Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Outraged 2.0 - A LC Board of Education Covert Operation

“With integrity you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt. With fear and guilt removed you are free to be and do your best.”

Zig Ziglar


Hello Friends…

This WRAL news story should make my hubby happy:


Then I should be on cloud nine all the time! I have Kona in my cup this afternoon.  And I drink alot - of coffee, that is!  But ... sadly the state of affairs in this country and specifically Lee County has me feeling a little down..

  
Seriously now, did you stop and read the quote above? You should. It should guide every one of us in every endeavor.  And if you didn’t know, Zig Ziglar is a well known motivational speaker. Attend one of his conferences, and you’ll want to conquer the world. I’ve been to management training in DC that used Zig Ziglar courses as a basis.

Anyway, isn’t integrity suppose to be the basis for everything we do in life? Shouldn’t we keep it tattooed on our arms for a “gentle” reminder? You bet we should.

Do you remember times from your childhood where mama would tell you to tell the truth? No matter what? No matter the consequences? You knew the punishment was coming. But maybe, just maybe you would get some brownie points for confessing. Why don’t our leaders come clean? I ask that because I seriously believe the Lee County Board of Education members are hiding something.  By opening up, we would start to develop trust.  As it is now, forget it. 

You see, we the people, have asked for an audit of all county services. And considering that the county funds quite a bit of the local school system budget, we believe we have a right to require the school finances be audited too. Any ethical individual, group, board, etc, public or private would agree. Wouldn’t you think? Not our Board of Education.

Instead they keep accusing the citizens, the ones who finance their wishes, of creating a witch hunt on the “esteemed and most ethical” school board and superintendent in history. (LOL)

Here are some excerpts from the Sanford Herald:

“Members of the Lee County Board of Education blasted the performance audit of the school system approved by the Board of Commissioners, with Board of Education Vice Chairman John Bonardi calling the audit “political gamesmanship” and board member Bill Tatum accusing some of the commissioners of launching a “witch hunt.”

Editor’s note: The only witch hunt is against the taxpayers who want integrity to be established and revered!

Don't stop reading!!  Click Continue!  Lots more to say.

“It disturbs me greatly that the Board of Commissioners used the word performance audit as a disguise to look at financial records,” Williams said. “We’ve given them everything they requested. ... The way I see it is they don’t trust our finance department, they don’t trust the superintendent and they don’t trust this elected body, and it disturbs me greatly.”

Editor’s note: This quote is from Shawn Williams, de facto chairman. And he is exactly right. We don’t trust them. We don’t even trust him and he’s a pastor in town! 


I say de facto because it is well known Bill Tatum is the one who runs the show with Jeff Moss, Superintendent. Plus why in the world would someone in Mr. Williams’ profession be against the citizens’ right to know? Makes you wonder!

And another thing, he stood behind using the kids as pawns. Held a conference! And the word  “integrity” never surfaced.   He also stood behind our superintendent and the Southern Lee principal doing everything possible to destroy a young girl because she brought a paring knife in her lunch box. And when she was acquitted, no one, not even Mr. Williams, offered an apology.

I will hear complaints  because of what I am going to say next.  But folks I don't care.  I have learned "nice doesn't get it anymore".   The Republicans sold their souls to be nice.


So that being said:   Doesn’t Jesus teach us to have integrity, compassion and meekness? Are we not suppose to, as Christians, admit our mistakes and ask forgiveness? Mr. Williams, actions speak louder than words. 


Dang I forgot.  Our schools want "God" out of the picture!  And definitely "Under God" out of the pledge!  


Am I angry?  No I am OUTRAGED!


Here's another comment:  Mark Akinosho, who ran on conservative values to bring "integrity" to the school board,  said this: 



“I just don’t want our children to become a political football as we head into an election year,” Akinosho said.

Too late, Mark.  You just made them such! 

John Bonardi: “I think what we have here is politics at play,” Bonardi said. “To me, this reeks of the same political manure that we’ve heard.”

