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Schools' practice of paycheck and pension suspended

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | robert.kessler@newsday.com

10:32 PM EDT, May 22, 2008

As a hearing convened by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to discuss pension abuse opened Thursday, state Education Commissioner Richard Mills announced that the practice of retired school officials getting both their state pensions and paychecks in interim appointments would be suspended for two months.

Mills' announcement -- made through a spokesman in a prepared statement -- came at the hearing called by Cuomo and a bipartisan group of state legislators that was held at Farmingdale State College. Cuomo, who has already announced multiple investigations of school districts on Long Island, called Mills' announcement "a positive step."

Officials said the hearing was a precursor to state legislation now under consideration in Albany.

In an interview after the hearing -- his first since pension abuse stories broke in Newsday in February -- Mills said interim positions in school districts were needed, but he conceded that the system should be fixed.

"At the end of the 60-day period, I expect to have a system in place and operating that people can trust," he said.

At one point during the hearing, Cuomo had slides projected on a giant screen in Roosevelt Hall, showing how, he said, some superintendents have taken advantage of the state's hiring system for interim officials.

The system is meant to provide school officials on an emergency basis for at most two years, but has turned into a "a bit of an old-boy network" of retired school officials who pass around jobs to themselves to "double-dip," Cuomo said.

In one slide, Michael Griffin, interim assistant superintendent for instruction in the Longwood School District, was shown to have previously served as an interim official in the Seaford, Glen Cove and Locust Valley school districts while collecting a pension as a retiree.

Reached at his office after the hearing, Griffin said he was unaware that his career had been brought up by Cuomo. He declined further comment.

A second series of slides, Cuomo said, showed how Thomas Caramore obtained his position as superintendent of the Baldwin school district. The application to the Education Department filed both by the district and Nassau BOCES said that Caramore had to be hired immediately as the acting superintendent because of "a multitude of pressing issues ... "

Cuomo pointed out that the letter to the state already listed Caramore as Baldwin's superintendent of schools on its letterhead. Caramore could not be reached for comment.

Tom Dunn, Mills' spokesman, said that Caramore was within his legal rights to move into the job, before a waiver was granted, as long as he earned no more than $30,000. Because he would inevitably exceed that amount before a permanent replacement could be found, the district then applied for a waiver, Dunn said.

Cuomo convened the hearing in response to Newsday stories on the interim issue and others that showed how school lawyers improperly received state pension credits by being listed as employees, even though they were independent contractors. One witness, Ellen Yaroshefsky, a law professor at Cardozo Law School, called the attorneys' behavior "certainly unethical" and "deceitful."

In his remarks, Cuomo said that "waste, fraud and abuse [in school districts] is intolerable," adding that it would be resolved with new state legislation. On the subject of the interims, state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) said previous efforts at reform had been "squashed."

Both Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota and Nassau Comptroller Howard Weitzman noted that their own past investigations had uncovered many school district problems, but that no action was taken to remedy them.

Thomas Rogers, executive director of the State Council of School Superintendents, defended school officials, but added, "If there is fraud, find it. If the law is unclear, fix it."

Cuomo left no doubt as to his own feelings. "If you violate the law, prosecute the violators, then you'll see the culture change."

This story was reported by Robert E. Kessler, Sandra Peddie and Eden Laikin and written by Kessler.