Diaz Driver in Connecticut

Systemwide audit urged for schools
Connecticut Post

Given disclosures of the last few weeks regarding behavior in the Bridgeport public school system, we believe it's time for Mayor John M. Fabrizi to call for a systemwide financial audit of the education department. On the one hand, Bridgeport officials wring their hands about things like the reduction in hours of coverage by school nurses.

On the other hand, Schools Supt. Sonia Diaz-Salcedo and other officials travel freely and use a school security consultant on overtime payment as their private chauffeur for trips to and from local airports.

These are simply a couple of high-profile examples of questionable spending by school officials.
In how many other instances not so high-profile has money meant for education been frittered away on perks for administrators or on who knows what else?

Consultant racks up overtime Ex-cop doubles pay by driving school administrators to airports

BILL CUMMINGS - Connecticut Post

BRIDGEPORT A city schools security consultant is being paid $40 an hour in overtime to drive Supt. of Schools Sonia Diaz Salcedo to and from airports. These trips, however, are just a small portion of the overtime wages that Eugene O'Neill has been paid over the last three years.
In 2002, O'Neill collected $39,314 in overtime, for total compensation of $93,893
nearly double his regular pay of $54,579.

A longtime player in city Democratic politics and a former city police officer, O'Neill is also chairman of the city's Board of Police Commissioners. A Connecticut Post investigation reveals that over the last two years, O'Neill was regularly paid overtime to chauffeur Salcedo, Board of Education President Joan Nobriga, and other school officials to and from New York City and Connecticut airports.

O'Neill was paid overtime for five airport trips this year and seven in 2002. A city car was used, and presumably gas paid for by the city. Those being driven to the airport said they were traveling to school-related conferences or functions. Salcedo and other top-ranking school officials have recently come under fire for the cost of their travels to conferences and seminars.

For an April 18 trip, O'Neill was paid seven hours overtime, or $280, to pick up Salcedo and Nobriga at JFK International Airport. Connecticut Limo could have made the same trip for $50 per person one way, or $100 round-trip, according to prices listed on the company's Web site.
O'Neill is paid $26 per hour, and his overtime pay is nearly $40 an hour. Most of his overtime was for a variety of school duties, such as assignments to help find missing students and provide security at basketball games.

"He should get the Golden Fleece Award," said school board member Jack O'Connell, referring to O'Neill's overtime record. "He was hired [in 1994] under contract at $37,500. How you get to $90,000 is beyond me. But it's typical of the way things operate around here. It's awful and a disgrace," O'Connell said.

When told of O'Neill's added pay, Salcedo claimed she didn't know he is being paid that much, or that he has been paid overtime to drive her and other school officials to the airport. When confronted with the information, the superintendent said O'Neill will now only work a 40-hour week, and overtime will require specific approval from a deputy school superintendent.
"I was shocked at what he accumulated," Salcedo said, adding that a systemwide review of school overtime pay is also under way.

According to school payroll records, O'Neill was paid the second highest amount of overtime
$39,314 of any school employee during 2002.
...
"I worked last Christmas because there was no one else to do it," O'Neill said.
Referring to driving Salcedo to airports, O'Neill said, "If someone says, 'Go pick me up,' I do it."
Still, questions remain over why O'Neill was allowed to rack up so much overtime, considering his contract states he is an independent contractor not eligible for benefits or even vacation time. His job description also does not include assignments such as driving school officials.

Questions are also being asked about why Salcedo who is supplied a car under terms of her contract needs a driver at all. And why she would allow overtime to be paid for a driver's service when she and other advocates for city schools have complained for several years that the city's education budget is not adequate.

His overtime apparently began the same year Salcedo was hired as superintendent in 2001.
But Salcedo said "he's not my driver. "He's not driving me around town. He took me to Hartford a couple of times. He has driven me to the airport occasionally. I've also driven myself and my husband has driven me," the superintendent said.

She said there were no side trips, such as shopping excursions or tours, during O'Neill's travels to the airports. Initially, Salcedo suggested that using O'Neill as a driver was cheaper than a limousine service. But considering the overtime, she acknowledged his services are more expensive.

Pressed on why she professed to not know that he was being paid overtime to drive her, Salcedo said it never came up. "He volunteered or I asked him. I didn't think he was being paid, especially on weekends. I never said, 'Are you on overtime?' " Salcedo said.
She also complained that none of her staff had raised a "red flag" regarding O'Neill's overtime.
John Norko, the school district's business manager, said despite the fact that O'Neill is not a regular employee, school officials had to pay him overtime because of state and federal workplace regulations.

O'Neill did not dispute the superintendent's explanation, but did offer a different perspective.
He said he never informed the superintendent he was being paid overtime for driving her to an airport, and said he never discussed the level of overtime he is paid. "I thought it was understood. I work Monday through Friday. I have some days off," he said. "I never volunteered to take her. I got called."

O'Neill said he also drove the superintendent to a variety of functions, some around Bridgeport and to other events out-of-town. "I've taken her to visit schools, to Wilton [for a meeting] and Sacred Heart. Sometimes I'd drop her off and went back to work. When I was asked, I'd do it," O'Neill said. He said he never ran personal errands for Salcedo or drove her anywhere unrelated to school business. ..