't do that while deciding how to handle several controversial issues this year, Elia responded, "We had a lot of input into the issues," naming principals and administrators.

Elia acknowledges that her style sometimes rubs people the wrong way.

"I don't take it personally when someone is upset," she said.

Supporters say her decisiveness is a bonus.

Bill Montford, chief executive officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said Elia is "one of the brightest superintendents we have."

What others characterize as problems or concerns, Elia prefers to call challenges.

"This district is a model district in many, many areas," Elia said. "We have a lot of successes - we have challenges every day. You have to keep moving in the direction of being successful for our kids,"

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

A TALE OF BOARD AND ADMINISTRATION CRONYISM

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A...":

Also note how they were quick to shut off the microphone when the young mother advocating for her ESE child went over her time limit.

However, when Grandpa Crazy stands at the podium and goes past the bell trying to sell the school board vitamins, he is heard loud and clear.

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 10:53 AM

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Hillsborough County School Board Members:

I received this comment above on leeduryrdecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com.

People have begun to notice the disparate treatment the board gives people at the podium. If it’s a board and administration sycophant or a person who says anything that reflects well on the board, you are all smiles, and Dr. Lamb extends that person’s mike time. If it’s someone who is not praising the board or calling attention to a problem, Dr. Lamb assumes his gargoyle face and rebukes the speaker or cuts off that person’s time.

You board drones have sat in your potted-plant glutei on the dais and presided over the obscene administration of Ms. Elia with complacency. You have not uttered a single rebuke to her—not even when she extended teachers’ work day without consulting them in a sneak attack with no warning.

Ms. Silent-as-a-tomb Kurdell and Ms. South-Tampa Candy even jumped on Griffin for her sticking up for the taxpayers in the no-bid contract scam that Ms. Elia runs with the board’s approval.

That guy winning the bid without competition turned out to have no business phone according to La Gaceta’s investigation, and when somebody sent me an anonymous note including the state filing for this only lately retired Hillsborough County hustler’s start-up business, I got this response when I called the number: a Minnie Pearl female voice squeaking, “It’s another beautiful day! Let’s live it for the Lord!”

Minnie Pearl’s greeting didn’t sound like corporate America to me. Minnie’s invitation to worship the Lord didn’t sound like the professional, well-known, revered—nay, worshipped--state expert that Ms. Cathy Valdez lauded in her maladroit sales pitch for the non-bid award of $157,000 of tax money with the board’s 4-to-2 approval of the rip-off of the taxpayers by the board, the superintendent, the administrative nest of D students culled from buddies, family, and hangers-on by the superintendent.

And let’s not forget the attorney. He waxed full throated in his laudation of the Minnie-Pearl-lately-retired-from-the-school-system guy’s right to get a bid with no contract.

No wonder the board attorney said the administrators couldn’t write contracts, that the chore exceeded their abilities. The whole gang is too dumb to fill in the blanks of a grade book much less write a literate, cogent contract. The administrative featherbedding minions’ Romper-Room abilities explain why the taxpayers must pay their bloated salaries while hiring with no bids consultants to show them which end of the pencil to hold.

The reason why the attorney added his support to the no-bid scamming became clear when we learned that he has benefited from the no-bid contract Dr. Lennard slipped his firm. Mr. Gonzalez has made hundreds of thousands of dollars from his sweetheart no-bid deal.

Only two board members suffer no taint from the no-bid cronyism practiced by the administration and rubberstamped by the board: April Griffin and Susan Valdes.

The rest of the board frowns at anyone at the podium who is not singing the praises of the no-bid cronyism gang of board and administration. And Silent-as-a-tomb Kurdell and South-Tampa Candy rebuke any board member—i.e. Griffin in this case—who has the courage to stand up for the taxpayers, teachers, and students.

The board denigrates teachers and students by refusing to give them the dignity of a settled slot on the board agenda during which they may air their concerns and make suggestions about running the schools. The board condones the administration’s treating teachers and students as the tax-payer-supported economic base of field hands that allow the board and administration to preen as the plantation's big-house pooh-bahs while awarding no-bid contracts with a hey nonny nonny and hiring buddies and sycophants for bloated-pay administrative jobs without advertising the jobs.

The board lives in an egomaniacal la-la land and fools itself that it and the administration are the core of the school system while demeaning, ignoring, and mistreating students and teachers—the real heart of the school system and the reason that it exists.

