Andy Attacks

 

By Rick Boettger

 

Two weeks ago, I briefly reported that the school district was renting out the Poinciana auditorium to a church for more than $6,000 less than their guidelines require. Long-time school board member Andy Griffiths took umbrage with my column and sent the following snarky email to my publisher Guy DeBoer and Key West’s senior journalist and long-time friend, Mark Howell:

 

 

Hi Mark and Guy,
I don’t have Rick’s address but I wanted him to have the facts that are missing from his last article. Never let facts get in the way of a good off the cuff story based on rumor! Would you please forward?
 Thanks, Andy

 


From the last superintendent report:
 Facility Use “Subsidies’”– While there is no doubt that we need to complete the facilities use effort that was initiated but never completed due to staff turnover, it is not true that we are subsidizing any faith-based organizations. As a result, we currently have non-coordinating policies and procedures which we are working to resolve.  In particular, Eagle’s Rest Christian Church has not been using Poinciana School rent-free. They have paid all fees in accordance with their contract/facilities use agreement. Our efforts at completing the facilities use process will focus on cost recovery with additional charges as appropriate for various user classifications (i.e. for profit enterprises).

 

 

My goodness, didn’t Andy seem to have fun trumping my “off-the-cuff rumor” with what must be a “fact” because his hero, Superintendent Mark Porter, told us so! I emailed him back referencing five different official district documents which apparently Andy and Mark hadn’t bothered to read. The key one is the contract with Eagle’s Rest Ministry, with the line, “Rent: N/A.” That is, as I reported, they pay no rent. The other documents showed how, by the district’s own posted polices, they are required to charge $100, and they didn’t.

 

 

The point is that the district for whatever reasons has made a sweetheart deal with a particular organization, without apologies, explanation or regret, and even plans to renew it at exactly the same terms. Porter’s “defense” that the Ministry is, yes, paying everything they agreed to, misses the point that of course they are happily taking advantage of their sweetheart deal. None of this is Eagle’s Rest Ministry’s fault—it is the fault of Mark and Andy for making, supporting, and now even extending an unfair deal.

 

 

What is both troubling and mildly amusing is Andy. He so wanted for decades to hire his own superintendent that, in true bureaucratic fashion, he now deifies his choice, Mark Porter. Andy will defend anything he does. Even though the district now has declined from the its position under the disgraced Acevedo administration, with lower academic scores, the inability to pass or respond to audits, incompetent construction oversight, stonewall union relations, crashing morale, and maintenance workers getting poverty pay so we can send a half million of our tax dollars to executives on the mainland.

 

 

Thus Mark’s blowing such obvious smoke as his confidently-worded “not true” lie is not only unquestioned by Andy, but reverentially seized upon to throw triumphantly in my face. It is easier for him to read comforting BS from Porter than to take the time to analyze his own district’s paperwork.

 

 

What’s amusing is that he dares to come after me again. A few years ago Andy published a letter to the editor in the daily paper accusing me of not knowing a geek number, the reserve level required by the state for district budgets. Oh, come on, Andy. I breathe geek numbers. He hadn’t known the percentage had changed the previous month, as my research had uncovered. Instead of first contacting me to challenge my fact, he wanted to embarrass me publicly.

 

 

At that time, he only embarrassed himself, and had to apologize. We had a nice lunch, and Cynthia and I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon ride on his boat. But here, again, rather than first contacting me—by the way, I get weekly emails from him about a social event, so he already had my email address—he tries to diss me in front of two people whose respect I not only want but actually need.

 

 

So instead, he embarrasses himself again. Maybe it was his writing the “rumors vs. facts” jibe at 8 p.m. I have a personal rule that I not email people well into my happy hour; perhaps Andy doesn’t.

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