San Bruno debtors
By John Horgan
Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 8:44 pm in Uncategorized.
Trustees in the San Bruno Park Elementary School District _ along with taxpayers and others connected with that educational entity _ must be wondering about the accounting system there. Debts keep popping up with surprising regularity. First, Trustee Christopher Kiely was found to be in excess of $10,000 in arrears on charges accumulated in his health insurance account, funded, in part, by the district. Another board member, William Henderson, made that matter public last month. Then, this week, lo and behold, it was belatedly discovered that Henderson himself had a similar bill due, this one close to $8,000. He paid his tab immediately. Kiely waited for several weeks and has just begun to reimburse the district on a set schedule, according to superintendent David Hutt. On top of all this, there is an election next month. Kiely is seeking to keep his seat. Whether the revelation of his indebtedness _ and his slow response to the bill _ will affect his re-election chances is difficult to gauge. Henderson’s post is not on the ballot this time.
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October 8th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
As to my finding out about what I owed the District it is important to note that there was a deceased employee by my same name that for whatever reason was mistaken for me and had caused a clerical oversight of what I owed. This is the reason I was never informed of my accrued debt.
Since Jan 1, 2004 I had been running a deficit to the max contribution by the district for employees that I could not have known.
The main thing is that when I did find out about this situation and reviewed the documentation and it was verified to my satisfaction, I paid the amount due. The District Administration is not to blame for a clerical error that happened as a matter of course.
This was discovered because it was open enrollment for the District and I went down to the office to update/confirm my status and look into the vision care plan that was available. I later chose not to take that coverage because it was not cost effective for me, as Kaiser has vision care but not for prescription glasses. So stopped the enrollment in that part of our medical plan.
I confirmed with the benefits clerk what I had coverage on and she thought I was enrolled as per the deceased employee, hence the discovery of my account status.
So I proceeded to make my situation public “because the public has a right to know” and it would have been lass than fair if I did not hold myself to the same standard that I hold others. In a manner of speaking I am glad that this all came out in the open. As I have been considering retiring at the end of this term and my 28th year as a trustee I thank God that this was not discovered when I left office. Then I would have owed more than I did this time, times two additional years. Then again it may have happened that I never confirmed my information and things would have just kept going on and never discovered leaving the District with an unknown debt of $8166.00 plus two years of premium overage that would have gone unpaid! So for me that is the a silver lining to this dark cloud.
Despite all the political fallout of this the public needs to know that our staff of teachers and principals are busy at work providing a quality education for all our students. They do not let the political junk distract them, hallelujah!
October 9th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Since no one is debating the particulars of the Kiely-Henderson matters, the only big question remaining is this one: What kind of accounting controls has the San Bruno district been implementing?
October 11th, 2007 at 7:26 am
John that is a legitimate question that I hope I can answer here.
Our new business manager is conducting a comprehensive investigation into the benefits offered to all who are eligible to receive them based on COBRA and other eligibility factors. Each account has to be reviewed individually and then analyzed for its financial standing. She has put into place a practice of notifying each person eligible for benefits via a quarterly statement on their account. Should there turn out to be any other account that is accruing a balance we will have to deal with each as they become known. So, the proper controls are in place.
I am very impressed with our new Chief business Officer, Lynne Orong. Her diligence is obvious. Since coming into our District about a month ago she has in short order established herself as and effective member of our management team.
I have every confidence that Dr. Hutt’s decision to hire Ms. Orong will pay off with dividends in the future. Our District will be well served with her at the helm of our business affairs.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Sounds good. San Bruno Park seems to be on the track. Finally.