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Notter To Address Scathing Grand Jury Report

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Broward Schools Superintendent Jim Notter on Tuesday addressed the scathing grand jury report accusing the school district of mismanagement and incompetence.

Notter called the report "devastating" but said he and the School Board intend to address and correct the problems enumerated in the document.

Specifically, the report accuses the district of building schools that weren't needed, opening schools that had not passed inspections and wasting millions in taxpayer money.

The report also alleges school board members were too close to the selection process of contractors to build schools and that created a climate of corruption. Recently, two former board members have been arrested on corruption charges.

Notter said many of the problems described in the report have already been addressed by the board. For instance, board members are no longer involved in finance, insurance and construction decisions. There have also been changes made to the relationships lobbyists have with school board members.

Notter, who said he has no plans to retire or resign, said the blame lies squarely with him.

"I take responsibility for what's in that report and I need to, in fact, rebuild confidence in this great public school system," Notter said at a news conference. "There is no excuse. We will fix it."

But longtime school district employee Michael Marchetti, who blew the whistle on several of the issues cited in the report, believes Notter and the board are part of the problem and lack credibility to fix the district.

"(Notter) sat in a position of responsibility while all this going on," Marchetti told CBS 4's Carey Codd. "He and the board were warned constantly. They ignored it. "

Marchetti, who filed a whistle blower lawsuit in hopes of recovering millions of dollars for the school district, has worked for nearly 13 years in the district's building and facilities departments. He said the district used a flawed process to build new schools that allowed certain board members to choose the contractor who would construct the school.

"The board members were very concerned that they were getting their fair share of the classroom additions," Marchetti said.

The report asked why board members seem to favor certain construction companies or why it works so hard to keep some district contractors in place, and blamed politics.

"Why Board members are so keen on selecting contractors is obvious," the grand jury found. "The ability to steer, or even to seem to have the ability to influence where millions of dollars in contracts go, is lifeblood to politicians."

The report said, "One long time Board member stated openly that he would never support a hard bid for a project again. Not surprisingly the most generous supporters to Board campaigns are contractors and their subcontractors, as well as their lobbyists, friends and families."

"We agree with witnesses that testified that the Board is in many respects a training ground for newbie politicians, where unfortunately bad habits are learned."

The grand jurors raised significant ethical questions, including the acceptance of gifts, and criticized the board for not taking a harder look at potential conflicts.

"It may ultimately turn out that there is no misconduct by anyone on the Board or at the District, but the failure to even inquire and demand answers is inexcusable."

The report also criticizes the district for opening schools that had not yet passed final inspection, instead granting the school a temporary certificate of occupancy that would last between 30-90 days but in reality would last much longer. Grand jurors also criticized the district for sloppy record keeping on mandatory forms stating a school was ready to be opened.

The report said this raised concerns of life safety issues being ignored.

Marchetti said the inspection process within the district was flawed.

"Our building department hired the consultant to do the inspections but they were run by the contractors," he said. "There's no record in the building department of what these inspectors were inspecting, what the inspection reports looked like. Did they all get done?"

Notter said this is one of the problems that have been corrected in recent months. However, when asked how many schools were still operating with only a temporary certificate of occupancy Notter said he could not provide a specific number.

"They are drilling down on all that information at this time," he said. "We will have that comprehensive report for you."

Marchetti believes the accusations in the report will affect education in Broward County for years. He said the unnecessary buildings and classroom additions will leave the district deep in debt with lots of empty classrooms.

"What you're looking at is fifteen years of paying off debt service on classrooms we don't need," Marchetti said. "Potentially still having classrooms we don't need in 15 years and the buildings that we have being in considerable disrepair because we haven't had the money to maintain them.

"That's degrading the educational process."

The grand jury report singled out School Board Member Jennifer Gottlieb saying she pushed through a pet project -- Beachside Montessori School in Hollywood. The report called it a boondoggle because of cost overruns.

Gottlieb said that is not true.

"I don't call it a boondoggle," she said. "I call it a success."

The report also cited the recent election of four new school board members as proof that voters knew the district needed a change.

One of those new members, Dave Thomas, said he will hold Notter accountable for improvements within the district.

"If there's weak leadership, I will be asking for a change of leadership," he said.

However, Thomas said he will give Notter at least 60 days to show changes. Thomas said with the district dealing with expected legislative cutbacks in education funding, union negotiations and a fight for federal education spending, he is reluctant to make a change now.

"Do I want to change horses in the middle of the stream?" he asked.

Grand jurors are recommending significant changes, however.

The grand jurors made 21 recommendations, including:

•     Refusal of campaign contributions from anyone doing business with the board

•     Mandatory ethics training

•     Cut the size of the school board in half, to 5.

•     Allow voters to decide if the district superintendent should be elected

•     Create an independent office of Inspector General to monitor the Board and District

•     Prevent board members from being involved in the selection of contractors, vendors, or financial institutions.

Notter said he expects to release a response to the accusations raised in the grand jury report within the next few weeks.

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