Know about a bureaucrat behaving badly? Got a link to a maddening, disturbing, or hilarious account of an out-of-control “public servant”? Contact me at dowd@dowdmuska.com or @dowdmuska.
Shawnee Mission teacher fired after arrest on felony sexual exploitation charges (KCUR)
“He’s been a prominent figure in the Kansas City swimming community … . Morris’ LinkedIn profile indicates that he’s been a swim coach with the Kansas City Blazers organization and the City of Mission Swim Club.”
Magna school teacher arrested for sexual abuse charges (KSLT)
“In the documents, police mention that Andreason also volunteers at a church where he supervises teachers who work with … children.”
San Jose teacher arrested after discovery of sexual messages with student (Bay Area News Group)
“He was booked on suspicion of possessing child pornography, contacting a minor with sexual intent, and annoying or molesting a minor.”
Guilty plea for man arrested in underage prostitution sting (KRQE)
“Aaron Maestas, a state employee arrested as part of an underage prostitution sting, took a plea deal Tuesday. Maestas pleaded guilty to one count of child solicitation by electronic communication device.”
Beloved Hudson Valley Coach, School Teacher Arrested in Narcotics Sting (WPDH)
“Today, the Monticello Central School District announced that Piscitelli is no longer on school grounds, but will instead be working from home. The message didn’t mention the teacher and coach by name but stated that the school was made aware of a teacher in the high school who was arrested.”
Former Douglas County employee pleads guilty to stealing public money (KRNV & KRXI)
“Documents revealed Petri used her position as a case manager to create fake documents for fictitious rental assistance.”
AG’s cost overrun highlights Bismarck lawmaker (KFYR)
“The end result for the Attorney General’s office: the building space. In short, the office has 2,600 square feet less than their prior office spaces they rented. But their out-of-pocket costs on a monthly basis is more. They’re locked into this current lease for 10 years.”
Legislative audit faults Morgan State for poor financial oversight (Baltimore Brew )
“‘MSU did not have an adequate process to ensure that undeliverable or uncashed refunds were returned to MSU and properly credited to student accounts,’ [sic] the report says in one of its seven critical findings. In a limited test, the auditor found that 30% of the refunds were posted to the wrong student account.”
Massachusetts auditor says program to help women veterans falling short (WBUR)
“DVS responded to our audit findings by pointing to specific instances of agency support for women veterans. Isolated events however do not make up for the lack of overall strategic planning, policy development, and performance monitoring.”
Report on JIRR Program: $8 million owed to the city by the SWBO (WGNO)
“Two billion dollars of federal and local funds were to be used to restore a large portion of the city’s damaged infrastructure. According to the Inspector General, Edward Michel, they were lacking adequate coordination of policies, procedures, and transparency with the public. The city and the SWBNO did not have coordination policies or procedures in place to guide the execution of the program.”
Auditor’s office says state ‘improperly’ paid out $166M in unemployment over five years (Port City Daily)
“Wood said overpayments are happening because the division has not been properly tracking how people are looking for jobs. It also does not have a standardized system for determining how employees and employers ended relationships.”
Taxpayers shell out $250M in police-related settlements; new report slams city efforts to learn from those mistakes (Chicago Sun-Times)
“We should be learning lessons from settlements and judgments being paid out. Those are taxpayer dollars being paid out, either because there has been a finding that something went wrong or the city has made a determination to settle a claim that something went wrong. We are missing very expensive opportunities if we are not informing ourselves and improving practices and policies as a result of those settlements and judgments.”
One of my favorite reads in No Dowd About It.