Protecting Tenure and the Story of Agustin Morales

MONDAY, OCT 13, 2014 06:59 AM EDT

“Poster child for tenure”: Why teacher Agustin Morales really lost his job

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A teacher in Massachusetts spoke up when his students' rights were being violated. Here's how he paid the price

SARAH JAFFE

TOPICS: TEACHER, EDUCATION, ADMINISTRATION, EDITOR'S PICKS, TENURE, LABOR, WORKERS,MASSACHUSETTS, PARENTS, REFORM, STANDARDIZED TESTING, BUSINESS NEWS, POLITICS NEWS

(Credit: diane39 via iStock)

It was the “data walls” that drove Agustin Morales, an English teacher at Maurice A. Donahue Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, to speak up.

Last February, Morales and some of his colleagues, as well as parents whose students attend Holyoke public schools, spoke at a school committee meeting (the equivalent of a school board) and protested a directive from higher-ups to post students’ test scores on the walls of their classrooms, complete with the students’ names. Paula Burke, parent of a third-grader at Donahue, called the walls “public humiliation.” Some teachers questioned whether posting data publicly violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. As I reported at the time for In These Times, the superintendent tried to turn the tables on teachers, saying that they were never told to use students’ names and that the directive did not come from the administration, but the teachers released a PowerPoint from their training session that clearly showed photos of sample data walls, with first names and last initials.

Now, Morales thinks his standing up to the administration has cost him his job. And a preliminary finding from the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations backs him up. In September, the board found that there was probable cause to believe that the non-renewal letter he received in June from the district was because of his protected union activity.

Morales tells Salon that for the first two and a half years he taught in Holyoke, the western Massachusetts town where he grew up, his evaluations were stellar. But after the school committee meeting last February, his evaluations “just got so unbelievably negative.” He was elected president of the Holyoke Teachers Association, a local chapter of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, in May as a reform candidate, part of the Educators for a Democratic Union (EDU) caucus that also elected Barbara Madeloni president of the state union. A month later, he was fired.

“All of a sudden I start speaking out and I can’t do anything right,” he says. “I can’t write good lesson plans, I can’t control my classroom, I’m doing everything possible wrong. All of a sudden. The writing for me was on the wall.”

Dan Clawson, a member of EDU and a prominent labor sociologist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, connects Morales’s firing to the larger struggles going on nationwide around teacher tenure. In June, a California judge ruled in Vergara v. California that teacher tenure and seniority laws were unconstitutional. Thoughlegal experts questioned the legal reasoning of the decision, anti-union education reformers declared victory and announced plans to move on — Campbell Brown, former CNN anchor turned professional anti-teacher campaigner, launched a similar lawsuit in New York despite sending her own children to private school.

“In some sense, Gus is the poster child for why teachers need tenure,” Clawson tells Salon. “Without tenure, we are all Gus Morales: if we speak up for students, we will be fired, even if what we are pointing to are violations of the law by the school system.”

In Massachusetts, a teacher achieves “professional teacher status,” equivalent to tenure, after three years in one school district. Morales, who has been teaching for seven years, was just on the cusp of having this protection in Holyoke. It’s worth noting that tenure or its equivalent is not what Brown and other campaigners like to call it, a guaranteed job for life — the school district can still fire you, they’re just required to give you due process first.

Morales finds the attack on him frustrating because, he says, by speaking out he hoped to make things better. “Even in some of my speeches, you can go back and listen to them, I said ‘This is not about any one person or any one policy, it’s about a system that’s broken,’” he says. “I’m doing my job as a teacher, but because of my extracurricular activities speaking against some of the reforms, all of a sudden, my livelihood gets tied to my extracurricular activities and that’s just so inappropriate. Because here you have kids that are in front of me, and if I witness bad things, am I not supposed to report those things?”

The initial finding from the Labor Department was a relief for Morales, though he says he never doubted that his firing was retaliation. “Even though people were very supportive of me, still there was that doubt in the air. What this did, a third party that has nothing to do with Holyoke Public Schools and has nothing to do with the Holyoke Teachers Association, they’re a separate entity, they found the probable cause after both sides presented their case. A completely removed, unbiased party, finding probable cause for retaliation in the district.”

The complaint, issued by the Department of Labor Relations and provided to Salon by Morales, explains that there is “probable cause” to believe that a violation of the law occurred and lists the possible violations to be discussed at the hearing, including the possibility that “the School Committee has discriminated against Morales for engaging in concerted activity protected by Section 2 of the Law in violation of Section 10(a)(3) of the Law.”

Parents, other teachers from the district and across the state and the Pioneer Valley Labor Council all came out to support Morales at the press conference they held when they got the news from the labor department. But for now, all they can do is wait. The full hearing will be scheduled for November or December, and Morales notes ruefully that without the income from his teaching job, he’s had to sell his house and move into a smaller apartment. Still, he says, “You don’t get into a fight like this and not expect to get hit. This is a hit for me, but I’m still standing.”

Meanwhile, he says, he’s got his hands full as president of the union. Teachers and students are stressed out constantly over high-stakes testing, and poorer districts like Holyoke face the brunt of the “reforms.” “From my district alone, we’re losing teachers, and not just teachers that are being bullied either,” Morales says. “We’re losing good teachers that are being left alone for the most part but they just can’t witness it anymore. They can’t deal with all the crying, they can’t deal with all the stress, they can’t deal with the anxiety. You have all these teachers who are so anxious, the anxiety is so thick it’s actually, at points for me, it feels like it’s tangible, like I can actually touch the anxiety.”

He continues, “I get emails constantly from teachers saying ‘I’m looking for another job; I can’t do this anymore.’ And it bothers me because I know they love their job, they really do, they love teaching, what they don’t love is the bureaucracy that has been intertwined with teaching, that has no place in teaching but now it pretty much has taken up teaching.”

Around the state and around the country, though, teachers are standing up and getting more support from parents as it becomes clear that education “reform” based on endless testing rather than equitable funding is not helping children.

For Morales, there’s no other choice.

“There’s definitely some consequences and there are some dangers to it but if we keep allowing these things to happen, if we don’t stand up to any of these dangers — data walls is just one of them, high-stakes testing is another one — if we don’t start fighting back, my biggest worry, the thing that keeps me up at night, is that there’s not going to be a teaching profession in five years. It’s all going to be minimum wage employees basically running the schools with scripts. That’s the biggest danger posed to us, and if our leaders, if our superintendents, if our principals, if they don’t start questioning what’s going on, we’re all done.”

MORE SARAH JAFFE.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio's Promise For Transparency Goes Up In Smoke

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/nyregion/de-blasios-transparency-is-turning-opaque-under-fire.html

To Mayor Bill de Blasio, the recent commotion over Rachel Noerdlinger, his wife’s top aide — who failed to disclose during a background check that she lives with a boyfriend who has a serious criminal history — is a tabloid-fueled personal attack that merits no further discussion.

