[Music] Just talk loud. >> Dave Tally >> here. >> Leandre Camel. I know he's going to be virtual. Um
Alyssa Davin. Michael Dixon >> here. >> Mark Bmaster >> here. >> Darina Bowererman. Okay, Frank Barbieri >> here. >> Okay, we have quorum.
>> Okay, and as we always do, we'll do introductions if we start again. Good morning, Patricia. >> Good morning, Patricia Morales from the Office of General Counsel. >> Good morning. Annette Pinnock, accounting director. >> Frank Barbri, the audit committee.
>> Bob Bliss, Office of Inspector General. >> Oscar Estreo, Office of Inspector General. Let's go to the back of the room first so we don't forget you all. >> Randy Law, IG's office. >> Tracy Shear, IG's office. >> Dave Tally, audit.
>> Theresa Michael, Inspector Teresa Michael, Inspector General. >> Carrie High, Council to Inspector General. Joyce Edison, Inspector General's Christina Daniels, Inspector General's Office. >> Barbara Reynolds, Inspector General's
Office. >> Michael Dixon, audit committee. >> Mark by Master Audit Committee. >> Darina Bowererman, audit committee. >> And Darina is our newest member. Darina, I'd like for you to take a minute and just share with the group your background if you would please. And
welcome, by the way. >> Thank you so much. Everybody is being so welcoming and uh um it is uh I didn't expect uh everybody being so nice and just uh being so well organized. So it's such a pleasure me being part of the audit
committee and I'm looking forward to contributing to the best of my ability. Uh I've been I'm a CPA uh and I've been in public accounting working for CBZ for the past 19 years. I'm a audit partner
at uh CBiz and I'm looking forward to contributing and leveraging my expertise to the best of my ability. I also have two kids in the Palm Beach school system, one senior in both in high school, one senior. So, well, we're
starting to tour Florida colleges. So, it's exciting time for me. Thank you for welcoming me. And uh we have uh I believe Gloria u virtually. >> Good morning. Good morning. Welcome Darina. Nice to see you. So happy you're
on the uh audit committee. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Hey, is there anyone else virtual? Okay. Hey, I just want to take a moment just to uh thank our previous uh uh committee member Kathy Wiggle who has been had been with us for a number of
years and I just think she did a wonderful job and uh we wish her the best in the future. So with that, we'll go to the uh approval of the agenda. Are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? >> No additions or deletions. >> Okay, I'll I'll accept a motion to
approve the agenda. make I'll make a motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> All in favor? >> I. >> All oppose? Pass unanimously. Now, take a minute to look through the uh minutes of the June 12th meeting. And after you've had a chance to review those,
I'll accept a motion to approve. Good morning. Good. How are you? >> Do we have a motion? >> So move. >> Second >> discussion. >> All in favor? >> I.
>> All opposed. Passes 60. And I want to just uh mention Alyssa has joined us and welcome. It's nice to have you with us. Okay. Public comments. hearing none. Uh we'll go to the uh inspector general update. Terry,
>> good morning everybody. Um I'm going to keep the the update pretty short because we have a couple of items on here that I know is going to um have some discussion, some questions, so I'm not going to drone on um more than I normally do hopefully. Um couple of things though. Um, I would like to say
that um, if we can during the discussions because I know it's gonna we're going to do a lot of questions back and forth. If we could please try to follow Robert's rules, raise your hand so you could be recognized. Um, Joyce sometimes spends um, five days doing the minutes. It takes our five
complete days of work. So, if we can raise our hands, it makes it a lot easier. Plus, my staff making notes and questions. It's a lot easier if we can try to not talk over each other. So, I appreciate it. I do have Tracy Sherer from our office who's just going to be watching to make sure everybody's
raising their hands or online and she will let the chair know so that nobody goes, you don't have to raise your hand for a half hour. We'll we'll get to you um as quickly as possible. And also before we start the discussion on the policy, um please remember that the when
we bring the policy updates to everybody, this is the first stop. Um, from here the policy will be going to all of the different departments, the chiefs, it goes to the general counsel's office, the superintendent and everybody, and then it goes to the board
for a workshop. So, this is just the first stop. So, please don't think that we, you know, everything had, you know, the panic and think this is the first and only stop and then it goes to the board. Um, we're a little bit different than other organizations and that we bring everything in the sunshine and the and our first stop is to get the
comments from the audit committee and I know from speaking to the board members, every board member wants to hear their audit committee members input and opinion on this. So, I want to make sure that we give you plenty of time to be able to ask questions and make comments. Um, so I want to make sure we have
enough time for that. Um, that being said, um, turn it over. Oh, no. I'm on to the next one here. >> Turn it over to you. >> Yep. Okay. We had a long board meeting yesterday. >> Okay. It is that time of year again for
the chair, vice chair elections or extension discussion. Um right now we need to open it up for discussion on um whether or not we um want to extend Mr. Tally um and his current position under policies 1.091.4
and 1.09. and the audit committee chair and vice chair. You're really doing this to me, right? Our governor to serve four consecutives years. The current chair, Mr. Tally, is in his fifth year of service. The policies allow the chair to extend his term based on recommendation of the audit committee and approve from the
school board. Um, last year we did make that recommend recommendation and Mr. Tally's term was extended. U but I'd like to open up for discussion on nominations or extending Mr. tally. >> What does Mr. Tally think?
