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Suits allege drivers have not repaid funds
Published Saturday, March 15, 2008
VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish School Board has filed suit against four bus drivers who have not yet reimbursed funds that were overpaid to them — one in excess of $24,000 — for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.
The four separate suits allege the drivers, Johnny J. Jackson, Robert Robinson, Clarence W. Skipper and Debra H. Tillery have not repaid funds they owe the school district for overcompensation.
The four drivers are all still employed by the school district, Superintendent Loretta Blankenstein said.
The school board had previously suggested binding arbitration with a neutral third party, but that never came about, Blankenstein said.
“The board suggested mediation, but the drivers did not agree to that, so we had to go to the next step, and the court will decide it from here,” she said.
Drivers are compensated on a per-miles-driven basis. The director of transportation signs off on the mileage after driving the route with the drivers, who perform their own audits.
The school board received an opinion from the attorney general’s office September stating they were obligated by state law to collect the overpaid funds.
The school board alleges Jackson claimed he was driving 62 miles per day when he was only driving 35.4 miles during the 2005-2006 school year and that during the 2006-2007 school year he claimed 61.4 miles per day when he was only driving 37.7 miles, resulting in an overpayment of $18,935.64.
The board claims Robinson told the school district he drove 14.5 miles per day when he was only driving 11.5 miles per day in 2005-2006 and that he claimed 12.4 miles per day when he was only driving 10.9 in 2006-2007.
For that, the school district alleges Robinson was overcompensated $632.82.
For the 2006-2007 school year, the suit alleges Skipper reported he was driving 35.6 miles per day when he was actually only driving 28.3 miles, and that he owes the district $1,883.57.
The largest overpayment, $24,416.56, went to Tillery, who the suit alleges claimed 68.2 miles per day when she was only driving 33 during 2005-2006 and 61.6 miles per day when she was only driving 18.8 in 2006-2007.
Seven other drivers who had been overpaid agreed to the reimbursements and signed promissory notes to make the repayments.
Comments
Posted by texasranger (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 12:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
They will bail out,laugh and do it to ya,ll again, If they did it to you once they will do it to you again..ha
Posted by sparky018 (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 1:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hmmm, Sounds like to me they need to find a different way to figure out there miles! But then again, they might not know math either!
Posted by youneverknow (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I steal from you and i get to work for you--hey, sound's like a good deal .
Posted by csguidry (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 7:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This makes no sense. If they found the drivers to be falsely claiming milage then why are they still working there? If in fact they did this and the trasportation director signed off on it then they should have checked the mialge on the routes after all I am sure they had access to this before hand so in fact there is no legitimate excuse for this ever happening in the first place. The mileage was doubled in most cases... someone really negelected their job here!
Why have they waited so long for them to sign the promisary notes for repayment? there is something about this whole thing that just don't add up. Maybe they did drive 60 some odd miles and they school board is trying to beat them out of the milage to save money. I am not sure that is the case but these days nothing surprises me.
If I had an emplyeee that was trying to con me and stole money from me I am affraid the first thing to do would be have them arrested and secondly put a lein on their property until the money was repaid. I would not have waited several years then decide to take action. Geez people have to make business so complicated when it does not have to be that way!
Posted by dansha31 (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 7:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Isn't Clarence Skipper the Chief of Police for Clayton????
Posted by observer (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sounds like a "new broom sweeps clean". It also sounds as if they are handling it in the most expeditious and at the same time least disruptive manner possible. Given the number of years this situation had apparently gone unaddressed, it's pretty miraculous!
Posted by redusmfan (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 9:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This is ridiculous. They should be fired. They should be in court for felony embezzlement. False pretense may even apply here. And the supervisor should be terminated.
And the waste of money goes on..........
Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on March 16, 2008 at 12:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Fire the bus drivers immediately! The Super and the Board has to have "Guts". The drivers furnish their buses and related expenses in the majority of Louisiana. That's only 4 drivers! Surely you can get 4 more? Looks like bad management again! After firing, press the "lawsuit"! It can be done! Don't slack up "1Bit"!
Posted by Lily_Dream (anonymous) on March 17, 2008 at 9:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
These people should FIRED! FIRED! FIRED! This is outrageous! Rarely do you find an employer who will keep you on the job after you have STOLEN, LIED and DEFRAUDED them. I know for a fact Johnny Jackson is not driving that many miles back and forth because he has been storing his bus in Wildsville in a neighbors yard for the past 2 years.
I think that all of them should be fired including the person signing off on those bogus mileage reports. Unless of course, that person was getting kick backs from the "Fraudulent Foursome". I cannot believe that the people of the school board or even the Attorney General is treating this matter as though they took too much candy from the candy jar.
Doesn't the Governor or perhaps the Superintendent of Education have something to say about this matter? What about the Mayor? These are clearly Crimes that have been committed.
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