School Bond Con Game
By BRIAN GOTT - STAFF WRITER
The public should expect its elected officials to have the most information possible when it’s time to make multi-million dollar decisions that impact taxpayers. Yet when the board of county commissioners last week set a $554 million bond for November’s ballot, some commissioners are now saying they were shortchanged important details that could have impacted the bond total that was approved.
Commissioners Chairman Parks Helms, a Democrat, apparently obtained and shared with only some of his colleagues on the board a list of schools projects that would be funded if commissioners approved the total $427 million requested by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools as part of the whole $554 million bond. It was information that could have answered questions commissioners were asking CMS officials last month, but never received a reply before their vote to preliminary set the bond amount.
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“Who is really deciding what the priorities are?� Puckett asked. “Is it a pure political exercise to come to some amount we can all agree on, and if CMS can provide Parks with priorities, why can’t they provide it to the rest of us?�
Puckett said normally the sort of information commissioners were requesting for schools priorities would be shared with the entire board – and with the news media – as part of agenda packets commissioners receive days in advance of a board meeting.
Helms’ handling of the situation and his selective dissemination of information, Puckett said, was a shrewd, but ultimately disingenuous, political maneuver.
“Parks had to find a way to get all of the Democrats on board because a couple of them didn’t want the package to begin with,� Puckett said.
Helms said he received the schools project information after a meeting with interim Superintendent Frances Haithcock and Chamberlain. He said what commissioners had requested previously was a prioritization list of projects that would be funded at different bond approval levels. Since this was just projects that wouldn’t be funded if a lower bond amount were approved, Helms said he just kept the information to himself.
“I just stuck it in my file and didn’t think anything else of it,� Helms said.
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“I don’t think Parks would do anything that is unethical, but I would have appreciated getting that information,� Mitchell said. He also said it was the commissioners’ job to set the bond amount and, if the bonds are passed by voters, it will be the board of education’s job to prioritize spending.