Duggan Harman, CFO

From District Communications:
Interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield announced in letter to staff on Tuesday the appointment of Duggan Harman to the position of Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance.
As Executive Director of Finance and Audit, Mr. Harman currently directs the District's financial department, including overseeing the budget, accounting, grants, payroll and audit response departments. He wil take over for Bob Boesche, who has served as Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance since March 2011. Bob will continue assisting in a transitional role over the next several months.
Congratulations to Mr. Harman on his new position. We all wish him great success.


The District took a long time to fill this position - nearly a year. They advertised, they did a search, but they could not find an acceptable candidate. I don't know how much the superintendent's interim status contributed to the difficulty in finding a new CFO, but part of the Board's concern about being able to find a new superintendent was based on their difficulty in filling this position.

We should express our gratitude to Mr. Boesche. He was kept on as an interim much longer than his original commitment or contract. He has been instrumental to the culture change in the District as a model of candor and professionalism.


Comments

Patrick said…
This is good. That means when we get a new superintendent she/he won't be bringing a chief financial officer along with, and they won't have more loyalty to each other than they do to the district.
Dorothy Neville said…
Moving the discussion from the comments on Enfield and Bellevue. How am I putting lipstick on a pig?

Believe me I am paying attention to central dollars and will report back when I have solid information. What I do believe now is that the trend is in the right direction. To use Charlie's thought experiment idea, if we simply overnight replaced our top management with top management of a well run lean district, would we automatically and immediately see an effective HQ and a lean budget? It's going to take time. Frustrating, but reality.

It was imperative that someone outside was brought in last March, and Bob Boesche was a great choice and a great aid to the district. He's worked closely with Duggan all year and Bob would never have supported Duggan for this role if he didn't fully agree with the choice. Bob was, as Charlie says above, instrumental in the cultural change in the district. If Duggan were not fully on board with that cultural shift, would Bob counsel Susan to promote him?

I just want to point out that we can't blame Duggan for the years of budget mess, since he wasn't in a position of power, not to mention that ultimately adopting the budget is the board's responsibility. I have seen Don Kennedy obfuscate madly to the board and turn any talk of cutting central admin into a threat to cut custodians. That does not happen anymore. I have seen documents (PDR with the SAO) showing that under Kennedy, the SAO was shown no respect. However, I have not seen any evidence that Duggan participated in that. In fact, the SAO has told me Duggan has always been forthcoming and honest with him.
mirmac1 said…
Well, I would say Duggan has been a middling soldier, and witness to number games that shortchanged building budgets and maintenance.

As much as Bob was a pleasant ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy mess, I also saw where he could spin bad into not-so-bad in front of the Board.

I just want the *&%#!@& truth, dammit!
Dorothy Neville said…
It would be great to get Superman or Wonderwoman. We can't, though.

I want honesty too. That includes being honest about how much power Duggan has had in the past to influence the budget, how much we can blame him for the disastrous situation of the past. The rhetoric slamming him with all the blame is not accurate and not helpful.
mirmac1 said…
Can you talk him into finally doing a "zero-based budgeting approach"? Now that he's the Big Kahuna? (that's nice rhetoric)

Talk him into requiring transparency with school building budgets. So we see where some principals spend their money (not on SpEd, fer sure).

Movement in that direction will make me a believer.
Anonymous said…
Dear Ms. Neville,

I don't know you but you seem to be on a first name basis with all of the HQ folks and that concerns me because they are public servants and not homies.

People are fed up because these folks have screwed up kids, professions and/or dreams (all of the above is also an option).

Just because you and Charlie are on a first name basis with these public servants does not lessen the impact on real lives that some of these folks have wreaked on real human lives. (At least Charlie refers to them by surname or title on this blog).

Please quit apologizing for these people. I am really tired of it.
While you're at it, please call them by their public, public-servant name, like Mr. Rogers. Ever the humble gentleman, he never said, "Just call me Fred."

Ever listen to classic rock stations when the d.j. calls Mick Jagger "Mick" to act like he's in his orbit? There are several degrees of separation from groupie here. Let's get back to professionalism in this district--it will go a long way.

Sincerely, Ms. Enough Already
Dorothy Neville said…
Thank you Ms Enough Already. I apologize for my sloppy typing, slipping into and out of first and last name basis. It is not good and I will try to behave better.
Anonymous said…
..if it were only typing.

--enough already
Dorothy Neville said…
Where did I apologize for someone?
KG said…
For Duggan Harman Dorothy.
KG said…
Harman led a disastrous budget last year that took the counselors off the WSS and gave himself a 18K raise along with several others down there. That is a fact so maybe
some of us think this is unethical when many children have lost access to a counselor who might have stepped in and assisted them and their parents so they would have a better lift.

Instead we gave raises to Harman and company. Or should Harley and company.

It is a fact that the more well to do have screwed up society and it is no different in the Seattle Public Schools even though this is the palce it should be different.
Anonymous said…
Another example (in reference to DeBell's underhanded media blitz that attempeted to silence the democratically elected board):

"What strikes me as sad and ironic is that Michael's intentions from all I have witnessed is that he wants to help the new board members -- current new ones and future members -- to be more effective earlier in their term."
(D. Neville)

--enough already
KG said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
mirmac1 said…
There is TRULY a place for "good cop, bad cop". Seriously, as a major snarky, I believe in not shooting the messenger.

Where would we be if all of us who are seriously pissed off were standing there, escorted out of the building. It takes ALL of us to influence that which benefits the children (not you, Korsmo). Personally, I'm a banished type of person but, Hey, I'm okay with that.
KG said…
I predict more destruction of school based employees under Mr. Harman and his rationalized world of doing a good job.

Let's welcome more of that.

Remember "Success and nothing less"
KG said…
If Bob Boesche were so professional why did he not really fix the Central admin. monster?
mirmac1 said…
Yeah, Bob could've done more. But he was called on to be the ameliorator (is that a word?). After years of MGJ and DK, bridges had to be rebuilt.

Yeah, i hate it too.
mirmac1 said…
But Duggan SOUNDS like a last name... : )
StopTFA said…
I was PISSED when "Jonny" Bridge emails me with the salutation "Cecilia". Bud, stick it where the sun don't shine.

Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to elevate the discourse but it's my latin blood I guess.

Enough already, I will vouch for Ms Neville that she's got a very skeptical eye. People can't all be (rhymes with witches) like me.
Charlie Mas said…
KG wrote: "Harman led a disastrous budget last year"

Did he? Did Mr. Harman lead it? I wasn't at a lot of those meetings, but I wouldn't think this is something that Mr. Harman would lead. First, I would expect the Board to lead it. Second, if it were led from the staff side, I would expect that lead to come from the superintendent or the CFO, not Mr. Harman. But, as I acknowledge, I didn't follow it closely.

We are about to embark on another budget season. There is a new board and new staff leadership. Let's see what they produce.

I'm going to try to pay closer attention to it this time. I have a question about the WSS and how it is determined that I want answered.

The key to a lot of the budget process will be how often the "That's the way we have always done it." is accepted as a legitimate answer.
StopTFA said…
Having attended more than a few of the budget sessions last spring, I would say Harmon was in the driver's seat. And I didn't like what I saw.

WV: that said, I don't think he is quite "belesub" (y'know Beelzebub)

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