Editor’s note: Really, Mr. Bonardi? Politics at play?  Manure? I guess scaring the "you know what"  out of teachers while they were working, scaring kids by telling them middle school sports would be axed, Ms. Mary, the TA would lose her job, the janitor was gone, no more drivers ed, yada, yada, yada, isn’t using politics? I guess condoning using a sitting representative’s daughter 3rd grade class to petition daddy for more money because there would be no EOG testing isn’t using politics? Mr. Bonardi, I will buy you a copy of Webster’s dictionary. You need to read it. 


Is this not the perfect opportunity to shut up critics?  To say “See, I told you so”?

The more they refuse to meet with the BOC (yea they are above that!) and  the more name calling they do, the more suspicious I become. And others too. So stop thwarting the process. We want accountability. The audit was approved and the contract has been given to Evergreen.

Let’s take a quick look at some case studies by Evergreen:

Duplin County 2011 audit – overall budget savings that were found: $14 million. You got that right! $14 million!!


Davie County: $6 million

The link above is for the Davie County governmental site.  They don't seem to have a problem publicly showing the results.  Read the pdf.  And when you do, ask yourself what is it the Lee County Board of Education is hiding?  The audit commends where it's due.  And they suggest ways to cut expenses.  I will expand on that audit in a later post.

I wonder if the LCSS audit will reveal we are overpaying our superintendent?   Probably so.  Compare his salary to Tata in Wake County.  Tata makes over $200,000 for around 146,366 students.  Moss makes close to $194,000 for less than 10,000 students.  Huge difference.  I bet they will find a few more interesting things.  


You see friends, I don't have a problem with Mr. Moss, personally.  I have a problem with him professionally.  It will not surprise me one bit if he tells his staff to shut up and don't answer anything about the audit!  Be forewarned!

Don't forget that the BOE along with Mr. Moss did ask for $7.9 million more than last year’s budget of $83 million (or is it$87.5 million?).  Alas, they  settled for $500,000 (for 2 years). My ongoing question to them that has NEVER been answered is: What were you going to do with $6.9 million more if you think $500,000 was ok to live with? Answer the darn question!

We must now turn our focus to Lee County's  superior investigative services. If you can’t see my smirk, please contact your Internet provider and demand “Net-e-vision”!

Yes our very own Mr. Clark is up to his antics again. He has proven with his actions his pure hate for certain Lee county Republican Commissioners. A lot of us have often wondered if he realized he was being used as a puppet.  I doubt it.  Keith’s rants have made me null. I can't  even listen to them anymore. I just shake my head. I have never seen someone so viciously attack another like he does Linda Shook. Like he does Jim Womack – that’s due to his moderate darling not winning the primary. Or is it because he is used by the BOE and certain members of the BOC to do the dirty work? What is it?

He certainly has a right to speak his mind at BOC meetings. I do. But his motives don’t seem pure. He has now filed a Freedom of Information Act to get all documents pertaining to the hiring of Evergreen. I have a copy.  But why? Is it because he wants so desperately to find something he can claim as unethical whether it’s true or not? That’s the liberal way of doing business anyway. We saw enough of that last fall.  Or is it another instance of carrying the torch for the left because of anger? 

If Keith wants the truth, he should also investigate (not meaning to be a broken record, here), why our BOE asked for $7.9 million and then settled for $500,000! Ask them, please,  what they were going to do with that extra money? Inquiring law-abiding citizens want to know!  It's our duty to find out the truth!

NOTE TO THE PUBLIC: The Herald reported that Doc Oldham was one of the six who voted for the audit to go to Evergreen. What they didn’t report was Doc, voted for it before he voted against it. Yep, he pulled a John Kerry. After the board meeting, he secretly changed his vote to NO. Why not make that public, Doc? What are you hiding? Who pressured you?

