Hamlet fined $8,000 for ethics violations
The state Ethics Commission found in a report released Thursday that Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet violated the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act by improperly receiving travel reimbursements, accepting payments for appearances related to his job and incorrectly filing financial documents.
For his actions, the commission ordered Mr.
Hamlet to pay close to
$8,000 — including reimbursing the school district almost $3,000, another $3,000 going to the Pittsburgh Promise for contractual obligations, $1,000 related to investigation expenses and $750 for technical errors on paperwork — and directed him to forfeit 14 vacation days, valued at more than $12,000.
City Controller Michael Lamb, who filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission in 2019 that led to the inquiry, called on the school board to make changes in leadership, but board President Sylvia Wilson signaled she opposed that idea. Board members met in private for close to two hours Thursday afternoon to discuss the report, but they did not make any decisions because they felt they needed more time to review it.
Mr. Hamlet and his attorney defended his actions Thursday morning at a virtual news conference, saying the superintendent was not found to have done any intentional wrongdoing. But they acknowledged several missteps over the years.
“If we could all go back and do this all over again, I think a lot of people would do a lot of things differently,” said David Berardinelli, Mr. Hamlet’s attorney. “What is sort of a silver lining when there’s an inquiry like this is it lets you see there are gaps in your processes and procedures.”
Mr. Hamlet did not take questions during the news conference, but he made a statement at the beginning, saying it “was a great day for me personally as this twoyear inquiry has been a cloud over my head, a heavy burden on my shoulders — even though I know I have done nothing wrong.”
“After a two-year inquiry by the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission looking into whether or not during my tenure as superintendent I properly used my authority for personal benefit has reached a conclusion,” he said. “They found that there was no findings of intent on my part to deceive the families, my staff and the taxpayers of Pittsburgh. Throughout this fact-finding review, I have cooperated fully with the Ethics Commission in every aspect by providing requested materials, written, verbal statements and various correspondence.”
Robert Caruso, the executive director of the state Ethics Commission, said he disagreed with how Mr. Hamlet and his attorney characterized the findings of the report.
“It’s a 147-page document that outlines with great specificity a course of conduct by Dr. Hamlet that was an ongoing course of conduct over a number of years in relation to his travel, failing to utilize leave, getting expense reimbursement for himself that was intended to go to the district, his violation of the Ethics Act, his receipt of honorarium, which is prohibited by law,” Mr. Caruso said. “In my opinion as the executive director of the commission, [it] was an egregious violation of the public trust.”
The commission said Mr. Hamlet violated the State Ethics Act in multiple ways, including the “negligent receipt of travel expense reimbursements for travel expenses which had already been paid by the district, resulting in a private pecuniary benefit.”
Mr. Hamlet was negligent when he used leave “for days when he was absent from the district for non-district related travel and was subsequently paid for such days and when he carried over unused vacation/personal days for certain district employees, including himself, from one school year to the next when his contract prohibited carrying over vacation/personal days as to him,” the commission said.
At least some of the violations occurred during a trip Mr. Hamlet and several other district administrators took to Cuba in April 2019. District leaders said the trip was part of professional development included in a one-year contract with The Flying Classroom, a Miamibased education company.
The district paid for airfare between Pittsburgh and Miami, and The Flying Classroom arranged the one -hour flight to Havana and the two days spent away from Miami.
But the out-of-country trip did not have the required approval of the full nine-member school board, as required by district policy. The administrators on the trip said they were unaware they would be leaving the country when they went on the trip.
The district hired an independent investigator in 2019 to review the Cuba trip and whether it violated state ethics laws regarding gifts from outside vendors. The investigation was completed, but the results were never made public.
The commission said Mr. Hamlet denied violating the Ethics Act in relation to his trip with the Flying Classroom and denied knowing that Cuba trip was not part of the district’s contract with the education company.
And Mr. Berardinelli said the commission’s order did not contain “any finding of graft or inappropriate conduct as to the awarding of the Flying Classroom contract” or any other contract the district entered into during Mr. Hamlet’s tenure.
Still, the commission said the investigation found Mr. Hamlet’s actions around the Flying Classroom appear to be in violation of the state Ethics Act.
