Sunday, February 7, 2010

When Gov. Charlie Crist was trying to persuade Joseph Burke to take the job of interim superintendent of the Monroe County school district, Burke expressed concerns about having enough time to repair a system hobbled by a dysfunctional Finance Department and bleeding hundreds of thousands of dollars from apparent fraud and theft.

He says he was reassured that, barring the acquittal of former Superintendent Randy Acevedo, he would serve the remainder of Acevedo's term -- until November 2012.

"He asked about the duration of the job; that was his biggest issue," said Monroe County School Board Chairman Andy Griffiths in an Aug. 22 Citizen story about Burke's appointment. "To make some positive movement forward with the Monroe County school district, to put together positive initiatives, you need time. You can't put together a strategic plan if you don't have time."

Acevedo was convicted on three felony counts of official misconduct four days after Burke took charge.

School Board member Steve Pribramsky said the governor, during a trip to the Keys, later assured the board that the appointment was until 2012.

But assurances apparently went out the window a couple of weeks ago. When county Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer received a Notice of Elections from the state Division of Elections, he contacted Tallahassee to ask why the superintendent post was not on the November ballot.

On Jan. 29, citing state election law, Sawyer's office issued a statement that "the race for superintendent of schools will be on the ballot this year."

The School Board was blindsided. The governor, secretary of state and state attorney general began scrambling to resolve the question. According to a spokesman in Crist's office, the governor has not officially vacated the position because Acevedo is appealing his conviction. The attorney general reportedly is pushing for a November election. It's a mess.

Pribramsky was right when he said: "We look like idiots."

Pribramsky blames Sawyer. "We rely on Sawyer to give us advice, and he let us down," the board member said.

We, too, have to wonder why Sawyer didn't bring this up before now. Was he not paying attention to all the news reports when Burke was appointed?

It also could be argued that the school district's attorneys should have researched election law when Acevedo was suspended and the county was waiting on the governor to appoint an interim superintendent.

Sawyer says it was Gov. Crist who dropped the ball.

"When the governor by law suspended [Acevedo] it was his responsibility to oversee this," Sawyer told The Citizen. "He did not do his job."

Sawyer insists that politics play no role in determining the election date, that it is simply a matter of state law.

Nonetheless, we can't help but note a faint scent of political mischief in the air.

Burke is right in the middle of a huge task, and a November election will be counterproductive no matter how it turns out. At best it is a distraction from his assignment to fix the district. At worst, it undermines everything that has been accomplished since allegations of fraud and theft in the district emerged a year ago.

Burke immediately set about reordering administration, dismissing and disciplining employees who had failed to maintain financial controls, and he began the slow process of restoring public trust. We don't believe he would have made this commitment had he known that his term would end in November.

The governor stepped in to help the school district with its mess when the former superintendent was indicted. We hope he is able to resolve the district's latest mess without losing hard-won ground. Burke needs to finish the job.

-- The Citizen