51° CLEAR, fbi investigation
Schools Chief Praises Official Under Inquiry
Gail McKinzie says Bob Williams runs tight ship, but rarely shares information.
Last Modified: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 9:50 p.m.
LAKELAND | Assistant Superintendent Bob Williams runs a tight ship within the Polk School District facilities department but rarely shares information with co-workers outside of his division, Superintendent Gail McKinzie said Wednesday, the day after the FBI seized records at the department.
"I've always encouraged him to share things with the whole cabinet," McKinzie said. "People often find out things (about his department) after the fact."
McKinzie spoke Wednesday about how the district is coping with Williams, 65, placed on administrative leave as the FBI continues to investigate whether one of the largest building contractors doing work for the district received special treatment.
Williams' son, Rob, 39, a project coordinator; Terry Collins, 52, director of maintenance; and George Mercer, 55, a carpenter, also were placed on leave by the District on Tuesday.
The contractor under investigation by the FBI is M.M. Parrish Construction of Gainesville. It has received $220 million from the district during the past 10 years, according to the District.
It's unclear whether Parrish is the District's largest contractor.
McKinzie's statements about how Williams handles business back up what an outside group reported about the facilities department he ran. It said data and information on building contracts are hard to obtain because of a lack of technology and poor communication.
"Due to the lack of adequate technology and system integration, data gathering was a real challenge," wrote officials from the Portolan Group, an independent consulting group based in Georgia that spent six weeks with the facilities division this year. "Historical data was especially difficult to obtain."
The report ranked the department in 14 fields, including such topics as administration, planning, training and accountability. It said the facilities division performs adequately in most fields, such as planning and department leadership.
McKinzie praised Williams, who has been with the district 21 years, and his department for an energy-management program that is tops in the states, sound construction of buildings and completing school construction on time.
One ongoing complaint about the facilities division, however, has been that it is the lone department that hasn't switched to SAP, a business software that every other division in the District uses.
McKinzie said that prevented the finance department from viewing information from facilities.
"People in finance get concerned because they have to deliver reports as to where we are," McKinzie said.
Outside of when she has had to deal with problems involving students and schools, McKinzie said, this has been her most difficult time as superintendent.
"Nothing of this level has occurred (with her staff)," McKinzie said. "I feel badly for the staff in the division and their families, but it's our responsibility to investigate any allegations to see what comes from that."
A separate district internal investigation is ongoing as FBI agents continue to pore through computers seized Tuesday and to question employees.
Dave Couvertier, a spokesman with the FBI, said agents were at the district from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
"I suspect things were identified and seized," Couvertier said.
The FBI also executed search warrants at Parrish offices in Winter Haven and Gainesville. Couvertier said Parrish was the only contractor being investigated in the case, and he speculated the case could drag on.
"These white-collar-type cases are pretty complex," he said.
[ John Chambliss can be reached at john.chambliss@theledger.com or 863-802-7588. ]
This story appeared in print on page A1
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Comments
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November 20, 2008 2:57:17 am
RE: Link
Nice that the supt. is defending her staff. It seems she does that for those she likes.
Now, how many years has she been in charge? Out of those years, how many of these recommendations did SHE make? And even more so, WHY?
SHEEEEEEEEEEEE recommends to the Board. SHEEEEEEEEEEEE should know all personnel matters.
November 20, 2008 4:06:16 am
With a situation like this, it's pretty easy to hide what is going on from the District.Sounds like it is time to give the guy the boot and modernize the department.
November 20, 2008 4:35:29 am
â??Assistant Superintendent Bob Williams runs a tight ship within the Polk School District facilities department but rarely shares information with co-workers outside of his division, Superintendent Gail McKinzie said Wednesday, the day after the FBI seized records at the department.â?ť
Of course Gail would say that���.Bobby is part of her administration��..One of the good old boys......Gail has to be careful as she may be the next one to be under a FBI investigation����
November 20, 2008 4:36:16 am
Hmmm...sounds like the Super has a problem managing her dept heads: information is not shared, computer system not aligned with district wide application, no official record retention. I hope the board is paying attention to the lack of management ability of Super. I won't hold my breath however...
November 20, 2008 8:23:04 am
This is just another reason why we need to go back a superintendent who is an elected official. If this is happening on her watch then we can vote her out, but this school board will coverup for her, give her a hugh salary, great reviews and allow her to go on her merry way without any real oversight. If that contractor (Parrish) did any work on his personal home, how can he say with a straight face there is no conflict. There are other department heads such as Don Bridges, athletic director who runs his departmens as he sees fit with hardly any oversight or supervision from McKenzie. He arranges contracts and payments to sports associations and then works for them making thousands of dollars on the side. May not be illegal but it is a conflict of interest at the very minimum.
November 20, 2008 8:47:34 am
There are many other TOP administrative issues that need to be addressed, on travel spending of higher levels, petty cash not accounted for, meetings that are expensed off during off hours, and this starts at the very TOP. Teachers in this county are extremely UNDER paid, their jobs being slashed, freezes on hiring for paras, and there is no accountability for some at some of the most top level in Polk county. Field trips have stopped, bus drivers, etc.. Teachers spending MORE and MORE of their own money to assist basic needs in the classroom.. while some that sit in the Administrative office collect way too high of a salary compared to many Assistant Principals, Principals, master teachers..
What point are things going to be audited for these actions?
November 20, 2008 9:07:18 am
I have never heard him called "Bobby" . Do you know him? If you don't, please don't judge. He is a very nice man and I can't believe he would EVER do anything inappropriate. I don't know the son, or the other people involved, but Bob himself if a super nice guy.
November 20, 2008 1:14:15 pm
You would be amazed at the poor IT department within the school system. They purchase programs that are not compatible with each other. On "data day", teachers were asked to pull data from multiple programs and "hand plot" these on to graphs (which were only provided as PDF files that can't be altered) Hours were wasted on a task that should have been done in less than 2 minutes by using a central database.
Most admin have no concept of computer programs and don't know how to use them. Why wasn't this department required to be on the same programs as the rest of the school? It should not have been a choice but a mandate.
This district has serious money issues---this debacle, payroll errors, nepotism (Williams son works for his dept, Supt husband works as a "consultant", etc). I hope a complete external audit is done and the incompetence is revealed.
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