While Armand Reo was in charge of the education of the city's students during his years as school superintendent that began July 1, 1999, and Linda Rizzo was doing whatever it was she did as his No. 2 from that same date, the district was a poster child for poor management.
The Enlarged City School District of Troy, as it is formally known, repeatedly was cited by the state for failing to reach acceptable levels of achievement in various academic areas, and both private and state auditors found the Reo-Rizzo financial stewardship replete with instances of management that resulted in gobs of wasted money and resultant increases in property taxes to make up for it.
Many of us thought that was behind us, once Reo and Rizzo left before the current school year. (Note: Both asked for contract extensions; neither got them, so they now characterize their departures as "retirements," Reo's on Dec. 31, 2004, Rizzo's on June 30, 2005)
Unfortunately, Reo-Rizzo is like a recurrence of athlete's foot. Not lethal, but certainly uncomfortable.
The diagnosis came in the latest audit by the office of state Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi that uncovered taxpayer-funded Christmas Presents Past for the "retirees."
Simply put, auditors found that Reo and Rizzo were paid a total of $10,460 for unused vacation time when they left their jobs, time that exceeded the available leave of one and not authorized in the employment contract of the other.
Not that they alone were criticized in the audit. Hevesi's people also found that the school district has a batch of procedural and bookkeeping problems, and the Board of Education came in for a few wrist slaps as well.
Hevesi gives credit to Troy schools for implementing his staff's numerous suggestions for improvement, about which district Business Manager Jim Matthews wrote in his response to Hevesi, "The district agrees with the above recommendations."
That's a good thing because, as is the case in many communities, the school district in Troy is a major economic force. It operates nine schools, has 720 employees, including substitutes, with a $35 million annual payroll, is spending a total of $70 million in the 2005-06 fiscal year, and virtually every penny of that comes in one form or another from taxpayers.
The auditors examined the schools' internal controls for payroll process and information technology from July 1, 2004, through January 31, 2006.
They discovered Reo had cashed in 11 unused vacation days, totaling $5,450, in excess of what was allowed under his employment contract and without prior formal board approval, which the auditors say is a no-no.
They also discovered that Rizzo cashed in the maximum of 10 days of vacation leave allowed annually under her contract in June 2005, even though she only had a half-day available.
How many of the taxpayers funding that move wouldn't have known if they'd gone nearly two work weeks over their vacation limit?
The school district claims record keeping errors and says Rizzo reimbursed the district when she was informed of the error. She did. At the $65-a-day sick leave rate, rather than the $436-a-day vacation rate at which she was paid.
We hope she's fully recovered now.
The audit is not an isolated one. Hevesi said more than 170 school districts around the state are in the process of being audited, and the projection is for all 821 school districts, BOCES and charter schools to be audited within five years. It's all a result of extensive financial corruption in some Long Island school districts.
In Rensselaer County, besides Troy, the districts presently being audited are Averill Park, Berlin, Brunswick, Hoosick Valley and Hoosick Falls.
The school boards charged with overseeing them are examined as well. That's why the state audit found that the Troy Board of Education misguidedly decided to approve the extra money for Reo -- nearly a year after he got it and in contravention of his contract. It also did not exercise the control it is supposed to have over, among other things, internal security in the district payroll and other financial systems. As one result, the board has been told by Hevesi's office to pursue collection of any overpayment of leave benefits to which Rizzo was not entitled.
The audit's findings are not as bad as they once would have been, so I'm encouraged that under Matthews and Superintendent Lonnie Palmer corrections are being made to get the district back on a sound management footing. We don't need the sorts of team effort foul-ups that put Troy in a hole to be repeated. Ever.
