Sees “Serious Consequences” if Board Fails to Comply
Yonkers, NY -- Yonkers City Council Minority Leader Liam McLaughlin (R-C, 4) today warned the Yonkers Board of Education that there would be “serious consequences” if it failed to comply with an inquiry from the Yonkers Inspector General Phil Zisman regarding the Board’s annual $65 million health care expense.
“Like it or not, the Board of Education is an agency of this
city government and as such is subject to the laws of the city insofar as they
do not conflict with state law,” McLaughlin said. “The Inspector General has not only the right
but the obligation to investigate spending by city agencies and the Board of
Education is not exempt from his purview.”
“Should the Board of Education continue down this path, it
will certainly face subpoenas from the Council’s Budget Committee if the
Inspector General does not issue them first,” McLaughlin warned. “Continued defiance would result in a hard
look at the level of support the Board of Education expects from the City and
could lead to its removal from the City budget.”
“It is simply untenable for the Board of Education to ask
for more and more support from city taxpayers while refusing city officials
their right to examine the Board’s extravagant spending,” McLaughlin said.
The Yonkers Office of Inspector General published a report
on the city’s health insurance payments in 2004, but that study did not include
the Board of Education or other municipal agencies, McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin noted that disgraced former Schools
Superintendent Andre Hornsby had resisted attempts by the Inspector General to
conduct studies and investigations at the Board of Education on jurisdictional
grounds but that the matter had been resolved when the Trustees adopted a
resolution in 2000 designating the Inspector General for the City of Yonkers as
the Inspector General for the City of Yonkers Public Schools.
The Office of Inspector General has made 10 formal reports
on matters involving the Board of Education since 1998.
“The public has a right to know that this growing expenditure is proper and necessary, and a study by the Inspector General is the proper way to proceed,” McLaughlin said. “If this Board thinks we will shirk from a confrontation to get the answers for the city’s taxpayers, they need to rethink their position.”