>> I'd be happy to do it if if you all so wish. >> So, I I don't know if we need to have any discussion. I think he's done a great job all the years I've watched him. So, I I had to make a motion to extend his term for another another year. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second that.
>> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> I >> All opposed. All right. Unanimous. >> Just point of procedure, Mr. Chairman. Um, we will still hold the vote at our organizational meeting next month for chair and vice chair. So, >> you're not a shoe in yet, sir.
>> Oh, shucks. >> And you could still change your mind, >> right? Let me think about it. >> Okay. All right. Then we will move on now to the audit. >> And we have Barbara Reynolds who's going
to make the presentation. And that's uh item 6.1. Good morning everyone. Can you hear me? >> Okay. All right. I'm here to present the report for the FY25 unannounced cash
count at 18 sample school. We performed the unannounced cash counts to achieve two objectives. Number one, to determine if all the monies in the drop safes were properly accounted for,
meaning meaning deposited in the respective school bank accounts and recorded in the internal funds accounting system. Keep going. Okay. Next, I will discuss the sample
selection. So, how did we select the samples? Sample schools were selected based on one or more of the following. The school's prior year audit findings. ongoing analysis of the school's money
collection and bank deposit records as well as referral from accounting services. Okay. What we found during our on-site visit, we counted a total of 86,000 $821.72
in cash and checks. We also reviewed supporting documentation such as drop safe logs, monies collected, reports, and receipts. Of the $86,000821 that we collected or we reviewed,
$81,921 were for deposit in the school's internal funds. The remaining $4,900 was change fund. Okay. Okay. So, subsequent to our review, we um looked at the internal
funds accounting system and bank deposit records and confirmed that all the collections were recorded in the school's bank accounts as well as in the deposit in the bank account and recorded in the
school's um accounting system. Okay. Secondly, this is our second conclusion. We found no major non-compliance at nine schools, meaning that 50% of the school had no major discrepant, no major
findings. Next, lastly, we found non-compliance with district procedures at 50% of the schools, meaning that nine schools had one or more instances of non-compliance.
At two schools, there was unrestricted access to the drop safe. Next, at one school, we had discrepancy in the collections. For example, one monies collected report and the
money turned in was $2,155, but the supporting document um showed that $2,315 was collected. So, there was a $160 discrepancy. Okay. Next item. There was unsecure
change funds at one school. At another school, we found that the treasurer did not process the collections for deposit in a timely manner. At three schools, we found that the sponsors did not turn
in their collections daily. The um range of delays for all three school is 2 to 21 days. Here one school held money um the sponsor held money for 21 days. Another school sponsor held for
5 to9 days and the other one for 2 to seven days. Okay. collections without monies collected report and not properly recorded on drop safe was noted at three schools.
Lastly, at two schools, the sponsors did not retain the yellow copies of the monies collected reports. This concludes my report presentation. The floor is now open for discussion and
questions. >> Questions, comments. Mr. Barbie, >> I'm supposed to raise my hand. I'm sorry. >> Mr. Dixon >> procedure. Excuse me. >> Mr.
