Adco School District Squandered Taxpayer Dollars

DENVER (CBS4) - Adams County School District 50 squandered precious taxpayer dollars month after month by not paying credit card bills on time, according to a CBS4 Investigation.

"You think it's fair to say this was a waste of taxpayer dollars?," CBS4 investigator Brian Maass asked school superintendent Dr. Roberta Selleck. "Absolutely, absolutely," Selleck replied.

CBS4 reviewed a sampling of Selleck's District 50 credit card bills between 2007 and 2010. They showed the district repeatedly paid late for Selleck's monthly credit card bills, incurring finance charges that ran between 21 percent to 24 percent a month. Those late fees ranged from $75.13 one month to $93.04 another month.

"That seems financially irresponsible," Maass said. "You know what? We agree," Selleck said.

She could not explain precisely how the wasteful practice continued month after month saying ,"Talk to our director of finance."

Selleck said the problem was remedied about a year ago when the district gave up those credit cards and went to a different method of paying monthly bills.

It's a district that can ill afford wasting money. District 50 has 9,862 students spread among 19 schools. More than 70 percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to district figures. The district is dealing with a 3.63 percent budget reduction for the current school year.

According to the district's website, on Nov. 23 district teachers and many support staff took a furlough day. Additionally, no District 50 employees received cost-of-living or base pay increases this year. Salaries for district administrative staff are also frozen this year. Nearly 16 full-time positions have been eliminated through attrition.

That makes the wasted money even more galling to Dino Valente, a vocal critic of the district's spending habits.

"This is no way to conduct business," Valente said as he viewed the monthly credit card bills scrutinized by CBS4. "This is the public's money. Anybody can be caught for one month, but month after month tells me there's no accountability. What you flipped through in half a dozen pages probably could have bought two computers for a classroom that doesn't have any. That's wrong."

"This will not happen again in this school district," Selleck pledged.

The CBS4 probe found other expenditures that apparently slipped through the cracks. In 2009 the district paid for then school board member Charles Hensel to fly to a conference in Orlando, Fla. But expense records show the district also paid for his wife, Elizabeth Hensel to travel to Florida.

"That would not be our norm," Selleck said. "When you asked for that we could not find reimbursement for the spouse of the board member."

She said she contacted Hensel after the CBS4 Investigation and Hensel has now reimbursed the district $239 to cover his wife's airfare.

Some of Selleck's own expenditures and accounting practices are also raising eyebrows. For numerous restaurant meals, ranging in price from just a few dollars to over $100, Selleck submitted numerous receipts with no information on who she ate with or what the business purpose was. Taxpayers would have no way of knowing whether or not Selleck was conducting official district business based on the receipts submitted.

"Since you called that to our attention, absolutely, that's an area that will improve. It was a lapse," Selleck said. "It will improve from this point forward, rest assured."

The superintendent defended some of her other expenditures. In 2009 Selleck attended an education conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs from Dec. 3 through Dec. 5. District records show an advance reservation was made in her name for a standard $150 per night room. But the reservation record shows a special request -- "King bed on the lake side" of the resort. Her itemized hotel bill shows that for each night of her stay, the district ended up paying an extra $96.28 for a room upgrade.

Selleck said she did not remember what occurred and had to check with a school district staff member. She said the staff member told her that even though she had an advance reservation, when she arrived, the hotel had run out of the $150 a night rooms reserved for her and other conference attendees.

"What I recall is they had a room at an upcharge," Selleck said.

Records show her husband, Pete Selleck, stayed with her at the Broadmoor.

The school district paid for another room upgrade when Selleck attended a conference in San Francisco. She stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. For each of the four nights, records show Selleck incurred an extra $50 a night room upgrade charge on top of the $212 per night room fee. She explained that she checked in late at night and the first room she was put in smelled of smoke so she requested a different room. But she said hotel staff told her they were full and the only other room they could provide would cost an extra $50 per night. She said she agreed.

"I wish I had more energy to fight that issue and it is what it is," she said.

On a 2008 trip to Chicago, the district paid $26 for two in-room movies for Selleck. Asked about the district paying that kind of expense, Selleck said, "No, it's not okay and I did not watch movies." Selleck said, "I never watch movies in a room -- never." Asked why she didn't ask for the charges to be immediately removed from her bill, Selleck explained she never checked her bill when she left the hotel. "I had no idea that charge was on there. It took me by surprise."

Selleck is not surprised by questions about other expenditures of hers that she says were "judgment calls." In September 2009, she spent $63.37 on flowers, $4.99 of it for "rush delivery" -- to send flowers to Colorado Education Commissioner Dwight Jones. The accompanying card read, "Dear Commissioner, I certainly hope these flowers put a smile on your face that mirrors the one that I had when I read your guest column last week! (Actually I was beaming!) Thank you from the bottom of my heart, your leadership is highly valued. Sincerely, Roberta."