Doc has never met an incentive or tax increase he didn’t like. He is a RINO. He is a McCain. And we simply don’t need this in America.

Have guts. Have some integrity. Tell us why you changed your vote.  

Without honesty and integrity, we lose dearly, friends. Dearly. We lose our freedoms. We lose our identity.  We will lose America.  We must capture it again.

Now, let me make this clear. I am outraged.  Annoyed at Mr. Clark and expect his actions.  But I am OUTRAGED at Doc, Richard Hayes, Shawn Williams, Tatum, Smith and the other BOE members.   They treat us like idiots. They treat us like King George treated the commoners.  I believe they put their pants on like I do.  The tie their shoes like me.  Why do they think they are better?  Their actions say such.  Their actions say the citizens don't matter.   


All of them need to reread the quote at the top of my blog.

Those who have nothing to hide, have no fear.

Have no doubt!  There is a covert operation to stop the audit.  The name calling and refusal to be at meetings with the BOC speaks volumes.   The disdain the BOE is showing to the citizens is despicable.  

Bank on this folks:  We WILL  get accountability one way or the other. Either with an audit or through the ballot box.   The citizens will win. 


Anybody wanna borrow my broom?

Sheila

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sheila, excellent job in exposing the truth.

Randall Lee Yow said...

Again, I will ask again why we did not use the audit we already have from Dixon Goodman Hughes? I find the claim that it too hard for our Commissioners to read not to be a valid argument. I myself requested the Evergreen Proposal via e-mail from Chairwoman Shook. I have yet to hear back from her, I suppose I will have to e-mail the county manager to get it. I wanted to look at it to see why it was so fantastic it won over the cheaper bids from companies actually in the Old North State. I do think it is a little telling that the BOC want a Maserati priced audit and yet a AMC Gremlin priced education for the children.

-Randall Lee Yow

P.S. Maybe the other money the BOE asked for could have been used to keep the over 50 full time employees laid off from the school system?

Sheila Barber said...

Randall,

Who said it was "too hard to read"? Why don't you follow the "investigator" and ask via FOIA? That's the legal way to get the information.

Next, the audit is not that expensive. We are bound to find millions that can be saved. And there is plenty of waste we can cut to make up the difference. After all, we all know it's not the money that ticks the left off. It's the idea of accountability. The idea that the citizens have spoken and for once we get our way.

And let's be honest, if Mr. Love was doing his job, he would advise this BOE to shut their mouth! The more they say, the more suspicious we become. It's almost to the point they think they can say anything. Someone on that board will slip up soon and say something liable. Bound to happen with those bullies.

Evergreen has history. They also have a history of conducting audits that bring criminal investigations. I for one do not want Jeff Moss' or Bill Tatum's tinkering with the audit. They can with the "home grown" ones done by the State office and locally.

Sheila

Randall Lee Yow said...

Mrs Barber,

The fact that the current fiscal audit is coded is a well known fact. The coding makes it somewhat difficult to read. Cameron Sharpe, who is a Republican, mentioned this in his comments to the Sanford Herald. I didn't know I could not just e-mail Chairwoman Shook and ask her very politely and directly for the Evergreen Proposal? Are you implying that I did something illegal by communicating directly with her? I gathered a few others of these performance audits by e-mailing County Mangers and County Commission Chairmen directly and simply asking for them. They did not seem to have a problem dealing with me. I find a "FOIA" is something a little heavy handed. I prefer to ask nicely and see if that works first before pulling something like that. Even you must admit that Mr Clark and I have very different methods.

I do not know about you, but $140,000 is a sum I consider a lot of money. That is 3 or 4 certified public teachers we could put back in the classroom. The County could have purchased over half a million packs of Ramen Noodles and handed them out to the poor. The County could have purchased over 400,000 rounds of .45 Automatic ammunition for the Sheriff's department. I could go on like this but you get the point. We could have had the same type of performance audit for $40,000 less if we had gone with the lowest bid.

