Bethlehem Area School District's defense of swap deals falls short

forensic audit
Definition
Application of accounting methods to the tracking and collection of forensic evidence, usually for investigation and prosecution of criminal acts such as embezzlement or fraud. Also called forensic accounting.
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My major complaint years ago was PMSD didn’t have open bidding on certain construction projects. A present & past School Director - for about the last 18 years- got the Heating & Plumbing contract on the old Middle School. This was found at the bottom of a page of PMSD Board Minutes where the PAGE WAS TORN OFF. I questioned why was the page torn off at the bottom of the PDF- I was told “they were using Board Docs� That was the old method & it wasn’t done to deceive the taxpayers. Then I dug deeper & found a letter to the PA Ethics Commission from our school district solicitor from 1993. Apparently everyone thought it was a good idea to hire the School Directors Company since the PA Ethics Commission was OK with School Directors direct & indirect business dealings while they were ELECTED OFFICIALS. That letter is a PUBLIC RECORD that I found years ago before the disenrollment of my son. The current Superintendent of PMSD is aware of this record of FACT & has initiated open bidding using a service .

The back-door dealings of Mom & Pop School Boards will soon be a thing of the past. Since the resignation of Dr Lewis - There have been more Superintendents resigning: East Stroudsburg & Allentown.
The thing that really haunts me is “Did Lewis receive insider information to better his career?� or IS Dr. Lewis bailing out for fear of a black mark on his “Sterling Career�? I am also sure he would much rather see the number 2 take all the blame for this nonsensical report. Dr Lewis escaped unscathed for the $47,000 Legal report from those Allentown Law Firm after the Accera arrest.

There is a huge difference from Unethical behavior & Illegal behavior but where is the line drawn? Please remember I knew Dr Lewis way before his daughter became a lawyer & years before she ever thought of becoming an Assistant D. A. for Northampton County. I knew him (Lewis) when Dr. Sandra Fellin (Saucon Valley Superintendent) was PMSD Assistant Superintendent for Student Services & Dr Thomas Chapman (Reading School District Superintendent) was the PMSD High School Principal & Dr David Krause (Chair of PA Standards & Practices For Professional Educators) was the Superintendent of PMSD & Dr Loree Guthrie (Assistant Superintendent for Student Services PMSD) & Mr. Anthony Arnold (Assistant Superintendent Human Resources PMSD) where the Assistant Principal & Principal for my son in Middle School.
And Actions speak louder them words!

The MC keeps regurgitating this vomit of a story. We all know the BASD, in hind sight, screwed up. Can the MC please report that someone did something illegal? Can the MC please report that someone got paid off? Otherwise, this is a continued story of bad judgement of BOTH the Board and Administration. Oh well. Lewis is leaving. So, we need not worry about him making bad judgement calls. I think Board members who voted for the swap ought to RESIGN TOO! They don't get paid to do these jobs, so whats the problem? They screwed up and voted on something they should not have. The MC needs to show something more here or give up on this. Its becoming boring and tiresome.

Mcall... I'm tired of hearing about:

A. Hot Dogs, Hot Dog Guys, or Meat Products sold by vendors.

B. BASD, Swaps, BASD Swaps, or any Investigative Swaps.

Thanks!

Mary Pickford wrote:

I am also sure he would much rather see the number 2 take all the blame for this nonsensical report. Dr Lewis escaped unscathed for the $47,000 Legal report from those Allentown Law Firm after the Accera arrest.

I think that he had Tony Villani take the fall...

what a porkin for the poor taxpayers of bethlehem. on the bright side, looks like a few wall streeters got a little richer on the ignorance of our local school districts...

FROM LORRETTA LEESON'S RESPONSE:
"An impression has been left that the Bethlehem Area School Board ignorantly and recklessly put taxpayers money at risk. The reality is that the Board employed experts to advise us and questioned these experts extensively. The Board asked about the risks involved in this type of financing and was assured that the risk was low. We were not properly apprised of the risks and we were misled to believe that the synthetic fixed rate was essentially the same as a fixed rate."

It's not your fault, Director Leeson. Just continue to duck your responsibility and point fingers at someone else. Ignorance is not a defense, Director Leeson.

