This special school busing of Kelley's kids, if true, is disturbing in and of itself, as posted by ddawg00 above. It is similar to the other stories that suggest that Dimora and Russo were using gov't employees as their drivers at taxpayers expense. School busing for individual kids, which sometimes is done for special ed kids, costs over $20k a year when you calculate in vehicle costs, driver costs, insurance, and all of the cost associated with bus safety. Not only is making this kind of special arrangement for your kids a misuse of your public office, but it seems that the corruption Kelley and these others are linked to is things of a similar nature -- trading favors.
So, if some administrator at Parma was making this special arrangement for transporting Kelley's kids, what did the administrator get? We all know that the superintendent in Parma got that sweet double dipping arrangement, allowing her to retire with her $200K pension and then being rehired at $200K, doubling her income. Was this a payoff for favors she had done for Kelley and other board members, such as this busing for Kelley's kids? Or was someone in the district given tiling for their pool from Nature Stone that Kelley reportedly has a connection to.
Wasn't there some reports of busing problems in Parma a short time back -- not enough or too costly -- and some b*&%ing about special education busing. Well, it is disturbing that the Board member often states "for the kids" would have been diverting school resources from those needy kids for his own family benefit.
ddawg00 also suggests Kelley's kids did not go to their community school, but picked the school they attended. If this is true, it shows yet another favor the administration was doing for Kelley. Well, was it a payoff for some job Kelley got someone? Was it a payoff for Kelley's vote a certain way on the Board? Was it to overlook some malfeasance by the administrator, and to not fulfill his responsibilities as a Board member? Was it because Kelley was using his Board position to intimidate District staff for his own personal gain? Common, PD, follow up on some of these things that are being reported by the readers.
It would not be hard for the PD to confirm this special busing arrangement. Federal law requires a hell of a lot of documentation regarding all school busing, including the routing of the busing, the assignments of the drivers, etc. Finding out from the community what schools Kelley's kids attended would take a bit of leg work, but perhaps just going in and reviewing yearbooks.
Shouldn't these transportation people be in front of the Grand Jury testifying about the who, what, where, when and why of these special arrangements Kelley made for himself,and what the cost was?
And what a joke that these other Board members are asking for his resignation, but not because there was an implication of guilt. These Board members are like those three monkeys, "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil." All of these things have been going on right before their eyes, and they sat silent. Either they were getting their own special arrangements and payoffs themselves as part of Kelley's circle of corruption, or they were extremely negligent in their duties as public officials.
There has been a great deal of rumor about kickback from attorneys to someone in the district too. And now finally it seems that the FBI may be looking into it with at least one of the firms the district uses. What about the other firms involved with the district, including that Squires firm that does so much of the special ed litigation. The district's website shows them getting about a million a year. And why would the contract for attorneys working in the district need to be obtained through a search warrant? And why is it at Kelley's county office rather than in the district superintendent's or business manager's office? This is information that should be available to the public under the Sunshine Laws. Let's hope the PD and the FBI follow up on all the contracts with these firms, and that they obtain the itemization of work that these attorneys allegedly did. Something smells funny here.
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