As for the left not wanting accountability, more members of the BOE are Republicans and Unaffiliated than Democrats. You will notice that many of the quotes you posted came from "conservatives". Or at least they were presented that way when they ran for office. In fact Chairwoman Shook supported quite a few of them when they ran for office, did she not?

I am not sure what you are talking about but there is no "home grown" audit. The County pays a private company called Dixon Hughes Goodman to perform the a fiscal audit. Evergreen will actually use this audit to make their recommendations. As for history DHG has been in business 79 years (a lot longer than Evergreen), is the largest accounting firm in the South, is the 13th largest accounting firm in the USA, and is ranked in the top 20 of accounting firms in the USA. As I have said before we already pay for a quality audit.

Can you please post a link and/or names of the locations of the criminal investigations? If this company has a solid history of finding and fighting corruption that would do a lot to win me over to the idea of this expensive boondoggle. However as it is right now, the more I look into this the more questions get raised.

-Randall Lee Yow

Sheila Barber said...

Randall, For some reason I can't see your reply from my iPad. But I got the posting in email. All replies are sent to my email.

I will answer most of your questions later. but absolutely not! You didn't do anything wrong. I was just suggesting a faster way for you to get the info.

maybe Ms. Shook will see your post.

I will locate the other information. Just to make myself clear..I am not stating I think there is any criminal activity going on. I am asking why they are so against it and hoping they will see the spectacle they are causing by their actions.

Randall, here's my email: qgirl232@ yahoo.com. Write me please so I can have your email address, if you don't mind.

Regards.

Sheila Barber said...

who hires the Dixon boys and girls? the state?

Oh yea let's trust them.

Sheila said...

Randall,

This statement in one of my comments that you referred to, "They also have a history of conducting audits that bring criminal investigations.", should have been a GENERAL STATEMENT on audits, not a direct comment on Evergreen. There have been criminal investigations due to audits on our government functions.

My mistake. And I apologize for that.

But I will do my best to get you examples.

Sheila

Anonymous said...

Sheila! I hope you will recruit Kirk Smith to join you in lambasting the coward who posted the first comment on this essay anonymously. Otherwise you'd just be making yourself look silly.

Sheila said...

Sorry chum. I can't blast posting #1 because how would I know who the right "Anonymous" is since you posted Anonymously?

Now that WOULD be so silly!

Besides, it's awful hard to debate the truth!

And another thing, that benefits "patriots" like yourself, anonymous posting is not blocked here. I want to hear all sides of the spectrum even if I don't like it.

Have a great day whomever you are.

Sheila

Sheila said...

Have guts Anonymous like Randall Yow does. That's a true American. Not scared one bit of his comments or questions.

I might not agree with Randall alot but I totally respect his willingness to speak up.

Sheila

Randall Lee Yow said...

I have to be the only citizen of Lee County who could be called a Bolshevik, a Neo-Confederate, and a true American all with in one week. Be careful though Mrs Barber that is the kind of talk that can get you thrown out of the Lee GOP. Even though apparently there is an semi-organized effort to convert me to the Republican Party.

-Randall Lee Yow

Sheila Barber said...

You probably are, Randall! :)

But you know I'm going to say it like I see it.

I don't care who I tick off! :)


Sheila

Jim Womack said...

Sheila;

If Randall or anyone else still needs or wants a copy of the Evergreen proposal and the four others we received, have them email me. I have a hard copy I can share with anyone who wishes to peruse them to determine why we chose Evergreen's bid as being vastly superior to the others.

Jim james.k.womack@gmail.com

Randall Lee Yow said...

Mr Womack,

I have re-e-mailed (is that spelled right?) Chairwoman Mrs Shook and the County Manger in an effort to once again to locate an electronic copy of the Evergreen proposal. Thank you for your offer, but I would much rather have an electronic copy.

-Randall Lee Yow

Sheila said...

Randall,

he can still get you an electronic copy to share! :)

Sheila

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