Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Seattle Times is reporting the following: - Silas Potter was sentenced to 3 years, 7 months in jail.   He could get credit for the eight and a half months time that he has already spent in jail. - One accomplice, David Johnson, was convicted in early November of 30 counts and will sentenced in early Jan. - Potter and Johnson "are jointly responsible for restitution of $168, 275." - The other accomplice, Lorrie Kay Sorensen, was sentenced to 60 days of home detention with electronic monitoring.   She must pay $83k in restitution. The most basic lesson is accountability. There was failure from the top down.  Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, the superintendent at the time, is the least responsible but she should have realized that Mr. Potter's direct supervisor, Fred Stephens, was distracted by the murder of his son and the subsequent trial.   Additionally, employees within JSCEE either feared or avoided Potter; that was a well-known situation and yet no o...

From KOMO TV: Silas Potter Jr., one of the central figures in a financial scandal in Seattle Public Schools, pleaded guilty Monday to 36 counts of theft for stealing funds from a Seattle Public School District program designed to assist minority-owned businesses in receiving school district contracts.  He could get between 3 1/2 to 5 years in prison.  He is to be sentenced in late May. That leave one final co-conspirator, David Johnson, who is going to stand trial starting May 13th.   The third co-conspirator, Lorrie Kay Sorensen, pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced in June. Seems like my hunch was right - Potter had nothing that was going to mitigate or save him. I believe the district received some sum of money from insurance but not the entire $250k Potter took.  The vendors who made about $280k from questionable work may look like they are walking away unscathed but I hope the district makes note of who they are and gives pauses before hiring...

From the Times : Silas Potter Jr., the central figure in the Seattle Public Schools financial scandal, was arrested during a traffic stop early Wednesday near Tampa, Fla., after he failed to appear for arraignment Tuesday on theft charges in King County Superior Court. A King County sheriff's detective who handles fugitive cases received a tip and relayed it to U.S. marshals, who found Potter, sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said Wednesday morning. I had a feeling that since Potter was a non-violent criminal that it might hard to find him (he only pays cash and had disconnected his cell phone).  But sure enough, he got stopped on a traffic stop. He will make his first court appearance in Florida on Thursday, Kincheloe said. Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, said prosecutors hope to learn on Thursday whether Potter will waive extradition. If Potter agrees to extradition, he could be brought to Seattle in a matter of days, Donohoe said...

I attended the arraignment this morning.  Always interesting to see how these things work. I had never seen the two co-conspirators before - Lorrie Sorenson and David A. Johnson - both appeared and both put in a plea of "not guilty."   Both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Sorenson were to be fingerprinted and processed and then released without bail. The lawyers for Johnson and Sorenson said that they needed to work together on discovery items.  Additionally, since Ms. Sorenson lives in Nevada and had to fly in for the arraignment, her lawyer asked for two months so she could make arrangements in her life before coming back for the trial. The trial date was not set (from what I could hear) because of the non-appearance of Potter.   Given the request by the lawyer for Sorenson, I would assume it would not start for a couple of months. They called Potter's name and he did not appear.   The prosecutor said they had attempted multiple times to contact Potter....

Here's are some notes from the press conference and follow-ups from it.

Just got back from the press conference with Dan Satterberg, KC Prosecutor, Dr. Enfield and Director DeBell.   I'll write a longer thread but here are the highlights: Silas Potter is to be charged with 9 counts of Theft in the First Degree David Anthony Johnson is to be charged with 9 counts of Theft in the First Degree Lorrie Kay Sorenson is to be charged with 4 counts of Theft in the First Degree I do not recognize Ms. Sorenson's name but Mr. Johnson had been mentioned in the State Auditor's report. The accused funneled about $250k through two corporations - one, a non-profit called Grace of Mercy and the other, a for-profit, called Emerald City cleaning.  Mr. Potter operated on cash with several large cash withdrawals in his name.   Potter turned over about $21k to his accompliances and kept the rest.  There is no evidence that anyone further up the food chain had knowledge of or benefited from these actions. If convicted as charged, Potter and...

Not a big crowd for the School Board meeting last week but traffic was lousy and it's the end of the school year.

