CSBA Scott Plotkin’s troubling resignation
Caught in lies he told the news media last week about questionable credit card expenses and about salary cuts over the past year that he claimed he took – but didn’t, Scott Plotkin resigned Friday as executive director of the California School Boards Association. In a brief statement on CSBA’s web site, Plotkin wrote, “I am sorry if my actions have damaged the reputation of CSBA and the vital work being conducted by the Association. It was certainly not my intent.”
There is no “if” about it. Plotkin, who effectively led the organization for nine years, has scorched it on his way out. And the CSBA officers and board members must go beyond their tight-lipped responses to questions about pay and expenses if it’s to rebuild credibility with the public and the nearly 1,000 school districts whose CSBA dues are funded through tax dollars.
CSBA, which is suing the state over inadequate funding for K-12 schools, paid Plotkin $540,000 in 2007-08, including a bonus of $175,000. That same year, Plotkin, used his business credit card to draw $11,000 in cash advances at casinos.
A CSBA spokeswoman would not disclose Plotkin’s current salary, and CSBA President Frank Pugh wouldn’t give the answer to another obvious question: What will be Plotkin’s retirement package through the California Public Employees Retirement System? Both said the information is confidential. Pugh said that CSBA would hire an independent firm to review salaries and expenses. What he should have promised is that the CSBA would make those findings public.
A records check of the most recent tax filings by the Sacramento Bee found that Plotkin earned $290,000 in 2005-06, $353,000 in 2006-07 and $365,000 in ’07-08 plus the $175,000 bonus. The base pay was $100,000-plus more than that earned by CEOs of similar California associations that represent local governments.
Last week, Sacramento TV station KCRA first revealed the use of the business credit card for gambling expenses. Plotkin said he repaid CSBA the money, and KCRA said records show that he did. But in an interview with the station, Plotkin said that the CSBA board of directors was aware of the use of the money and that he had taken a 4 percent pay cut this year. In his resignation statement, Plotkin acknowledged both statements were untrue.
Along with lobbying for school districts in Sacramento, CSBA offers an extensive range of seminars and trainings in governance and finances that are supposed to prevent the embarrassments and improprieties in which CSBA now finds itself. The $5 million in dues that districts pay to CSBA is a small fraction of 1 percent of state funding of K-12 schools and a small piece of CSBA’s largely fee-based budget. But the high salary and loose control of expenses won’t help CSBA’s lawsuit for more funding – at least not in the court of public opinion.
“Hearing about this compensation package is absolutely incredulous and undermines any moral authority that CSBA had in filing their lawsuit,” Sen. Gloria Romero, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, told the Bee.
The Association of California School Administrators, the state PTA, nine school districts and lawyers representing dozens of low-income, minority students also filed the suit, Robles-Wong v. State of California.
13 Comments
"Darn, I wish I had read that over again before I hit send.” Don’t let this be your lament. To promote a civil dialogue, please be considerate, respectful and mindful of your tone. We encourage you to use your real name, but if you must use a nom de plume, stick with it. Anonymous postings will be removed.
 |
Featured Video |
Did You Know?
Just the Facts
Other Sites to Watch
View More >>
SVEF is the education foundation advocating for the needs of school districts across Silicon Valley. SVEF seeks to improve public education through establishing partnerships with the private sector and the education community ..
