As I referenced in my article yesterday, Virginia Korte’s minions are calling Tonalea neighbors’ concerned about the blight-it-so-we-can-repurpose-it strategy “conspiracy theorists.”
According to Wikipedia,
A conspiracy theory is an explanatory proposition that accuses two or more persons, a group, or an organization of having caused or covered up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an illegal or harmful event or situation.
Wikipedia goes on to define,
A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective.
I believe a strong motivation for subscribing to a “conspiracy theory” is having experienced the action before.
In the case of SUSD, there was a little matter about 15 years ago that resulted in sanctions by the Arizona Attorney General. You can read the report yourself at:
Investigative report: misfeasance by officials of Scottsdale Unified School District No. 48
The summary includes these findings:
- Projects totaling $11,725,425 were awarded in violation of procurement rules
- District employees received discounts and other favors from certain vendors
- A District administrator and his spouse personally benefited by misusing District equipment
I’m NOT saying or implying that the current SUSD administration is involved in anything like these serious transgressions. However, the 1998 report also included:
- Restrictive proposal specifications [to steer contracts to favored vendors]
- Improper “sole source” classification
- Illegal contract extensions
- Missing procurement records
- Improper contracts
Fines levied on the school district by the state amounted to tens of millions of dollars. Where did that money come from? Probably not much from the administrator. Likely most came from the classrooms, which means ultimately from you and me, the taxpayers.
At the very least this dust-up over Tonalea Elementary includes elements of improper procedure and sloppy paperwork. At worst…who knows? Certainly there’s been a healthy serving of secrecy.
So, as one of Bob Littlefield’s favorite rules instructs:
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that they are not really out to get you.