Don't worry about governance and oversight responsibility either, Director Leeson. Continue to excel is gossip and innuendo.

jimmy wrote:

Mcall... I'm tired of hearing about:
A. Hot Dogs, Hot Dog Guys, or Meat Products sold by vendors.
B. BASD, Swaps, BASD Swaps, or any Investigative Swaps.
Thanks!

BEST POST IN MONTHS!

Leeson needs to go from the board.

Congratulations on fine investigative journalism. Without these stories the incompetent BASD administration (Majeswki and Lewis) would not have been held accountable in public.

Now it's clear that not only did they now know what they were doing (and I'm being charitable here), but that Majewski can't even prepare an accurate report that describes what he actually did. Surely at this stage he could prepare a report that includes all the facts and meets the standards of the appropriate professional and regulatory organizations?

While Haytmanek and other directors may have found the swaps 'almost incomprehensible to the average person' I'm sure JP Morgan's bankers and the BASD financial advisors understood the swaps very well, which is exactly why Haytmanek et al should have just said "No!" I suppose it's nice to know that Haytmanek considers himself 'an average person' unlike Lewis who in the video seems to think he walks on water.

The taxpayers and children of Bethlehem have been taken to the cleaners by the BASD. We will be reminded of that when we open our tax bills and pull out our checkbooks and write a check for 5.1% more than last year. Did someone mention that the US economy is in trouble, we're approaching 10% unemployment, real wages are going down, etc.? Thanks, BASD - poor educational performance AND a tax hike. Good job!

The interesting question that remains is: Will anyone go to jail? So thanks to Lisa Boscola for triggering an official investigation - I'm sure state and federal law enforcement will be all over this to see if anyone got paid off.

And thanks to the Morning Call. We need superior journalism like this in our community to keep elected and appointed officials honest in local government, school districts, hospitals, and other public institutions using public money.

This is Pulitzer Prize winning journalism and I hope the Morning Call gets the Pulitzer it deserves.

the m c has featured many articles on this swap nightmare but apparently the basd school board is doing about as much about this as they did about accera and the missing computers. if all these articles have not pushed the school board into suspensions of certain people if not firings this is all wasted by the m c. apparently this school board does not care about the taxpayers money. HOW DO THESE BOARD MEMBERS SLEEP AT NIGHT.

seriously wrote:

<quoted text>
BEST POST IN MONTHS!

So what would you like to see in the paper?

Thoughtful readers would be very interested in your constructive suggestions.

Looks like figures can lie and liers can figure.Thank MC for the way heads up.

In response to Slow News Week's post, it doesn't matter if Majewski's actions were illegal. What matters is he mismanaged the our money and he should be held accountable for it as should all of the board members who voted on something they're admitting they didn't understand. Then the board does us the favor of increasing our school taxes "only" 5.1% to help pay for this mess. A previous response to an earlier article on this subject said we should all remember this when the next election rolls around. I know I will.

Remember a number of typical MCall BASD (Bethlehem Area Stupid District) articles back, when the LHS (and I don't mean the failed car) football coach and the retired social studies teacher sang the same song and "railed" on the problem students in the BASD saying to make them do this and that and take this and that from them as punishment for their poor behavior. Well, guys, where are your foot-balls now. How about "railing" on the Dr. Lewis and the rest of ambivalent stooge crew (School Board and the Investment banker dude on the school bored [yep, he understands them fancy swaps and such])for there problem behavior...hey, I'm paying for your retirement...and I am not getting "any bang for my buck". It's almost like Iran, when the supreme leader sez, the election ain't fixed, survey sez, WRONG. Hey but wait - your part of the system - never bite the hand that feeds the dog. Keep on wagging, dogs.

Fool me once, same on you. Fool me twice, no three times, no no four times..., welcome to the BASD.

(sing it to the gilligans island tune)

The mathematics starting getting rough... the school district was fooled... if not for the inability of the choosen few... you wouldn't be getting scr_wed, you wouldn't be getting scr_wed.

by

gilli-a-lewis, the my-yes-man-too, the investment banker, but not his wife, the school board ladies, the lawyer to...here on the BASD Island.

