The San Bruno Beacon

One mission of The San Bruno Beacon has been, and will continue to be, providing readers with information they can act on to effect the changes needed to benefit the residents of our community. To that end, we will continue to provide you with information that you can use to become a more active participant in the things that affect the lives of you and your family.

Words must be coupled with action to be effective. We all proved that by defeating Measure F. Writing about problems, without creating and acting on remedies to resolve those problems, is a Sisyphean exercise in futility.

In 2008, I will be suggesting ways for Beacon readers to deal with governmental entities and big businesses that are creating problems for our community, our families, and us as individuals.

The problem with government and big business today is that some of the bureaucrats who find themselves in positions of responsibility at these institutions are inept, unqualified, or otherwise unfit to work in the position they are working at. Although these peter-principled bureaucrats may be colossal screw ups when it comes to doing their job, many of them do have expert level skills in passing the proverbial buck, refusing to accept personal responsibility for their damaging decisions and actions, and hiding behind a legal system where justice and common sense are sometimes in short supply.

There is usually a direct correlation between job performance and how good a government or big business bureaucrat is at passing the buck, avoiding personal responsibility for the problems they create, and hiding behind the skirts of lady justice. It can be said that the worse a government or big business bureaucrat is at doing their job; the better they are at finding ways to dodge responsibility and weasel out of personal liability for the problems and damage they create.

This is not to say that most government and big business bureaucrats are incompetent, irresponsible buck passers. Actually, the reverse is true. Most people who work in these jobs are very responsible and competent people. However, there are enough pinheads in positions of power and responsibility to make things difficult, create damage/waste, and otherwise generally screw things up. These pinheads who become embedded in positions of power and responsibility, at governmental entities and big business, not only make life difficult for the skilled, competent workers who have to work with and around this incompetence; but also for the communities, families, and people they serve and/or provide goods and services to.

On 02/14/2008, The Daily Journal published an article titled, "District mulls school site sale" in which it is mentioned that the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Board of Trustees may be considering a parcel tax.

An attempt by the SBPSD Board of Trustees to pass yet another parcel tax by paying tens of thousands dollars to put a measure on the ballot would be mean spirited, insulting, and ridiculous. San Bruno's homeowners are already paying parcel taxes to the SBPSD.

Hitting San Bruno's homeowners with higher property taxes during a recession does not make sense. Many homeowners in San Bruno are having a hard time making ends meet, or for that matter, even paying for the home they live in. More to the point, in my opinion, the San Bruno Park School District has proven through the antics of its Superintendent and Board of Trustees that it lacks the financial controls and organizational stability to be trusted with more taxpayer money. In addition, the SBPSD is awash in millions of dollars in cash and the San Bruno Education Foundation (SBEF) has the ability to raise large amounts of money to plug sporadic deficits and maintain or expand District programs.

In a San Bruno Beacon article published on 10/25/2007, titled, SAN BRUNO BEACON RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2007 ELECTION, I wrote:

"In our opinion, what the San Bruno Park School District really needs is a new Superintendent. We think that the San Bruno Park School District is a troubled entity buried in chaos."

I still think that the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) needs a new Superintendent. I would also add, that we need to replace a few SBPSD Board Members starting with Mr. Skip Henderson, the current Board President whose ready, fire, aim style of attack on his Board colleagues and well documented ongoing dysfunctional confrontations with other Board Members have, in my opinion, not only helped reduce the reputation of the SBPSD Board of Trustees but have also made it a less effective organization in serving the needs of its constituency and the students who attend SBPSD schools.

In my opinion, the SBPSD Superintendent and Board of Trustees have destroyed any credibility they may have had with San Bruno's residents. I also think that the children in the District are victims of the Superintendent's and Board's outright fiscal irresponsibility as evidenced by, what in my opinion is, their blatant waste and negligent handling of SBPSD money. This, coupled with the childish antics and petty little league style political posturing of at least one current SBPSD Board Member and a few past Board Members has made the SBPSD Board of Trustees the laughing stock of school boards. In my opinion, they have set a very poor example for the children who attend SBPSD schools.