Better citizens must replace this board of malefactors supporting the cronyism of a corrupt administration of cronies.

lee drury de cesare

Subject: Media Asleep at the Switch

To: aemerson@tampatribune.com, denisepalmer@tampatribune.com, druth@tribune.com, JanetWeaver@tampatribune.com, kbrady@tampatribune.com, Brown@tampatribune.com, mbrown@tampatribune.com, mthompson@tampatribune.com, SILVESTRINI@tampatribune.com, webster@tampatribune.com, 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, montolino@aol.com, doretha.edgecomb@sdhc.k12.fl.us, "Tom Gonzalez"

Newsman Deeson: It's about time that somebody in the somnolent news racket looked into the crony hiring (such as your story illustrates in the school-board attorney's case) and subcontracting. All this cronyism is bound to point to money traveling under the table, especially in the contracting.

The board voted 4-2 with only Griffin and Valdes dissenting in favor of a buddy of some administrator--probably Ms. Elia since Blackwell, getting the $158,000 contract without a bid-- worked in her division before she got her job through buddy hiring by the board as superintendent.

Attorney Gonzalez, who sounds so disinterested in your story's quotes today, gave a ringing endorsement of this crony status-quo from which he has benefit ted handsomely. Mr. Gonzalez made it sound as though changing it violated the liturgy of public life and would be as tough to do as mapping the double helix. He did not give equal endorsement to the board's right and duty to change the crony system to a bid system for subcontractors and for advertising flossy administration jobs that now go to Elia's buddies, sycophants, relatives of relatives, and other species of hangers on. Cronyism has flourished at the school board while the "main stream" media has sat on its venerability and looked to the BUCs for news--or tractor pulls.

I also note that Mr. Gonzalez did not advise Dr. Lennard when the latter appointed him in the reigning crony protocol that it would be more beneficial for taxpayers for the board to advertise the lawyer job, also fairer to other area law firms, and as well more ethical all around. Now when you interview for publication of his position, Mr. Gonzalez suddenly comes out with the admission that fairness and ethics get short shrift at the school board and that he has not distinguished himself by pointing it out. He rather gives closing arguments for the status quo. See the rerun of the 16th board meeting to confirm this statement of fact.

The blogs are replacing the "mainstream" press, which are headed for the dust bin of press history. The "mainstream" layabouts deserve this dumping.

lee drury de cesare

lee drury de cesare
Delete Reply Forward Move...
Previous | Next | Back to Messages Save Message Text | Full Headers
Check Mail Compose
Search Mail: Search Mail Search the Web

Dr. Lamb: In addition to your getting an opinion from the attorney on the board's squelching free-speech rights of public speakers, ask him to render an opinion on the disparate treatment that the anonymous poster on my leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com site points out. The board members swore to uphold the Constitution. If they are breaking that oath in addition to subscribing to crony contracts and hiring, then I am going to have to find out from Cosa Nostra if the schoool board of Hillsborough County can become an official outpost of the crime families of NYC.

If you don't know how to cook spaghetti sauce, I suggest that you learn since the board may now have to go to the mattresses.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Request for Open Government Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2...": If you watch the Board meeting again, people who spoke after you used names and they were not reprimanded. Publish this comment. Reject this comment. Moderate comments for this blog. Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 7:35 AM

Son of a gun! This anonymous poster is right. I must send this to Dr. Lamb to set him straight. He's a slow learner. Maybe he hasn't noticed. Could it be that the outgoing chair applies a double standard? lee

A Request for Open Government

Date:	Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:21:12 -0800 (PST)
From:	"lee decesare"
Subject:	Fwd: Cronyism at the School Board
To:	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, "Tom Gonzalez"

Dr. Lamb:

At the last board meeting, you said that a citizen at the community speaker podium can’t “name a person.” I don’t know why not. That abridges a person’s free speech. Ask the board attorney for his opinion on this stricture as an abridgement of a citizen’s free-speech rights.

I also want to know why the attorney keeps his own personnel files and not the public-affairs office as is usual for other school employees. Is this privileged treatment due a state law, or is it a right that the attorney has arrogated from the school board? Or has the board extended this privilege to him; if so, why?

