Honest Services Fraud
Robert starts the following discussion:
I was reading an article about one of those Crookaloosa County Republicans and it referenced "honest services fraud", a tool prosecutors have and could use for public officials shirking their fiduciary responsibility. The doctrine "honest services fraud", is considered easier to prove than outright bribery.
The law presumes a public official owes the public a duty of honest services. When the official fails and does so using the mail, telephones or e-mail while concealing a financial interest, it becomes a crime.
I think that a discussion of this potential "tool" being used with our inept elected officials would be great, be it the BOCC, City Commission and/or School Board.
I was reading an article about one of those Crookaloosa County Republicans and it referenced "honest services fraud", a tool prosecutors have and could use for public officials shirking their fiduciary responsibility. The doctrine "honest services fraud", is considered easier to prove than outright bribery.
The law presumes a public official owes the public a duty of honest services. When the official fails and does so using the mail, telephones or e-mail while concealing a financial interest, it becomes a crime.
I think that a discussion of this potential "tool" being used with our inept elected officials would be great, be it the BOCC, City Commission and/or School Board.
Does anyone know of any examples when this has been used to prosecute elected officials, such as the school board members, and the decision favored the prosecutor?
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The best candidate for review would be Congressman Boyd. He DID NOT read the stimulus bill but yet cast a affirmative vote after he told his constitutes via the Taco Times that he would not and then later came up with some ridiculous reason why he did. He must think we the people are dumb. Now for those that don't know he just cast another affirmative vote on the Cap and Trade bill without reading it. Three hundred plus amendments were dumped on the congressional members hours before the bill was to be put to a vote. Once again our Congressman voted on a proposed bill without first reading it. He was not elected to be someone elses puppet but rather someone that could represent his constitutes honestly and with the best interest of his district in mind. He is scheduled to speak at the next Kiwanis meeting here locally and a certain person received a phone call from Boyd's staff inquiring whether any protesters were anticipated. IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT THEN GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN. The bills he voted affirmatively on will burden us all for years to come. Where is his conscience? He needs to go sooner rather than later.
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I have never figured out what he has done for our District.
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A quick follow-up to my prior comments. There must be some underlying interest or gain on the part of Congressman Boyd's actions as no one in their right mind would vote on a proposed bill without first reading it unless they themselve are either brain dead or stupid.
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concernedcitizen2
are you going to the meeting today and voice your thoughts to the Senator? This will get more attention than this web-site to him. How about writing the representatives, all 25 of them, about your feelings. Dem's and Reb's need to hear the voice of the people.
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Allen Boyd and/or staff listening to his constituents? That is a joke! LOL. Mr. Boyd has never been a people person, unless you are in his own circle of potentates and charlatans! Mr. Boyd never had a challenger while he was "serving" in Tallahassee and has never adopted a mentality for reaching out to his constituents, much less listening to them.
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He's also voted for most if not all of the NAFTA agreements, guess they're not going to get sod from Mexico so it won't affect the Boyd Family. Does anyone know what happened to his son that was arrested just before the election, with several illegal aliens and I think some drugs? I saw one small report on WCTV 6 then nothing, now that's a powerful man, no reports on CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, none that I remember, even the Kennedy's get on the news every once in a while.
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All of the local governmental entities have policies and procedures to go by; procurement policies, human resource policies, and others. Any member going around such policies could be guilty of this fraud. A quick google search shows:
"In 1988, Congress modified the mail and wire-fraud law by making it a crime to defraud citizens of their intangible rights to honest and impartial government. Since then, an increasing number of government officials have been indicted for depriving others of their honest services", http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/honestservices_09a.htm
"In the public sector, cases typically involve bribery or some other personal gain by a public official, such as a failure to disclose a conflict of interest that benefited the official", http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123379864724350423.html
*Sorich v. U.S. is a case where Chicago employees were found to have engaged in fraudulent political-patronage hiring for local civil-service jobs, http://www.cityethics.org/node/661
"Whether the court of appeals correctly affirmed the mail fraud conviction of a school board member
who failed to disclose the nature of his financial relationship with a vendor of services to the school
system where that financial relationship would have been material to the school board in bidding on or
negotiating contracts for such services."-http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/briefs/1995/w95887w.txt
"In November, former EPISD Trustee Carlos "Coach" Cordova pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud and the deprivation of honest services after he admitted that he, too, exchanged his vote on the school board for money."-http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_8579621
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A couple of years ago, two of the school board members were paid for services (through their local businesses) by the board to the tune of approximately $10K. I think that the auditors picked up on those transactions.
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Who are the two you are referring to....?????
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I think we know, they have been mentio in audit reports and Oscar claimed he got an ethics opinion that allowed board members to sell to the district. I think everyone can agree that it is unethical for these two board members to sell items to the district, either directly or indirectly through a third party (everyone knows) at this time. Either be a school board members or a local vendor! You cannot be both! The new Dyal administration: resources gone through mismanagement!
