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Saturday, August 17, 2002

By Milan Simonich, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Auditors yesterday criticized Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent John Thompson for unauthorized spending on flowers, greeting cards and airplane tickets.

But they also found that he had stayed within his contractual limit of $6,000 a year for travel and entertainment expenses.

Thompson's former deputy superintendent, Paula Butterfield, fared much worse in the investigation done by the city and school controller's staff.

She was criticized for improper use of school district credit and debit cards.

In one case, Butterfield charged taxpayers $694 for a rental car while on vacation in Montana. The automobile bill actually was listed in the name of Butterfield's mother, Dolores Butterfield, who was with her on the trip.

While vacationing, Paula Butterfield was joined -- at taxpayer expense -- by two other Pittsburgh administrators who said they were evaluating school programs in Montana.

Cassandra Richardson-Kemp and Margaret O. Brown told auditors they visited the Bozeman school district for professional development on matters such as alternative education. Butterfield previously worked in Bozeman as school superintendent.

Plane fare for Richardson-Kemp was $1,633. Brown, who booked a flight further in advance, charged taxpayers a fare of $586.

Even Butterfield's former secretary, Carol Geyer, was supposed to make the trip to Montana to evaluate school programs there, something Deputy School Controller Ronald Schmeiser called "unheard of."

Geyer later canceled her trip, but taxpayers were stuck with the $566 cost of her nonrefundable airline ticket.

"The propriety of these trips is questionable," the audit said, adding that schools much closer than those in Montana could have been evaluated.

Richardson-Kemp disagreed. "I think the trip was definitely appropriate, and very beneficial."

She said Bozeman's alternate school programs are unique because the rural district isolates its problem students from campuses. She said what she saw and learned could be helpful in Pittsburgh.

Neither Thompson nor Butterfield responded to requests for interviews after the audit was made public yesterday.

Thompson was taking a day of vacation, a district spokeswoman said. Butterfield now works for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit as an administrator.

Butterfield already has been sued by the Pittsburgh school district for $13,588 in lodging expenses billed to taxpayers. Housing for a school consultant was charged to Butterfield's school credit card between June 2001 and March 2002, a maneuver the district said was improper.

The Montana rental car expense, incurred in April 2001, will be added to the district's lawsuit against her in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Butterfield, who had been placed on paid leave by the board because of the lodging charges, took her new job in July as assistant executive director of the special education division of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.

The audit also took note of how much time Butterfield spent away from her job with the Pittsburgh district.

She attended five professional conferences in 2000 after beginning work Aug. 1 as a member of Thompson's management team.

Butterfield went to eight more conferences in 2001 and two in 2002, until she was put on leave.

Butterfield also was out of town for three meetings in 2001 and nine more this year that were not charged to taxpayers, according to the audit.

"She loved to go gallivanting, that lady did," said school board President Jean Fink, who pushed for the lawsuit against Butterfield.

Butterfield's travel was lax in terms of checks and balances, said Schmeiser, who examined overall travel and entertainment expenses by school employees at the request of school board member Darlene Harris.

In a two-year span, Butterfield charged taxpayers about $2,700 for meals and entertainment. As with other district employees, no records were submitted to the school's finance staff to show the business purpose for the expenses, Schmeiser said.

Thompson's spending received more mixed reviews, and showed a decline since he started work in Pittsburgh.

He spent:

$4,451 from July through December 2000, his first six months on the job;

$4,546 in 2001.

$2,077 through the first six months of this year.

Schmeiser said part of Thompson's job can involve fund-raising, so an entertainment component is legitimate.

But the audit also showed that Thompson billed other expenses to taxpayers without authorization by the school board president, as his contract requires.

For instance, he charged the public almost $216 for flowers, $487 for greeting cards, $240 for reimbursement of phone calls and $4,399 for food for meetings.

All those expenses were apart from the travel and entertainment allotment listed in Thompson's contract, Schmeiser said.

In addition, Thompson charged the district $1,245 in plane tickets for himself and two other employees so they could attend a funeral in New York for a school principal.

Money for that trip also should have been approved by the board president, he said.

Overall, Schmeiser said, the money spent on travel and entertainment was a small amount for a district whose programs cost about $695 million a year.

Even so, he said, efficiency could improve through better accounting and stricter financial controls.

Fink said she was still digesting the report yesterday, but promised the board would consider implementing its recommendations.

Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1956.