Here is a good news story
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31592581/ns/polit...
Accordingly Elected School Board Members are indemnified, no big surprise there. Then again we have code of conduct for The Professional Standards and Practices Commission
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pspc/cwp/view.asp... |6561|&pspcNav=|

Section 9. Improper personal or financial gain
(1) Accept gratuities, gifts or favors that might impair or appear to impair professional judgment.
(2) Exploit a professional relationship for personal gain or advantage.

Also in reviewing the Public Records of the Minutes For Their Meetings-
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/pspc/cwp/browse.as... |6553|&pspcNav=|

As of July 2008 the Commission only is posting minutes up to & including all of 2007, where Dr David Krauser name is mentioned AS A MEMBER in May 2007 minutes.
So What’s the Story:
Kelly Lewis supported the passage of the Bill The Professional Educator’s Discipline Act. Dr Krauser went to Harrisburg to found the Professional Standards & Practices Commission. Dr Joseph Lewis has a FREE PASS because Dr. Gerald L. Zahorchak, D.Ed. Can write a letter & claim there were NO missing laptops!

(sing it to the gilligans island tune)

The mathematics starting getting rough... the school district was fooled... if not for the inability of the choosen few... you wouldn't be getting scr_wed, you wouldn't be getting scr_wed.

by

gilli-a-lewis, the my-yes-man-too, the investment banker, but not his wife, the school board ladies, the lawyer to...here on the BASD Island.

Did anyone notice the word UNREGULATED. How can these people use taxpayers money in UNREGULATEED investments? I only hope someone is held accountable!

concerned parent wrote:

the m c has featured many articles on this swap nightmare but apparently the basd school board is doing about as much about this as they did about accera and the missing computers. if all these articles have not pushed the school board into suspensions of certain people if not firings this is all wasted by the m c. apparently this school board does not care about the taxpayers money. HOW DO THESE BOARD MEMBERS SLEEP AT NIGHT.

This story is just a repeat of the same thing a couple of weeks ago and the payment to JP Morgan was a part of the story along with all the other missing millions.

Evidently they are all sleeping pretty good as no one responds except to say they don't understand it.

Majewski said he saved the district 6 million but really lost 50 million.

Lisa Boscola did say she wanted the Auditor General to look into it but without knowing school district investments were not part of his job?

If anyone can prove money was taken illegally by the bankers, Majewski or Lewis then keep this story going, otherwise forget about it.

Rendell was paid off for one million .
Fumo, Veon, AG Corbett,Ira Lubert and Neil Bluhm are all on the same ride. Think back on the judges ruling on DeNaples and ask yourself if any of these Pa judges are going to send Fumo to jail for what would be a life sentence ,or the two judges and Mericle for the kids they sent to prison camp and stole millions.

The FBI and State police get the wording wrong on affidavits and the Pa judges throw all the cases out on a technicality. Why do you think Bill D'Ellia is being brought to Allentown to testify? He's already been told what to say so the judges can screw up the wording and free all the politicians.

For weeks the Morning Call has filled its paper with articles on this topic. Enough! It sounds like "thou protest too much." The newspaper and the reporters benefit from the attention, the politicians provide their political rhetoric, and I wonder what they gain from there statements, the current financial advisor has financial benefit from its comments, and people like Vic Mazzioti and other similar parties get to stroke their egos by reading their names in the paper. It appears that most of the people providing commentary benefit either politically, financially, career advancement, or by stroking their egos.

I am weary of the self serving press and individuals identified with this series of articles. Bring this matter to closure by bringing in the IRS and/or the SEC and allow the community to get the facts. Enough self serving press!! It would be quite telling if the IRS and/or the SEC chooses not to investigate these transactions. Maybe they too see these articles as tabloid reporting and will not justify taxpayer resources to assist those who are striving for personal benefit.

BASD taxpayer and voter wrote:

FROM LORETTA LEESON'S RESPONSE:
"An impression has been left that the Bethlehem Area School Board ignorantly and recklessly put taxpayers money at risk.

At least this part of her comment is true.