


The Monroe County School Board today expects to hear whether top district administrators can be fired for allowing the alleged theft of cash and illegal credit card purchases by former Adult Education Coordinator Monique Acevedo. The board also has asked for information indicating whether administrators can be fired for failing to enforce the school district's purchasing policies.
Acevedo is the wife of suspended Superintendent Randy Acevedo.
Richard Fechter, an investigator the board hired to determine how the district's internal financial controls failed, has described a "culture of permissiveness" in which supervisors were late by months in turning in credit card receipts and failed to control employee purchasing.
One administrator, Vocational Education Coordinator Mark Hooper, failed to turn in his credit card receipts for more than 300 days, according to a report Fechter submitted to the board June 9.
In that report, Fechter listed several administrators whose inaction or action, he believes, helped create the environment that led to the breakdown in financial controls: Hooper, Monique Acevedo, Finance Director Kathy Reitzel; Dori Collins, director of purchasing; Linda Walker, purchase card administrator; and Chuck Freeman, director of Maintenance and Custodial Services, who has retired. His last day is June 30.
Board member Steve Pribramsky last month directed Fechter to give the board's public corruptions attorney, Latour "L.T." Lafferty, the names of administrators so Lafferty could determine whether any violations of policy could rise to the level of termination.
"Lafferty will present his findings to us [today] and we'll begin to make a decision on how it fits into our personnel decisions for next year," Pribramsky said.
Lafferty's list also includes acting Deputy Superintendent Mike Henriquez, who was Acevedo's direct supervisor for eight months. He has told board members that Acevedo submitted her credit card receipts and other purchasing documentation directly to the Finance Department.
However, in an April 14 deposition, Reitzel told investigators that Acevedo didn't submit cash to the Finance Department. She also said Henriquez supervised Acevedo.
"Finance is usually the last line of defense," Reitzel told the investigator. "I don't know if they are aware of how it was run, but someone was her supervisor."
Reitzel has been blamed for failing to notify authorities when she learned nearly two years ago that Acevedo had purchased seven airline tickets for her family with her school district credit card. Reitzel told investigators she warned Randy Acevedo at that time to tell his wife to stop using her credit card for personal purchases.
After Reitzel came across an XM satellite radio subscription in the name of the Acevedos' son, Wade, on Monique Acevedo's credit card in early February, she told the superintendent he should fire his wife and contact the Florida Auditor General's Office and State Attorney's Office about her allegedly illegal purchases. Reitzel said she had hoped the superintendent would contact authorities, but he never did. She ultimately reported the situation to state auditors and School Board Chairman Andy Griffiths, who told prosecutors.
Lafferty also is expected to advise board members on whether Reitzel, Walker and Key West High School Principal John Welsh can reasonably expect to be granted whistle-blower status by the state. Lafferty's opinion may determine whether the employees keep their jobs.
jguerra@keysnews.com
I'd say that the candidate Pribramsky defeated should clearly go in the same 'group' as Mary Vanden Brock...bitter women with no real expertise in the jobs that they were seeking. While Estenoz didn't drag it all out through the court systems, wasting taxpayer monies, like Vanden Brock did, she surely had her Bubba insiders trying to find her a job where she could be of use to them and their Developer buddies.
Her buddy, McP can't possibly be re-elected. Dan Kolhage has fled to NC ahead of his creditors. DiGennaro's fate is going to be the same as the rest of the Gang of Three. Acevedo won't be giving her any jobs, nor will anyone in the Henriquez family. Fraga? Gone, right? She sure as hell has no place on the TDC.
What's a Bubbette to do??? Keep screaming about imagined injustices and shady plots she's unable to prove?