Head of Facilities Ousted

As I mentioned in a previous thread, another high level manager has left the district.  The story is in the Seattle Times.

A top-level executive who took over the Seattle Public School's facilities department after it was rocked by scandal that led to the superintendent's ouster is losing his job in what the district describes as a management reorganization.

William "Bill" Martin, who was promoted into the $142,000-a-year job of executive director only three months ago, acknowledged that his management style is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the district.

What does this all mean?  No head of Facilities?  Ongoing investigation of a "management" style?  But, he might remain with the district.  Okay, so too rough for the head of the department, just right somewhere else.   Boy, does Pegi McEvoy now have a lot on her plate - COO and now Facilities. 


And -

Martin's promotion during the scandal had some scratching their heads. Before joining the district, he was involved in his own contracting scandal at the Seattle Department of Transportation, where he was deputy director of capital projects.

In February 2006, Martin paid a $2,500 fine for giving an $80,000 no-bid contract to a former colleague and friend who had been living with him. At the time, the fine was among the largest levied by Seattle's Ethics and Elections Commission, said Wayne Barnett, the commission's executive director.

The city's ethics code prohibits employees from engaging in activities that are or could be construed as a conflict of interest.

Mr. Martin says settling the case without challenging the facts was a mistake on his part.    


Martin was named in two internal civil-rights complaints filed by city employees.
A civil suit filed by a worker also alleged that the division under his leadership discriminated against her because of a medical condition.

The city paid more than $233,000 to settle the three claims. Martin said he was surprised his name appeared in any complaints because he didn't directly supervise the employees who filed them.

Did the district know about this stuff?

Martin said he was not asked about and did not disclose the ethics fine during his interview with the school district. But, he said, he discussed it within weeks of being hired with Stephens and the department's lawyer for facilities. He broached the subject again when the district promoted him to facilities chief.

The fine was reported by The Seattle Times in 2006, although a record of it apparently never made it into Martin's personnel file: The city said there are no "negative findings" in his file.


Let's send up that bat signal to the City's Ethics group.  We need help, stat.  

Comments

someone said…
Guess that explains why he was escorted off the property yesterday..sigh. You know what strikes me most is while yes, there is an ethics gap there is also a HUGE problem with the districts hiring process. Despite the massive Hr dept.they can't seem to do a decent background check to save their lives. This kind of material is easily discovered in routine checks - clearly something need to change radically there.
Chris S. said…
One of the commenters at the times said, "The individual that has been running Human Resources for the past few years is the same employee that had spent years shuffling papers in HR at a principal salary; this same 'educator' has written a job announcement for unnecessary liaison position for which the district will slip him into."

Fact? Fiction? Yow.

WV says the atmosphere is "doxic."
mirmac1 said…
Listening to Bill Martin at the A&F committee meeting, I was singularly underwhelmed.
KG said…
Martin is just in a long line of rejects the District needed to hire to show their unbelievably wonderful vetting process.
Example, MGJ and several other administrators who treat workers with disrespect. Nothing new just the same old story.

Chris,

I am sure that must have been a failing principal at the school level, just being shifted back to the minor leagues. Do not doubt this is true.
Jusy saying said…
Combining COO with Head of Facilities spreads an individual too thin. How much will this cost tax-payers?
Anonymous said…
That's $200 MILLION of our taxpayer money not being optimally stewarded.

Why should people support SPS anymore. I'm close to calling it Game Over.

-skeptical-

WV says "miestyps". No, it wasn't a mistype. That's $200 MILLION.
Anonymous said…
They replace Martin and Kennedy with a person who for years has been ethically and morally bankrupt. Her rise from nurse to security director, where violations were hidden to COO? Please..now this. One must look very closely at a person who is raised above their ethical station.
Anonymous said…
The fact the dude pulled down 142 G's kills me!

grumpy
KG said…
Just saying,
Central admin. better learn to start living with better efficiency as we at the school buildings have had to as they have grown down there like weeds. Maybe less people will be less time to goof off all day. All inn Central need to take a pay cut.
dan dempsey said…
Hey give me a break. Johnny Carson has been off TV for years. I always found Bill Martin's presentations to the Board entertaining ... so $142,000/ annum and he likely gives 12 presentations per year. Thats about $12,000 per presentation, if only the District made no worse decisions than this ... the SPS would have been better off.

So Sad. So Sad.

The SPS has exceeded previous "Clown Status" ... and the Directors watched it all unfold.
Charlie Mas said…
Another Steve Sundquist quote for the Hall of Fame.

From the Seattle Times:

With all the changes, just two of the 10 people on Enfield's top leadership team have been in their jobs for more than a year. Two others have been in the district longer but are new to their positions.

"It's going to be a pretty new team," School Board President Steve Sundquist said.
Paul said…
We have been hearing a lot about "ethics" at SSD.

The SINGLE "ethic" that is foreign to the "massive HR Department" at SSD is this one:

The WORK ethic.

There are a dozen employees there, each an "Assistant" or "Senior" something and THEY CAN"T EVEN ANSWER THE PHONE!

They have an absolute walk in the park for their over-inflated salaries and good people like this Chan lady get done in by the stagnation of their constant shuffling around and hiding in their workspaces.

Check it and see.
Anonymous said…
I'm gonna start calling Sundquist "Opie".

grumpy
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