This post is the second of a multi-part series that will be published over the next week. Part 1 was posted on October 26, 2009, Part 3 was posted on October 30, 2009, and Part 4 was posted on November 3, 2009.
December 22, 1998: Peggy Anderson and Danielle Smith publicly called on the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) to drop its legal challenge to regain the right to tax collection. "I'm not sure that the power to tax should rest with the local boards," Anderson said. "I'm not very excited about spending my time trying to bully the province into giving us more money." The two trustees opposed the CBE decision to spend up to $100,000 arguing the board's right to collect taxes before the Supreme Court. Liz LoVecchio defended the legal challenge and compared the 1994 government amendments to the School Act to "constitutional change by stealth."
January 8, 1999: Smith introduced a motion to achieve 100% utilization in CBE schools by June, 2002. Officials had estimated that moving to an 85% utilization rate would require closing up to 30 schools. Smith told the Herald: "I am not doing this to be alarming, I want clarity, and communities deserve clarity." The motion was rejected in a 5-2 vote on January 12.
January 10, 1999: CBE superintendent of finances Don Dart informed trustees that "the chances are not good the board can have a balanced budget and meet contract demands" of employees without an increase in provincial funding. The public board has run a $34.6-million deficit in the previous fiscal year due largely to an early retirement deal that encouraged 465 senior teachers to leave. Smith objected to the board spending $6,000 to pay for newspaper ads advertising the meetings. Teresa Woo-Paw disagreed, saying newspaper ads are the best way to get the word out.
January 12, 1999: CBE trustees unanimously passed a motion introduced by LoVecchio that expressed alarm at the number of elementary schools who had stopped French instruction. LoVecchio and several other trustees argued the CBE had a duty to offer French language instruction. Smith said she was not sure parents want French forced on them at the exclusion of other options, such as music and art. Smith told the Herald:
"This is a cost issue. Feasibly, French can't be offered at every school and I don't think that parents want that, either."January 26, 1999: Reported by the Herald:
Trustee Jennifer Pollock accused trustee Danielle Smith of deliberately leaving the boardroom before a vote, saying it was the second time such a thing had happened.January 28, 1999: Following the January 26 confrontation between Pollock and Smith, CBE Chair Woo-Paw suggested that trustees "need to review how we work together from time to time."
Pollock even briefly blocked Smith's path out and whispered a warning to her not to leave.
"I said `don't be unaccountable and leave the boardroom,' " Pollock said afterward.
Smith said she simply saw someone in the hallway she wanted to talk to.
"I got back in for the vote and that's the bottom line, isn't it?" she said later.
During Smith's absence of about five to 10 minutes, Pollock was livid.
"I personally find offence with trustees who choose to leave the room" before a vote, she said.
March 10, 1999: Nominated by Smith, Lynn Nishimura was elected vice-chairwoman over Pollock in a 4-3 vote. LoVecchio had resigned as vice-chair after claiming that Woo-Paw had shut her out of important decisions.
April 13, 1999: Smith publicly states that the CBE needs to take action to plug leaks to the media.
May 9, 1999: In a letter to Premier Ralph Klein, Calgary businessman and Liberal organizer Donn Lovett accused Anderson and Smith of skipping three school board meetings in a row. Lovett's letter argued that the School Act provided for removal of anyone who misses three consecutive regular meetings. Anderson and Smith sought legal advice and Smith fired back:
"The allegation is that I'm breaking the law. I'm not breaking the law."Smith and Anderson told the Herald that they suspected Pollock, LoVecchio and former chair Judy Tilston convinced Lovett to send the letter.
May 22, 1999: The CBE unveiled a plan to close 565 classrooms as part of its budget trimming. With the lights switched off and heat turned down, $1.5 million would be trimmed from the maintenance budget. The total maintenance budget was cut by $2.5 million.
June 14, 1999: A National Post editorial:
Political irregularities may be acceptable -- that is for the voter to decide. But financial irregularities are less easily excused. And the inquiries by Ms. [Peggy Anderson] and Ms. [Danielle Smith] revealed excesses that would make Livent blush. They found dozens of questionable expenses; one trustee had racked up $4,500 in cell- phone bills in one school year. That's tough to do -- being a trustee is a part-time job with an office and phone included. More than $25,000 was spent on travel -- on top of trustees' car allowances. Office expenses for the seven were grossly over budget. A $104,000 legal opinion on the "rights of parents" had been commissioned.
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17 comments:
Seems like Smith was on the side of sanity for most of this. Why would Trustee Pollock care if Danielle did choose to absent herself from votes, that should just make it easier for Pollock to push through her own loopy agenda.
What happened here was a pocket of Liberals got very upset when one of the few public institutions they held power over was infiltrated by some common sense right-wingers who exposed a lot of the usual Liberal shenanigans, corruption and abuse of taxpayers dollars.
I can't wait for Premier Smith to bring the same no-nonsense approach to our province.
All 7 of them are female.
Not sayin that fact is relevant, of course!
Then don't post it if it's not relevant.
A good letter in yesterday's Calgary Herald, with advice to Smith:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/Whirlwind+Danielle/2148914/story.html
"...Detached from the common Albertans' real life and struggles, her own life has so far been inside an artificial, shallow, elitist, inner-city bubble of publicity and media. Her thinking is theoretical and concept-driven. Her management skills are untested, her instinctive connection with her own Reformish political base tenuous, her common touch uncertain..."
By the way, daveberta, keep in mind that the Calgary Herald belonged to Conrad Black and had degenerated into a rightwing rag by this time.
Has Jennifer Pollock ever been on the side of sanity? Nope. Ask Calgary-West voters who soundly rejected her twice.
Since when do Calgary-West voters care about sanity in their candidate?