A couple months later she spent $33.93 of district money to send flowers to school board member Marilyn Flachman, one of her bosses. "Welcome to a second term! Roberta," read the card. At the same time, she spent $44.21 to send flowers to another board member, Sharon Whitehair. "Welcome to the Board of Education! Roberta," read the card.

Asked if she was buttering up her bosses at taxpayer expense, Selleck said, "I can understand that perspective." But she says the flowers were sent on behalf of 1,200 district employees to volunteer board members. "I thought it was appropriate at the time," Selleck said.

She also said spending $100.to buy sockeye salmon for board members was an appropriate expense. Expense records show that as she was returning from a trip to a school district in Alaska, on a stopover at the Seattle airport, Selleck spent $99.95 to buy Copper River Smoked Sockeye salmon for board members.

"It was again a token of appreciation to board members to say, 'Wish you could have come up with us to see what we experienced here.'"

After seeing the invoice, spending critic Valente said, "If she wants to buy them a gift she should do it with her own money, not the taxpayer money. It's not hers to spend frivolously like that."

Selleck also defended her expenditures of district funds on two out-of-town conferences.

In February 2010 she attended a National Conference on Education at the Phoenix Convention Center from Feb. 11 through Feb. 13. But rather than staying in downtown Phoenix at one of the nearby host hotels for the conference (Sheraton, Hyatt, Wyndham, Springhill Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Hilton Garden Inn), Selleck stayed at the luxurious Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort nearly 10 miles away from the conference. That hotel cost the district $268.33 per night. Asked why she stayed at a resort hotel far away from the conference, district spokesman Steve Saunders wrote, "The hotel Dr. Selleck stayed in during this business trip was in the same price range as the hotel where the conference occurred. Roberta believes she did a web search of available hotels. This one came up and she took it."

Records also show that while the conference ended on the 13th, Selleck remained in Arizona until the 15th, flying back to Denver at noon on Monday, Feb. 15. The school district paid for the extra two nights of hotel. The district said Selleck spent the extra time in Arizona interviewing potential job candidates.

"This conference is known throughout the education world as a place to come and meet potential employers," wrote Saunders.

The district supplied a receipt from Monday, Feb. 15, showing Selleck spent $42.91 to have breakfast at the Squaw Peak Resort with a potential principal, April Miller, who subsequently did not go to work for the district.

Asked why Selleck could not have saved the district money and spoken to potential employees during the three-day conference, Saunders wrote, "Roberta was attending the conference and only able to do interviews at the conference's conclusion. After the sessions ended she met with many potential hires."

Saunders said Selleck no longer has the resumes of the people she spoke with. Selleck acknowledged her mother lives near Phoenix and she visited her during the course of this trip.

Questions also arose about a January 2009 trip Selleck took with her husband to Orlando for another conference. Approximately 50 school superintendents gathered for the "District Management Council" conference at the Coral Gables Hyatt in Florida from Jan. 14 through Jan. 16. Rooms cost $360.47 per night. But records requested and obtained by CBS4 showed that rather than fly back after the conference ended Jan. 16, Selleck and her husband (who paid his own airfare) did not fly back to Denver until the evening of Jan. 18. When CBS4 asked why the district paid for two extra hotel nights, totalling $720, the district provided a handwritten note dated Jan. 20, 2009 from Selleck to her secretary. "Please add $360.47 to our petty cash ... I decided to stay an extra night. Thanks - RSelleck," reads the note.

The indication is that Selleck repaid the district in cash for one extra hotel night. But while the note may suggest Selleck decided at the last minute to stay an extra night in Florida, records actually show when her plane reservation was made a month earlier on Dec. 17, 2008, it had her returning to Denver Jan. 18, two days after the conference concluded. Her hotel reservation also showed the reservation was always for January 14 through Jan. 18.

Credit card records reviewed by CBS4 also show that on Jan. 17, the day after the conference concluded, Selleck charged $50.60 in cab fares to her district credit card. Her spokesman explained that was an "oversight" to charge the district for cab fares on a day when Selleck was on her own time. But he said she had no plans to reimburse for that cost. Saunders explained that Selleck believes she used taxis during the actual conference, but did not submit those receipts. So she believes it's fair to have the district pay for cab fares that came after the conclusion of the conference.

Valente says he is concerned the CBS4 Investigation found so many questionable expenses and accounting problems.

"We are a small, poor school district. We don't need to spend this kind of money. She's charged with handling millions a year. If she can't document the small stuff I'm concerned with what she's doing with the big stuff," Valente said.

"We're very conscious of our expenditures," Selleck said. "I do believe we are making a conscious decision to use taxpayer dollars wisely."

- Written by Brian Maass