I was only able to hit two of the four Board committee meetings last week (and not the work session either but Charlie covered that one).  I went the the Audit portion of the Audit and Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday.  This was a good meeting and especially so because of the arrival of the A&F's two new volunteer public advisors (looking for one but got two and that's even better).

Publicola did some digging and found that the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) had a contract with the Urban League (who also had contracts with SPS).    From the article : In response to a public disclosure request, WSDOT revealed that it has contracted out support for disadvantaged and minority businesses through the Regional Small Business Development Program (RSBDP), the Seattle Public Schools division headed up by program manager Silas Potter, the man in charge of the SPS program at the center of the $1.8 million scandal, as first reported by the Seattle Times. According to quarterly and annual reports on WSDOT’s Support Services for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs), Potter’s RSBDP offered business competitiveness courses to companies with the goal of helping them bid more successfully for WSDOT contracts. The low level of DBE attendance and the lack of any growth in enrollment at RSBDP classes suggests a similar pattern to that d...

The Times has a revealing article about Fred Stephens, former head of Facilities and Silas Potter's enabler/friend/supporter.  I was wondering when someone in the mainstream media might want to examine his record.  The Times does a fairly good job but does miss/leave out a few parts. For me, it jogs my memory back to several Board meetings.  (I keep most of the Board agenda's at meetings where I have spoken and so I can recall testimony from other speakers.)  The article starts off with African-American activists wanting more access/opportunities to bid on SPS construction contracts.

High atop his tower (probably on Mount Doom) Gary Ikeda, former head counsel at SPS, is NOW going to speak to the Board's investigator. Somehow he remembered his law school training and realized he could speak if he got a client(the Board)/attorney privilege waiver. This story was in the Seattle Times. District lead counsel Noel Treat said this: Treat, in a reply e-mail, advised Ikeda to "please cooperate fully and answer any questions" of the investigator, Seattle attorney Patricia Eakes. On Friday, Treat told Ikeda that because Eakes is legal counsel working for the school district, no waiver of the attorney-client privilege is necessary for him to cooperate. "To the extent you believe otherwise, please consider this a waiver to the extent necessary for you to be interviewed," Treat wrote in his e-mail, telling Ikeda that Eakes would contact him next week. What Gary thought: "However, I do think clarification is necessary as to the issue of my n...

Yes, it's going to be Open Thread tonight. Be our eyes and ears at the School Board meeting for those who can't go or watch. They don't take shots of the audience so if you recognize any of the usual suspects, let us know. I want impressions, details and your thoughts. (If you go see Wendy Kopp, let us know how that goes as well.)

Here's one other piece of this puzzle of a crisis - the tracking of the Sutor Group report. Back in early 2009, district communications, for whatever reason, had been talking up the Small Business Works program. The Daily Journal of Commerce decided to do a piece on it. But the reporter wasn't going to just do some fluff piece "look at this great program" based on what the district PR put out. He had done a public disclosure request and got the Sutor Group report. Apparently, he called the district with questions and word went out to upper administration from Communications; the Daily Journal of Commerce had the Sutor Group report and may call about findings. All calls were to be referred to Communications. Now MGJ put this in her daily Friday updates to the Board. Why no one on the Board thought, "What is this report and why does it have actions and responses that a reporter would call about?" The Board did not receive the Sutor Group report and w...

Ah, so the plot thickens. A reader alerted us to a story in the Seattle PI online about lobbying that Silas Potter did at the State Legislature for more leeway in running business development programs. In the Auditor's work documents, it notes a couple of times that Potter had been told not to go to the Legislature and lobby (but he apparently didn't stop). As well, a former legislator, Velma Veloria, was paid by his office to lobby as well (even though lobbying for the district is strictly limited and must go through Legal and neither person did). Apparently there was little opposition to the bill (which passed) but: Larry Stevens of the Mechanical Contractors of Western Washington and National Electrical Contractors Association, testified on March 15, 2007 that he was concerned about a lack of oversight. "There needs to be some parameters around it. This bill...is a little too wide open," he said. "It just throws it open....there are no public works pol...

