THE CABAL OF CORRUPTION
 |
| CORRUPT MOUNT VERNON SCHOOL CHIEF JUDITH JOHNSON |
 |
| CORRUPT MOUNT VERNON SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE ELIAS GOOTZEIT |
 |
| CORRUPT MOUNT VERNON SCHOOL TRUSTEE FRANCES WYNN |
 |
| CORRUPT MOUNT VERNON CITY SCHOOL CFO TIMOTHY COSTELLO |
 |
| CORRUPT MOUNT VERNON SCHOOL TRUSTEE LEN SARVER |
Mount Vernon City officials have been negligent in their
handling of district finances according to an audit conducted in 2002. The audit covered the period of July 1, 1999
through March 31, 2001. Many of the
problems noted in the audit over 10 years ago still exist to this day and have
gone unaddressed and uncorrected.
The Mount Vernon City School district served about 10,200
students in 16 Schools and spent about $102.5 million in the 1999-00 school
year. Today, the Mount Vernon City
School district serves about 8,500 students and spends about $215.5 million per
year. 25 years ago the school budget was $23.5 Million. Where did all the money go?
Mount Vernon school chief Judith Johnson has been a disaster
for the Mount Vernon City School district. Several board trustees have also joined Judith
Johnson in her attempts to hide fraudulent and reckless spending of public
monies. School board trustees Len
Sarver, Frances Wynn, and Elias Gootzeit are three persons identified by Mount Vernon Exposed as
agents against change. These three
individuals are joined at the hip and always support each and every corrupt act
committed by Johnson. If Johnson told
these three individuals to go jump off a bridge, these three would respond by
saying “which bridge”?
The Mount Vernon City School District did not fall into
financial ruin until the takeover or intrusion by the Mount Vernon Democratic
City Committee and several prominent black churches in the City of Mount
Vernon.
Many school trustees over the years have become fed up with
the corruption that extends to Albany and beyond. For example, another audit conducted by
Thomas DiNapoli in 2010 failed to address any financial shortcoming but instead
focused on other matters to keep the focus off of misused and mismanaged public
funds. As a result, of Mr. DiNapoli’s
intentional oversight, Mount Vernon City Schools are the 2nd worst
in Westchester. Only Judith Johnson’s
former place of employment, Peekskill City Schools, trails Mount Vernon.
The audit in 2002 was conducted by The State Education
Department, Office of Audit Services, while the audit in 2010 was conducted by
the Comptroller’s office. Many feel the audit in 2010 was political in nature
and was spearheaded by Assemblyman James Gary Pretlow, a career politician and
a personal friend to many of the school board members that were involved in the
pilfering of over $100 mil from the Mount Vernon City School district. Pretlow has been in Albany over 20 years and
has done nothing to control the spending in the Mount Vernon City Schools. Pretlow encourages and promotes wasteful
spending.
Bishop W. Darin Moore, formerly the Pastor at Greater
Centennial A.M.E. Zion church, was the school board president at the time of
the audit in 2002. School board
trustees Carol Ben-Reuben, Gerald Coleman, Gloria Coleman, Marleen Dandrige,
Lynn McBride, Diane Munro, and Frances Wynn joined him in solidarity. Many cannot understand the return of Frances
Wynn to the school board, especially when Wynn had been a lame duck during her
previous tenure serving as a school board trustee.
Auditors stated that improvements could be made related to
Board governance and oversight including the control environment, fiscal
oversight, written policies, and Board meetings and minutes. Auditors also stated that the Board needs to
stress the importance of controls and hold mangers accountable, to better
monitor Mount Vernon’s financial condition, and to ensure written policies and
procedures are complete and distributed to appropriate staff. Auditors also addressed issues related to
inventory control and segregation of duties in the business office.
Inventory control and the tracking of assets are a major
concern and problem within the Mount Vernon City School District. Mount Vernon Exposed recently revealed that
School Board Trustee Len Sarver is alleged to have taken tools to use for his
private electrical business that was paid for by taxpayers. Former buildings and ground foremen John
Zambelli is also alleged to have pilfered the district out of tens of thousands
of dollars of tools that were sold for profit to friends of Zambelli who are
private contractors.
The audit in 2002 also noted that improvements are needed
with Mount Vernon’s systems and activities for collecting and reporting data for
State aid and grants. Without these improvements,
critical data will continue to be incomplete and inaccurate and will negatively
impact Mount Vernon. In fact, due to the
negligence of city school officials, Mount Vernon was at risk of loosing $12 million
in State aid and grants.
The true dropout rate cannot be properly calculated because
city school officials were too busy stealing from taxpayers. During the period of the audit, Mount Vernon
school officials calculated the dropout rate to be 1.2% however auditors founds
the dropout rate to be 6.7% or between 5 and 6 times higher than initially
reported by school officials.
One of the responsibilities of a school district’s board and
superintendent is to establish adequate internal controls including the control
environment. A school board can set the
overall tone by establishing overall policies, communicating them to school
district mangers, and holding the managers accountable for the results. However the board has not always done this,
according to the audit report. For
example, the Board has not provided the necessary fiscal oversight to
appropriately monitor the budget and expenditures and also has not instituted
comprehensive policies and procedures.
According to the audit report, the Board allowed numerous accounts to be
overspent, including the Board’s own conference account, and also did not
review all claims for payment.
Auditors stated that a school board needs accurate and
timely budget status and other reports to monitor the financial condition of
the school district and to enable timely corrections to the budget plan. Auditors also stated that a school board has
the ultimate responsibility for the fiscal health and stability of a school
district. The report indicated that
board members did not routinely receive required information such as monthly
budget status reports, cash reports, bank account reconciliations, or the Extra
classroom Activity Fund reports.
Auditors stated that without these reports, the Board couldn’t
effectively monitor the financial condition of Mount Vernon. In addition, the Board did not use the budget
to effectively control expenditures.
Mount Vernon’s budget status report indicated numerous accounts with
negative balances.
During School Board trustee France Wynn’s previous stint
with the school district, auditors found many questionable expenses, including
$225.00 for three people to attend a wine tasting event. The board at the time of Wynn’s tenure did
not have written policies for the Board and Superintendent travel and
conference expenses or for the use of district credit cards.
Mount Vernon did not have a written policy concerning the
usage of postage meters and to make sure that the meters are used for
appropriate purposes. According to the
report, Mount Vernon used its meters to mail more that 3,200 pieces of mail
unrelated to district business. Mount
Vernon Superintendent Judith Johnson recently authorized the printing of
thousands of fliers at taxpayers’ expense.
The fliers in question were placed in children’s backpacks and urged
their parents to vote yes for the budget in violation on New York State laws.
History tends to always repeat itself. Many of the policies and recommendations set
forth in the auditors report have not been implemented to this very day. Reports are still being hidden for board
members and wasteful spending is still out of control. The school budget is $115 million more than
it was ten years ago, yet children still have to go into street and beg
strangers for money to save the sports program.
TO BE CONTINUED……..
