The District struck a deal with Seattle Piano Gallery to "lease" fourteen pianos for one year for a total price of $76,121.10. The deal was inked on August 4, 2004 and was to last until August 15, 2005. At the end of the lease, the pianos were to be sold and the proceeds were to be used to offset the expense incurred by the District under the terms of the "lease" with any shortfall to be paid directly from the Lessor.There were fourteen pianos. Nine of these pianos cost $3,528.36 each. One piano cost $4,617.36. The remaining four cost $9,937.13 each. At the end of the lease, all of the pianos were sold - including the four most expensive pianos - which were purchased by the District.
At the moment, it looks like the District paid for all 14 of the pianos on August 4, 2004 and then paid for the most expensive four pianos a second time on August 16, 2005 (one day after the end of the "lease"). Interestingly, the District could have opted out of this lease at any time, with 90 days written notice to the Lessor and their initial payment of $76,121.10 would have been returned.
It looks like a member of the public received free financial services from the District. The owner of Seattle Piano Gallery clearly had insufficient credit to buy $70,000.00 in pianos on his own, so orchestrated a deal that shifted the financial burden to the District. The District "fronts" the money and the seller has one year to look for buyers. Why wouldn't a bank play along?
At the end of the lease, the District has paid $115,869.60 and has just four pianos to show for the expense. What is needed now is a copy of the check paid by Seattle Piano Gallery to the District in the amount of $76,121.10. Call me a skeptic, but I would like to know if the District actually has these four pianos, along with the names of the schools where they might be found.
Fun Factoid: Arnold (Arnie) Tucker signed this deal on behalf of the Seattle Piano Gallery. He is currently working his way through bankruptcy in King County. You can search for his list of cases by clicking here. Perhaps such a filing had an adverse effect upon this piano deal. Time will tell.
10 comments:
I work for the schools, but just got laid off. Who ok's these deals?
A very interesting article about the pianos leased by the District. The author has surely done his/her homework on this one! Just another example of how our hard-earned tax dollars are being spent by the Edmonds School District, especially for those of us who are on a pension and struggling to make ends meet.
Manny Juzon approved these payments. He reports to Marla Miller, who signed the "lease". Marla reports to Nick Brossoit who reports to the elected school board.
Arnie Tucker and the Seattle Piano Gallery report to no one - other than the judge presiding over his bankruptcy.
Every time I come to the blog I find myself staring at the screen in disbelief. We spent $76,000 to lease 14 pianos for a year and then paid over 40K to buy 4 of them after the lease?
If we only bought 4, why did we lease the rest? What desperate need was there to lease 10 pianos during one year that was NOT there the next? Don't tell me: We leased 10 more, right?
$%^$%^$%^&*(&%!!!!!
Where are the pianos presently located? Were ESD employees given an opportunity to purchase any of these piano's? Just curious....
I believe RCW's were also violated because competitive bids must be submitted for large purchase items such as this.
There was also a rumor that Arnie Tucker is a personal friend of Marla and Tam Osborne, which is why the deal even came to pass.
As we all know, Manny is just Marla's yes man. I hope the auditor and new school board members are reading.
RCWs? Gee, I didn't even think to apply such a lofty standard.
Arnie Tucker has friends in all of the right places. Maybe one of those friends could supply a copy of the check that will make me feel a lot better about how the District does business.
I didn't know Marla had any friends!
Well... Gee Whiz, Marla has Manny as her friend, right?? Hee-Hee!
Just in case anyone is wondering why this kind of thing can slip past the Auditors, they only spot check at random. This would have to be brought to their attention. They return in early January. Let's hope there exists someone whose integrity can outweigh their fear of dismissal and follow through when this next visit occurs.
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