Why would the school board hire two outside lawyers to conduct interviews with employees at the middle school at $400 an hour?
August 21, 2007 -
The Bethlehem Area School Board balked Monday at paying a $60,670 legal bill for the district's internal investigation into the work habits of drug-dealing ex-principal John Acerra.Under the contract, which was signed in March, the district agreed to pay two attorneys, Nancy Conrad and Lauren Goff, a combined hourly rate of $400.
The board unanimously voted Monday to postpone paying the Allentown firm, White & Williams, for the probe that found no district employees knew about Acerra's drug involvement and students were never ''directly or indirectly placed in jeopardy by his behavior or conduct.''
In voting to withhold payment, several board members said the invoice was double to triple what they thought it would cost.
''I found the results wholly unsatisfactory,'' said Director Michele Cann.
''I don't think their work merited extra pay or extra authorization.''Board President Craig T. Haytmanek led the probe for the board and was the only director to see an itemized bill. He said he did not think the bill was excessive for the investigation, which also led to new district policies aimed at encouraging employees to report unusual behavior by superiors.
TT - Why would you need a new policy aimed at encouraging employees to report "unusual behavior" unless they didn't report it in the past?
See TT - link for Accerra
