Sunday, January 04, 2009

Something is rotten in the Edmonds School District.

I will number them for ease of reference and for the convenience of our international readers.

1. Bruce Williams moved outside of his director district, the blog and its readers easily proved it and he was compelled to resign on September 11, 2007. I won't go into the reasons as to why he relocated, but they insufficiently justify the nonsensical retention of his board seat. His appointed replacement, Susan Phillips, reads the blog frequently but has no independent thought of her own.

2. Nick Brossoit lied numerous times to cover for Bruce Williams and yet his lies were easily dismantled by the blog and its readers. When Bruce Williams moved outside of his director district, Nick Brossoit asked Mark Zandberg to redefine director districts. Then, when Mark Zandberg asked about Bruce Williams, while using a pen name, Nick Brossoit concocted a ridiculous story about modernizing a rented apartment.

3. Marla Miller entered into a scheme with Arnie Tucker of Seattle Piano Gallery to buy pianos under the disguise of a "lease" to fool the State Auditor. Then, to make matters worse, Tam Osborne issued a check for just under the legally significant threshold of $40,000.00 to buy four of these pianos. Even Arnie Tucker's lawyer characterized the piano transaction as a "scheme" and the Audit Manager was still unable to connect the dots.

4. Gary Noble ran for a seat on the Board despite two different board policies that prevented it. Sure, when you run the first time you might be forgiven because technically the violation only occurs once you are elected. When Gary Noble ran for re-election, there was no denying the fact that he was in direct violation. Nick Brossoit and the Board repeatedly denied the fact that none of them can read and understand simple English and waited until after the State Auditor told them to follow or revise board policies to actually revise them. It doesn't change the fact that Gary Noble is currently serving under the rules of the earlier policies. His day in court is coming.

5. Pat Shields was actively involved in the formation of Powerful Partners. This organization then entered into a lease with the Edmonds School District and never paid a single cent of the required rental payments. In fact, it was just a use agreement, which excluded a base rental rate and came without any financial benefit for the District. Mark Zandberg attempted to collect the rent and was always turned away. Then Marla Miller stepped in and declared that she would take care of it. The way in which she "took care of it" was to give Powerful Partners a free ride.

6. The State Auditor is an agency of hacks. I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing a few of their former employees and the stories they share would make any taxpayer shudder. In the case of the Edmonds School District, Sadie Armijo was unable to understand the concept of a property appraisal and how such devices can be easily used to defraud taxpayers. Chris Kapek was easily bamboozled by Powerful Partners changing their name to Powerful Tutors. Chris Kapek was also easily fooled by the words contained in the piano "lease" and couldn't see the intent behind the words. The State Auditor is not doing any favors for the taxpayers of the Edmonds School District.

7. Marla Miller also manipulated the process of appraising the property known as Old Woodway Elementary. While it resulted in a direct windfall to the City of Edmonds and her friends at Burnstead, the Edmonds School District lost a fortune.

8. Marla Miller also worked with Mike Raskin to convince the Board to buy a contaminated piece of property that had been rejected three times before. The fact of contamination is irrefutable, despite Nick Brossoit's statements to the contrary. The District's appraisal came in at $3,300,000.00 and the seller's came in at $5,800,000.00. The District paid $5,800,000.00 and will have to deal with the contamination whenever they make any changes to the site.

9. The Capital Partnerships Program was shifted away from Property Management, where the District was an actual project partner, to the Capital Projects Office, where the District charges for project management and every time staff moves a muscle or lifts a pencil. How is that fair to parents or community members that sell cupcakes to subsidize CPO staff salaries in addition to the increased property tax they have already paid and continue to pay every year.

10. There is also a swollen collection of imbeciles that are in positions at the District where they either have absolutely no meaningful experience or an utter absence of intellect that makes the completion of their job virtually impossible. These individuals are so arrogant that they even profess to their co-workers their amazement in how they were hired in the first place. What is troubling for the many of us looking in from the outside is that most of the District is so focused on saving the nickles and dimes in their sphere of control, they don't appear to notice the hemorrhaging going on everywhere else.

There are many other bone-jarring issues covered in the blog, but the ten points above offer a quick snapshot of what this blog is all about. We believe in public accountability and will not rest until the Board and Superintendent realize they are on the wrong path and make meaningful corrections - like resigning and moving on to a community that can more adequately afford the corruption they have allowed to take root here.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there Mark. One of your board members is a liberal atheist. Take a look.

[http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=783623005&hiq=susan%2Cpaine]

This blog is blowing up on Facebook.

ESD15.org said...

I just read some of the chatter on Facebook. Quite alarming.

And that isn't my board. My board will look and act with greater accountability. Standby for the next election.

Thanks for reading.

Anonymous said...

That is great work, detective. Now if people just cared about how their schools are being managed.

Anonymous said...

People that read this blog must be starting to question the intelligence of district management. At the very least it should be affecting management's ability to do their job. Since defrauding the public appears to be their job, let's hope you have slowed their progress down.

Anonymous said...

Ok, now, just slow down. There's nothing wrong with being "liberal" and many people just aren't very religious.

I looked at her facebook page and I'm surprised she posted two photos of her daughters. With all of the personal info she posted, and when you combine that with all of the info anyone can find about anyone on the internet--she's leaving herself wide open for all sorts of "contacts." Not a smart move to be so open on the internet, especially as the mother of 2 girls.

Anonymous said...

So I looked at myspace and sure enough she has a page there too. She writes that her hero is http://blog.penelopetrunk.com
So, apparently she does like blogs with anonymous comments--I guess she just doesn't like your blog, Mark.

Anonymous said...

The blog can't please everybody, but it's pleasing everybody that matters.

Anonymous said...

Hey there, Mark.

I posted a map of where your readers are coming from in the first 12 hours of today.

Here it is:

http://www.esd15.org/map-01-05-09.JPG

Anonymous said...

Well that certainly is an interesting map. I heard that one of those flags was Obama reading the blog.

Anonymous said...

I don't see any flags on the map in Alaska. Where the heck is Sarah Palin when we need her?

Anonymous said...

Quarter of a million hits comin' up.

Still think nobody cares, school board? Come on, election time.

Anonymous said...

Rotten, its all rotton, just walk into any school and see. Its the food, that there making your kids eat.
Oh so sad!

Anonymous said...

Can you say the rats are swimming at martha lake Elem.
When it snows, it floods.
I think this will work the district said to the taxpayers.
Just take a good look at the new Lynnwood High school it will work said the district to the taxpayers.
It just cost a little more said our leaders.
We need more new leaders, like leaders we have now.

Marla, how can we discipline kids when people are stealing money right under your nose?
Hows the new ESC doing?
That land lost value last year, didn't it?
so it going to cost more money now.

Anonymous said...

As of tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 6th, I can no longer get into Ms. Paine's Facebook account--it's no longer open to the public. She must have locked it down so that only "invited friends" can see her info. I also no longer see her myspace account--she probably deleted it. Why would she do all of this? Strange.

Anonymous said...

You have bills.TamaOzleader

Anonymous said...

Waste management called. They would like payment before the next pick up.