>> Um um question of these of these 50% is anything material? >> Um could you explain that some more? Um you see these 50% >> the 50% that we have uh that didn't have any that were in non-compliance the 50%
that were non in compliance was anything substantially wrong or were they just mistakes and not that significant and >> basically those findings are very similar to our annual internal funds audits it's not something that is out ordinary so it's basically the
>> I understand I understand >> nothing really uh significant or major >> okay thank Yeah. >> And all those staff that did not comply with the procedures, >> we, you know, forward the names to accounting services department. They are, you know, trying to, you know, help them provide additional training to
those staff in order to make sure in the future they will comply with all the procedures. >> Okay. I I'm just asking materiality. >> No, nothing. >> Is anybody stealing anything or >> No, nothing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Frank. Um, Mr. Chair, I I know
that u in in the past there are situations where a new principal comes into a school and asks for an audit because he or she feels that there's been some issues in the way that things have been handled. Um wouldn't it be a good idea whenever there's a change in principles at a school that that
automatically calls for an audit so that the new principal is not stuck with something that a former principal may have done? I'm not suggesting that any of the principles would hide hide anything by this comment, but it just seems that it protects everybody. the teach the principal that's leaving has you know left good books and the
principal that's taken over knows that she's not inheriting anything. >> Yeah, we understand that usually there's a lot of principal changes at the beginning of each school years and then that that's why we try to prioritize those schools to do the audit you know
first at the beginning of the school years when we start every years of the end total funds audits. So basically you know in addition to what we just you know are focused on or see which school has a new principal based on the board agenda items some principal also will
send me an email to say that we I'm the new principal at the schools. So can you you know uh help us to do an audit sooner. So we always you know try to prioritize those schools. In addition to that, for those other school that may have more severe or significant findings
or more findings, we'll also do the audits sooner. So, so that's how we prioritize and schedule our school audits. >> Okay, Alissa, >> uh, quick question. It looks like, I guess, if I'm reading it right, four of the schools were tested again because of
issues in 24. Is it the same issues that were identified again? because it looks like they come up on the part of the nine that didn't work. If I'm reading this right, the Elbridge, Lakeworth High, St. Luch, Washington Elementary, right? Did they have issues or concerns that were identified accounting department in 24? So, we retested them
here in 25 and they show up on this non-compliance list. So, I was just curious if they're similar non-compliance, different or what we're looking at. They are about the same but basically you know some of the schools that we visited two times or you know one of some of the schools were you know uh performed the cash count early is
because of some referral that we received from accounting services because accounting services keep you know tracking and monitoring how the schools are depositing money and so forth. So when they find something unusual they will refer to us to do additional testing. So that's why some
of school were done earlier and then another school was uh we were conducting another uh audit of this school we found some other issues that's why we also went out there at least two times to do the cash count. >> Okay. So is it like retraining happening
now then I I guess if like what happens when you're like a repeat offender like this I guess >> Mr. Merrick will you know answer the question. So my team went down and actually reviewed the individual report so that they could see the employees that had the issues and then we automatically enrolled them in the
applicable training this year. >> Other questions? >> Yes, Mark. >> I have a question on the on the unsecured change funds. What does it mean by the $700 was assigned to the athletic director? Was there like an
official like paperwork filled out saying that he that that director took the money or was it just the director saying, "Oh, I have the money." >> Okay. He said he he had the money. He kept it and took it home. So, I'm not
too sure if I >> I don't I don't believe it was like officially assigned to him. I think he opted to to take it home with him as if he made that choice himself. So, I believe like that that scenario probably should be looked at a little bit further
because that's technically missing money. It's it's money that was supposed to be in the safe and it was not there. And it'd be a little bit different if it was like officially there was a note stating that that that the athletic director had those funds, but if that
wasn't the case, then it's technically missing money. >> Good thought. >> Yes. If I could respond to that, it actually was in the system. Um, so we do track it and it's within the internal account system. It's called the school cash cash
box. So, it was officially signed out to him. >> Okay. That makes me feel better. >> Yeah. Basically, the money has been assigned it to this athletic directors if uh he needs to use the money or to uh uh receive any uh like ticket sales to
do the changes. But our procedures is at the end of the day the money should go back to the drop safe and then he could take it out on the following day. But for this staff member somehow he just took the money home. He said that it would be safer and easier for him to
manage. But we immediately uh spoke with the principal and they said that is not the proper way to handle the money. >> Okay. But >> like I said, it makes me feel better that it was actually officially >> on record that that that individual had had the funds, >> right? He's just not supposed to take it
home. They did not authorize him to take it home. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Dena, >> a very well put together report. So, thank you for that. I'm sure that it took a long a long time. Looking at the table on page two and three. I can see the Lakew Worth High had a total cash of
$44,000. That is significant. That's that seems at least to me like a lot of cash to be held at the school especially considering looking at the other schools where on average they have anywhere between couple hundred to $7,000.