-JA
"...Detached from the common Albertans' real life and struggles, her own life has so far been inside an artificial, shallow, elitist, inner-city bubble of publicity and media. Her thinking is theoretical and concept-driven. Her management skills are untested, her instinctive connection with her own Reformish political base tenuous, her common touch uncertain..."
Plus, she faces those charismatic behemoths Ed, David and Brian.
By the way, daveberta, keep in mind that the Calgary Herald belonged to Conrad Black and had degenerated into a rightwing rag by this time.
...which means you get to dismiss any of its reporting that you don't like. Woohoo!
Hi, It's Jennifer Pollock.
FYI for those interested in some first hand detail.
Danielle Smith did not vote on either of the two issues, both she and Peggy Andersen absented themselves. One was a vote supporting a parents' group led by Joanne Cuthbertson, now the Chancellor of the University of Calgary (when I asked her to stay) and the other was on support for an umbrella group that was to assess the needs of urban aboriginals affected by their experience in residential schools. Neither involved CBE funding. The School Act did not permit abstentions.
Donn Lovett's letter was his own initiative. The School Act provides for the removal of Trustees that miss 3 consecutive Board meetings. The Budget meetings were technically Board and not committee meetings.
Peggy and Danielle attended the regular Board meetings but chose not to attend a number of budget meetings. The $500million+ budget was presented and debated over approx a 27 hour schedule. Members of the public and employee groups could ask questions that were responded to during this time as well. Danielle and Peggy stated that trusteeship was a part time position and they did not feel it was appropriate for "governors" to be involved in these details of Board governance.
My cell bill was the one in question and I paid all costs for personal calls, I had 4 school age children playing hockey at the time. I paid approximately 80% of each bill. I don't believe there was a car allowance but there was a professional development budget that trustees could use to attend conferences (maybe $3,000 annually). The trustee annual compensation started at about $13,000 in 1992 and was approximately $18,000-20,000 in 1998. One or two thirds of which was tax free. (I just noted that in 2007 the trustees remuneration was set at 1/2 aldermanic rates approx. $44,500.taxable+ benefits)
As I recall in 1998, legal matters were placed under the trustee and governance area. The budgeting for this area including law suits and legal opinions, was the responsibility of the administration, not the Board of Trustees.
In my seven years, the CBE complied with all requirements of the Minister of Education and the School Act, including all budgetary limits and envelopes. The CBE has been a very large and lean operation. The govt of Alberta paid $185,000. on a study to uncover all of these facts. They didn't intend to give the CBE trustees a resounding endorsement, but that was the result of the independent committee's report. In October 1998 I received 24,117 votes, 75% of the votes cast due, in part, to the govt study.
One contentious matter that may have led to our removal from office was the performance of our Chief Superintendent and the inexperience of our Chair Woo-Paw. IMO the Superintendent created unsustainable closures in the facilities to increase the political pressure on the provincial govt. Danielle bought into this but IMO the Superintendent crossed a political line. As the trustees began to work and trust each other more, the Superintendent was facing greater accountability. Woo-Paw, now a Conservative MLA, requested the Minister of Education's intervention, led and encouraged by the Superintendent. It was not surprising to me that the next elected Board removed the Superintendent from office within a year from taking office and Woo-Paw was not re-elected.
I hope this offers useful insight on the events and facts including my perspective.
PS The CBE superintendent of finance is Don Dart not Dan Dart.
In conclusion, Danielle was young and inexperienced. In 1998, she had been elected with less than 32%of the votes cast,7804. She worked as hard as she was able during the 10 months she served. She had a position with the Property Rights Institute at the same time. I disagee with Danielle's narrow view of the role of government and regulation. At that time, Danielle was not open to others' views, be they politicians or member of the public. She had her own "research" and would not consider evidence from credible sources if they did not support her beliefs or conclusions.
Danielle did not exhibit conduct worthy of removal from office, nor did any of her fellow trustees. I am sure Danielle has changed in many ways since 1999 and remained the same in others.
Why would you abuse the CBE phone privilage and then pay it back only after the excessive use was discovered? Get your own phone!
Clearly your personal judgement has issues. I think that casts doubt on the neutrality of your interpretation of events.
So far it seems that the Liberal dominated board was extremely upset with a fiscally conservative voice suddenly trying to bring sanity to what appears to have been a personal bank account for the previous members.
Physical confrontation borders on criminality for goodness sake. The accusation Donn Lovett acted out of his own interest is hilarious, being the strong Liberal organizer and suppporter that he is.
Ms. Pollock has also been accused of many shenanigans involving the seat of federal Conservative MP Rob Anders (who routinely routs her elections), including shady leaks to media (sound familiar?) and supporting her close friend and conservative in name-only Donna Kennedy Glans trying to usurp Mr. Anders' constituency association.
It's sad, but is seems the rot runs deep in the mindset of entitlement of Liberal party members.
Speaking of shenanigans, at least Pollock puts her name on her posts.
Calgary would be a better place without Rob Anders, the hired heckler for that Republican dionsaur Inhofe.
This exchange just shows you how extreme Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Alliance are - look at her big supporter, Rob Anders.
Thanks for this Dave. I read the whole series and I like the fact that you're not editorializing much.
That said, all the "shenanigans" feel like sideshows to me, in comparison to this:
Don Dart: "the chances are not good the board can have a balanced budget and meet contract demands" of employees without an increase in provincial funding.
Anderson: "I'm not very excited about spending my time trying to bully the province into giving us more money..."
That's pretty shocking. Without suggesting sane alternatives for funding other than tax options, this move just feels like more manipulation to starve the system of funds (and-- who knows?-- maybe to initiate a crisis that the so-called free market will 'solve.')
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