Evan Vitale Consulting: Audit: Bangor paid ex-superintendent $142k for 'no work' consulting job

Latest post from Evan Vitale Consulting -

The Bangor Area School District paid more than $142,000 to a former superintendent for a “no work” consultant position, according to a state audit report.

The agreement, signed by district officials in 2012, included language stating she would receive payment even without providing any work, said the report, which covers Aug. 16, 2011, through May 15, 2014.

Auditors also found $18,975 in payments to the former superintendent were improperly reported as retirement wages.

“There’s no other way around it, this agreement was an immense disservice to students and taxpayers,” Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said in a prepared statement.

Although the report does not name her, the district reached such a deal with Patricia Mulroy in 2012 after she resigned her as superintendent.

Mulroy became assistant superintendent in 2007 and was promoted to superintendent in 2010 under a three-year-contract, but resigned two years later.

At the time, Bangor was grappling with the overdose death of one teacher and corruption of minor charges against another for allegedly having sex with a student.

Then-school board member Ron Angle questioned Mulroy’s leadership during a public meeting and urged the board to make a change.

The board reached an agreement with Mulroy in June 2012 that she would step down as superintendent and, instead of being paid her regular salary for the final year of her contract, she would be paid a bi-weekly consulting fee of $4,807.

She would still be paid, even if she did not perform any services for the district, according to the agreement.

“The school board hires a superintendent, the superintendent goes to work for the school board. They both have the best of intentions, but sometimes things don’t work out,” said board President Michael Goffredo.

“You do your best to find a solution and part ways amicably, and if nothing else, that’s what both parties accomplished in this deal.”

Because the district chose to end Mulroy’s three-year contract early, it would have had to pay her for that final year of work anyway, Goffredo said, unless she was being dismissed for wrongdoing, which was not the case.

He said the amount paid to Mulroy was based on her salary at the time. It was not immediately clear what her salary was when she stepped down as superintendent.

Mulroy did not return a phone call for comment Tuesday.

Under the agreement, she had to first exhaust all remaining personal and vacation days before being paid the consulting fee through the district’s accounts payable. She was paid $15,326 for unused personal and vacation days spanning July 16 through Sept. 7, 2012.

These payments were included in the district’s payroll as eligible retirement wages, but payments for unused vacation and personal leave are not eligible for retirement purposes, the audit report says, noting Mulroy’s agreement with the district stated that as of July 6, 2012, she could no longer perform any responsibilities as superintendent.

“This reinforces the fact she was no longer an employee of the district,” the report says.

Therefore, the district incorrectly included payments for unused leave as eligible retirement compensation reported to the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, according to the report.

Also, due to a clerical error, Mulroy was paid $3,649 through payroll rather than accounts payable for consulting fees and doctoral stipends, causing retirement wages to be further over-reported, the report says.

After being paid for her personal and vacation days, the former superintendent received $114,972 in consulting fees, a $1,434 doctoral stipend, a $13,705 retirement supplement and $12,497 for health insurance, according to the report.

The report says district officials told auditors Mulroy did not provide any consulting services during the period for which she was paid. In addition, the district was unable to produce documentation defining the scope of services she was supposed to provide.

“Therefore, it is unclear what benefit, if any, the district received in exchange for the $142,608 it paid to or on behalf of the former superintendent,” the report says. “Furthermore, the board appears to have abandoned its fiduciary responsibility when it entered into the agreement itself.”

Goffredo said the deal was openly discussed at the time, and “all you have to do is go back and look at press reports from 2012. It was fully disclosed to the extent that it could be at the time.”

He declined to go into detail about why the board settled on such a deal, saying it included a nondisclosure agreement.

“A clear majority of the board at that time took action they deemed to be in the best interest of the school district and in the best interest of those others involved,” Goffredo said.

The deal included a clause stating the district would stop paying the fee if Mulroy found other employment during the one-year term of the agreement, he said.

The auditor general’s report also includes two findings related to errors in reporting student data to the state Department of Education for 2010-11 and 2011-12. The errors resulted in the district’s receiving an overpayment of $103,676 and an under-payment of $39,583, resulting in a net overpayment of $64,093.

The auditor general’s office recommended the Department of Education withhold a portion of the district’s future subsidy to make up for the overpayment.

Pennsylvania school districts are regularly audited by the auditor general to determine whether state funds, including school subsidies, are being used according to the purposes and guidelines that govern their use. The audits also examine the appropriateness of certain administrative and operational practices.

Bangor’s last audit was released in January 2012, the auditor general’s office said.

Source