 |
| Elizabeth Rose's nine-year run in the city school system is over. (Go Nakamura for New York Daily News) |
..... the
caseload has been reduced somewhat after the unit was moved out of OPT to the
Office of Special Investigations in the wake of the busing scandal. Officials
say allegations of bus driver and matron misconduct will now be investigated by
the same office and process as all DOE employees.
.....Sources with knowledge of the situation
said that allegations of lesser offenses, including actions without the
potential to harm children, are being routed to customer service
representatives.NY City Council held a hearing on the issue of school busing:
Video on the OPT testimony
City's yellow-bus contracts boss pushed out as companies say routes go unstaffed
EXCLUSIVE: NYC schools chancellor fires top deputy over bus scandal
DOE honcho gets moved after boneheaded busing decisions
Facing his first crisis, Carranza fired a top official. But can he fix New York City’s yellow bus system?
FBI investigation finds corruption in NYC school bus industry
 |
| The top official in charge of the Office of Pupil Transportation, Eric Goldstein, was axed. (Bryan Pace for New York Daily News) |
Elizabeth Rose was moved. As if this would solve the problem.
Chancellor Carranza, this is New York City. We are different. We were the home to TWEED, before it became the home to the NYC DOE and your office.
Need I say more (I do, and probably will).
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, Advocatz.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
Exclusive: Former head of DOE Investigations says he got push-back from higher-ups for more closely vetting school bus drivers
Ben Chapman
Ralph Manente, a modest, retired NYPD
lieutenant and detective squad commander with a shock of white hair, labored
for 10 years as boss of the unit.
After the Daily News reported rampant
problems with no-show or late buses and the hiring of drivers with serious
criminal records, the DOE ordered a revamping of the city's massive $1.2
billion yellow bus system. The top official in charge of the Office of Pupil
Transportation, Eric Goldstein, was axed and Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose
was moved out.
Manente, who retired last week when he turned
65, felt his work was a public service. "We tried to put ourselves in the
parents' shoes," he said. "We weren't going to put someone on a bus
that we wouldn't be comfortable with if our kids were on that bus."
A handful of investigators were obligated
to probe about 8,000 complaints a year, Manente said. Among them, a mom who
griped that her son came home without socks and another who groused that her
child came off the bus with his shirt on backwards.
The policy of looking into everything,
Manente said, put a strain on the office.
"If a bus driver rolled his eyes or
didn't say good morning to a parent, we had to investigate it," he said.
"It took us away from concentrating on the more serious cases."
About 18 months ago, Manente directed
former NYPD Detective Eric Reynolds to do pre-employment background checks on
drivers. At the time, criminal records checks were limited to only 13 counties
in New York State.
Reynolds found that far too limited,
broadened his checks and had drivers come in for interviews. He learned
troubling information about an alarming number of applicants andrejected them
with Manente's approval.
"He took it to a new level,"
Manente explained. "After a while, the bus companies started complaining
and we started getting resistance from (head of safety) Paul Weydig and people
in contracts. In essence, Eric had bucked the system unknowingly by looking
further into the vetting process and that slowed down the hiring."
Then in April, as The News has reported,
Reynolds suddenly stopped getting new applications. Unknownst to him, a worker
in the contracts office started rubber-stamping drivers using Reynolds'
signature and email address. More than 720 people were approved between April
and September as a result.
Reynolds was then told his waiver to
receive a police pension and work for the DOE would not be renewed in December.
Manente says Weydig also ordered him to give Reynolds a letter of reprimand,
but he refused.
"I believe Eric was retaliated
against for shining a spotlight on this," Manente said.
Weydig also resisted Manente's calls to
fire investigators whose work wasn't up to snuff, Manente explained.
"Whenever I had an investigator who
was not performing, I had a better chance of winning the lottery on a Saturday
night that getting Weydig's assistance in terminating that person," he
said, adding that he to go over Weydig's head to cut people loose, and that
caused some animosity between the two men.
Weydig did not respond to requests for
comment.
Manente, who spent 25 years with the NYPD,
said he also suspects that OPT contracts officials and the bus companies are
too close.
"The pressure to have these drivers
and attendants approved as quickly as possible only indicates to me that
contract compliance was being pressured by the bus companies and shows me
there's some sort of comfort level with the vendors," Manente said.
Three years ago, City Controller Scott
Stringer asked the Justice Department to investigate possible collusion between
bus companies. Stringer charged that the DOE made the city vulnerable to
collusion with poor monitoring of the contracts and vendor performance.
In a statement, DOE spokeswoman Miranda
Barbot said, "We take the safety of our students on school buses extremely
seriously, and every current and former bus driver underwent a rigorous
background check and fingerprinting process before they were hired, including
an FBI criminal history review. We've hired a new leader to oversee our Office
of Pupil Transportation, and all school bus drivers now undergo two separate
background checks and two separate fingerprint reviews."
Manente thinks background inquiries should
includea more thorough check using FBI databases, a search of the NYPD's
domestic violence database, court filings, the sex offender registry and
whether or not there were 911 dispatches to his home.
"I've wanted to do this since
2008," Manente said. "As it stood, we wouldn't know if a driver got
arrested in California or even New Jersey and that's information we need."
Manente also advocates for a reduction in
the misconduct caseload. "We shouldn't be investigating every little
complaint," he said. "The serious investigations should be
emphasized."
Investigators tell The News that the
caseload has been reduced somewhat after the unit was moved out of OPT to the
Office of Special Investigations in the wake of the busing scandal. Officials
say allegations of bus driver and matron misconduct will now be investigated by
the same office and process as all DOE employees.
Sources with knowledge of the situation
said that allegations of lesser offenses, including actions without the
potential to harm children, are being routed to customer service
representatives.