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Can't attend the meeting as I'm not a member of the Kiwanis but hopefully one of the members may have the fortitude to step up to the plate and ask specific questions concerning the subjects I raised. Yes we have serious problems with our elected officials so I say this to all reading this blog, attend the TEA Party Saturday morning the 4th starting at 10:30 AM at the Forest Capital Park. the event ends at noon so you have plenty of time for everything else that day. These folks are proud Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and others who are very much concerned as to the direction in which our country is heading. This local group also has started something that many other states are now instituting. It just may put Taylor County on the national news networks. This idea will end up in Washington DC on September 12th with many states participating. Come to the Tea Party and see it for yourself as it will be there. Got your attention, now attend. An hour and a half is not asking to much for is it and probably you'll see many of your friends there also. Food and drinks, good fellowship, music and interesting speakers and also participation in a much needed cause.
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HaHaHaHeHeHe the repubican's are having a tea party.
I was surprises to see the comments about "good old boy" Boyd. What's up with that? Seeing as to how he has always brought value to the "good old boy's" interests. Dah...You know what they say "If you are going to be stupid, you gotta be tough."
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I thought it was an open meeting to the public. Didn't know you had to be a Kiwanis member to go.
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I bet 75% of Dyals actions since he took office would fall under "honest services fraud". Especially all of the doings with personnel matters. I think I will send a synopsis to the AG's office in Tallahassee and a few folks at DOE! What about the football team's big trip out of state later this month funded by the "boosters"?
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I personally wouldn't accuse Dyal of fraud at this point, but I agree that there are strange goings on with personnel.
I e-mailed Mr. Dyal recently to ask how the job search was going for a new person to run TTI. I asked for a list of applicants, and for the ranking each applicant received. I assumed that the district used an interview matrix or some similar tool to assign a numeric score to applicants in order to quantify their qualifications.
I received a reply stating that the district does not score applicants, and was sent back a 76-page document that I was told explained the district's policies and procedures for hiring administrators.
I think perhaps they thought I wouldn't bother to read it, but they were mistaken. I looked at the table of contents and jumped right to the section entitled "Selecting Instructional Leaders."
According to the document, the district is, in fact, supposed to be assessing all applicants and providing them with a score. The district's own policy states that each candidate for the job will be interviewed by a team of at least three people, and that said team will rank the candidates.
So I wrote the district back, and asked them who was on the interview team and what each candidate's ranking was.
I have not heard back.
I have a sneaky hunch that there were, in fact, no interview teams, and that no one ranked the candidates. I suspect that the superintendent makes this decision alone, with no formal system for justifying his decision.
Which would be fine--I accept the superintendent's right to make hiring decisions by himself and based on whatever criteria he feels appropriate--except that this is contrary to the district's published hiring practices.
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I do not know who/what they hired, Olsen is gone this week. One thing is for sure, Dyal will make the most uninformed inappropriate choice for the next director of tti. I would suspect that the "choice" will be more a of crony / yes person than an individual who has experience in post-secondary education, vocational education, economic development, business and industry development-support, ect....all which would be a halmark of a technical center preparing students for jobs, not classroom seats. Dyal's choice most likely will be an additional nail in the tti coffin, one of the many nails over the last 5-10 years. One thing is for sure, with the Dyal appointment tti will continue to do less and stray far from the mission of tti. Such a shame! You are likely correct, the policies and procedures are not for Dyal, that is why I think he is/has committed "Honest Services Fraud" and his dues will have to be paid sooner or later!
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TTI has been in much decline for years. I cannot imagine that Dyal has any meaningful experience to pull TTI out of the hole it is in. Dyal will ultimately replace Olsen with an even more lackluster director that will lack even the most basic experience for running a technical center-that is just how Dyal perfroms. Heck, the new director may be a new coach's wife! LOL! Maybe a "sub"! Maybe who knows! Wasn't the job description re-written so that a trained chimp could qualify? That's the ticket a monkey for all of the personnel monkey business Dyal is doing!
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The following people applied for the position of TTI Coordinator: Walter Boatright, Jim Brannan, David Dunkle, Sandra MacDonald, and Horace McLeod.
Mr. Dyal indicated that one candidate withdrew his or her name from the running because the salary was too low (recall that the district cut the salary, so whoever replaces Ken Olsen will be paid less than he was), but he did not say which candidate it was.
As best I can tell, no one is in charge at TTI at the moment. The contract for Ken Olsen expired on June 30th. The district started advertising for a replacement on May 8, with a deadline of May 15 for applying.
What happened between May 15 and now, I have no idea--all I know is that a month and a half later, the applicants have not yet been interviewed and no replacement has been chosen.