The most recent scandal at the SBPSD showed how lax the District's internal financial controls are under the leadership of Superintendent David Hutt. The District was caught paying hundreds of dollars each month for the health insurance premiums of several SBPSD Board Members who were not entitled to receive these monthly payouts. This had been going on for several years and amounted to approximately $10,000 in the case of one Board Member, more than $8,000 in the case of another Board Member, and who knows how much in the case of other Board Members. This has resulted in ridiculous scenarios such as the SBPSD suing, and trying to serve papers on, a former SBPSD Board Member. Now, the SBPSD has to spend District money and staff time chasing down money that Hutt should not have allowed to be paid out in the first place.

To add insult to injury, Hutt may have been aware that these improper payouts were happening and allowed them to continue. Hutt may have already made arrangements with one SBPSD Board Member to pay back health insurance premiums, that the Board Member was not entitled to in the midst of this scandal. This repayment agreement may have been made months or years before the recent revelations about the ongoing improper payments of health insurance premiums to Board Members surfaced.

The SBPSD medical insurance premium payout scandal was exposed by Board Member Skip Henderson in what appears to have been an attempt to embarrass a political opponent on the SBPSD Board running for re-election. Ironically, and to Mr. Henderson's dumbfounded surprise, further investigation revealed that Mr. Henderson had also been receiving monthly payments, from the SBPSD, for medical insurance premiums that he was not entitled to.

Hutt is ultimately responsible for the weak or possibly non-existent internal financial controls that resulted in Mr. Henderson receiving over $8,000 in medical insurance premiums that he was not entitled to. After word got out that Henderson had been caught up in the very same scandal he may have tried to use to embarrass his political opponent, he finally coughed up more than $8,000 to pay back the School District.

What Mr. Henderson may not have realized is that he had stumbled onto a huge red flag that is indicative of an organization with weak internal financial controls that leaves the organization open to embezzlement, fraud, and other events that could result in significant financial losses. In my opinion, the medical insurance premium payout scandal at the San Bruno Park School District brings into question the effectiveness and integrity of the financial controls in place at the SBPSD and Superintendent David Hutt's ability to oversee the management of the SBPSD's financial affairs. Not surprisingly, when what appears to have been Henderson's scheme to discredit his Board colleague backfired, he dropped the matter at a time when he should have demanded a full independent audit of the District and stricter internal financial controls.

It has been said, on more than one occasion, that "where there is smoke, there is fire". In the case of the SBPSD, I think there needs to be a thorough independent investigation of the SBPSD's internal financial controls and all financial transactions that have been completed during the past 5 years. For this, we need the services of an independent accounting firm or, if appropriate, State of California Auditors to sort out what could be a colossal financial mess at the SBPSD.

Another example of waste by the SBPSD Board is the lawsuit brought against the SBPSD by VB Golf Inc. This lawsuit was the result of conduct by the SBPSD Board of Trustees that, in my opinion, was so ridiculously stupid and inept that it even set a new low water mark for the SBPSD Board of Trustees. This incident cost the District what may be as much as $150,000 or more in legal fees and settlement costs.

Instead of yet another parcel tax, the SBPSD needs a new Superintendent, a few new Board Members, an independent financial audit, and the implementation of tighter financial controls. The sloppy mismanagement of District money is having a negative impact on our children's education. When money earmarked for our children's education is diverted into the pockets of unintended recipients, by people who are entrusted with the care and custody of this taxpayer money, legal and political action must be taken against the offending parties.

The big question on my mind at this point is why hasn't SBPSD Superintendent David Hutt been asked by the District's Board of Trustees to resign?

The SBPSD Board doesn't need to burden San Bruno's homeowners with a multi decade parcel tax to meet sporadic cash flow problems and save or expand extracurricular programs in our schools.

We already have an organization in place for raising money to erase SBPSD budget deficits and achieve other District financial objectives. This organization is the San Bruno Education Foundation (SBEF). The SBEF is a private, non-profit educational corporation that includes the following comment in their mission statement:

"Our goals include supplementing school budgets to erase deficits, establishing a permanent SBEF Endowment Fund, and funding curriculum enhancements."

Not unlike education foundations in other cities, the SBEF has the potential to raise tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars or more each year for the San Bruno Park School District. Just like the SBPSD, the Kentfield School District, in Marin County, is both an elementary and middle school district. The Kentfield Schools Foundation has raised in excess of $1 million in some years for the Kentfield School District. The SBEF should study the techniques used by the The Kentfield Schools Foundation to raise money.

The web site for the California Consortium of Education Foundations (CCEF), an organization based in Stanford, California, has a listing of local education foundations for each California county. According to the CCEF site, there are 29 educational foundations in San Mateo County.

