DPS EFM Continues to Mislead and Misguide the Public

As I wrote about in an early article entitled, “Will the Real Robert Bobb, Please Stand Up?”, where I outline who Robert Bobb really is. Now more evidence as to who Robert Bobb really is; is starting to emerge. State Appointed Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools Robert Bobb hired his former employer and said that it wasn’t a conflict of interest. Now this probably wouldn’t be a conflict of interest if this wasn’t the consulting firm that Robert Bobb worked for prior to coming to DPS and it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest if he didn’t give them a whopping $972,000 no-bid contract. Yes you heard correctly, Robert Bobb hired the company he worked and he gave them a no-bid contract.

Robert Bobb granted the contract to Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management Inc. to help create a deficit-elimination plan and assist with budgeting and accounting systems. Bobb said he quit working part-time as a senior managing consultant for the firm before starting his job with DPS. Bobb also said he told Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who appointed him in January that he was hiring the company. A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with the governor's office. School board member Anthony Adams says the hiring raises transparency issues. Bobb told the Detroit Free Press he doesn't "see this as a conflict of interest."

So what is a conflict of interest with Robert Bobb? Why isn’t Robert Bobb on television outraged about the allegations that this was a conflict of interest and why isn’t he on television fighting to get DPS students air conditioning like the central staff of DPS is getting at the Fisher Building, Albert Kahn and the New Center One. If you missed that story than just look on Channel 7’s website where Steve Wilson did an investigative report on the subject and Bobb couldn’t explain why hundreds of thousands of dollars were used to make sure DPS’s central staff were comfortable when it hot but many DPS schools don’t have the same opportunity cause their schools don’t have A/C.

In fact Robert Bob defended his no bid consulting deal for his former employer. Bobb was a senior manager for Public Financial Management Inc., headquartered in Philadelphia and their contract is $972,000 with DPS and it is to help create a deficit-elimination plan, plus budgeting and accounting systems. Of that amount, $450,000 is being paid by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Yes that is Robert Bobb’s big founder, Eli Broad who I couldn’t think of in my previous article on Robert Bobb. Nonetheless Bobb said he quit working part-time as a senior managing consultant for PFM prior to starting work at DPS and told Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who appointed him in January that he intended to hire the company. The governor's office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

But this is where things are fishy because on Monday, the company's Web site removed a page listing Bobb as the senior managing consultant for its Washington, D.C., office after a reporter called to inquire. Bobb's name and voice were still heard on the answering service. "I was in a rented office suite and therefore I can see where that office still hasn't changed. Obviously, I still shouldn't be on their Web site," Bobb said. "I don't see this as a conflict of interest. What it is, is a firm that has deep financial experience." PFM has worked for Philadelphia's public schools; Nassau County, N.Y.; the City of New Orleans, and the State of Pennsylvania, according to its Web site.

To be fair, PFM does have deep financial experience even in Michigan with over 100 municipalities using its services and they have ties to every state in the United States except Utah and Montana but they also have ties to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Therefore no one is questioning how much financial experience PFM has but the truth of the matter is Bobb worked for this company right before he became EFM for DPS. This is truly a conflict of interest and if the Detroit Free Press and News did not do articles on it, the citizens of Detroit would not know this. However Bobb’s defense that the state knew particularly Governor Granholm only proves my point that Governor Granholm is a lame duck Governor and doesn’t care about DPS. In fact this story only indicates more and more why Granholm and the state won’t fire Bobb for saying he can’t balance DPS’s budget which he was hired to do.

Bobb’s contract with the state is earn clad as I said in “Will the Real Robert Bobb, Please Stand Up?” Bobb is running DPS’s checkbook and is going unchecked by anyone particularly the state because the State is on the grab bag and destroying of DPS with Bobb. It doesn’t matter if you are a Democrat or Republican in Michigan, many people throughout the state want to see the demise and dismantling of Detroit Public Schools and the City of Detroit because who benefits, the most wealthy people in the state who have preyed on Detroit’s vulnerability since the late and great Coleman A. Young stepped down as mayor. Detroit’s school board members contend that the PFM contract illustrates the transparency problems with having a takeover that leaves one person in charge of the district's $1.2-billion budget. The board plans to file suit against Bobb this week in Wayne County Circuit Court in an effort to force Bobb to consult with the board before making financial decisions.

"Part of the problem with the statute behind the emergency financial manager is the types of disclosure requirements needed to maintain transparency simply don't exist," said board member Anthony Adams, a former general counsel for DPS. Anthony Adams is exactly current and the school board is current in trying to have Bobb share his financial decisions with them but the reality is that the state won’t allow that to happen and if the school board does win their case, this will only lead to Lamar Lemmons Sr. bill for mayoral control of DPS because many of Detroit’s very own state legislators and other Representatives want the mayor of Detroit to control the school system but there are two problems with anyone else controlling DPS and that is the state couldn’t balance DPS when they had the chance not once (1998-2005) but twice (this year) and the City of Detroit can’t balance its own budget because they are in deficit but when isn’t the state sending in an EFM for them.

