When Bruce Morris’ job position was posted back in 1999 it clearly stated that the applicant was required to have or be working towards a masters degree. It’s not an unreasonable requirement, and one that in the intervening years could have been met even if, like Mr. Morris an undergraduate degree was not yet earned. Of course Morris has done nothing about his job qualifications but he has spent time working the system to get onto labor agreement contracts.
In 2005, the BOE created the “Terms and Conditions Governing Employment of Certain Employees Collectively Treats at the Executive Support Group.” This agreement covers the period of July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2009. It’s rather basic stuff, spelling out policy regarding termination, sick days, vacation days etc. On page 11, it details the employees covered, all 18 of them and their salary schedule.
In the copy I reviewed last night, this bound document also has a supplemental page 11, loose, not bound within in at it details a list of 19 employees with a footnote at the bottom to explain that Reichenbach, Harris and Toth have been removed. OK, in the last two years they have had personnel changes, and so there should be 3 new names on the list. But there are 4. And guess who shows up on the list? Bruce Morris.
Now, we know that Morris was already employed, so he is not a new employee. We don’t know, or I should say I don’t know about the names of MCCready, Hopp and Peniston. One of those names has the same salary schedule as Harris. THe others, except for Morris are less than the names that they replaced. The bottom line is that in 2005 the total salary was $284,510. The new page 11 says that in 2005 the new salary is $302,420, a bit of retro action chicanery because when the document was created the list had different names. I am using the 2005 numbers in this example to show the increase as compared to the original year the schedule was created. I should point out that the Morris’ salary increases from his 2005 $80,716 each year until in 2009 it reaches $89,491.
I did not find any BOE minutes between 2005 and 2007 that explained the addition of one person to the Executive Support Group. I did find this paragraph in January of this year:
Dr. Corda explained that the Parent Leader Training Institute is directed from the Human Relations Office, which is headed by Rev. Morris. In addition there are two community outreach workers that Rev. Morris also supervises. Mr. Fuller stated that this was not reflected in the goals for the Human Resource Office. Dr. Corda said that this would be changed to reflect that.
Morris is now supervising people? And that is now a goal of the Human Relations office? And Corda is just going to “change” the goals after a BOE member questions it?
The questions about Morris are clear cut.
He is working in an educational institution without the required educational credentials. His time is not accounted for. He is supposedly supervising people and he “mysteriously” appears on an executive support group labor agreement with no explanation.
Dr. Corda has some explaining to do. And he will be forced too since the Morris issue is not going to go away, not with readers here who have dedicated themselves to FOI-ing documents that end up in a large stack next to my desk.
So keep the documents coming, and let’s all work hard to keep the sunlight on our officials and agencies.
