Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993 TAG: 9303200242
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BOARD DIFFERS ON FATE OF CONSULTING CONTRACT
Roanoke School Board members disagreed Friday over whether retiring School Superintendent Frank Tota would have to work 20 days each year to earn a $35,000 annual consultant's fee included in his early retirement package.Tota will be leaving the area to take a superintendent's job in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. He begins the new job July 1.
School Board member Jay Turner angered his colleagues on the board by stating publicly Thursday that Tota was free to take another position and still collect his consultant's fee without doing any work.
"He was really not speaking for all the board members," said School Board member Wendy O'Neil. "I thought it demonstrated a rather cavalier attitude toward the taxpayers' money."
"I really believe that if we're going to pay him $35,000 a year, then we need to make sure he's doing something productive," board member Don Poff said.
But Turner, one of only two remaining members of the board that negotiated Tota's contract four years ago, said the board never intended to avail itself of Tota's services. It has the option of doing so for each of the seven years he will receive the money.
The contract, Turner said, was intended as an incentive to keep Tota in the superintendent's job.
Tota refused to discuss the issue of his retirement pay Friday.
"I think it's for the board to talk about it at this point," he said.
Marilyn Curtis, who also served on the board during the negotiations, said she never understood the contract and voted against it. She said that board members had a very short time to review the contract before making a decision. But she said she believed Tota was under a legal obligation to work for the money.
Turner said the package was similar to those offered in the private sector in which executives are paid consulting fees but not called upon to work. It is also the same plan that was available to retiring teachers that year.
Teachers, however, are usually called upon to work as substitutes, board members said.
Another reason to excuse Tota from his 20-day obligation, Turner said, is to comply with a request from incoming Superintendent E. Wayne Harris.
Harris "has indicated that he does not see a need to use those 20 days," Turner said. "He said he would be uncomfortable with that type of arrangement."
From his office in Northern Virginia, Harris confirmed that he had asked the board not to call upon Tota after he leaves.
"It makes an already difficult job more difficult to have the outgoing person - in this case Dr. Tota, who has been there 12 years and has been very successful - to be present looking over one's shoulder," Harris said.
Emphasizing that his request was "not personal at all," Harris said he made his feelings known to the board before he accepted the job.
Nonetheless, several board members said they felt it was wrong to pay Tota for doing nothing.
"I'm not going to be favorable to $35,000 annually of taxpayer money for no work," said board member Nelson Harris. "I just don't think it's ethical. And I don't think it's good stewardship of taxpayers' money."
O'Neil suggested that Tota return each summer to teach an advanced humanities class rather than work with the new superintendent.
He'll have plenty of time to do that if he has to, said Dobbs Ferry School Board President Martin Berger. Tota's three-year contract includes five weeks of annual vacation time.
"How Dr. Tota manages that with the Virginia system is Dr. Tota's affair," he said.