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No time for all that, got to have an assistant coach and wife. Obviously the football boosters played a big part in Coach Dyal's campaign. As a matter of fact if you look at all the promotions, moves of staff, hiring coach and asst. you can pretty well tell who's who in the Dyal campaign. Same play, different players, results will be the same as Oscar.
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My Take: (1)Walter would be a great choice, he ran Suwannee Hamilton Technical Center for a time and was Super of Schools in Suwannee County, a great choice-the best, but too smart and would outshine Dyal. (2) Jim Brannan could muddle through the job and tow the Dyal line, but Jim is not in the circle of Dyal cronys. (3) David Dunkle and Dandra MacDonald are both wild cards and woefully unqualified, either would be a perfect choice for Dyal who will not hire anyone who is qualified. (4) Horace McLeod would be a complete disaster plain and simple.
I would doubt Dyal would follow any personnel policies and procedures, this would go a long way explaining that no interviews have been conducted. TTI could be a great asset to the district and commnity, it looks like it will continue to be a liability for the district in may ways!
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An Honest Days Work for An Honest Days Pay: What is it about this simple work ethic colloquialism that is lost on politicians, educators and public employees.
Pursuing redress through the courts and recouping money should be the next aim of auditors. The tax-payers must also demand proper performance from the education system we have entrusted with millions of taxpayer dollars -- and our children. The local oscarism-dyal giveaway program is coming to an end. Let's hope it's payback time.
We tax-payers should be appalled by the fiscal shenanigans and the apathy found among school board administrators and employees.
What we need is a couple of good whistle blowers! Defined: Whistle blower - a person who witnesses or has evidence of suspected fraud, financial improprieties, irregularities, or conflicts of interest while employed and who makes a good faith report of the suspected fraud, financial improprieties, irregularities, or conflicts of interest, verbally or in writing, to one of the person’s superiors, to an agent of the employer or to an appropriate authority.
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An Honest Days Work for An Honest Days Pay: What is it about this simple work ethic colloquialism that is lost on politicians, educators and public employees.
Pursuing redress through the courts and recouping money should be the next aim of auditors. The tax-payers must also demand proper performance from the education system we have entrusted with millions of taxpayer dollars -- and our children. The local oscarism-dyal giveaway program is coming to an end. Let's hope it's payback time.
We tax-payers should be appalled by the fiscal shenanigans and the apathy found among school board administrators and employees.
What we need is a couple of good whistle blowers! Defined: Whistle blower - a person who witnesses or has evidence of suspected fraud, financial improprieties, irregularities, or conflicts of interest while employed and who makes a good faith report of the suspected fraud, financial improprieties, irregularities, or conflicts of interest, verbally or in writing, to one of the person’s superiors, to an agent of the employer or to an appropriate authority.
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Surely you realize that, like congress, the rules are for the voters not the elected to follow.
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Why would Horace McLeod be a disaster, plain and simple? When he ran for Superintendent, weren't didn't his qualifications include running a vocational/technical school in south Florida? I don't believe Dunkle or McDonald have the knowledge or experience to run TTI. McDonald is th
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Why would Horace MCLeod be a complete disaster plain and simple? While he was campaigning for Superintendent, did he not list as one of his qualifications that he ran a vocational/technical school in south Florida? I don't think that Dunkle or McDonald are qualified to run TTI? McDonald is the Reading Coach coordinator (making $68K a year) and Dunkle taught at the prison and the business ed classes at TTI. Jim Brannen didn't do well at TLC so don't give him another school. Walter Brannen I don't know but if he outshines Dyal, he will be out faster than you can blink. I guess bringing in an assistant coach and wife and getting them placed in lieu of teachers who had already worked in the system is more important than finding a director or whatever they call the position at TTI. Sports 1, Education 0. Go figure!
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I had wondered the same thing about Edd's comments. I don't know McLeod, but reading about him in the paper he seemed imminently qualified for the job. As I recall, he has a PhD and ran a vocational school that's significantly bigger than TTI.
Brannen was a dud at Taylor Elementary and a dud at the alternative school. Two strikes, he's out.
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Sometimes a Phd means little. When an individual cannot comply with the basic rules of being a property owner and good neighbor in a city/community you have to wonder how that inidvidual could manage the running of a school district.
A review of the City of Perry Code Enforcement Board agenda's for the last few years and a quick discussion with city staff on who are chronic violators in the City of Perry could be very informative.
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Well, to be honest I'm not sure the two are related.
Mind you, I believe everyone ought to follow the rules. But being a poor neighbor / property owner doesn't mean someone is bad at their job.
And looking at the list of applicants, I can't imagine that he would be worse than any of them. He certainly has more experience than any other candidate.
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Good points. You are right on the applicants. But is really does not matter, Dyal will appoint the least experienced in all things TTI.
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