“Case closed,” the mayor said this week, adopting the move-it-along-folks attitude that has quickly become a de Blasio signature during his first nine months in office.

It is not unusual for mayors to want irritating story lines to go away. But the Noerdlinger episode has fueled a broader question about Mr. de Blasio and the values of his young administration: how a onetime champion of transparency and accountability can square those ideals with the newfound power — and frustrations — of his office.

RELATED COVERAGE


De Blasio Stands Behind Aide Who Omitted Boyfriend on Background Check FormOCT. 6, 2014

As a candidate, Mr. de Blasio pledged an ask-me-anything era at City Hall, promoting himself as a different, friendlier breed of political leader. And as public advocate, he frequently assailed former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for standing by senior aides, such as the former schools chief Cathleen P. Black, who had found themselves under fire.Photo

Rachel Noerdlinger, facing camera, and Chirlane McCray in January, when Ms. Noerdlinger was named her chief of staff. CreditRob Bennett/NYC Mayor's Office

Now, experiencing some of the same difficulties faced by his predecessors, Mr. de Blasio is responding with the same sort of peevishness and obfuscation he once bemoaned.

The mayor has shut down questions about why he phoned a high-ranking police official after the arrest of a campaign supporter, telling reporters, “That’s the end of the story.” Told by a television reporter that New Yorkers wanted to know why his police-issued S.U.V. was speeding on residential streets in Queens, the mayor replied, “I’m not interested in the construct of what you as an individual think many New Yorkers think.”

Even lighthearted queries can prompt a stony response. Last month, Mr. de Blasio refused to say how he felt after learning of the death of Staten Island Chuck, the groundhog who fell from his arms in a ceremonial mishap. “Talk to the Staten Island Zoo,” the mayor said, mirthlessly.

Determined not to let critics or news coverage set their agenda, Mr. de Blasio and his City Hall advisers have taken to ignoring inquiries on matters that displease them. His communications team believes strongly that most negative stories will disappear, or at least be forgotten by the time Mr. de Blasio’s re-election effort rolls around in 2017.

That approach is being tested again by the episode involving Ms. Noerdlinger, a former adviser to the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is paid $170,000 a year predominantly to shape the image of the mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray.

The facts of the matter are not in dispute. Ms. Noerdlinger lives with a boyfriend, Hassaun McFarlan, who went to prison for manslaughter as a teenager and has been arrested several times since, including last fall when he nearly struck a New Jersey police officer while driving Ms. Noerdlinger’s car.

When she applied for her job, Ms. Noerdlinger informed the mayor’s team about her relationship. But she did not list Mr. McFarlan as a resident of her home on a formal background questionnaire used by the city’s Department of Investigation to vet candidates for high-ranking city positions.
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

If there is a simple explanation for the discrepancy, Mr. de Blasio and his team are not providing it. For a week, the mayor’s office has not answered questions about why Ms. Noerdlinger left out her boyfriend’s name, an omission that can be punished by dismissal.

Mr. de Blasio’s aides have also declined to release or discuss the contents of a letter sent to the mayor last week by Mark G. Peters, the commissioner of the Investigation Department, which conducted an inquiry into Ms. Noerdlinger’s actions. The letter summarizes the findings of the inquiry, but Phil Walzak, the mayor’s press secretary, said in an email that he could not discuss those findings “because this document is subject to privacy protections.” The mayor’s office has not provided a legal basis for those protections.

Instead, the mayor’s office issued a statement saying simply that the Investigation Department had found no “intent to deceive the mayor or City Hall” on the part of Ms. Noerdlinger, whom Mr. de Blasio chose not to discipline beyond a note in her personnel file.

Ms. Noerdlinger’s actions, by themselves, do not amount to a Watergate-size scandal. But the mayor’s response has troubled some who believe she is being afforded special protection.

“I would have expected at the very least a slap on the wrist,” said Kenneth Sherrill, who taught political science at Hunter College for 41 years. “I find it hard to believe that a rank-and-file public employee who even mistakenly filled out a form like that would not be punished.”

“I enthusiastically support the right of anyone to have a personal life,” Mr. Sherrill added. “The disclosure thing, obviously, is troubling.”

For the mayor, the political dynamics at play are complex.

Ms. Noerdlinger is black, and Mr. de Blasio’s team believes privately that the criticism of her has been racially charged. Police unions, angered by the influential role given to Mr. Sharpton in the de Blasio administration, have seized on reports about Ms. Noerdlinger’s boyfriend — including claims that he referred to law enforcement officers as “pigs” in online postings — to say she should not occupy a high-ranking place in City Hall.

Mr. de Blasio is also reluctant to acquiesce to pressure, believing that to punish Ms. Noerdlinger would amount to ceding personnel decisions to outsiders, advisers who are familiar with his thinking say.

“She is a good public servant, and that’s what I respect,” Mr. de Blasio said at a news conference on Staten Island this week, where he was repeatedly questioned about Ms. Noerdlinger’s omission (and where he made his “case closed” remarks).

To combat questions of transparency, the mayor’s press office often notes that it distributes a near-verbatim transcript of every mayoral news conference just hours after it has occurred.

But this week brought an unusual exception. Mr. de Blasio made his comments about Ms. Noerdlinger on Monday afternoon. By Thursday evening, the transcript from that event had still not been sent.


William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission Cancels The Teachers' Contract

 

POSTED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014, 9:43 AM

In a stunning move that could reshape the face of city schools, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted Monday to unilaterally cancel its teachers’ contract. The vote was unanimous.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers was given no advance word of the action — which happened at an early-morning SRC meeting called with minimal notice — and which figures to result in a legal challenge to the takeover law the SRC believes gives it the power to bypass negotiations and impose terms.

Jerry Jordan, PFT president, called the move "cowardly" and vowed to fight it strongly.

"I am taking nothing off the table," a clearly angry Jordan said at an afternoon news conference. Job actions could be possible, once he determines what members want to do. "We are not indentured servants."

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The district says it will not cut the wages of 15,000 teachers, counselors, nurses, secretaries and other PFT members. But it plans to dismantle the long-standing Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Health and Welfare Fund, which is controlled by the union, and take over administering benefits.

Going forward, most PFT members will have to pay either 10 percent or 13 percent of the cost of their medical plan, depending on their salaries. They now pay nothing. Officials said that workers would pay between $21 and $70 a month, beginning Dec. 15.

The changes will save the cash-strapped district $54 million this school year, officials said, and as much as $70 million in subsequent years.

That money, SRC Chairman Bill Green said, will be invested directly into classrooms, with principals empowered to use the cash as they see fit — to hire a full-time counselor and nurse, perhaps, or to pay for more supplies or after-school programs.