Therefore the recent revelations about Bobb hiring his former employer should not shock anyone because I told people Bobb wasn’t the savior for DPS and I have wrote about the fact that Gov. Granholm doesn’t care about Detroit. "Mr. Bobb made it clear from the outset that to hit the ground running at DPS he needed to work with consultants he had previously worked with," said Michigan Department of Education spokeswoman Jan Ellis. "Given that he has no financial interest in these relationships, there's no conflict of interest." Those comments should shock no one because Bobb told me and a group of other young professionals that he brings people he trust with him wherever he goes. But if PFM was hired to create a deficit elimination plan, long-term financial plan and restate the 2008-09 budget deficit for the district, said district spokesman Steve Wasko. Then why isn’t the deficit eliminated and DPS’s budget balanced. Also since Bobb, who owns two consulting firms, has not worked for PFM since starting in Detroit in March, Wasko said but if Bobb met with State officials in January and reportedly the hired him by February why would Bobb take so long to stop working for PFM if he was considering bringing them on board for DPS.

Bobb has a one-year appointment from Granholm to turn the district's finances around and the urgency of the task didn't allow for a competitive bid process, Wasko said, adding that Bobb chose PFM for its proven track record of success. "You are going to look for the ones that have the experience and you know they can hit the ground running and do the job," he said. State law requires school districts to have contracting policies and procedures in place, but does not require them to bid out contracts, Ellis said. It also doesn't require the state to approve their contracting procedures. To avoid any appearance of impropriety, Bobb alerted Granholm's office and state superintendent's office to his past relationship with PFM prior to the deal, Wasko said. "This was all discussed and approved with Mr. Bobb's bosses in the state of Michigan," he said. So what is really going on when it comes to DPS’s finances?

Bobb can posture all he wants as if he is just finding unused equipment in warehouses and that the DPS has had phantom employees and the dead getting insurance policies but the truth of the matter is that these are not new issues for DPS. In fact organizations like Call ‘Em Out, Keep the Vote No Takeover, BAMN and School Board member Marie Thornton have discussed these issues previously as early as 2001. In fact the same issues in terms of no-bid contracts being handed out has been another issue that have concerned people like myself because DPS has a history of giving long term no-bid contracts to big companies while giving short term contracts to smaller businesses who want to work with the district. Still Bobb’s actions are not justified no matter what the state says, a DPS spokesperson says or Bobb says.

PFM might be good at their job but the fact that Bobb worked for them prior to taking the DPS job is fishy and the reality is that if Bobb was serious about taking the EFM job for DPS, he had two months to recruit another financial company with proven results like PFM but he choose not to find anyone else who could do the job. Therefore this brings into question if Bobb was so quick to think enough to tell the Governor he would hire PFM or bring them with him than what else did Bobb and the Governor Granholm discuss and what else did Bobb tell to the state in regards to how he would handle DPS and what was all put into Bobb’s contract with the state that hasn’t been told to the public.

Although the Broad Foundation is paying Bobb’s salary, it is still unclear why the state hasn’t gotten rid of Bobb after he said he can’t balance DPS’s budget which is what he was brought in to do. Now if the state thing was said to the EFM of a city, would the state keep them as the EFM of that city? These are the questions that need to be asked now not later. Bobb is just continuing to mislead and misguide the public and if we don’t wake up now than Bobb will get everything he wanted from DPS and the city of Detroit including a mileage that is on the way since Bobb is meeting with all the Senior Citizen buildings in Detroit in order to let them know DPS needs the taxpayers to pay higher taxes to fund DPS and a viable educational system. However nothing can be further from the truth when we passed a mileage in 1998 and that money is being withheld by the city to pay the cities unbalanced budget. Robert Bobb is no savior and the state of Michigan is clearly showing that they don’t care about our kids in Detroit. Detroit we better wake up before it is too late.

Source:
Bobb’s old firm gets big contract—By Chastity Pratt-Dawsey
http://www.freep.com/article/20090811/NEWS01/908110317

Bobb's contract with former employer not conflict of interest, state says—By Marisa Schultz
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090811/SCHOOLS/908110413/Bobb-s-contract-with-former-employer-not-conflict-of-interest--state-says

PDF: Broad Foundation grant to Public Financial Management Inc.
http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/detnews/2009/pdf/0811bobbcontract.pdf