I have asked for public information from Mr. Gonzalez following his public endorsement of the crony awarding of contracts without bids that is the status quo in the board's handing out contracts to acquaintances, friends, and others with whom they are in rapport with no bids. I have received no data from him so far. Here is what I require:

1. Did Mr. Gonzalez get his board-attorney job through a no-bid appointment, or did the board advertise it?
2. If he got job by a no-bid appointment, who in the school board or administration was his referral?
3. If his job went out to bid, may I see the folder of the competing firms?
4. How much tax money did the board pay to Mr. Gonzalez and his firm last year for their services to the school board?
5. How much tax money total, if Mr. Gonzalez handled the trial of Mr. Irwin and its appeal, did his firm get paid from tax funds for those trials?>
6. What is Mr. Gonzalez’s hourly compensation for his board work and how does that compare to the average hourly compensation of lawyers in Hillsborough County?
7. How many people are on Mr. Gonzalez’s school-board staff in his firm?
8. What is their compensation and its hourly rate from tax money? Is this staff’s remuneration part (asked for above) of the total remuneration Mr. Gonzalez receives from tax money entrusted to the board for its dispensation?
9. May I have a copy of or a Web citation of the school bid laws or procedures that Mr. Gonzalez cited in his board oration opposing change because it was so difficult?

I would appreciate your seeing that the board attorney follow the public-information laws and provides me with these data in a timely manner.

In fact, I suggest you publish it on the board Web page so that citizens may have it, especially the school community of teachers and staff now kept in ignorance of what goes on in ROSSAC that affects their wellbeing such as the blitzkreig annoucement of the extra class imposed on teachers by Ms. Elia to solve her budget problems and approved by the board.

More Web data would be a step in opening up of the school board’s activities to the public which one newspaper editorial recommended.

Thank you.

Lee Drury De Cesare

15316 Gulf Boulevard 802

Madeira Beach, FL 33708

Cronyism 101 at the Hillsborough County
School Board

----- Original Message -----

From: Anonymous

To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com

Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2007 9:30 AM

Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Minions of the Light: The good news is that the b....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Minions of the Light: The good news is that the b...":

Electronic Articles of Organization
For A ru 09 2007
Florida Limited Liability Company Sec. Of ‘State
rh u nt
Article I
The name of the Limited Liability Company is:
OPTIMUM FACILITIES, LLC
Article II
The street address of the principal office of the Limited Liability Company is:
4506 HICKORY CREEK LN.
BRANDON, FL. US 33511
The mailing address of the Limited Liability Company is:
4506 HICKORY CREEK LN.
BRANDON, FL. US 33511
Article III
The purpose for which this Limited Liability Company is organized is:
ANY AND ALL LAWFUL BUSINESS.
Article IV
The name and Florida street address of the registered agent is:

JOEL T BLACKWELL
4506 HICKORY CREEK LN.
BRANDON,FL. 33511

Having been named as registered agent and to accept service of process for the above stated limited liability company at the place designated in this certificate, I hereby accept the appointment as registered agent and agree to act in this capacity. I further agree to comply with the provisions of all statutes relating to the proper and complete performance of my duties, and I am familiar with and accept the obligations of my position as registered agent.
Registered Agent Signature: JOEL T. BLACKWELL

Article V
The effective date for this Limited Liability Company shall be:
04/07/2007
Signature of member or an authorized representative of a member Signature: JOEL T. BLACKWELL



found at:

http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=L07000036943&inq_came_from=NAMFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=N&names_cor_number=&names_name_seq=&names_name_ind=&names_comp_name=OPTIMUMFACILITIES&names_filing_type=

Publish this comment. Done/ lee

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 6:30 AM



Comes over the blog transom the above transmission from the Minions of the Dark. If you go to the site, the last entry gives this caveat:

"Note: This is not official record. See documents if question or conflict."

It seems the elusive contractor for counting and measuring school buildings, Mr. Blackwell, has been in business--monkey or otherwise-- for all of six months. Ms. Cathy Valdes, Ms. Elia's mouthpiece in this Cronyism Caper, said Le Blackwell is known and revered all over the state of Florida. The duration of his "company" calls that assertion into question.

I called the phone number listed above for Hickory Creek Lane and got a recorded response from a woman who sounded like Minnie Pearl. She twanged, "Today's a new day! Live for the Lord!"

"Oh, Lord," I said. "The school board has hired the Family Research Council to count and measure the schools for $158,000."

On second thought, "Today's a new day! Live it for the Lord" may be how they answer calls from Wall Street companies these days, and perhaps Mr. Joel T. Blackwell is as sterling and venerable an entrepreneur as Ms. Cathy Valdes, Ms. Carol-Silent-as-the-Tomb-Until-Re-election-Time Kurdell, and Ms. Candy-South-Tampa Olson swear he is. He probably hangs out with Warren Buffet.

