AZ Legislator and DVUSD Board President Tom Boone accepts outrageous $216,000+ salary as CEO of school district SCAM dba Valley Schools Management Group

AZ Legislator and DVUSD Board President Tom Burns..er Boone.

Part 2 in an ongoing series exposing the negligence and corruption of the Deer Valley Unified School District Governing Board and its illegal prodigy, the Valley Schools Management Group, owned and operated by Rep. Tom Boone.

In the midst of the worst fiscal crisis the State of Arizona has ever known, Republican conservative Tom Boone made sure he and his closest allies cashed in before local teachers were pink-slipped, elective courses were eliminated and school district budgets were decimated.

September 2009 public records show that Arizona’s self-appointed renewable energy legislator and retired DVUSD administrator, Tom Boone (R-Peoria), has gone green as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Valley Schools Management Group (VSMG) as well.

Totally green.

This year, Boone will receive over $216,000 in salary and vehicle allowances, courtesy of VSMG, the intergovernmental procurement parent company Boone created in early 2005 with the signatures, cooperation and blessings of the Deer Valley, Paradise Valley and Peoria Unified School District Governing Boards.

Boone’s VSMG $216,000₊ take for 2009 is more payroll cash than the combined salaries of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

Tom Boone must like government checks.

Sources say that Rep. Tom Boone receives at least $80,000 in retirement cash and benefits from the Deer Valley Unified School District.  Boone is also paid a $24,000 yearly salary and per diem stipend from the Arizona Legislature while earning additional consulting fees and remittances in various commercial markets.

The free flow of money doesn’t stop at Tom Boone’s hand, however.  Boone has an accomplice and partner in crime serving on the DVUSD Governing Board with him.

Bill Maas

Current Deer Valley Unified School District Governing Board Member, longtime Peoria USD finance administrator and retired DVUSD administrator, Bill Maas, is triple-dipping with VSMG as well.

Public records show that VSMG (Valley Schools Management Group) board member Maas is being paid $72,000 on contract and receives fully paid self and dependent benefits (all other DVUSD employees must pay the full cost of any dependent coverage to Boone’s company).  Maas signs independent contracts with VSMG for “School Association Relations/Marketing” (sic) and also earns consulting fees from various school boards around the state.
VSMGemployees,boardsalaries

Bill Maas’ son, Michael Maas, is the Administrator for Support Services at the Peoria Unified School District (PUSD).  Records of PUSD board meetings and minutes show that Michael Maas is a huge advocate for the various services of his dad’s employer, VSMG and its subsidiaries.  Michael Maas has been instrumental in securing intergovernmental contracts between PUSD and VSMG.  As a result, these same contracts also secure his father’s employment with VSMG.  Michael’s wife, Cindy Maas, is also employed with PUSD as the assistant principal at Foothills Elementary.

The remaining two VSMG board members serve in vastly different capacities.

Former Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) administrator turned full-time lobbyist, Jim DiCello, is another VSMG board member who, like Maas, is being paid under a separate employment contract.  DiCello pulls in $54,000 per year from VSMG and his dependents receive all of their benefits free.  DiCello is a former PVUSD finance administrator and licensed CPA who is now for sale to the highest bidder.  DiCello does have additional clients that he represents before the legislative committees that Tom Boone sits on.

Ted Carpenter

Records show that longtime DVUSD board member and former Republican legislator, Ted Carpenter, is, like Boone, a salaried employee of VSMG.  Carpenter functions as Tom Boone’s Vice-Chairman and specializes in City, County and Community College Relations while collecting a $50,000 salary, a $4,800 vehicle allowance and fully paid self and dependent benefits.  VSMG does not list Carpenter as having an independently contracted skill set, much like Maas and DiCello allegedly do.   Carpenter is a retired firefighter and draws a government pension like the other VSMG board members.

Only within the last few months has Tom Boone finally declared his conflict of interest in VSMG to the DVUSD Governing Board.  Boone has also claimed a conflict over financial contracts the Board makes with Education Services Inc., a third-party vendor that functions as an employment and placement agency for retired school administrators and teachers.  On its website, ESI claims to place administrators and teachers in over 100 school districts

Dr. Virginia McElyea

Current DVUSD Superintendent Virginia McElyea officially retired from DVUSD several years ago but has been reemployed by the district under an independent contract with Educational Services Inc.  It is unknown if Tom Boone recused himself from the executive sessions where McElyea’s financial contract was discussed and approved.

The frequent use of ESI in DVUSD personnel actions did not escape the eyes of everyone.  The most recent Arizona Auditor General’s report on DVUSD’s performance, admonished the district for its frequent use of a third-party vendor (ESI) to reemploy nine formally retired administrators in a district that was already top heavy.

Tom Boone’s addictions to cash, power and influence have led him to mastermind and create a non-governmental agency that functions in what might first appear as an unregulated grey area.  Boone and VSMG employees and attorneys attempt to cover their tracks with selective Arizona statues that seem to singularly condone their individual activities but collectively, these activities actually defy the laws of this State and the intention with which the laws were written.

Unfortunately for the long list of school district diehards on the VSMG employee payroll, the State laws hold the perpetrators of this type of fraud personally liable for damages, despite what any VSMG intergovernmental agreement might say.

*Note

The pressure from SWR and the watchdog parents seems to be working:

The DVUSD Emergency Meeting Agenda of the executive session, which they call a “work session” was unplanned and called late Monday afternoon, did not come out until 4:30 pm Tuesday. You can view it below, pay special attention to the last item.
2009 Dec Executive Session Emergency Meeting