Broward County School Board member, Brenda Fam, has wasted no time in addressing wasteful spending in the Broward Schools.
Mrs. Fam took on a majority of school board members that were in favor of retaining rather than firing, then Superintendent, Vickie Cartwright after the Board unanimously voted for Cartwright's removal in October.
Much like the end of the Runcie regime, politics clearly played a part in keeping the failed
Superintendent and partisan loyalty and emotions ran high. Clearly what was good for the machine versus what was good for the taxpayer were, once again, in opposition.
Even two of the newly elected board members, Allen Zeman and Jeff Holness were caught up in the drama! (ed note: see linked article to Sup's severance)
The two primary issues that delayed Cartwright's removal were:
The original motion was made by a Board member appointed by Governor DeSantis.
Board members Zeman and Holness objected to the process and fought to set aside the notice of termination letter that had previously been issued. This despite the fact that the Board's house Counsel, Batista's legal opinion that the vote to terminate complied with the State's Sunshine Laws.
Fam pointed out that voiding the termination letter would result in resetting the countdown clock and require another 60 days to pass before termination.
Zeman dismissed these concerns, thereby potentially blocking that which would have resulted in approximately another $98,000 in taxpayer savings!
Perhaps if the motion had been made by a man instead?
**Anonymous source(s) have advised that it has been observed that Zeman is know to be condescending and dismissive to female coworkers and that attitude extends to female attorneys on the dais. (Nora Rupert? Brenda Fam? we will be looking for comments)**
and then there's this:
Starting in November, a newly elected Board, including Fam, formed a majority that overrode the earlier stay and moved towards dismissal for Cartwright.
This led to the televised Severence negotiation which was estimated to be anywhere from $360,000 to 500,000 of taxpayer money going out to Ms. Cartwright as a golden parachute.
Luckily Mrs. Fam was able to rally the vote and removed the consulting clause from Cartwright's contract. That and the earlier action on the vote allowed for (in this County anyway) a taxpayer savings/windfall of $98,000 to put toward teacher's salaries!
(Ed note: the number would have been $196,000 if they had not voided the termination letter)
When called for comment, Mrs. Fam simply stated,"My objective is to cut waste and find all available money for the teacher's salaries"
Our rating for the operation: A+
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