Both Gov. Corbett and acting state Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq said the action means Philadelphia teachers will now join most teachers in the state in contributing to their health care.

“Today’s action by the SRC will effectively close the funding gap and provide the district with the ability to hire new teachers, counselors and nurses, and secure educational resources that will benefit the students of Philadelphia," Corbett said in a statement.

Since being named by Corbett to lead the SRC, Green has signaled that he would be willing to impose a contract on the teachers’ union if a negotiated settlement could not be reached. The two sides have been talking for 21 months and are not close to a deal.

“Every single stakeholder has stepped up to help the district close its structural deficit — the principals, our blue-collar workers. Families and children have too, through the loss of resources, increased class sizes, and lack of materials. It is time for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to share in the sacrifice,” Green said in an interview before the vote.

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said it was a difficult decision to support the SRC’s action, especially given all that teachers and others have done for children in the past several years of bare-bones budgets.

“But we still don’t have sufficient resources in order to educate our children,” Hite said before the vote. “This allows us to save millions of dollars that we can return to schools very quickly.”

Both Hite and Green said the teachers’ new benefit plan is still a so-called Cadillac program, comparable with what the district’s principals, blue-collar workers and nonunion workers have.

The benefits change would also have a significant impact on retirees. The existing PFT Health and Welfare Fund, which has about $40 million built up in it, has opted to subsidize retired workers’ prescription, dental and vision benefits. The district will not continue that practice, officials said.

The district will continue paying into the fund until Dec. 15, then let it run out, officials said. It will halt payments to the PFT legal services fund immediately.

While the district’s budget is now balanced, it carried an $81 million deficit until very recently. It was not clear until a few weeks before the scheduled start of classes whether there was enough money to open schools on time.

Officials said the action was necessary now because the district could still face an $8 million deficit this year and a projected $70 million next year, even with the cancellation of the teachers' contract.

Whether the state takeover law, known as Act 46, actually gives the SRC the power to cancel union contracts remains to be seen.

The SRC has imposed some work rules on the teachers’ union the past year, but has always bargained contracts since its creation in 2001.

“Unbelievable!” Ted Kirsch, president of the statewide AFT-PA and a former longtime president of the PFT, said Monday morning when he learned of the SRC’s action.

“They have mismanaged this system and now they’re following along with Corbett’s plan - it’s the teachers’ fault.”

“This is exactly what I thought was going to happen when Green was appointed to the SRC,” Kirsch said.

The district will immediately go to court to affirm the SRC’s action, filing a motion for declaratory judgment with the Pennsylvania Department of Education as co-plaintiff.

The PFT is expected to strike back swiftly through the courts and will likely try to get an injunction to halt the SRC’s actions. The PFT does not believe the district has the power to impose terms.

In fact, it’s clear that district officials aren’t sure themselves.

In 2012, the SRC lobbied lawmakers to attempt to get an amendment to the takeover law that would give it the absolute right to impose terms on its unions. The amendment died when the Philadelphia delegation caught wind of the SRC’s maneuvers.

Since January 2013, the distinct and the SRC have had over 100 bargaining sessions to achieve a contract. The old PFT contract expired last summer.

Sources close to the talks described them as “cordial,” with no screaming or fist pounding. But they have moved slowly, and eventually district officials became convinced that without using the nuclear option, they would never achieve the changes they say are necessary.

Jordan has publicly said the union has offered millions in concessions, but the district declined to take them up on the savings.

When Green or even Gov. Corbett, who has taken the union to task on multiple occasions, has suggested in the past that the PFT has not stepped up, Jordan has been clear: The teachers have sacrificed enough and he will not allow the district’s budget to be balanced on their backs.

Matthew Stanski, the district’s chief financial officer, said that the givebacks offered by the PFT would have netted the district just $2 million. The PFT has indicated that its totals amounted to much more.

Jordan strongly disputed the $2 million figure.

"Lies again," he said. He said the PFT has offered enough to wipe away the projected 2015 deficit.

Green said the benefit savings will help remake the district.

Between the benefits savings, the extension of the sales tax and the newly enacted $2 per pack cigarette tax, the district will have roughly $230 million in annual, predictable funds. For the first time in years, the SRC can plan for investments in education, not just figure out how to prevent disasters.

“The rest of this year, once we get over this, is making people believe we can transform the district,” Green said.

Two SRC members who are former members of disrict unions said they believed the PFT contract cancellation was the only action to take.

"Everybody is paying into their benefits," said Commissioner Sylvia Simms, a former district bus aide. "We need to stop playing games on the backs of our children."

Marjorie Neff, a former PFT member and Masterman principal. said she found the decision personally painful.

"But schools cannot go through another year the way they went through last year financially," Neff said. "They're at the breaking point."

State law prevents the PFT from striking. It is the only union in Pennsylvania without that option. (Teachers technically could strike, but the law gives the state education department the right to pull their teaching licenses if they do so.)

This is a developing story. Please check back for more details.

At a glance

The School Reform Commission voted Monday morning to cancel the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract, a move that is likely to result in legal challenges. The district believes it has the power under the state takeover law to do so, but is also going to affirm its action. The state Department of Education will be a co-plaintiff in the legal proceedings in Commonwealth Court.

The SRC will not cut teachers’ wages. Salaries will remain the same. But it is planning a major benefits overhaul for the 15,000 teachers, counselors, nurses, secretaries and other workers who belong to the PFT.

The district is phasing out the PFT’s Health and Welfare Fund, which now has a balance of about $40 million. It will continue contributing to the fund through December 15, then cut off contributions. By the end of the year, all district employees will be covered under a district-managed health plan.

The district will discontinue the PFT’s practice of subsidizing for retirees’ vision, dental and prescription benefits.

The district says the move will save $54 million this school year and up to $70 million in subsequent years, money that will go directly into schools. Principals will be permitted to use the money as they see fit.

More:

-All employees represented by the PFT who opt for Philadelphia School District medical coverage will begin contributing to the cost of their health care benefits. Those who earn less than $25,000 a year will contribute 5 percent of their medical plan premiums; those who are paid between $25,000 and $50,000 per year will contribute 10 percent of the premiums; and those who earn over $55,000 will contribute 13 percent of the premiums. Officials said that would add up to a payroll deducation of between $20 and $71 per month.

-All district employees represented by the PFT will be offered a modified medical plan with an option to pay extra for their current plan.

-PFT members who enroll a spouse or domestic partner in a district medical plan when that person has a plan available to them will pay $70 per paycheck.

-PFT members will no longer receive “opt out” payments from the district if they decline coverage.

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Chancellor Carmen Farina Squashes Students Into Temporary Classrooms at Tweed Headquarters While She saves Her Conference Space For More Important People

Carmen wants her space, but does not want kids to have the same right.

There is something wrong with this.

