Its Déjà vu all over again

Warning¶ to NK taxpayers don’t let history repeat itself.

Vote NO on this year’s $27M bond. Demand a resubmittal for next year; cut the waste that is encumbered within this bond.

Have you been told the truth? I asked who and what local elected official advised NK residents and taxpayers that in May 2018 the Department of Education approved only $11.8 million for the school project, a cut $1.7M. What gets eliminated?

My letter to editor dated April 7, 2015 is provided FYI and consideration?

For those current elected officials or those seeking election I challenge them to demand a public hearing regarding my statement and concerns. Will be the first to step forward to find out truth?

Briefly in an April 7, 2015 letter I was inform that the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) was closing a complaint which I had filed against the North Kingstown School Department (NKSD). In my complaint I identified that Davisville Middle School contain elements (building doors) that were not accessible to individuals with mobility impairments. However, prior to OCR completing its investigation, I was advised that the North Kingstown School Department had agreed to resolve the complaint by taking action as set forth in a Voluntary Resolution Agreement signed by the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Auger on April 2, 2015.

Among other mandates, this agreement requires that the NKSD to immediately develop, adopt and implement a procedure/policy by which individuals may request that any of the district's programs, activities and services that are currently provided at Davisville Middle School will be made accessible to persons with disabilities, including through relocation, as needed.

The significance of this finding goes well beyond OCR’s citing that DMS still remains as a non ADA compliant school, despite the fact that the School Committee, Dr. Auger and his facility subcommittee misled the community into believing that it was mandatory to expend some $2 million of NK taxpayers money to make the DMS building compliant with the ADA, local and state code regulations.

Most importantly OCR’s finding surfaces the fact our local government (both the municipal and school department) is poorly operated, managed and its leadership cares little about open, transparent, accountable and honest government operations, in short NK officials cannot be trusted to spend our taxpayer’s money wisely. The rampant waste, fraud and abuse of our taxpayers money is continuously overlooked and condoned by our elected officials as demonstrated by their recent failure to follow good business and decision-making practices, the Town Charter, and Rhode Island General Law. By in large, members of the Town Council have been unwilling to exercise their fiduciary responsibilities in the best interest of our taxpayers as evidenced by the Councils recent endorsement of the $6.4 million school bond project and the School Committee’s unethical and illegal award of a $500,000 lease contract with the Quonset Development Corporation (another $400,000 waste of taxpayer’s money).

Let me explain, on November 22, 2011, I wrote to School Committee Chairman Dick Welch to advise members of the school committee about my concerns regarding the $6.4 million school emergency health and safety bond which funded the DMS ADA work. Originally, I did so because I was concerned as to why the DMS roof replacement cost estimate had increased from $2.1 to $3.1 million (actual cost was $1.5 million) and why we had to immediately spend in excess of $500,000 to remove asbestos floor tiles at Davisville Middle School (actual cost $0, requirement deleted without school committee knowledge or approval).

I was also concerned about the emergency nature and rationale necessitating the immediate expenditure of $1.4 million for various code compliance and ADA work. I wanted the architect and superintendent of schools to certify that “if not completed”, the NKSD would be in violation of local, state or federal law. This did not occur. Subsequently School Committee members Benson, Thompson and I voted down the project by 3 to 2 margin because of these concerns.

However, several days later and unbeknown to Mrs. Benson, Mr. Thompson and myself, school attorney Mary Ann Carroll wrote to the Department of Education forwarding a signed document dated November 29, 2011 advising DoE that the signatures on the agreement of Dick Welch, Larry Ceresi, and Attorneys Kim Page and Linda Avanzato constituted a majority of the North Kingstown School Committee and that the four signatures “constitutes full authority and commitment to enter into agreement [with RIDE] in connection with this [$6.4 million project approval] matter. This statement was in direct violation of RIDE’s own project approval regulations.

OCR’s action now makes it unambiguously clear that because of this behind-the-scenes, unethical and illegal action, on the part of the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Auger, Mr. Welch, Mr. Ceresi, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Avanzato, and the failure of the Town Council to perform its fiduciary oversight of this bond project, North Kingstown taxpayers unnecessarily expended some $2 million. My many pleas to the Council to review the propriety and need for this bond work went unanswered, but in their silence, the Council turned its back on the town charter and worse the NK taxpayer.

I believe that many regulatory violations and fraudulent actions were committed during the planning, design, contract award and construction work concerning the $6.4 million school bond contract. I would hope the current Town Council, based on OCR’s findings would now undertake a review and investigate what went wrong and why? A good beginning would be to focus on why we unnecessarily spent $800-$900,000 on elevators for DMS, approximately $100,000 dollars to install handicap door hardware at DMS which still fails to meet ADA requirements, and another $1 million dollars on non-mandatory ADA changes. NK taxpayers deserve the right to know what reasons the school committee has been mandated by the federal government to develop a policy for sending DMS students with disabilities to Wickford Middle School.

I would also ask the Council to reassess why some $400,000 of taxpayer’s money was wasted on an unnecessary five year lease contract with the QDC. I would hope there is at least one member who, on behalf of our taxpayers, wants to know if they were misinformed or lied to about the need for this expenditure. Believe me they were!

Rhode Island General Law and the North Kingstown Town Charter required an open bid process to award this QDC contract, so I would ask once again, why did the Council allowed the school committee to enter into a no bid contract? I submit it’s time we hold our in house department heads, administrators and professional contractors responsible for the unnecessary $2 million DMS expenditure and the $400,000 QDC lease cost.

Respectfully,

Bill Mudge