Minnie Pearl gave no invitation for me to leave a number for CEO Joel to call me, so I shall forward this message to the local crusading press--including La Gaceta's Patrick Manteiga, who broke the story on the phantom Joel T. Blackwell company while the "mainstream" press slept-- to see how vigorous its minions can be in the pursuit of the Crony Bidding Scandal under their noses at the school board. It's a sure bet that board and administration have gone to the mattresses and that Dr. Lamb is stirring up a pot of spaghetti sauce--or maybe this gang is a chitterlings-and-cornbread outfit.

If I could have talked to Joel T. Blackwell, I would have asked him who on the board or administration handed him this crony job. My guess is Ms. Elia. He worked in her building- facilities area during the time that the real-estate scandal was going on in her line of vision and recorded by the St. Pete Times but that she claimed not to notice. The school board swallowed that dodge and said, "The dear girl is run off her feet. How can she notice a little thing like real-estate scamming in her bailiwick?"

On the other hand, Ms. Luney of the Wellness Crony Caper may have handed it to Le Blackwell without a by-your-leave from anybody due to her knowledge of How Things Are Done in the Cronyism Precincts of the Hillsborough County School Board and administration.

When I hear from the Minions of the Dark, I know that something spicy is in the works, and I don't think it bodes well for the potted plants who occupy the school-board dais and rubberstamp Elia's edicts while castigating any board member such as Susan Valdes and April Griffin if they dare suggest that behind-closed-doors crony appointments should give way to open bids for jobs the school board subcontracts.

The reason that the school administration runs by subcontracts, of course, is that the administration crony job recruiting from the ranks of buddies, sycophants, and family to be administrators with bloated salaries in inverse ratio to their brain power has produced an administrative staff that is too dumb to solve the most basic administration task.

lee

Minions of the Light: The good news is that the back-room-Star-Chamber policy making has moved on to the public podium during board nights. That's what the last board meeting proved. It was a show that exposed the Minions of Darkness in all their sooty tints.

Griffin and Valdes have broken through the veil of secrecy that has covered up the board and administration's back-room dirty deals in contracting and in hiring. On the horizon may be payoffs and graft. That was the scenario at HCC when I was union president there.

We union members negotiated the contract and countered administration moves against members ourselves. That's what CTA should do in the schools. Teachers should kick out the overpaid CTA staff that works for Ms. Elia, not teachers, and appoint committees to do the union's work: teachers working for teachers.

The lawyer, Mr. Gonzalez, weighed in on the side of status quo. He volunteered his comment as I recall. He just jumped in.(On reviewing the tape, I see I am mistaken: Ms. Cathy Valdes invited the attorney to comment before all the board members weighed in. His comments were after those of the board members and hence strategically effective because of the last-to-speak position. The attorney was distinctly in favor of the status quo, emphasizing the diffiulties of changing to a bid system. I thought his comments came down too hard on how difficult it would be to bid instead of the current system of naming people whom the administration or board knows or to whom they have some connection.)

I have asked for public records to see what Mr. Gonzalez's remuneration is, whether he got his appointment via good-ol-girl-boy influence (see previous post), and what he got paid for presiding over the trial and appeal in the crucifixion of Doug Erwin. I want to know why lawyers, accountants, and realtors are not liable to bids.

I want to nail down whether Le Gonzalez enjoyed the no-bid situation he endorsed so spiritedly on the podium because he got his job and keeps it by giving legal backup to the status quo of the administration's crooked bid deals and hiring with the board's rubberstamp. A Florida Bar ethics query may be necessary.

I find strange that while Edgecomb, Olson, Kurdell, Lamb, and the attorney all sang the praises of spending tax money blindly on no-bid contracts and--by extension--no-advertising administrative jobs with bloated salaries from the public kitty, the same board--including Susan Valdes and Griffin, their education's not yet being then complete, alas--endorsed Elia's plea for budget crisis when she piled another class on teachers when the board allowed her to savage teachers in her sneak attack. There is no budget crisis when paying for no-bid contracts for buddies and bloated salaries for administrators who owe their slots to cronyism.

Two teachers showed up to complain about the burdens they bore. They both sounded dispirited. I think the board except for Valdes-Griffin is immune to such teachers' pleas. Candy says teachers are lazy. Ms. Edgecombe is protecting her administrator-daughter's future administrative climb to the top of ROSSAC is my guess about her determinedly innocuous performance as a board member. Kurdell is dormant until election time, when she wakes up to vote as Elia directs and to accuse people who don't agree with her of distrusting the staff. Ditto for Lamb. We have here board potted-plant zombies sunk into the corruption of the cronyism that marks the status quo. The only answer is to replace them.