Betsy Combier
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Parents Outraged by Overcrowded Classrooms in DOE Headquarters

LOWER MANHATTAN — Kids at the Peck Slip School are being crammed into shared, temporary classrooms at Tweed Courthouse, leading to an "outrageous" situation right beneath Schools Chancellor CarmenFariña’s office, parents say.

The Department of Education has placed up to 50 students into some of the rooms — where parents worry there is too much noise and too many distractions for kids to learn — while officials have refused to let the school use adjacent DOE conference rooms that often sit empty during the school day, parents said.

“Our kids' education is being disrupted right under the nose of Chancellor Fariña,” said Peck Slip School parent Amanda Byron Zink. “Shame on her for not giving us space, space that we can see is empty nearly every day.”

The Peck Slip School launched in the fall of 2012 with kindergarten classes at Tweed Courthouse, where Fariña and the DOE have their offices. The school has continued using the temporary space while its permanent home in the South Street Seaport is under construction.

This year, the school’s two classes of first-graders are being forced to share one room, as are the school’s oldest students, its two classes of second-graders. Each expansive, high-ceilinged classroom is partitioned by thin, 6-foot-tall cubicle dividers — not nearly enough of a barrier to keep the goings-on of each class, with about 25 students apiece, separate, parents say.

“We were horrified when we saw the space,” said Peck Slip PTA member Paul Feldsher, whose twins, both second-graders, sit on opposite sides of the partition each day. “You hear everything that’s happening on the other side. It’s totally distracting, for the teachers and the kids.”

Feldsher said his kids sometimes come home talking about what they heard the other class doing.

"It's just confusing and distracting for them, and unnecessary," he said.

The PTA has sent two letters to Fariña and the DOE, “imploring” the department to allow the students to use two conference rooms on the first floor of the building, where the school has its classrooms.

“This may be an inconvenience to the Department of Education (though we are aware that there is at least one enormous conference room on the second floor of Tweed)," the PTA wrote in its most recent letter to the DOE, dated Sept. 29. “But on the other hand, it’s an embarrassing and cruel irony that the department whose mandate it is to provide the best possible education for our children would not immediately agree to this obvious solution.”

Since the school will be moving to its new 712-student space in the fall of 2015, parents argue that even if there is some inconvenience to the DOE, it would only be for another eight months.

“It's inconvenient for all of us to be in this space,” said PTA co-president Kerry McAleer. “We can’t wait to get into our school, and have a playground, have a gymnasium — but why can’t we all agree to do what’s best for our kids right now, for just a couple more months.”

Parents said they have not gotten a response from the DOE yet, though they’ve been told informally that a deputy schools chancellor has agreed to take a look at the Peck Slip classrooms.

“We don’t understand why Chancellor Fariña, who is literally right above the classrooms, wouldn’t just come down and see what’s going on,” said Feldsher. “People always complain about the DOE’s mismanagement of space, while many, many of our schools are suffering from overcrowding — and here’s mismanagement of space happening right where the DOE lives.”

The DOE told DNAinfo New York that the school's classrooms were partitioned to accommodate an extra kindergarten class, something the community had requested. There is no additional space for students left in the building, officials said.

"Students thrive when they are able to learn in a safe and exciting learning environment, and the DOE works to ensure we provide this environment for all our students," said DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield in an emailed statement. "Next September, students at Peck Slip will move into a new, state-of-the art building in Lower Manhattan, in the meantime the school will continue in DOE space.”

Mrs. De Blasio, Chirlane McCray, Keeps Her Assistant Rachel Noerdlinger, Whose Boyfriend is a Convicted Killer

 I am always fascinated by disparate treatment, political cronyism and other such corrupt practices. The public needs to know these events, and assess their elected officials based upon how these leaders resolve the issues.

Here, we have the wife of the Mayor and the Mayor of New York City, not disciplining the Assistant hired at $170,000+ to assist the mayor's wife after the media finds out that the assistant did not disclose that she is living with a convicted killer and cop basher.

In 2004 when our current Chancellor Carmen Farina was working with the Bloomberg Administration,  Diana Lam, Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning for the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”), was found to have put her husband in a position at the DOE without going through the Conflicts of Interest Board first. Lam resigned, and General Counsel Chad Vignola was let go.

The De Blasio administration is not going to do anything about this.

You decide whether or not he should.

Betsy Combier



Rachel Noerdlinger

McCray aide spared discipline for failing to disclose romance

De Blasio defends top aide despite relationship with cop-hating killer

By Carl Campanile, Tara Palmeri and Yoav Gonen

Mayor de Blasio on Friday defended the hiring of his wife’s chief of staff, Rachel Noerdlinger, despite her long live-in relationship with convicted killer and cop-hater Hassaun McFarlan.
“I have full faith in Rachel,” de Blasio said on Friday at City Hall.
“You don’t fire people because of something their boyfriend said. That’s ludicrous.
“I have absolute faith in her and I know what I value and she values the same thing.”
McFarlan, who has been Noerdlinger’s beau for six years, has a long criminal history. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter for shooting an 18-year-old rival over a down jacket when he was 15, an official source confirmed.
He was sentenced to four years in prison on interstate cocaine trafficking charges in Bristol County, Mass., and was released in 2007.
McFarlan was charged with marijuana possession in 2012 and spent seven days in jail in 2011 for driving with a suspended license, records state.
His most recent brush with the law was last November, when he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, after he was accused of running a cop off the road in Edgewater, NJ,. with Noerdlinger’s Mercedes.
McFarlan, 36, also has made his hatred for cops clear, calling them “pigs” on Facebook many times.
PBA President Patrick Lynch called for Noerd­linger’s firing, out of “serious concern” the information that she hears at high-level NYPD CompStat sessions could be passed along to a hardened felon.
But de Blasio stood by Noerdlinger, 43, a former press aide to the Rev. Al Sharpton who makes $170,000 as First Lady Chirlane McCray’s top adviser. He swatted away questions over whether he should dismiss her as guilt by association.
“Respectfully, I think the question you’re asking is the wrong question. We don’t care what someone’s boyfriend said, we care what the public servant’s about,” he said.
“She’s very dedicated to the work of bringing police and community together and that’s what we care about.”
Some political insiders see a double standard.
Last year, during his transition period, de Blasio canned Lis Smith as his spokeswoman after The Post revealed she was dating the still-married and disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
McFarlan’s criminal history was not news to the mayor and McCray, according to a City Hall aide.
“Rachel was very candid from the beginning,” the aide said.
Additional reporting by Kathleen Cullitonand Aaron Feis

McCray aide didn't disclose killer beau in background check

By Carl Campanile and Joe Tacopino



Rachel Noerdlinger, Bill DeBlasio, Chirlane McCray, and Al Sharpton
Inset: Noerdlinger and Hassaun McFarlan

First lady Chirlane McCray’s chief of staff, Rachel Noerdlinger, did not disclose that she was living with convicted killer Hassaun McFarlan when she submitted her Department of Investigation background check to the city, The Post has learned.

