During last week’s finance committee meeting, Rochester school board member Allen Williams questioned whether Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard is cutting his own cabinet. He said you can’t cut 900 jobs and not touch the top.
Brizard said there would be reductions, although he didn’t give specifics.
He also singled me out for pointing out that spending on the Superintendent Employee Group – the non-union secretaries and administrators that make up his top group of advisors –
increased during his tenure.
“It came from one reporter in town that I have the most expensive cabinet in history. I’m not sure what analysis they’ve used to actually to make that kind of claim. The fact is we have one of the cheapest cabinets in a very long time. This SEG group has not had a raise in 3 years. When you take a look at the amount of money that’s been saved, it’s equivalent to a number of FTE’s in the program. The fact is when you look at the expense, every single unit in this district has received a raise every year except for the SEG group, to the point where most of the secretaries are looking to go back to BENTE or ASAR, because they’re not seeing their benefits increasing while everyone else’s are increasing.”I’ll take his claims one by one.
1.
Most Expensive Cabinet in History? – I have records of the Superintendent Employee Group salaries and positions going back 10 years. In his first two years on the job,
Brizard added 13 employees and $1.5 million to the SEG payroll, bringing the size of the group to 51 people. My most recent SEG list is from November 2010. It shows a reduction of four employees in the last year. However, it’s my understanding that there have been more people shuffled around. I FOIL’d a most recent list on March 15 and I have not yet received the information. Even with the reduction, Brizard’s cabinet would rival the spending of Manuel Rivera and far exceed Bill Cala and Clifford Janey.
2.
Is My Analysis Correct and Fair? – The only way to compare “cabinets” among administrations is to
compare SEG lists. Otherwise, superintendents would arbitrarily decide who is in their cabinets, skewing spending levels. The SEG gets its own benefit package and is not subject to the same rules as unions. It’s the only fair comparison.
3.
Is it True SEG Members Got No Raises? – Some did. Some didn’t. Ten
SEG members received raises of 5 to 37 percent between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years. Brizard’s secretary got a 10 percent raise. From 2009-10 to 2010-11, at least one cabinet member – Alpha Daily-Majors – got an $11,500 raise. Brizard has never given an explanation for the raises, even though he told me he’d give me an analysis of cabinet expenditures.
4.
Secretaries Want to go Back to BENTE? – This claim must be greeted with skepticism in light of payroll data.
In November 2010, the average salary for the 14 SEG secretaries was $63,063. They had an average of 16 years on the job. The lowest-paid secretaries earned $55,000 with 3 to 10 years on the job. One of the $55,000-a-year secretaries, Samone Jefferson, was earning $20.79 an hour when she was in BENTE in early 2010, which is $43,243 a year, meaning she got quite a raise by going to SEG.
There are only 14 union secretaries district-wide making more than $30/hour – the average for the SEG group – and all were hired in 1990 or before.
The union workers have the advantage of job protections, such as they must be laid off by seniority and cannot be dismissed at will. However, the SEG members are clearly better-compensated. In addition, unlike their union counterparts, they are entitled to six months severance if they are ever fired or laid off.
To watch video of the finance committee meeting, click
here. The exchange about cabinet spending is 19 minutes in. I've also attached March 2010 payroll data for secretaries.
Rachel Barnhart, Anchor/Reporter
