Here is some information I wrote about Conflict of Interest earlier in May:
At the ECASD Board of Education (BOE) meeting on May 7th officers of the Board will be elected by a majority vote of all BOE members. The person elected President of the BOE will have great authority to conduct meetings and control the agenda for the next year. There is no doubt that the previous President of the Board, Carol Olson, used this authority and extremely broad power to manage everything from what items would be discussed and acted upon by the board, when public input would be allowed and, in the opinion of many people, fostering an inappropriate and non-independent relationship with members of the Executive Administrators of the ECASD.
Commissioner Mike O’Brien is currently seeking to be elected the next President of the ECASD BOE. Commissioner O’Brien is currently an attorney and partner in the Eau Claire law firm Weld, Riley, Ricci and Prenn. This is the same law firm that serves as legal counsel to the ECASD. In addition, Mr. O’Brien’s wife is an employee of the ECASD as the Parent Partnership Coordinator at North High School. Either one of these situations would require special consideration but both of them together are extremely troubling.
This issue has been raised many times over the years but has consistently been minimized and ignored by previous BOE leadership and the current ECASD Administration. Our community deserves to be served by board members who are absolutely independent thinkers and who are unequivocally serving the public interest. The future credibility of the ECASD BOE with the citizens of Eau Claire is the most important consideration and should not be jeopardized in any way by completely avoidable situations.
I am attaching 2 files that address the legal concerns of Conflict of Interest for Spouses and when a board member holds 2 positions that are incompatible. PLEASE take time to read them and understand the potential for problems in that “the conflict of interest doctrine requires public officers to be absolutely free from any influence other than that which grows out of obligations that he owes to the public at large.” Ironically, both of the attached documents indicate that if there is any question about whether or not a conflict of interest could exist for a school board member, “it is advisable to consult with legal counsel.” Unfortunately, there is no advice for when the potential conflict of interest is with a lawyer on a school board who is also employed by the legal counsel of the same district!
Please see below several specific examples of how Mr. O’Brien’s employment relationship with Weld, Riley conflicts with his duties as a School Board member who is supposed to “unequivocally serve the public interest” not the ECASD.
1. Contract negotiations: The board president usually sits on the bargaining team and always appoints the board members to the various teams. Steve Weld is the negotiator for ECASD.
2. Teacher grievances: Weld, Riley handles these cases.
3. Student Expulsions: Weld, Riley represents ECASD in these cases.
4. Real Estate Sales/Acquisitions: Weld, Riley represents the ECASD in these cases.
5. Charter Schools- legalities concerning equity, admissions, contracts, etc.: Weld, Riley handles these cases.
6. General Personnel Matters (property, violations of computer policy, etc…): Weld, Riley handles these cases.
7. Concerns over equity issues in the district (user fees, special education, boundaries, busing, diversity, etc.): Weld, Riley handles these concerns.
8. Legislative Issues- Attempts to advocate for our district on issues like school funding reform, revenue caps, comprehensive health care, etc. If issues arose that required changes in ECASD policies Weld, Riley would be representing the district.
In the above examples, please ask yourself how a board member representing the public interest could reasonably vote against a legal opinion of his employer who represents the interests of the school district? This is the heart of the matter of conflict of interest; Mr. O’Brien’s employment position represents the school district and his board member position represents the public.
The conflict of interest Mr. O’Brien has with his job could be solved in one of two ways: 1.) He could resign his position as a school board member and continue working for the law firm that represents the ECASD, or 2.) The ECASD could hire a different law firm to represent the district.
You can help start the new board leadership to focus on transparency, accountability and independence by spending 5 minutes calling BOE members and asking 1.) that Commissioner O’Brien NOT BE CONSIDERED for the position of President and, 2.) that the district obtain a legal opinion from an independent and non-local legal firm assessing this potential conflict of interest, and 3.) that this issue is on a future BOE agenda with public input from the community.