Noerdlinger, a top adviser and close confidante to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, omitted that she was living with McFarlan — who has been caught posting violent and misogynistic screeds online.

According to the DOI questionnaire, omissions could lead to disciplinary actions or even criminal charges.

The DOI has opened an investigation into the matter.

A City Hall spokesman said “no action” has been taken against Noerdlinger, who lives in Edgewater, NJ, with McFarlan and her teenage son.

“She comes to work every day committed to serving the people of our city across the five boroughs on the critical issues that matter,” spokesman Phil Walzak said.

The new revelations were blasted by police union head Patrick J. Lynch, who said public servants should be held to the same standard as others.

“If it is found that she committed a lie of omission during the investigation, then she should be fired,” Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said in a statement.

“The standards that apply to hiring police officers should apply equally to hiring high-ranking, influential staff members.”

De Blasio, meanwhile, has come under a firestorm of criticism for keeping Noerdlinger on the payroll despite her boyfriend’s criminal past.

“I have full faith in Rachel,” the mayor said last week at City Hall.

“You don’t fire people because of something their boyfriend said. That’s ludicrous.”

McFarlan has a rap sheet that includes homicide, conspiring to run a cocaine operation and nearly running a police officer off the road near Noerdlinger’s home in Edgewater last year.

In the incident with the officer, McFarlan pleaded down to disorderly conduct.

The ex-con also wrote sickening comments on the blog Hip Hop News 24-7 that talked about violence and demeaned women.

“Trying to find the right black woman with a mean [oral sex] game is like trying to find a black woman with good credit,” he wrote in March 2011.

He also repeatedly referred to cops as “pigs” on social media

It was also revealed this week that although Noerdlinger won special approval to live in New Jersey by claiming her son was injured, the strapping young man had fully recovered and even played linebacker for his high school football team.

Noerdlinger — who did not reply to a request for comment — claimed her 17-year-old son, Khari, suffered devastating injuries in two cars crashes.

But the aspiring rapper played nine games and racked up 41 tackles and two sacks during the last school year’s season.

Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen and Larry Celona
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  March 5, 2004

Hon. Joel I. Klein
Chancellor
New York City Public Schools
Department of Education
52 Chambers Street, Room 314
New York, NY 10007

                                                                                       Re:    Diana Lam
                                                                                                SCI Case #2003-2206

Dear Chancellor Klein:

        An investigation conducted by this office has found that Diana Lam, Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning for the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”), assisted her husband, Peter Plattes, in gaining employment with the DOE in the position of a Regional Instructional Specialist (“RIS”).   When Plattes lost that position because a conflict of interest issue was raised, Lam then supported his decision to apply for a teaching position.  In both instances, Lam failed to request the appropriate waiver or obtain approval.  Our investigation revealed that there was no public waiver document issued by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.

        In August 2003, this office initiated the investigation into a possible conflict of interest in the employment of Plattes after newspaper articles reported on his DOE position and his relationship to Lam.

Plattes as a RIS

        As Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Diana Lam supervises all instructional staff, including RISs.  To review the circumstances of the alleged employment of her husband by the DOE, investigators examined documentary evidence and interviewed a number of employees involved in the process.

        Judith Chin, who is the Regional Superintendent for Region 3 and reports directly to Lam, was among the first individuals whom Lam approached regarding her husband’s employment.  According to Chin, sometime in 2003, Diana Lam asked her to explain the procedures one needed to follow in order to become a teacher and/or an administrator in the New York City public school system.   Chin stated that while discussing the necessary steps with Lam, the Deputy Chancellor indicated that her husband was interested in gaining such employment.   Chin and Lam decided that Lam would have her husband call to arrange a meeting with Chin who agreed to assist Lam’s husband with the application and certification processes.   As a result, when Lam’s husband, Peter Plattes, came to her office on March 26, 2003, Chin had her staff assist him.   According to Chin, a number of weeks later she provided Plattes’s resume to Laura Rodriguez, Regional Superintendent for Region 2.  Chin explained that she had filled all her RIS positions and had already sent a personnel list to one of Lam’s assistants and possibly to Lam herself.  However, during an exchange of candidates’ resumes amongst the various regional superintendents, she came upon Plattes’s and handed it to Rodriguez because she was aware that Rodriguez was looking to fill a bilingual position.  Chin stated that she advised Rodriguez of Plattes’s relationship to the Deputy Chancellor.  Chin indicated that she would have felt uncomfortable if she had interviewed the husband of her immediate supervisor. 

        Investigators examined Plattes’s DOE employment application, which indicated that Chin had approved it.   However, Chin stated that she did not place her authorization signature on Plattes’s application.  Instead, she suspected that one of her staff members, Jean Ruchala, former Deputy Director for the Office of Recruitment, must have done so since Chin had requested that Ruchala assist Plattes in processing his paperwork.   Chin explained that her approval was necessary because Plattes’s application indicated that he was requesting a teaching license in the area of social studies, which was not a shortage area.   Moreover, Plattes apparently did not possess sufficient credentials to obtain a bilingual teaching certification, which was considered a shortage area.   Chin explained that an application for non-shortage areas would be held in abeyance and not processed until there was such a shortage or it had been otherwise approved.

        Laura Rodriguez, Superintendent for Region 2, who was hired for her current position by Lam, interviewed Peter Plattes for a RIS position, which paid approximately $102,000 per year.   Rodriguez explained that she submitted Plattes’s name, along with those of others she wished to hire, to Lam and Chancellor Joel Klein for their approval and that, at a meeting of regional superintendents, Klein informed her that all submitted candidates were acceptable.   Rodriguez stated that Plattes was then offered the RIS position, subsequently accepted it, and officially began his employment with the DOE on July 1, 2003. 

        Rodriguez stated that just prior to August 1, 2003, Chad Vignola, General Counsel for the DOE, advised her that there was a possibility that Plattes would no longer be working for the DOE.   According to Rodriguez, shortly after her conversation with Vignola, Plattes advised her that he could not continue working as a RIS.

        Superintendent Rodriguez along with Eric Nadelstern, Deputy Regional Superintendent for Region 2, interviewed Plattes for a paid position.   According to Nadelstern, Plattes was hired for the RIS position and he was assigned to work with Lorraine Skeen, a Local Instructional Superintendent (“LIS”) for Region 2.  Nadelstern stated that around August 1, 2003, Rodriguez informed him that Plattes would no longer be working at Region 2.

