Landon Grilled on $1.65 Million Cost Overrun

By James Lomuscio

Westport’s Board of Finance took the Board of Education to task tonight over an internal auditor’s report showing the schools spent an additional $1.65 million for a mold clean up project at the Kings Highway Elementary School without informing the town’s funding bodies.

Flashback to 2007: : Gavin Anderson, who died in 2012, and then First Selectman Gordon Joseloff survey the Kings Highway Elementary School gym where mold was found. Joseloff appointed Anderson to head a panel investigating air quality at the school. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

According to Lynn Scully, internal auditor, more than $4.52 million was spent on the project that ran from 2007 though fiscal year 2013-14, but only $2.87 million had been approved—a $1.65 million overrun the schools managed via transfers within its own budget.

The overrun was due to the fact lead was found in the school, requiring the hiring of a lead abatement contractor, plus arbitration and legal fees, Scully said. She explained the schools transferred the cost increases from its electricity and natural gas accounts to its building maintenance account.

“There was no communication with the town regarding these capital expenditures,” Scully said.

Under state statute, any municipal government transfer of more than $3,000 or more requires Board of Finance approval, and more than $20,000, a sign off from the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), Gary Conrad, town finance director, told the finance board. However, school boards under state law oversee their own transfers.

In addition to Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon, the school leadership at the time included Assistant Superintendent for Business Nancy Harris, who retired in June 2013. First Selectman Jim Marpe was among those on the Board of Education during the period in question, serving as vice chair and then chair before resigning in November 2012.

“The way we deal with our transfers is entirely consistent with state statute,” said Landon, explaining that the school board votes on transfers. “In this project there was never any concern of misappropriation.”

Landon said the transfer was predicated on “a business decision” to keep the school open and the children safe when faced with “an uncertainty that was difficult to control.”

“Did it not come to your mind that the town’s funding body should be informed?” asked Michael Rea, finance board member. “You were dealing with a crisis, and we wind up in a situation that is embarrassing that tax dollars are spent without proper authorization.”

Landon responded that “we never asked for additional funds, and we protected our children.”

“The public has right to know how we spend our tax dollars,” Rea shot back. ” …It was a large sum of money.”

Landon said that such transfers without notification would not happen again.

“I would not do it again,” he conceded.

Several finance board members said it was troubling to be told during annual budget discussions that any cuts would directly impact important school services while only now learning that hundreds of thousands of dollars were being transferred internally without notification to the funding bodies.

Brian Stern, finance board vice chairman, said this was “about trust and transparency.”

“I think it’s very important that we restore confidence in the budget process,” Stern said.

Finance board member Tom Lasersohn said that transfers of that amount at least should have been discussed “in an open session of the Board of Education.”

“It’s a question of transparency in the budget,” he said.

RTM member Allen Bomes echoed that transfers of such magnitude “should have been done out in the open,” and that not doing it resulted in “some credibility loss.”

“As a member of the RTM, I feel somewhat violated,” he said.