Last week, the Internal Auditor for the Lake County, FL School District resigned from lack of support by the elected Superintendant, Anna Cowin, and the Board. This was documented in Feb. 21 articles in both the Daily Commercial and the Orlando Sentinel's Lauren Richie column. Both of those articles are inserted at the bottom of this post.
This website was initially created in 2006 to describe continuous management problems at the School District when the District Auditor had problems with cooperation last year in 2006. Now Cowin's lack of support for the audit function has finally resulted in the Auditor leaving. For instance, they stuck the auditor in Dabney school, a mostly abandoned old school building with only 2-3 other people in it. They refused to give her a full time permanent secretary. Instead, she got temp workers who were paid so low, that three of them quit. There were constant problems with getting timely responses for documents needed for audits, and many old audit reports from the State have not been responded to by internal staff. There is no excuse for such behavior on the part of management of a public organization with $700,000 million in revenue and 5,000 employees.
Then, as noted below, an experienced CPA on the District's Audit Committee just resigned, also citing lack of cooperation from Anna Cowin.
Additionally, as the article mentions, three CFO's have quit the School District because of Cowin's heavy handed approach to "leadership". The CFO slot has been empty for three months because no one will even apply now at the School District because of Cowin's reputation.
I have asked local political leaders what can be done. "She can't be embarrassed," said one, "and she won't quit before her election term ends in 2009, so we will have to suffer through her management until then." Another source (not verified) said that Cowin's son moved out of the County after her negative management style was documented so much in the paper.
Cowin is noted for never acknowledging that she knew of problems with "cooperation with the auditor". Thus we see the quote below, which she repeats when ever asked about some internal staff problems. I note she never takes responsibility to fix any problem either.
vj
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from OrlandoSentinel.com today, March 2, 07
TAVARES -- A member of the School Board's Audit Committee resigned
Thursday, citing a lack of support from Superintendent Anna Cowin's
administration.
Bill Furnas, who co-owns an accounting firm in Eustis, was one of five members on the committee created about a year ago. Furnas' resignation followed the recent resignation of Lisa Myles, an internal auditor whom the committee had recommended for hire.
Myles resigned from her $70,000-a-year job in frustration, saying district staffers were uncooperative and stalled or ignored her requests for information.
Furnas, who voluntarily served on the audit committee, said the panel can't function effectively under Cowin's leadership.
Cowin couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, but she said has she wasn't aware of Myles' problems with getting records.
Since Cowin took office in 2004, three finance directors have left.
Nin-Hai Tseng and Christine Dellert of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
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Here is Lauren Richie's Feb. 21 Column from the Orlando Sentinel
Auditor quits rather than play Cowin games
Published February 21, 2007
The auditor said the staffers ignored her requests for information, stalled, refused and were uncooperative and occasionally rude. She got fed up and quit her $70,000-a-year job without having another lined up.
Unlike the three finance directors who bailed out since Superintendent Anna Cowin took office in 2004, this one -- who works for the School Board rather than the superintendent -- laid it on the line:
"I can't get the top people in the district staff to support the audit program. I have to scrounge around for what I need," said Lisa Myles, who has worked for the district only nine months. "They do the passive-resistance thing where they ignore you. I've been unnecessarily pushed back."
It's not that Myles has uncovered horrific mismanagement when she audited a variety of accounts, including internal accounts at 37 schools. Quite the opposite. She has found "normal deficiencies."
Increasingly, however, it became clear to her: "It wasn't the results of the audit. It was 'We don't want you here, period.' "
Cowin said in an e-mail late Tuesday that she wasn't aware of Myles' access problems. "As far as I knew, she had complete access to all files and personnel necessary for financial verification which was her responsibility. I met with her numerous times and she never seemed to indicate any problems to me or my staff," Cowin wrote.
However, the pattern Myles described fits Cowin's standard operation. She wants no oversight. That might bring criticism, for which she has zero tolerance. She takes no prisoners. She brings a gun to a knife fight and opens fire. If anything is left standing, she mows it down later by bullying.
School Board member Larry Metz, who helped set up the state-required audit committee, said Myles hit a wall at the very beginning. And after months of battles, the assistant superintendent for support services, Noah Powers, launched into the auditor with harsh criticism during a Feb. 8 meeting in which she was releasing her first completed audits. Jim Catlett, a member of the district's audit committee since its creation about a year ago, said Myles' audits are "excellent."
"I don't know what they're talking about," he said of criticism from Cowin's staff.
Powers did not return an e-mail request to discuss Myles' resignation.
Myles came from the office of the Lake County Clerk of the Court, where she audited county finances. There, she said, finance managers were helpful and supportive.
"This is a different kind of push-back. It's like night and day," said Myles, 39.
Cowin treats this as if it were a game. Let's see how long before we can drive the little number cruncher out of her skin. Too bad the superintendent's maneuvering involves $700 million of taxpayer money.
"One has to wonder why the administration would so strongly resist the School Board's auditor," Metz mused. "That resistance, by itself, strongly suggests the need for more, not less, auditing."
Regardless of Cowin's motives, the reality is that competent leaders don't stoop to such tactics. They seek out legitimate criticism from professionals and learn from it. They strive to show their work is top-notch -- not by hiding their operations and telling you they're brilliant but by letting their work be open to scrutiny.
At this point, however, this is just another reason to hope that 2008, the end of Cowin's term, comes quickly.
Lauren Ritchie can be reached at 352-742-5918 or [email protected].
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from Feb. 21 DailyCommercial.com
School district auditor resigns
| Brad Buck Staff Writer |
Lisa Myles' resignation is effective March 2. She started working for the School Board in June 2006, making $70,000 a year.
But from the start, she said, she received what she and others called "pushback" from the administration. Pushback is a way of saying there was no outward cooperation, but a passive resistance, Myles said Tuesday.
Superintendent Anna Cowin was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment.
Almost from the day Myles started, audit committee members accused Cowin and her administration of not cooperating with Myles in her quest to perform audits.
Cowin refuted the accusations, saying she and her staff always gave Myles everything she needed.
Although Myles' title was district auditor, she reported to the five-member school board. She took her orders from the board, but her work involved auditing the school district's financial records.
"I couldn't get the information I was needing," she said. "I couldn't get the cooperation I needed from the district administration."
Myles said she is not used to operating in the dark, and that is how she felt with this job. Her office is in Dabney Elementary School in Leesburg, while the central district administration office is in Tavares.
"I wanted to do an outstanding job," she said.
Myles resignation came just before she was scheduled to give her first audit report to the school board on Tuesday.
Myles said she does not have another job lined up.
School Board Chairman Larry Metz said he's sorry Myles resigned. But he said it only points to a more urgent need for more auditing of school financial records.
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