        LIS Lorraine Skeen confirmed Plattes’s employment.  She provided investigators with a number of documents relating to Plattes, including: a Region 2 RIS roster listing Plattes’s name, home address and phone number as well as his office extension; a Region 2 telephone directory containing Plattes’s name and indicating his position as a RIS; a Region 2 summer calendar contact sheet containing Plattes’s name; a Region 2 workshop agenda containing Plattes’s name; and several inter-office e-mails sent to Plattes.  According to Skeen, Nadelstern advised her that she and Plattes would be working together and that Plattes is Lam’s husband.  Skeen stated that she began working with Plattes sometime in June or July of 2003 and that they were involved in the training of Region 2 principals.

        Dr. Joyce Coppin, former Chief Executive of the Division of Human Resources for the DOE, also was approached by Lam.  According to Coppin, sometime in July 2003, Lam handed her an envelope bearing Plattes’s name and stated “these are my husband’s.  Can you take them back [to the Human Resources offices] with you?”   Coppin stated that she turned the envelope over to JoAnn Molter-Fuentes, Director of the Office of Supervisory Support Staff.   Coppin added that a few weeks later Lam requested that she deliver a second envelope to Molter-Fuentes.   According to Coppin, Lam stated “these are Peter’s papers, I think everything is there.” 

        Coppin stated that around the first week of August 2003, she participated in a conference call with Laverne Srinivasan, Deputy Chancellor of Operations for the DOE, and Chad Vignola, General Counsel for the DOE.  According to Coppin, Srinivasan questioned “has Peter Plattes been processed for payroll yet?” and then directed “if not, put it on hold.”  Coppin stated that she instructed Molter-Fuentes to stop the payroll process immediately and then advised Srinivasan and Vignola that the paperwork had been halted.  Coppin added that Srinivasan then questioned “has [Plattes] been paid yet?” and “will the system show that he was being paid?”  According to Coppin, she advised Srinivasan and Vignola that Plattes’s information had not been entered into the system, therefore his name would not appear.

        Coppin told investigators that two or three days later Lam approached her and stated, “I am sorry that you and your office had to be put through this thing…I sent an e-mail to Chad [Vignola] regarding [my husband’s employment] to find out if there would be any issues.”   Coppin stated that on a subsequent occasion at the Tweed Courthouse Building, she returned Plattes’s application and related documents to Lam.

        JoAnn Molter-Fuentes explained the RIS application process to investigators.  According to Molter-Fuentes, applications for the RIS position were submitted both through the mail and over the Internet and that the documents then were sorted and distributed to the various Superintendents’ Offices.   Molter-Fuentes stated that once an applicant accepted the position, payroll documentation, including a vacancy control form (“VCF”) and a 9902 form, was processed.   According to Molter-Fuentes, she received an envelope from Coppin which contained Plattes’s paperwork, including his application and transcripts.  Molter-Fuentes explained that Plattes could not be placed into the payroll system until he either was certified or was deemed eligible for certification as a school administrator by the New York State Education Department (“SED”).  Molter-Fuentes stated that when she contacted the SED in order to determine the status of Plattes’s school administrator’s certification, she was advised that one college transcript had to be submitted to complete the process.   In anticipation of Plattes receiving his certification, Molter-Fuentes instructed Maria Quinones, Human Resources Manager for Region 1 and 2, to enter a VCF and 9902 in order to expedite his placement on the payroll.   However, on or about August 1, 2003, Coppin contacted her and directed her not to process Plattes’s payroll documents.   Molter-Fuentes stated that she then contacted her Deputy Administrator for the Office of Supervisory Support Services, Carol LaBozzetta, and instructed her to delete Plattes’s VCF from the system and to retrieve his 9902 form.

        Maria Quinones also was involved in processing Plattes’s paperwork.  According to Quinones, sometime in July 2003, she received an e-mail from Molter-Fuentes directing her to place Plattes on the payroll, therefore, she instructed her staff to complete a VCF and a 9902 form.   In the e-mail, Molter-Fuentes advised Quinones that Plattes is Lam’s husband.   Quinones interpreted this information to mean that Plattes should be entered into the payroll system immediately so she made certain that her staff completed the necessary paperwork without delay.   According to Quinones, within a day or two she was contacted by someone from Molter-Fuentes’s office and directed not to process Plattes’s payroll paperwork.  As a result, she disposed of her copy of Plattes’s paperwork. 

        Carol LaBozzetta explained her involvement with Plattes’s paperwork.  According to LaBozzetta, sometime between the end of July 2003 and the beginning of August 2003, she entered a VCF into the system under Plattes’s name and sent the 9902 form for processing.   However, the following day, Molter-Fuentes directed her to retrieve the 9902 form and delete the VCF information from the system.   According to LaBozzetta, she recovered Plattes’s paperwork and placed it in Molter-Fuentes’s office.

        David Schacher, Ethics Officer for the DOE, was not contacted about Plattes’s position with the DOE, instead Lam told him about her husband’s employment almost as an afterthought.   Schacher explained that during a July 18, 2003 meeting with Lam to discuss an unrelated matter, she mentioned to him that her husband was hired at one of the Regional Operations Centers and that she had supervisory authority over him.  According to Schacher, Lam claimed that she had no involvement in the hiring of her husband and she asserted that no one was aware of their relationship.  During the conversation, Lam failed to provide her husband’s name or his work site and Schacher neglected to request the information.  However, following the meeting, Schacher examined Lam’s disclosure documents and discovered that her husband’s name was Peter Plattes.  He then conducted a check of the DOE e-mail directory system which revealed that Plattes was a RIS in Region 2.  Schacher immediately advised Vignola via e-mail of the information he had uncovered.

        Chad Vignola confirmed learning about Plattes’s position with the DOE from Schacher.  Although he had two brief conversations with Lam, Vignola stated that he was unaware that Plattes had even applied for a job.  Instead, Lam suggested that her husband might be interested in seeking employment with the DOE, to which he replied that he did not foresee a problem, but that there was a process that had to be followed because she could not supervise him.   Vignola stated that on July 18, 2003, he first learned from Schacher that Plattes had been hired in Region 2 as a RIS and he later learned that Plattes had been working for several weeks.  Although Lam claimed that she had nothing to do with her husband’s hiring, Vignola was advised by Coppin that Lam had directed her to deliver Plattes’s paperwork to the Human Resources office.

        Vignola asserted that on July 24th or 25th he and Srinivasan advised Lam that her husband could not hold the RIS position.   However, no apparent steps were taken to achieve that end – including notifying Laura Rodriguez – until July 31st, the date of the media inquiry.

        In an interview with investigators, Peter Plattes stated that Diana Lam is his wife.  Plattes acknowledged that Lam assisted him in his quest to gain employment with the DOE by providing him with Chin’s name and telephone number and instructing him to meet with her.

        Plattes confirmed that Rodriguez and Nadelstern interviewed him for a RIS position in Region 2, he was offered the position, and he accepted it.   Thereafter, he attended optional meetings/training sessions in order to prepare himself for his official start date of July 1, 2003.  Plattes acknowledged that when he started working as a RIS on July 1, 2003, he expected to receive compensation from the DOE effective that date.