Have we inquired as to the reason to hold so much cash on hand at the school? >> Each school operates a free market at uh each uh weekend. So you know when uh it's you know uh some of the vendors
they pay the rent on a monthly basis but a lot of the vendors they paid it on the daily basis. So that's the reason why uh during the you know first day of the week or the second of the week they will have a lot of money in terms of cash in the drop safe waiting for processing and
depositing into the bank. We also have a report, an audit report that's coming up on that Lakeworth flea market that we have that should be coming up some, you know, we expect to have it uh come out in August. >> That report already sent out to the
school principles and also to Miss Bedric's uh for response. >> I barber >> for um that same school at that point in time. It was almost the end of the year when we did that um count and they were
collecting money for for the graduation and other activities. >> That was one thing that I was going to mention as well. It's a high school. So a high school compared to an elementary school. Our high schools have 3,000 students and so there's a lot more cash
and activity that's running through a high school as compared to the elementaryaries. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? >> I just have >> Yes, Michael. >> One more comment. Um, I think I would
recommend u Mr. Barbar's comment about new principles to be included in that three bullet on how accounts are selected. That should be part of that. Yep. We just one, two, and three. I think that should be added as number four so that question doesn't have to
come up again. >> Thank you. Questions, comments? If not, I'll accept a motion to approve. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Motion to approve. >> There a second. >> Second. >> Any questions? All in favor?
>> I. >> All opposed? Passes 6. Okay, now we'll go Oh, by the way, Barbara, nice job. Thank you very much. Okay, now we will go to the uh draft annual work plan. Terry.
All right, I'm going to take the first part of the work plan and then I'm going to turn it over to the individual um directors who handle the pro the uh different units. Um first of all, we have the um let me think yeah uh first
of all we did conduct a risk assessment of the school district. there was the survey that was sent out to everybody uh that was all the board members, the audit committee members and executive management. So what I did was I took
those responses. I also looked at those audits that were currently ongoing and open um including the audits done by both RSM, our external auditor as well as the auditor general and our audits that we have ongoing or have are going
to be starting. Um so that of course when you don't want to duplicate anything especially with the auditor general they get very upset when we try to do a duplicate audit or an audit of an audit that they were looking at. We then looked at issues that were related
to um anything that we've audited in the last three years that you know we wanted to make sure that we have coverage of somebody that hasn't been audited at all or it has been a while. And then of course we looked at
um those issues that um had significance or likelihood of having an impact. U so in combination if we could put the audit survey response. Yep. Okay. This is from the audit
survey. This is what the um the overall rankings were for where the concerns that lied with everybody who responded to the survey. As you can see, facility and maintenance, transportation and procurement, purchasing, um, school safety, and food nutrition were up to
the top. Next, do the next slide. Oh, yes. Okay, there we go. All right. I know that's a little hard to read. So on this slide um what what I looked at was the
likelihood of a issue happening and the significance of that issue and that's the likelihood is the orange the significance of course is the yellow. Um and from there from using that risk assessment model that's how we guided
and went to choose our audit plan. All right. Any questions on the risk assessment? And of course, I naturally did not include the actual forms because you don't put a risk assessment out there. >> All right. If there's no questions, then
I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Law. >> A question. A question. Is this new this year? This procedure? >> Yes. What I normally what I I have done in the past was I will do this, but I don't present it. And we had some
questions last year on how we chose everything. So, I thought, you know what? Since I used the survey, that was that was new. >> That's great. I think it's great. >> I think it it demonstrates a little better that we're not just taking a a dart board and throwing something. >> Good morning. Uh this slide shows you
know the uh our office you know uh functional units. It comprises of four different areas. The first one is the audit functions. The second one is investigations. The third one is the compliance and the quality assurance and also contract oversight. And then last
piece is administrations, the legal is you know review and so forth. uh like uh uh Miss uh Michaels mentioned about the risk assessment and how we uh developed the work plan. In addition to just uh you know uh the uh recent survey
that we sent out, we also based on our districtwide risk assessment we completed in fiscal year 24 and other uh prior audits to decide which areas uh to include in the next year's work plan.
