Board refunds illegal stipends
A regional education center illegally paid thousands of dollars to board members for internet and cellphone bills, the Ohio auditor said Tuesday.
Between 2009 and 2011, six board members for the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio collected about $12,400 more than they could prove they had paid for their phones and internet service. The board passed policies in 2009 granting members stipends of $90 per month for internet service and $50 per month for cellphone service.
The central Ohio ESC provides school districts in Delaware, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Ross and Union counties with staffing, special education, training and other services. Its funding comes from the school districts it serves and from state and federal sources.
A news release by state Auditor Dave Yost listed these “unsupported stipends” for ESC board members: Richard Helsel, $4,780; Robin Reid Pleasnick, $4,430; Joyce Galbraith, $1,689; Betty Klamforth, $1,370; Teresa Morgan, $60; and William Spencer, $59. Morgan and Helsel no longer are on the board.
Because ESC Treasurer Alan Hutchinson authorized the payments, the auditor’s office said, he was liable for them. Hutchinson’s bonding company repaid the money in December.
The ESC emailed a written statement that “full documentation of the expenses was unavailable, in part due to the length of time that had passed. The policies and procedures in question ended in December 2011, and all amounts that were owed have already been repaid to the ESC.”
Yost’s office had no comment about the finding. “The payments have been made, so we consider this matter closed at this point,” said spokeswoman Beth Gianforcaro.
In Februay 2016, Yost announced in a special audit that many of the same board members and Hutchinson needed to repay $5,453 to the ESC after it had paid for their spouses to accompany them on business trips. That was on top of $3,830 they had already paid back for their spouses’ travel.
The ESC’s leadership has been under closer scrutiny since 2013, when a routine audit uncovered lavish spending by former ESC Superintendent Bart G. Anderson. Auditors ultimately found that he ran up travel bills costing nearly a half-million dollars between 2007 and 2012, including stays at five-star hotels in New York, Chicago and the Florida coast and trips to China, Thailand and Las Vegas. Even the bar tab, more than $13,000, was picked up. Anderson also attempted to alter some of his receipts.
“This is a sultanate style of travel,” Yost said in 2014. “This is gag-inducing waste.”
In 2015, Anderson negotiated a deal to plead no contest in Franklin County Municipal Court to dereliction of duty and obstruction of official business; both charges are misdemeanors.