“Nevertheless and without admitting any violation, for purposes of resolution given the terms of the parties’ settlement, Hamlet agrees that if this matter went to hearing, the Investigative Division could, by circumstantial evidence, meet the requisite evidentiary standard and convince a fact finder that he violated” the act, the commission said.
Mr. Hamlet also had a technical violation of the Ethics Act when he accepted honorarium payments “in recognition of appearances, speeches and/or presentations which were directly related to his public occupation,” the report said.
Mr. Berardinelli said Mr. Hamlet’s contract allowed the superintendent to receive the payments for consulting work as long as he was on personal leave. He said Mr. Hamlet did some consulting work for Chicago-based Education Research and Development Institute, or ERDI, and received payments on a few occasions.
“The problem is despite the contract giving him the green light to do that, the ethics regulations don’t allow that,” Mr. Berardinelli said. “So the words that the district put in his contract are at odds with the ethics regulations, and we realize that now.”
The commission said it would take no further action if Mr. Hamlet complies with the order.
However, noncompliance would result in the institution of an order enforcement action.
Mr. Lamb, who also acts as the district’s controller, said the report confirmed much of what he suspected.
The commission’s investigation started after Mr. Lamb filed the complaint with the Ethics Commission two weeks after the district hired an independent investigator to look into the trip to Cuba.
Mr. Lamb said in a letter to the district solicitor at the time a review showed Mr. Hamlet failed to file required documents for 2017 and 2018.
The filings require the disclosure of information, such as income sources, creditors and costs related to transportation, lodging and hospitality.
As a result of the investigation, the commission also ordered Mr. Hamlet to file amended Statements of Financial Interests for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Mr. Berardinelli blamed the problems with Mr. Hamlet’s financial documents and personal leave filings on the fact they were completed by the superintendent’s executive assistant and were not made intentionally.
But Mr. Caruso, the executive director of the commission, said the attorney’s explanations did not absolve Mr. Hamlet of wrongdoing.
“We did not accept that as a viable excuse,” Mr. Caruso said. “The executive assistant or whatever support staff was entering information for leave or for expense reimbursement on Dr. Hamlet’s behalf, what they’re doing is based on information that’s provided to them by Dr. Hamlet. So if he doesn’t tell them, how are they going to enter it?
“It’s easy to pass the buck. It’s easy to assign culpability to other actors,” he continued, “but in the end, Dr. Hamlet’s the superintendent of the school district, and it all falls back to him.”
Mr. Caruso said it was not his place to comment on whether Mr. Hamlet should be removed from office.
Mr. Lamb, however, called for change.
“The Pittsburgh Board of Public Education must now make appropriate changes to leadership to allow the district to get back to the important business of focusing on student achievement,” he said in a statement. “City families and children deserve nothing less.”
Mr. Berardinelli said he disagreed with Mr. Lamb.
“I think Dr. Hamlet’s record on actually helping the students, helping the families speaks for itself,” Mr. Berardinelli said. “I think people ought to have the utmost confidence in him.”
Ms. Wilson, the school board president, said a change in leadership would not make sense because of the challenges facing the district due to the pandemic. In August 2020, the board extended Mr. Hamlet’s contract through the 2024-25 school year.
“We need some normalcy,” Ms. Wilson said. “We don’t need more chaos.”
School board member Cynthia Falls said the board will have to make some “hard decisions,” but she declined further comment because she had not read the full report.
“This is not something that we needed right now, but we have to play the cards we’re dealt,” Ms. Falls said.
Board member Veronica Edwards acknowledged the strain the investigation has caused for the district but declined to elaborate on her feelings about Mr. Hamlet.
“This has been a couple of challenging years,” Ms. Edwards said. “My focus and my fight is to educate young children.”
Board members Terry Kennedy, Pam Harbin and Sala Udin said they wanted to read the full report before commenting. Devon Taliaferro, Kevin Carter and Bill Gallagher directed questions to district Solicitor Ira Weiss.
Mr. Weiss said he would inform board members of their options in the coming days, but he declined to provide details about any possible recourse. He said the board was eager to deal with the situation.
“I don’t believe there is a desire for this to linger longer than this has to,” Mr. Weiss said.
Mayor Bill Peduto declined to comment.