Just one month after approving $8 million in long-term financing for what CFO Paul Barr referred to as "might-as-well" items, the Joplin R-8 Board of Education tonight agreed, by a 5-1 vote, to seek $37 million in short-term financing.
Though Barr assured the Board of Education and the viewing public who were watching it on the district's Jet 14 television station, that the entire amount would be covered through reimbursements from FEMA, SEMA, the Economic Development Administration, and from a state economic development grant, he acknowledged, under questioning from board member Dr. Debbie Fort, that they may not be the case.
Fort noted that during the Board's Finance Committee meeting Friday, Barr had said there were $5 to $12 million in "extras" that the district was asking FEMA to pay for. He did not say specifically what those extras were, but they appear to be at least first cousins to "might-as-well" spending.
Financier Greg Bricker, who is helping arrange the financing, referred to the "extras" the district wants the federal government to cover as "errors and omissions."
"Some of the payments have not been approved," Barr said, but he did not remember having said the $5 to $12 million in the Finance Committee meeting. "I don't recall those numbers," he said.
Fort cast the only vote against the $37 million in financing.
It appears the C. J. Huff administration is doing its level best to keep something this embarrassing from happening again. Earlier in the meeting, the board discussed an attempt to eliminate the Finance Committee from board policy.
The item had been placed on the consent agenda, where normally all discussion and much conscience go to die, but this time at the request of board member Jim Kimbrough, it was removed from the consent agenda.
"I am wondering about the rationale for this," Kimbrough said.
Chief Operating Officer Tina Smith, who worked with Executive Director of High School Instruction Jason Cravens to revise the policies, answered, "The board is not required to have a finance committee," and said she was just aligning procedure to policy.
"Why not align a procedure to the policy and keep the Finance Committee?" Kimbrough asked.
Fort said, "I think it provides a check and balance. I would like to see us not eliminate the Finance Committee policy."
C. J. Huff assured her that the Finance Committee could continue to exist without being in board policy.
When Fort said she would like to see members of the public serve on the committee, Huff said he thought that was a good idea so the board could see how complicated school finance really is.
The removal of the Finance Committee was tabled.
6 comments:
So what happens when FEMA/SEMA and everybody else decide that they are not going to pay for the "extras"? Where does the money come from? They can't keep taking it out of the Capital budget.
Can you say CHA CHING??
So...did they give him the hiring, firing, and salary for administration powers?
Remember during the discussion of the last bond election how Huff said that the 63 million or so to finance the new schools may not all be needed? I specifically remember them saying it may not all be needed because of expected Fema and Sema money and if it wasn't all needed it wouldn't be used. Now they add 37 million to that number. Am I the only one who remembers this?
Randy: I think there's a typo here: It appears the C. J. Huff administration is doing its level best to keep something this embarrassing from happening again.
embarrassing -> embarrassment
Anonymous @11:27 PM: In theory this 37 million is short term, to cover the period between having to pay the contractors and getting reimbursement from FEMA et. al. If they district had a really big cash reserve it wouldn't need it (that would probably have required one bigger than reasonable, having lost so many schools to the tornado the district's financing during this period would never be "normal").
The worry, which we now have some figures for, is that FEMA et. al. won't approve reimbursement for all 37 million.
Why would FEMA pay for Huff's outrageous extras? If they paid for that sort of thing anywhere else we, as taxpayers, would be rightfully outraged. FEMA money doesn't grow on trees, it is taxpayer money too and should be spent for the purpose it is intended. So, of course we will get stuck with the bill for all these luxury items that won't make our students any smarter.
Huff and Barr can say long- or short-term loans won't cost the district a dime but that's BS. No matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it's still a pig.
Post a Comment