I believe Faliera pulled a psychosomatic syncope and escaped via ambulance to the hospital to avoid voting on hiring Cathy Valdes's acquaintance choice (see what La Gaceta uncovered about him below) for a $158,000 contract without the bids that Griffin and Valdes demanded. Faliera's personal and professional life is a mess--not to mention her keeping U-Haul in business with her peregrinations between districts in the dead of night.

I am going to look at Cathy Valdes's personnel file. I bet her bona fides are slender; Elia hired her with no advertising is my understanding.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Here's what La Gaceta printed yesterday:

Date:	Fri, 9 Nov 2007 19:11:59 -0800 (PST)
From:	"lee decesare" View Contact Details Add Mobile Alert
Subject:	press somnolence
To:	ptash@sptimes.com
CC:	ehooper@sptimes.com, lstein@sptimes.com, tisch@sptimes.com, "Howard" , tobin@sptimes.com, pmanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com, webster@tampatribune.com, danruth@tampatribune.com, mbrown@tampatribune.com

Mr. Tash, get that little twerp who devoted a column to mooning over Jennifer Faliera (Hooper?) to check out this "consultant" situation; have the rascal find out what connection Cathy Valdes has with him. Does the school administration have to become a full-fledged racket before the "mainstream" press wakes up?

Has the mainstream press surrendered its duty to keep citizens informed? No wonder the blogs will bury the old stream press. lee drury de cesare


From La Gaceta: Optimum Facilities isn't listed in the phone book, doesn't appear to have a commercial location, has no website, doesn't answer its phone during business hours and its phone message doesn't mention the name of the company, personnel or hours. We left a message to ask if this was the firm's first job but received no return phone call. To us, it appears that it is the firm's first job. It looks like Blackwell's friends at the district are helping him start up his business with this contract. Well, isn't that nice, especially since Mr. Blackwell was never that nice to contractors who tried to do business with the district. He would have never allowed a startup company with no track record to have a no bid contract.

lee drury de cesare

The Wall seems to be hibernating, but the TB blog ( http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2007/) is going great guns. Here are some excerpts of the comment section:

As a school teacher, I see plenty of waste in the school district, both at the school level and the administrative level. If each school, and the district staff create a committee of teachers and such to see where expenses can be cut. At my school, for instance, we have two non classroom teachers that make in excess of $50,000 that are basically glorified secretaries. Why? Also, why do we need to buy technology and classroom supplies from only a selected group of vender's when their products are so much more expensive. For instance, if we wanted to buy markers for the classroom, we can go to target and buy them much cheaper (50 cents at the start of the school year), but we can't! We must buy them from Office Depot at a much more expensive price!

I can go on for a while on this subject! Don't get me started on the waste of electricity at the schools and downtown offices!

The following is from

Posted by: Vincent Michaels | November 09, 2007 at 06:16 AM

I see more bad news with this sentence:

"The district even could offer financial rewards for good ideas."

This reminds me of the stereotypical wife after a shopping spree where she spent more than the budget allows on "sales" and then says to her husband "But look how much money I saved". And then she complains that her husband doesn’t bring home enough money and that is why there is a budget problem.

Perhaps the Board could show the way. It appears that some Board members see their role as simply rubberstampingfont> recommendations that are presented to them. Unless a member’s comments are accolades of what a good job the recommendernt> did, any hint of discussion is interpreted as untrustingnt>. It would be great if each member made a comment that demonstrated their comprehension of the money they are spending. If they can’t, then why bother to have approval power. Just let the recommender> do it and move on.

What is the purpose of a Board meeting? Is it to discuss the business of the school system? Is it to discuss education? Is it to make a public display of how grand everything is?

Posted by: It's the good intentions that count, not the money | November 09, 2007 at 08:48 AM

well they might start by getting rid of all the useless deputy, assistant, associate superintendents, district directors, teachers on special assignment, former over the hill administrators with consulting contracts (all of whom play little to no roll in the education of students).

Believe me, these large school districts have plenty of bacon to be cut.
What's fantastic is, they're caught in a tightening vise which keeps squeezing.
As the state budget continues to tank and the legislature is forced to cut more spending, the class size amendment restrictions keep phasing in.

Add to that the likely passage of the January 29thnt> tax cut referendum and you've got a real problem if you're a school district fatcat>.

What's a bloated bureaucracy to do?

The beauty of the situation is the district is forced to cut administration because they can't touch the classroom.

You guys didn't really think they would spend the excess money on the kids did you?

School Board Meeting November 6th

This message is not flagged. [ Flag Message - Mark as Unread ]

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.