It is unfortunate that many of our CEOs and other leaders put personal gain above the integrity of their respective organizations. CSBA has for many years provided a service to school districts both large and small that has been of “real” value. The work in the area of board policies was particularly helpful to the districts where I served as superintendent. Conducting superintendent searches was also done in a very professional way by this organization. The work in Sacramento as a voice for school districts was and is one of their most important roles. It is important now that CSBA deal with this open wound in a “timely and definitive” way and move on as there is much work to do.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Groups like CSBA, the Community College League of California, the California County Boards of Education, the League of California Cities and countless groups for segments of public employees and civic appointees operate with public funds, but minimal public oversight and loads of attitude about their rights to operate in private as much as they can. Austerity? Not in the vocabulary. Accountability based on the public funding stream? No way. There is a culture to defend as many loopholes as possible and to oppose disclosure legislation. I serve on the board of the California Community College Trustees (as an elected volunteer) and repeatedly see an overdeference to staff and a reluctance to review operational details because “we have to trust staff.” Yet, staff has stated “well, CSBA doesn’t do it that way.” My perspective is funding with public money should lead to full public disclosure. Some CSBA services are high quality. Nonetheless, aggressively go after CSBA’s Plotkin and make sure everyone in California knows which CSBA delegates voted to approve his obscenely rich contract and bonus.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
The concerns about transparency in our public agency-supporting organizations are reasonable, which is why the Community College League of California posts its current year budget, dues, salary and audit information on our website.
http://www.ccleague.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3336
This goes far beyond the required disclosure of the IRS Form 990, which has a two-year delay, and we will continue to voluntarily operate in the spirit of the Brown Act and the Public Records Act.
Scott Lay
President and CEO
Community College League of California
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
I think Chris Stampolis makes strong points. He clearly has a level head when it comes to holding people accountable, as can be seen in this article which is the first hit when you google his name:
http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/26/delegate-whacked-in-assault-case-against-lady/
Thanks Chris for making this so easy!
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
You wrote: “What will be Plotkin’s retirement package through the California Public Employees Retirement System?”
Plotkin’s CSBA retirement wouldn’t be through PERS. CSBA is a non-profit organization, not a governmental body. I think it’s very reasonable to ask about the retirement/severance package he will receive; but anything based on CSBA work won’t be coming to him through PERS.
John
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
My understanding, John, is that CSBA is included in the public retirement system because of a law it was able to get passed years back.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
CSBA is in PERS under the Local Miscellaneous program.
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/employer/actuarial-gasb/risk-pooling/val-results-misc2.0-60.pdf
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Quick! Someone page Senator Simitian… using public credit cards for cash advances at casinos or anywhere else definitely falls into the “there ought to be a law” category. While we’re at it, I present a simple solution: JAIL.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Re: CalPERS, I stand corrected.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Actually, salaries of employees in nonprofits over $100,000 are not confidential–they must reported on the IRS public documents, which is how Plotkin’s was disclosed.
The Form 990 will also require the CSBA officers to disclose their stipends. In 2007-08, the chair was paid $25,000. These also must be on the Form 700s filled out locally as school board members.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
It would be very interesting to learn more about how much the other CSBA executives earn (sure are a lot of Deputy and Assistant Executive Directors) and how board directors, directors at large and delegates are compensated. As for the CalPERS inclusion, are you kidding me?!! For those of us in the trenches raising funds and advocating for California public schools, this just makes our [volunteer] work that much harder.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
Sad, sad, sad! Having been a school board member for 15 years, I’ve found CSBA to be an effective advocate for public education under Scott Plotkin’s leadership. But this saga has done more harm to CSBA than can likely be repaired in 5 years. Now the only credible response from elected CSBA leadership is to display absolute transparency as it works to repair the damage. The last several years of salary will likely spike Scott’s retirement payment into the stratophere–putting the taxpayer on the hook for any PERS funding shortfall—all too likely a prospect in CA right now.
Obviously Scott is not the leader we thought him to be, but those who were willing to bless his salary/bonus payments have some serious soul-searching to do as well. Even tho I expect that not all directors voted in favor of these payments, the group think that would allow this kind of abuse must have been intoxicating.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity
This news forces Democrats to graciously admit that there is some nasty excess out there. There is among conservatives a new hunger in their ranks to expose dishonesty like this. It takes very very little news like this to cause a great deal of damage to very worthwhile government spending on education. May those who are engaged in larceny stop before vast areas of public expenditure are cut off.
Report this comment for abusive language, hate speech and profanity