I actually don't have time to get into this in depth but let me explain what I know about how this idea about outreach to small businesses that are minority/woman-owned. (I will try to flesh this out more later or, hopefully, some media-type will do it.) This started with an idea from former School Board member Mary Bass. It became a policy (but again, I don't have the policy number or date in front of me). What I understood it to be was merely a way to say to those smaller companies, "Here is a staff person you can call with questions. He/She can help guide you through the process." In addition, I think they were probably going to make a small brochure with tips and maybe have a couple of classes a year on doing business with SPS.This work would be part of one person's job in capital. That's it. No roster of classes, no roster of instructors, no personal service contracts so that prominent people in the community could do outreach. Just a way to bro...

Charlie went over what he thought striking from the Board's Investigative report. Here's mine: Another factor that may have contributed to decisions by employees not to take their concerns to the Board was the communication protocol developed in conjunction with the Board and instituted by Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson. The communication protocol was intended to streamline requests for information between the Board and District employees and was not intended to cut off employees’ access to the Board. Although the policy explicitly encouraged employees to bring concerns relating to activities that were not in the best interest of the District to the attention of management and promised no negative repercussions for doing so, some employees, including the internal auditor, believed the policy prohibited employees from having direct contact with the Board or the Superintendent. (bold mine) We also discovered that the Superintendent plays no active role in the budget formatio...

Good for the Times finding him. (I had my own little research going and found out that he went to high school in two schools in Michigan. He claimed he had attended Columbia and a Michigan university but no degrees listed. He also says on his Facebook page, "To know me is to love me." Well, the Seattle Times has an extensive review of his tenure at SPS so read it and tell me how much in love you are by the end. Me, not so much. I said elsewhere that I wondered if Fred Stephens, as head of Facilities, took his eye off the BEX ball as several projects had cost overruns. I mean if he gave Silas Potter free rein, then he probably gave Don Gilmore (then head of BEX projects) free rein. I have asked myself WHY Fred Stephens did this. (One thing I can say slightly in his defense is that a couple of years ago a son was murdered. I know it took a toll on him as it would anyone.) I do want to pose a couple of questions just for input (or just for the heck of it): should the ...

Thank you to Michael H for the heads up on another SAO audit document. This one has all the interviews the SAO did with SSD employees and certain vendors. I'm at page 54 of 264 and it's been jaw-dropping. I cannot believe the leeway and leverage and access to money and resources that Silas Potter had. It is just not possible for me to believe he did this on his own. Highlights : He repeatedly claimed to many who worked for him that SSD supported the transfer of the RSBDP from the district to his 501c3. Some of the people who had personal services contract through him come off very badly. Elaine Ko for one: We asked Elaine if she thought it unusual that a public program would be transitioning to the private sector at the expense of taxpayers. She said it was not unusual at that time. “It was not a questionable thing.” Also an administrator assistant reports that several people prominent in the African-American community had gone to Board me...

Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and Don Kennedy, the district's chief financial and operations officer, should have done more to ensure that the manager of the district's small-business program wasn't misusing district money, according to the attorney hired to determine who should be held accountable . This is what the report from the lawyer, Patty Eakes, who the Board hired to investigate the current scandal according to the Times . She does conclude that MGJ and Kennedy had limited knowledge of the program. (First, when did she interview the Super? On the phone? Second, every single program is supposed to be in their knowledge base.) She says: no evidence that anyone expressed their concerns to MGJ about the program beyond an unfavorable review of the program (somewhat a hilarious statement because really who would go to her? I can't think of anyone who might feel comfortable going to her with the attitude she projects). MGJ trus...

Update: Checked with the Superintendent's office: she's on vacation. The Times has another story this morning with the words " financial abuse " in the headline. It follows with: Disclosures about the school-district program have put Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's job at risk in what has become the most serious public corruption investigation in years. The release of the documents — the most comprehensive look yet at the allegations — comes as prosecutors conduct a secret criminal investigation of the financial dealings and the School Board considers whether to force out Goodloe-Johnson, sources familiar with the matter have told The Seattle Times. State Auditor Brian Sonntag on Thursday called it one of the most egregious cases he has seen in 18 years on the job. The Board: The School Board will meet in executive session Tuesday to discuss the audit, as well as a report from its own investigation, done by a private attorney, into what Goodloe...