Last week, the Poughkeepsie City School District completed its case against Jeff Baker, the longtime district business manager who was suspended in June. But if you ask Baker’s attorney, Jonathan Lovett, things are just getting started.
Lovett said he intends to take federal civil rights action against the school district. Baker supplied information during an ongoing examination of district finances – including both a state Comptroller’s audit and a district attorney’s investigation – and Lovett claims he was punished for doing so with suspension.
The state Comptroller’s audit released in August found that $1.2 million in questionable expenditures by district officials had been made under a previous administration. In addition, a grand jury was convened as part of District Attorney William Grady’s investigation into district finances under former superintendent Robert Watson’s tenure. (Watson stepped down in 2005.) Its findings have not yet been released.
“The charges (against Baker) are absurd,” said Lovett, who has downplayed the significance of the district’s complaints – charges ranging from miscalculations on the district budget to disobeying certain directives from superintendent Laval Wilson.
But Wilson maintained that Baker’s missteps were substantial. “You’re talking about the totality of the charges,” said Wilson. “I think these are serious. … And they all add up. Our goal is to prove he is an incompetent business manager and has no place serving in the school district,” said Wilson.
Lovett’s claim regarding retribution for grand jury testimony was a “false smokescreen,” according to Wilson. Wilson said that many district leaders had been called to testify and provide information to a grand jury – including school board members and Wilson himself.
“Any of the people called by the grand jury have an obligation to go and testify,” said Wilson. “I can’t see a tie-in between his mistakes and incompetence in the budget process (and other charges) having anything to do with the grand jury.”
In discussing some of the most significant charges against Baker, Wilson said Baker created a budget for the 2007-08 school year that contained a $601,000 error in planned expenditures. The mistake was eventually spotted by a school board member during review. Baker’s camp maintains the error would have been caught before the budget was finalized, but Wilson says that might not have been soon enough: “By that time (the budget) would have been sent to the state (education department) and the public, showing what the tax rate and levy were going to be,” said Wilson. “We might have had to borrow money or cut down programs.”
Regarding another charge against Baker – that he took unwarranted tax withholdings from a payment due former superintendent Watson – Wilson said, “He got suspended by the former superintendent. He had anger issues. It’s a strange situation.”
Budget errors and other charges against Baker have been the focus of the district’s case so far. The hearing will reconvene on Dec. 10 at 10 a.m., when Lovett will have an opportunity to call witnesses.
Afforded to Baker as his prerogative under the New York Civil Service Law, the hearing first began on Aug. 14 and ran for three days before scheduling conflicts caused its interruption. Reconvening on Oct. 4, hearing officer Arthur Riegel listened to a full day of testimony from Baker, Wilson and current assistant superintendent for human resources and administration, Jose Carrion.