        Plattes claimed that he was unaware that his wife submitted documents on his behalf to the DOE and asserted that he had submitted his transcripts directly to the SED and not through the DOE.  Although Plattes declared that he did not utilize DOE staff to channel his transcripts to the SED, Molter-Fuentes had advised Plattes that she would send those documents to the SED to complete his certification application.  Therefore, on July 23, 2003, Plattes faxed his transcripts to Molter-Fuentes who, in turn, faxed them to the SED.  Moreover, Plattes sent a note to Molter-Fuentes, dated August 14, 2003, which stated that he had decided not to pursue an administrative position at this time, but would still like to obtain his supervisory certification.  Plattes enclosed an additional transcript for Molter-Fuentes to forward to the SED.   According to Plattes, his social studies certification to teach was the only one that he received from the SED, adding that he did not receive an administrator’s certification because he failed to submit one transcript.

        In an interview with investigators, Lam stated that her husband is Peter Plattes.  Lam asserted that after her husband advised her that he wished to pursue employment at the DOE she contacted Vignola.   Lam stated that she probably had another conversation with Vignola after Plattes was offered the position, but she did not remember the details of the discussion.
        Lam admitted that she contacted Chin on her husband’s behalf and that, as a result, Plattes went to see Chin.  Lam acknowledged that she asked Coppin to deliver her husband’s documents to the Human Resources offices.  However, she denied receiving Plattes’s paperwork back from Coppin. 

        Lam stated that she sent Chancellor Klein an e-mail indicating that her husband had been selected for employment as a RIS with the DOE, but admitted that she did not receive a response to her e-mail and failed to discuss the issue with Klein.

        Lam maintained that she first learned that there might be a problem in the supervisory chain after she advised Schacher of her husband’s employment.  Thereafter, Srinivasan and Vignola told her that Klein was uncomfortable with Plattes’s employment as a RIS.  Lam claimed that when she informed her husband of the Chancellor’s feelings, Plattes expressed that he was no longer interested in the paid administrative position, but wanted to continue without compensation.  According to Lam, Plattes did not “quit,” since he had not received a written notice that he had been hired.  Instead, Lam maintained that she advised Vignola and Srinivasan that Plattes had “reconsidered taking the offered position.”

        Lam later acknowledged that, although there was no written notification, Plattes had received a phone call in which he was offered the RIS position.  She admitted that Plattes accepted the paid position, attended a number of optional training sessions in June, began working July 1st, and expected to receive compensation for his work.  Lam agreed that she disclosed her husband’s employment to Schacher in a July meeting.  She also conceded that Plattes vacated the RIS position only after she was advised of the Chancellor’s opinion.

Plattes as a Teacher

        In the course of investigating the employment of Plattes as a RIS, we discovered that, after leaving that position, he was hired by the DOE as a teacher.  Consequently, we expanded our investigation to examine the circumstances surrounding that action.

        In September 2003, investigators conducted a background check on Plattes, which found that on August 31, 2003, he was listed in the DOE computer system as a teacher assigned to the Bronx Guild High School (“Guild”).  The review also showed that on September 8, 2003, the computer system was adjusted to reflect that Plattes would no longer be teaching.  However, a DOE payroll check was automatically generated for Plattes for the period covering September 1, 2003 through September 15, 2003.

        Peter Steinberg, Director of the Bronx New Century High Schools, was instrumental in Plattes’s placement at the Guild.  Steinberg explained that in the middle of August 2003, Principal Michael Soguero contacted him regarding a vacancy at the Guild and Steinberg provided Plattes’s information to Soguero.   According to Steinberg, after he learned that Plattes was hired as a teacher he informed Nadelstern and a few days later Nadelstern advised him that Plattes would have to vacate the position.  

        Soguero confirmed that in middle to late August 2003, he contacted Steinberg regarding a teaching vacancy.  According to Soguero, Steinberg suggested that Plattes could fill the position.   Soguero stated that he hired Plattes for a teaching position and that Plattes attended optional professional development meetings the last week of August 2003.  Soguero explained that on August 28, 2003, Plattes informed him that he could no longer work at the school because “the Chancellor’s Office was worried about the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

        Dino Martinez, Supervising School Aide at the Guild, confirmed Plattes’s intention to work at the school.  He reported that Soguero hired Plattes in late August 2003, to fill a teaching position and that thereafter Plattes attended staff development meetings held during the week of August 25, 2003.  According to Martinez, on September 2, 2003, Soguero advised him that Plattes would not be returning to the Guild and that the school would have to fill his vacancy.  Martinez stated that he received Plattes’s paycheck, dated September 15, 2003, at the school.  Martinez turned over this paycheck to investigators from this office.  

        Sharon Dawkins, Personnel Team Member for Region 1 and 2, was involved in processing Plattes’s paperwork for the Guild position.  She explained that on August 21, 2003, Soguero sent an e-mail nominating Plattes for employment as a social studies teacher.  According to Dawkins, Plattes’s information was then entered into the computer system in order to process his payroll.  Dawkins stated that sometime in early September 2003, she received a telephone call from Martinez who stated that “Plattes cannot work here because it’s a conflict of interest, take him off.”

        In late September 2003, during an interview with investigators concerning Plattes’s employment as a RIS, Vignola first learned that Lam’s husband had been hired as a teacher for the DOE.   According to Vignola, Lam never informed him that her husband had obtained a paid teaching position.  Instead, Vignola reported that at some point, probably during the 3rd or 4th week of August, Lam told him that her husband was “volunteering” as a teacher, with an eye toward obtaining a position.  Vignola stated that he reminded Lam that she needed to check with the Chancellor before Plattes could pursue that type of position with the DOE even though it would be unpaid.  Vignola conceded that volunteers do not get paychecks from the DOE and agreed that if Plattes had been issued a paycheck that would have meant that the DOE had hired him.  Vignola acknowledged that it would be a waste of resources for Plattes to continue to seek a position within the DOE until a decision as to the propriety of such employment had been made.

        Deputy Chancellor of Operations Laverne Srinivasan also was surprised to learn of Plattes’s employment as a teacher.  According to Srinivasan, Lam was advised that a teaching position might be appropriate, but she was not told to pursue such an avenue.

        Srinivasan was unaware until after this investigation began that Plattes had accepted a teaching assignment and that a DOE paycheck had been generated.

        Plattes asserted that Lam informed him that he had approval to pursue a teaching position.  Plattes received Soguero’s name from Steinberg and contacted him.  In anticipation of starting to teach on September 2, 2003, Plattes attended optional training sessions.  However, a few days before he expected to begin working, his wife told him that a teaching position also was unacceptable.  He explained that he then notified Soguero that he would be unable to work as a teacher at the Guild.

