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By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer
May 23 -- When City Council members vote on a funding
increase for local schools Thursday night, they'll most likely
do it without hearing from the District's former chief financial
officer.
Despite threats by some Council members to oppose a $750,000
increase in City funding for schools unless Winston Braham
speaks publicly about District finances, no further deal has
been reached between the CFO and School officials to further
loosen his settlement agreement.
"I don't think there is going to be any more movement
on that than we've already done," said Superintendent
Dianne Talarico Monday. "It's an eight-month old story."
"If the City Council wishes to speak with me, and I
am not in any way bound by the Separation Agreement, I will
present myself and be as helpful as possible," Braham
wrote in an email response to The Lookout Wednesday.
"It's my expectation that the City will act favorably
even without ever speaking with me," Braham predicted
of the upcoming vote.
In a compromise to allow Braham to address any council concerns
that could jeopardize City funding, District officials on
May 7 amended a broad confidentiality clause in the former
CFO’s $189,000 departure agreement, which originally
barred him from speaking publicly about district finances
without the approval of School officials.
But Braham said last week that he worried he could still
breach his contract under a second clause, called a "non-disparagement
clause." (see
story)
"I just figure unless they lift it, I won't speak,"
Braham said in a Lookout interview May 15. "The key word
is 'disparage.' Something that is true but is negative could
be viewed as disparaging," he said.
District officials have said they do no agree with Braham’s
interpretation.
Since February, Council member Bobby Shriver has said he
may vote against the school funding increase unless the confidentiality
clause is lifted.
After it settlement agreement was amended last week, Shriver
repeated that he, along with possibly two other council members,
could continue to block the $750,000 District funding increase,
part of an unprecedented three-year-old agreement with the
City.
Last year the District received $6.5 million, and the amount
could grow to $7.2 million if the council approves the increase
Thursday night.
Everyone involved in the controversy has said Braham -- who
left soon after a dispute with the superintendent over a tentative
teachers’ pay hike -- will impart no information that
has not already been revealed by an independent audit conducted
earlier this year.
"I have never wanted to nor intend to say much,"
Braham wrote in his email.
Braham predicts the council will approve the funding with
or without his testimony.
"Clearly, both the Council and the District are fully
aware of the relationship between a viable school district
and the appeal of the community which now supports the district
with well over $20.0 million... annually over and above the
school district's traditional revenues," Braham wrote.
"With that understood and/or believed, the district
will always rely on the City's financial support and even
to their detriment the City will always acquiesce," he
said.
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