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| Opinion - Community Voices | |||
| Written by Perry A. Seaton | |||
| Monday, 29 June 2009 14:09 | |||
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I am one of many district patrons who are not ready to move on until Liberty school board members and administrators who actively participated in or facilitated possible fraud and mismanagement of scarce Liberty Public Schools funds and resources are held accountable to the taxpayers and the justice system.
The school board is the equivalent of the board of directors of a corporation. In this case, it is a government entity that is funded through local and state taxes. The board has the responsibility of assuring that these funds are spent lawfully for the education of our children. The five remaining incumbent members failed in this responsibility and should immediately resign. The alleged financial mismanagement was not detected by the school board, rather it was from the efforts of private citizens, such as Carlin Walker, James Moores, myself and the other 2,200 voters who petitioned for an independent Missouri state audit. While we are awaiting the public release of the audit report, I am sure that the allegations of mismanagement and misuse of public funds revealed by Mr. Walker, Mr. Moores and others will be substantiated. Westbrook and Co. was hired by the school board to perform a performance review, rather than a full and complete audit of district finances and operations. Rick Westbrook agreed with this statement during his presentations to the school board and district patrons. Since the school board hired the Westbrook firm, it could also edit and censor its performance report before it was made public. This is much a different process than the full and complete audit of the school district conducted by the Missouri state auditor. The state auditor is independent and therefore is not restricted in pursuing allegations of financial mismanagement and possible illegal activities. The state auditor’s independence is the important reason that more than 2,200 registered votes petitioned for this review. The “sins of the past” cannot be put behind us until the “sinners” are held accountable — both for repayment of misused fund, and review of their actions by prosecutors. The school board must approve all school district contracts for employment and expenditure of funds. Unresolved issues include: • board members approving Scott Taveau’s scheme to draw retirement pay while continuing to work for the school district. • questionable exclusive real estate brokerage payments to a Liberty land developer, without a contract, and in some cases, when the developer’s company furnished no services. • purchase of several properties, including the Blue Jay Tower and the former Ford day care center, when district finances were in disarray. • approval of contracts with the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City, with former board President John Sedlock voting (a clear conflict of interest), when his wife was employed by that organization along with Taveau. • approval of a $30,000 pay increase to the assistant superintendent for communications during a period when the teachers were laid off or held to a small pay increase. We all should applaud school board newcomer Mattie Ransom for standing up for the students, teachers, staff and taxpayers of this district. It is about time that some of the school board members did their job and not merely serve as a “rubber stamp” for the district administration. I for one will continue to question and speak out until all who are guilty of mismanaging and wasting scarce district funds are held accountable. That is not only my right; it is my responsibility. Perry A. Seaton lives in Liberty.
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  written by LibertyLaw, July 02, 2009
Perry Seaton is liar. Nothing he writes or says should be considered factual. He has no credibility outside of Kelly McClelland’s office.
 written by MoveLibertyForward, July 03, 2009
MoveLibertyForward’s predictions came true during the June 29 Board meeting. Since most parents, teachers and patrons have more interesting things to do on a June evening than sit through a board meeting, MoveLibertyForward will again provide an accurate recap of Kelly McClelland's efforts to damage our school district. Open forum which is where the public has an opportunity to address the board was moved to the beginning of the meeting. Although Kelly’s monkey show is often very entertaining, MoveLibertyForward questions the value of the same two or three seasoned citizens repeating themselves over and over every month. They never offer solutions to any issues facing the district, just inaccurate versions or outright lies about events from years past. The funny thing about this very small group is they actually believe the community cares about what they have to say.
The first member of the McClelland Monkey Show to speak was Monkey Perry. As usual, Monkey Perry did not disappoint the very small crowd and provided his usual embarrassing performance. In fact the first words out of his mouth at the podium were, “Where am I?” He recited the statement Kelly wrote for him with the fervor of a town crier, but really proved he is just the village idiot. His entire five minute diatribe was nothing but old news. As predicted, next was Monkey James. Monkey James talked about transparency although we know he only likes Kelly’s biased version of reality to be shared with the public. Before Monkey James quotes his government journals he needs to practice transparency himself. He needs to explain why Kelly needs to hide behind him all the time. He also recommended the District not continue membership in the Cooperating School Districts. He wants the district to buy local instead of saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cooperative purchases? Great plan. He then rambled on about how great the 15 month and counting $100K state audit was going to be if the civil servants in Jeff City ever get around to releasing it. How long does it take to cut and paste? Monkey James and his trainer Kelly are desperate to make people believe this document will be relevant. We predict less than 10 non-district employees will show up to hear the $100k re-write of the Westbrook Report. The funniest comment by Monkey James had to be his reference to putting lipstick on a pig. Funny because every time we have seen Monkey James on the TV news we think the same thing. As you may know, he chases down Gary Lezak’s “buddy” Aaron Keller so he can get interviewed all the time. One word, floss. The final speaker showed the true hypocrisy of McClelland’s Monkeys. Just a few short weeks ago Monkey Mattie released a statement to the press that Kelly wrote for her asking for all board members to resign. This speaker told the board they need to stop being mean to board member “Marty.” Sniffle sniffle. Not a typo, that’s what she called Monkey Mattie. As Kelly gets his monkey show ready for all their interviews he is no doubt arranging with the media if the state audit is ever released, we suggest he find people who know where they are and what they are talking about. Stay tuned.
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