Tara Ramroop, The Examiner
2007-09-20 10:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

San Bruno, Calif. -

The San Bruno Park School board of trustees took another hit this week after newly released documents revealed trustee Christopher Kiely owed the district more than $10,000 in medical benefit back payments.

The board members have, at times, had a contentious relationship for several years — culminating in such actions as a code-of-conduct plan and arguments over whether a Wal-Mart should be built on former school property — and the most recent news has polarized the board once again. Some readily jumped to Kiely’s defense, while others were concerned that more than a Band-Aid approach was needed to ensure something similar doesn’t happen again.

Kiely, who is up for re-election in November, along with fellow trustee Kevin Martinez, was unavailable for comment.

A letter dated Aug. 17 from the School and College Legal Services of California, addressed to Kiely, was also sent to all district trustees to inform them that Kiely was $10,586.63 behind in payments for his medical benefits, which are offered to all district trustees and their spouses.

District Superintendent David Hutt said the district and Kiely, with the advice of counsel, have come to an agreement on a payment plan that would allow Kiely to repay the money. This plan, which must go before the board for approval before it can be implemented, is tentatively scheduled for review at the October meeting, Hutt said.

Hutt said there were “shortcomings” in the district’s accounting and documentation system that allowed the matter to fall through the cracks.

Trustee Russ Hanley said it was unfortunate that Kiely had to come under fire for a matter that, to his knowledge, was already being resolved before the issue came out. Whoever blew the whistle on Kiely was doing so for political reasons, Hanley said.

“Everything is on schedule — he’s going to pay it back,” Hanley said. “It really upset me very much that it came out this way.”

Trustee William “Skip” Henderson said he can empathize if and when people are unable to pay their bills, but the incident points to a larger problem that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. He said he would inquire about the legalities about the payment plan agreement and then take it under advisement before making his decision.

“Given the state of our current fiscal situation, I think it’s terribly irresponsible,” Henderson said.

tramroop@examiner.com