        Lam stated that it was her understanding that a teaching position was acceptable for her husband to pursue.  Lam claimed that Srinivasan or Vignola later advised her that her husband could not hold a teaching position.

        Chancellor Joel Klein was not informed that Plattes had been hired as a teacher.  According to the Chancellor, when Lam inquired as to the possibility of her husband gaining employment as a teacher, he told her to check with the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.  He explained that he was unaware that Plattes had actually applied for and been offered a teaching position before such a conferral had occurred.

Plattes as a Volunteer

        After DOE officials determined that Plattes’s employment by the DOE was inappropriate, the issue became how to explain the situation given the media inquiry.  A decision was made to remove Plattes’s information from the DOE’s Human Resource system, have him “donate” his services, and label him a “volunteer.”  Nevertheless, the facts remain clear that Plattes was hired by the DOE as a RIS.

        Chin stated that at the time she assisted Plattes, she headed the employee recruitment department, not the volunteer department, and that she did not believe that Plattes would have been required to complete the paperwork in her office in order to be a volunteer.

        Rodriguez explained that she hired Plattes to be a RIS.  According to Rodriguez, Plattes performed the duties that were expected of him, she expected him to be compensated for the work he performed, and at no time was there a discussion that he was volunteering for the position.  Rodriguez maintained that she had hired Plattes as a paid employee.

        Srinivasan stated that Rodriguez clearly offered Plattes a job, which he clearly accepted, but that she was advised by Coppin that Plattes’s paperwork had not been fully processed.   After a discussion with Vignola, Srinivasan instructed Coppin to stop Plattes’s paperwork and therefore it was halted.

        Srinivasan explained that it was Chancellor Klein’s position that Plattes’s employment as a RIS was inappropriate.   Consequently, Srinivasan and Vignola explained to Lam that it was ill-advised for her husband to hold the position.  According to Srinivasan, it was decided that in light of the fact that Plattes’s paperwork had not been fully processed, the time that the Deputy Chancellor’s husband had worked should be considered volunteer time.  Moreover, it was agreed that Plattes would forego his earnings for the period that he worked.  She explained that, through Lam, they asked Plattes to donate the time worked in order “to remove the specter of anything inappropriate.”

        It remained unclear to Srinivasan whether the DOE had ever employed Plattes as a RIS, nevertheless, she acknowledged that Plattes had not intended to be a volunteer when he began working.   When she was shown the e-mail Vignola sent to her on July 31, 2003, which stated that “Peter agreed to help out as a volunteer back in June,” Srinivasan stated that the e-mail was not accurate.  Instead, she explained that after it was determined that he could not keep the position, Plattes’s work for the DOE was deemed to be volunteer time because Plattes agreed to forego the pay he was entitled to receive.

        In Vignola’s view, because Plattes’s information had not been put into the payroll system, he was not an employee, even though he was offered the RIS position, accepted the position, and was performing the duties associated with the position.  According to Vignola, Rodriguez first learned that Plattes would no longer be working in Region 2 when he told her on July 31st.  At that time, Rodriguez advised Vignola that Plattes’s paperwork had already been sent to Human Resources for processing.  On that same date, Vignola was informed by Coppin that Plattes’s final paperwork was at her office and he and Srinivasan instructed her to cease processing it.  According to Vignola, “you are not an employee until we complete the hiring process.”   Consequently, at his direction, the media was told that Plattes had been a volunteer.

        Vignola acknowledged that Rodriguez, Plattes, and Lam believed that Plattes was an employee.  Vignola also conceded that Plattes clearly did not intend to donate his time when he began working for the DOE in July.  Vignola stated that had the hiring process for Plattes as a RIS been completed he would have gotten paid retroactively to July 1, 2003.  Vignola maintained that when it was determined that the hiring process had yet to be completed, it was decided that Plattes’s work time in July should be considered volunteer time.  Vignola added that, on Plattes’s behalf, Lam agreed that the time that Plattes had worked for the DOE would be deemed volunteer time and that Plattes would forego his earnings for the period of July.  Vignola continued that he was unconcerned with the status of the paperwork after his discussion with Lam.

        According to Chancellor Klein, either Vignola or Srinivasan informed him that Plattes was volunteering as a RIS at one of the Regions.  He stated that he told Lam that Plattes could not work in such a position.

        Plattes stated that sometime in the middle of July 2003, he got the impression from his wife that Chancellor Klein was uncomfortable with him holding the RIS position.  Plattes claimed that in the middle of July 2003 he decided to quit the RIS position but that he kept “volunteering” until the middle of August 2003.   Plattes also claimed that it was his idea that he would start volunteering.  Nevertheless, Plattes conceded that he accepted the RIS position, was not volunteering on July 1, 2003, and expected to receive compensation.  However, according to Plattes, he later advised his wife, “I really do not care if I get paid.”

        Plattes acknowledged that he delayed in notifying Rodriguez that he would be resigning.  In fact, he stated that the subject came up in the middle of an unrelated conversation with Rodriguez.  Plattes stated that he informed Rodriguez that he would continue until Skeen returned from her vacation.

        Lam asserted that she played no role in the response to media inquiries about her husband’s employment status.  However, Lam acknowledged that when her husband decided not to continue at Region 2 as an administrator, it was agreed that he would be called a volunteer.  According to Lam, since Plattes was not going to be permitted to continue in the RIS position, he did not want to get paid for the period that he had been working.  Lam conceded that the information that her husband had “considered” taking the job, which was provided to the media, was not accurate and Plattes “actually” had taken the position.  Moreover, Lam refused to say that Plattes “quit” and instead insisted that Plattes “reconsidered” taking the job after he learned of the Chancellor’s discomfort with him holding the position.

Conclusion

        Based on the testimony of witnesses and documentary evidence gathered during this investigation, it is clear that Diana Lam made a concerted effort to obtain employment for her husband with the DOE.  Lam contacted DOE employees on her husband’s behalf and submitted paperwork in support of his application.  Subordinate employees who tried to expedite Plattes’s hiring flatly contradict Lam’s assertion that no one was aware of their relationship.  We are forwarding our findings for your information and review.  In addition, Lam’s conduct may constitute a violation of Chapter 68 of the New York City Charter, which is administered by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.

        We are forwarding a copy of this report to the Office of Legal Services.  We are also sending our findings to the State Education Department.  Should you have any inquiries regarding the above, please contact Eileen Daly, the attorney assigned to this case.  She may be reached at (212) 510-1407.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

                                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                                        RICHARD J. CONDON
                                                                                        Special Commissioner
                                                                                        of Investigation for the
                                                                                        New York City School District



                                                                                        By:     __________________________
                                                                                        Regina A. Loughran
                                                                                        First Deputy Commissioner


RJC:RAL:ss
c:    Chad Vignola, Esq.
       Theresa Europe, Esq.
       Rick Stewart, Auditor General