School Board Missed the Fact Gentile's CPA Could not be Verified

Andy Griffiths -  "I also think one of us would have said, "wait a minute, why didn't you verify that"?  Seems too obvious a question for a five person board to miss. "   

Yes Andy, it does seem too obvious!

- Naked Conch - Posted by Matt Gardi -  June 23, 2012

Compounding the already ridiculous fact that School District Chief of Staff Ken Gentile is not really a CPA as he stated on his resume and as he has been attaching to his signatures, is this latest bombshell...

The School Board knew about it.  
Or at least they should have if they actually read the first page of the $20,000 report they commissioned. (Kudos to Larry Murray for digging all this up.) Below is the first page of a report provided to the School Board by Mercer regarding Gentile.

As it turns out, along with the admitted problem verifying Gentile's FL credentials, the Mercer group may have erred in their verification of Gentile's NY credentials.  According to the Citizen, Gentile's NY CPA may have expired in 1993.  Not to mention the paragraph is written like it is an incomplete $20K form fill.  

I have been an outspoken critic of hiring these "expert" firms to help us search for and hire these "Best and Brightest" as it is indicative of shortcomings of our elected officials.  Especially when the reasoning for originally hiring Gentile was to have an internal auditor report directly to the School Board.  I contend that our elected School Board members should be able to analyze the School's finances adequately enough or they should not serve.  

But School Board Member Andy Griffiths differs.  In an opinion he penned for Key West the Newspaper, (found here) Griffiths contends board members are "generalist."  He takes credit for hiring the head hunter, and fighting alongside former Superintendent Burke to convince the Board of the need to hire an internal auditor.  Griffiths writes:

So, following the scandal and while we were hiring outside experts to help us sort it all out, we also hired a head hunter to find us a top notch internal auditor. The board was not in agreement on this hire and our newly appointed superintendent at the time and myself pushed hard for it and in the end we agreed to do it.

A lot of hiring going on there.  A lot of hiring going on because Griffiths feels his role is to be a "generalist."  Should we also hire someone to read the report too?


After providing Griffiths with a copy of the report that he had already seen on his agenda, I asked if anyone on the Board had followed up, and if he intended to hold Mercer accountable about being wrong on the NY CPA.  He responded:

I intend to ask the attorneys about Mercer liability.  I do not recall that statement or any member of the board asking for follow up.  I did not hear from HR about verification on this applicant.

See a pattern there folks.  Need to hire people.  Need to talk to the attorneys.  Didn't hear from HR.  I guess Griffiths is busy generalizing.  I guess the wealth of experience he has accumulated by being a generalist on the board for close to a quarter of a century has resulted in a keen ability to rely on everyone else to get the job done.  That includes reading a report that he advocated spending $20K on.


School Board members are not elected to be bumps on a log, and the public has a right to expect them to do their own critical thinking.  They should be functioning assets to our School system, adding value and effort, not expecting everyone else to do things for them.  Pointing fingers after the fact is an insult.
  

John Dick is not free from scrutiny on this matter either, as he went along with this position, he sat on the board that received this report from Mercer, and ultimately he sat on the board that hired Gentile.  He also says he overlooked it, as he made a wrong assumption that it was clarified.  But Dick has a track record of digging, and does not pen pieces in defense of being a generalist.  He also, as Griffiths seems proud of doing, did not take the lead on this alongside Burke and convince the rest of an apprehensive board to go along.  John Dick says he will pursue the issue with Mercer and most notably..."This is entirely the board's responsibility and no one else's."


Also, Dick is currently not up for re-election.  Griffiths is.