Here is the information that you will need to contact the BOE members:
Ken Faanes, 836-9199 or kfaanes@ecasd.k12.wi.us
Mike Bollinger, 830-1855 or mbollinger@ecasd.k12.wi.us
Brent Wogahn, 831-9692 or bwogahn@ecasd.k12.wi.us
Trish Cummins, 835-8135 or tcummins@ecasd.k12.wi.us
Carol Craig, 832-1306 or ccraig@ecasd.k12.wi.us
Mary Kneer, 835-1692 or mkneer@ecasd.k12.wi.us
Mike O’Brien, 834-8969 or mobrien@wrpr.com
THANK YOU for helping make our school district leadership the BEST IT CAN BE!!
Maria Henly
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The following was written by Maria in response to an erroneous article in the May 5th LT
Follow up to Conflict Questions May, 5, 2007
The article in today’s Leader Telegram should give all of us the energy to realize how serious the problems of Mr. O’Brien’s Conflict of Interest with his employer and his Board of Education (BOE) role really are. Please read the detailed information below to understand the context of the newspaper article.
The questions of Mr. O’Brien’s conflict of interest have been raised for years and have been ignored and dismissed by the leadership of both the ECASD Administration and the BOE.
After repeated requests, a letter was sent in December 2006 to the State Ethics Board requesting advice. No response was received and the letter was sent again in March 2007. The letter outlining the issue was written by Steve Weld of the Weld Riley firm. All of the information presented to the State Ethics Board was detailed and framed by Steve Weld.
This is the heart of questions about Conflict of Interest. The parties in question have a vested interest in the decision and therefore should not be part of the process!
Since all attempts to obtain information have proved fruitless, concerned people (like me) have taken the step to inform others about the issue and its implications for decision-making by members of the BOE. Again, this is especially important for the BOE process since Mr. O’Brien is now seeking to be elected President of the BOE.
All of a sudden this issue is important. This week Mr. Weld called the State Ethics Board to insist on an “opinion” before the May 7th BOE meeting so Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Weld’s law partner, can be elected president of the BOE. The State Ethics Board has not reviewed any information nor rendered any opinion. The reply by Mr. Becker that is attached is “not a formal opinion of the ethics board. The opinion in this letter is my own, based on my understanding of the facts.” Again, the “facts” were those submitted by Mr. Weld whose relationship with Mr. O’Brien is at the center of this question!
Mr. Becker did not have any knowledge of the additional conflicts presented by the employment of Mr. O’Brien’s spouse. Mr. Becker did not have any of the 8 specific examples outlined in my first set of questions. Mr. Becker was not aware that Mr. O’Brien is seeking to be the President of the BOE and as such WOULD “participate in matters in which the school board is acting in a quasi-judicial capacity and the firm (Weld Riley) is an advocate.” That is precisely the role of the President of the BOE and is specifically prohibited. Mr. Becker’s personal opinion is based on limited and biased information and is basically worthless to anyone except the Leader Telegram for a headline.
The absolute reckless reporting by the LT and their misrepresentation of the issues is another ongoing shameful aspect of all of this. Their culpability in ignoring the problem for years and then rushing to report this story only when the Weld Riley firm has a worthless “opinion” that supports their own employee is outrageous. The only quote from either the ECASD Administration or the BOE is the Superintendent’s secretary saying “This definitely in our opinion is going to satisfy the requirement that we had of checking into this.” Her comment referring to “an earlier opinion from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards also cleared O’Brien of having a conflict of interest” relates to a self-reported conversation that Mr. Weld had with the WASB. There is NO written opinion from the WASB or the State Ethics Board that delineates what information was presented to them and what their official conclusions are.
If you are concerned about:
1. Mr. O’Brien’s employment and spousal conflicts of interest, please contact all BOE members at the numbers and e-mail addresses attached in the first Conflict Questions document.
2. The manipulation of the issue and information by the Weld Riley firm, please contact Mr. Steve Weld at: sweld@wrpr.com, or 839-7786.
3. The personal opinion of Mr. Jonathon Becker which is being touted as a formal ruling from the State Ethics Board, contact the State Ethics Board at 608-266-8123 or ethics@ethics.state.wi.us .
4. The poor quality “investigative journalism” that is routinely practiced at the Leader Telegram, contact Don Huebscher at don.huebscher@ecpc.com or 833-9200.
Without broad and continued effort from many members of our community about the decision-making at the ECASD Administration and Board of Education we can expect no change.
Thank you.
Maria Henly
Post a Comment