Perhaps the San Bruno Education Foundation should do an analysis of all the educational foundations in California to determine which of these educational foundations is the most successful at raising money for their school districts. Pick the top 10 or 20 educational foundations, in terms of money raised, find out what their methodology is for raising money and adopt the best of breed methodologies.

The analysis and implementation of effective fundraising methodologies could be done in 3 to 6 months. Possibly sooner if this effort was fast tracked. If educational foundations in other communities can raise large amounts of money for their elementary and junior high schools so can San Bruno.

The laws of economics, while not as quickly absolute as the laws of physics, are nonetheless almost as predictable and damaging. As the production of hard goods leaves the United States to find new homes in China, India, Eastern Europe, and other countries, where workforces are better trained and more cost competitive, the US economy loses strength.

First the production jobs disappear, then the government and private sector service jobs disappear. The damage becomes immediately evident. We have seen cities right here in California where there are so many home foreclosures that many formerly thriving neighborhoods have become ghost towns. Now, we are being told that the City of Vallejo is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Vallejo may become California's first city to declare bankruptcy as payouts to retiring police and fire employees drain needed cash from the City. In Vallejo's case, it appears that the City's public employees are putting the City at risk for bankruptcy. In the words of Vallejo City Councilmember Stephanie Gomes, "We've been spending more than we've been making for 20 years and it's time to pay the piper".

In Vallejo, not unlike San Bruno, approximately 80% of the City's general fund is consumed by employee related costs. The City of San Bruno has also been spending more than it has been taking in for many years and, not unlike the City of Vallejo, may also on the fast track to economic collapse if the City of San Bruno does not immediately reduce its spending and balance its budget. In addition, the City of San Bruno has a Redevelopment Agency that has drained millions of dollars away from the City treasury. It has been my long held opinion that San Bruno's City Manager and Council are a financial wrecking crew that is destroying San Bruno.

In San Bruno, our current economic problems have been exacerbated by the fact that there has been a disconnect between government and economic reality. To help stop the fiscal insanity that is destroying San Bruno's City government we must devise a system attaching personal financial liability to all government employees and elected officials who make decisions about the way the City of San Bruno manages and spends taxpayer dollars. For example:

In terms of City employee time and actual tax dollars spent concocting and advancing the failed Measure F scheme, that would have destroyed San Bruno's sales tax base, San Bruno's City Manager and Council may have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars. It is the height of stupidity for a deficit ridden city like San Bruno to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to trash the City's sales tax base. That being said, let's imagine that every Member of the San Bruno City Council and City Manager had personally financial liability for Measure F if it lost. What's a few hundred thousand dollars split 6 ways? In this type of put up or shut up scenario, I think these deficit makers would have shut up and not put Measure F on the Ballot. More about this plan later.

The other reason why California cities like Vallejo and San Bruno risk bankruptcy is that the unions representing local government workers appear to think that pay raises, increases in benefits, and huge lifetime pensions are something their members are automatically entitled to no matter what the state of the economy is. It is as if these public sector unions think that taxpayer money comes from some magic tax fairy in the sky with an endless supply of money?

The purpose of a union is to help insure that jobs paying good salaries and offering decent benefits and working conditions are available for qualified union members. The most anti-union people are those people who are so irresponsible in their planning and actions that they cause union members to lose their jobs, benefits, and retirement plans by allowing the union to price rank and file union members out of the job market. We saw this in the auto, steel, and maritime industries and we are now seeing this in this in the public employee sector as public employee unions also price their members out of the job market. It's a game of musical chairs. If you are a rank and file union member who gets laid off, you lose, no bigger salary and no big benefits. If you are a union member who gets to keep your job with more salary and benefits. You win. Unfortunately, in the recession-depression scenario we are now operating in, there will be far fewer winners than losers.

Rank and file union members in the public sector, who value their jobs, would be well advised to urge their their union leaders not to price them out of the job market with unrealistic demands that result in fewer jobs. More public sector jobs and public employee pensions will be put at risk with no taxpayer bailout as the California economy sinks deeper into a recession and quite possibly falls into a depression.

I predicted a recession during the Measure F campaign last year when most people were saying that we would avoid a recession. The recession is now here. Ongoing recessions turn into depressions. Right now, the State of California is on the brink of falling into a depression as the real estate bubble continues to deflate while more people and jobs leave the State in search of more tax friendly environments.