While not part of the poll released this morning, the conservative Civitas Institute also asked people about conducting the audit of Wake County school legal services.
People were asked "In 2008, Wake County Schools spent $1.8 million on legal fees and insurance for legal actions. Should that spending be reviewed for savings by an independent firm? You can also be undecided."
Based on that question, 58.3 percent said they supported reviewing spending while 11.4 percent said they did not. A total of 30.3 percent had no opinion.
The question is timed to coincide with today's school board discussion of the issue.
On the surface it would seem that the public supports doing the review. But the question doesn't mention anything about the way the new school board majority is handling the process.
It doesn't mention that the person the new board wants to hire, Thomas Farr, has strong ties to the state Republican Party. It also doesn't mention that some board members are complaining that Farr was named before his fee is set.
In an e-mail message sent this morning to all the school board members, Francis DeLuca, executive director of Civitas, said the information on this question will be released as well. He said he was providing the information to them "as part of our educational mission for elected officials."
Comments
well duh
Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:32 — fitzsimonOf course people would want that examined.
Civitas could also have asked "Do you believe Wake Board of Education members should know how much taxpayers money will be used to hire another attorney before they vote on hiring him?
Wonder what the response would be?
Legal Fees Audit
Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:30 — RMC10So how many more dollars is an audit going to add - any large scale audit will not be cheap and seems to be throwing good money after bad money. WCPSS did have to defend the litigation on the Mandatory Year Round issues. So although it does seem high why not use the money saved by not doing an audit and use it on something for education, the real purpose of the Board. And, was there a negotiated final fee that was less, or payments made by the liability insurance company that offset that $1.8Mil.
What would be the purpose of Civitas asking that question? Does anyone know? Is it like someone would be giving it back if there were indeed overcharges? How much did Wake County/State of NC actually pay out of that $1.8 Mil?
Sounds like NC politics at it's worse.
Hmm..
Tue, 12/15/2009 - 16:29 — supportwcpssBetter question.
They spent 5 billion on something. Should the spending be reviewed?"
What a ridiculous question and survey.
I couldn't care less about
Tue, 12/15/2009 - 13:35 — red_balloonI couldn't care less about saving $1.8m when the bigger challenge is saving the education system.