Commissioner Calls For Investigation Of CMS School Board Vice Chairman
Mecklenburg Commissioner Bill James has asked the county’s internal auditor to investigate possible improprieties or illegalities concerning salary and benefit payments made to the school board’s newly elected vice chairman, Mary McCray, when she was employed as a teacher by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and also served as president of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Association of Educators (CMAE), a position she held for five years.
McCray dropped her CMAE post this year when she launched her school board bid and retired as a teacher after 24 years with CMS, according to her campaign’s website.
Before she retired, McCray was considered a so-called fulltime release employee of CMS. In that capacity, she remained on the CMS payroll and apparently continued to amass retirement and pension benefits through the school system. But she likely never stepped foot in the classroom as an actual teacher; instead McCray was fully engaged with her duties as president of the CMAE – a quasi-union entity with deep ties to the union-heavy National Education Association – which reimbursed CMS for her pay package to the tune of nearly $80,000 last year.
The work/pay relationship between CMS and the CMAE struck a familiar chord with James when he stumbled across a situation unfolding in Chatham County, where the school district has come under scrutiny for including on its payroll an associate commissioner of the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
A recent state auditor’s report contends that, “From June 2010 through April 2011, the Athletic Association transferred $95,192.10 to Chatham County Schools to fund the Associate Commissioner’s salary and benefits including $12,592.11 in retirement contributions … However, the Associate Commissioner was never an employee of Chatham County Schools and was not eligible to continue contributing to the Retirement System. The intentional misrepresentation of the Associate Commissioner’s employment may be a violation of North Carolina General Statute § 14-100, Obtaining property by false pretenses.”
The state auditor’s report alleges that the NCHSSA and Chatham County Schools “devised an arrangement that would enable the Associate Commissioner to receive benefit for which he was knowingly not eligible as an employee of the Athletic Association.”
In that regard the Chatham County Schools situation appears to differ somewhat from the CMS/CMAE relationship; McCray was classified as a CMS employee, albeit one on leave who apparently did no substantive work for CMS during her stint with the CMAE.
As justification for the cozy CMS/CMAE relationship, school officials point to a section of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction Benefits and Employment Policy Manual:
“Upon the recommendation of the local superintendent, local boards of education may grant leave with pay for elected officers of professional organizations, provided the organization pays the full salary and all benefit costs for the employee on leave. During such leave with pay, the employee will earn sick, personal, and annual vacation leave and receive paid holidays. Employees will be eligible to use leave as they would when in active status with the school system.”
“Contracts are written for release employees spelling out how much the CMAE would have to reimburse CMS for release employee salary and benefits while on leave,” informs CMS spokesperson Stacy Sneed. “Employees earn time toward the retirement as if he/she were working. While on leave the CMAE would supervise release employees.”
McCray did not return a phone call seeking comment.
When contacted about James’ allegations regarding CMS and its arrangement with the CMAE, the N.C. Department of State Treasurer responded that the inquiry “has been put into the Retirement Systems’ internal process for factual review and compliance management,” according to Julia Vail, deputy director of communications.
During the school years stretching from 2006 to 2011, CMS was reimbursed nearly $370,000 by the CMAE for McCray’s full salary. The payments were made to her through CMS and were submitted as retirement eligible income with the required 6 percent contribution, according to Sneed.
“Since the County pays for the local portion of the state pension contribution, the laundering of part-time pay through the pension system is increasing the cost to Mecklenburg County taxpayers,” James writes in his request for the county’s auditor to launch an investigation of the CMS/CMAE relationship. “Merely reimbursing the ‘6%’ still results in significant costs to taxpayers, which in the case of CMS means that taxpayers are subsidizing the pensions of union officials (sic) not actually working for or on behalf of the taxpayers.
“The CMS Board,” James writes, “seems fully aware of this as they approve an annual contract with the union organization (sic) to receive the funds and recycle them.”
Indeed, the school board in July approved an agreement to continue the same employee-release relationship for McCray’s successor at the CMAE. The agreement allows Randolph Frierson, a CMS early intervention coach, “to take professional leave of absence from CMS to meet his obligations as the CMAE president … CMAE will reimburse CMS for the full salary and benefit costs of Mr. Frierson during his professional leave of absence.”
James said, “I don’t see how or why anybody can or should be considered a CMS employee when the person doesn’t do any work for CMS and doesn’t answer to anybody in CMS.”
In that regard, James contends the CMS/CMAE relationship presents a troubling parallel to the scheme that unfolded in Chatham County, where the state auditor concluded that because the athletic commissioner in question performed “no services” for the school system, and a separate entity “assigned all duties and responsibilities for his supervision, daily direction and control,” he should not legitimately be considered an employee of Chatham County Schools.
“Given that Ms McCray had 100% of her salary reimbursed I don’t see much difference in her situation and that outlined in the state auditor’s report,” James writes in his request for a local investigation. “It certainly is benefiting the union officer at the expense of NC and Mecklenburg County taxpayers as union work provides no benefit to the government in a right-to-work state. Over the years, the union rep’s (sic) in Mecklenburg have engaged in overt political activity on behalf of the Democrat party and their candidates for office.”
Including this year, it should be noted, when McCray was among the candidates that the CMAE endorsed for school board.
“Even if there’s some bureaucratic loophole that allows CMS to launder money for the CMAE, it’s a practice that needs to stop,” James said in an interview. “It might be technically legal, but it’s unethical by any rational definition.”
We need your help! If you like PunditHouse, please consider donating to us. Even $5 a month can make a difference!
Short URL: https://pundithouse.com/?p=8108