Here is a a quick uh highlights of the how we allocate our resources for internal funds audit. It accounts for 19 about 20% of our uh available hours and then 20% for performance audits. Investigation is a 33% compliance is a
5% and then the rest will be 15%. This is a a very brief overview of the audit cycles from uh you know audit planning meaning that assigning the projects to an auditors to start doing the uh risk assessment prioritize the
risky areas and how much resources to be allocated into different areas for that project up to the field work the uh you know uh developing the audit findings sending it to the management for response and the corrective actions and
then once we get the responses. The report will be you know compiled together and then presented to this audit committee for you know review and approval and then after the report is approved uh the compliance unit will start uh doing the follow up on the
implementation of the corrective actions. Once all the uh corrective actions and recommendations to be implemented that will be you know final and complete. If any recommendation have not been uh completed the compliance section will
continue doing the monitoring in audit side you know like I mentioned that the internal funds accounted for about 20% and this year we uh proposed that uh six uh different uh audit projects uh number one is uh again the
uh construction non-construction major purchases this one will base and also the second one is capital projects number one and number two when we select the uh which contracts to reveal we'll work with the uh contract oversight
units because uh they attend all those uh contract awarding and so forth you know the bidding process and then we will see which projects may have a higher risk or a higher dollar value that is how we determine which projects
going I mean which contract is going to be included in the actual audit Uh the third one is the pecot expenditure for the selected departments. For the pec expenditures the school site is included in our annual internal funds audit but not
including the departments I mean the central office department. So that's why we will also select some of the departments to reveal how they spend the money using a pe card and their documentation purposes. The last time we did this audit was like a four or five
years ago. So it is about time for us to revisit the pec expenditures for departments. Number four and number five are related to uh human resources. Number four is about the hiring procedures and
onboarding procedures. And then we will uh this project will focus on the procedures in from hiring to you know uh giving the uh the employees processions and then the onboarding procedures. Number five is uh we will select some
look at the uh payroll procedures how we you know uh calculate the payrolls and also one of the important thing is to make sure only legitimate employees will get you know the paychecks. anyone terminated should be timely removed from
the system. So this is um the major focus will be the major focus for the payroll uh audit. Number six is uh the regular one that we will do every year in addition to the internal funds audit is the cash scan.
Uh so far any questions about the proposed projects? If no, the next one is uh as of June 30th, you know, end of last fiscal year, we have a nine ongoing projects. You
know, number one is just uh presented to you guys. And then number two and three, we already sent out the draft reports to the departments and schools for response, you know, earlier this month. And uh if everything's uh goes as
planned, we expect these two reports will be ready for the audit committee's you know discussion next month. uh number four, five, six and seven they are you know still uh it's close to finishing most of them they already
completed at least a 70% of the field work and then we tried to wrap it up before we start the internal funds audit for fiscal year 25 and next I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Uh the discussion
>> I have a question. >> Sorry. Okay. >> Can you can you this number eight? Could you expand a little bit about what that's about >> because I know we've talked about this. >> Okay. Could you >> the uh the crisis response planning is
is you know coordinated by the school department and every year they needs to make sure each school site they has enough you know crisis response personnels to take care of of all the different type of scenarios you know to
help the uh onampus uh resource officers how to handle you know any situation that's comes up and then each year they needs to complete uh like a crisis response plan submit to the uh school police department and then they also needs to receive the appropriate
training for all those assigned personnels to make sure they know how to handles any emergency happen at the schools. >> This is for every school >> every single school. >> This number eight includes every school >> number yes >> it's not just a sample
>> not just a sample. So we'll look at all those uh response plans submitted by schools whether their time is submitting the plans whether they have enough uh uh personnel assigned for different responsibilities submitted to school police >> and and another question related to this
number eight. How long has this um audit review been happening on this particular >> started sometime mid to late April >> of >> of uh this year >> for us you know >> 25
>> 25 yes because uh we usually uh our our planning is between August and March almost all staff members are focusing on doing the annual internal funds audits as required by the state law. >> So once we are done with this school
internal funds audit they switched to start per uh doing a performance audit. So that's the reason why some of the project even May started like uh last year they may not they may not have finished it all the field works so they will move it to the following year and
then we restart it sometime in April but for the crisis response this is new and then we just started in April of this year. The reason why I ask is I recall talking about this particular topic and security for the schools
after various things have happened over the last couple years in schools much earlier than this. Was there just a backlog to get started on this particular project? >> We did this >> or how did it just come in? >> We had this in April of 2015. We had
this similar or this uh uh before you know like about five or six years ago and now this is a revisit of this same area in addition to our you know uh officer doing the on-site inspections regularly to all the school sites and
>> and last question when do you think this will be finished? >> Uh we expect to have it finish before uh end of August. >> End of August. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. about 70 75 to 80% done with the field work now. >> Oh, okay. Great. Thank you.
>> Right. >> Mr. Chair, um I have a question with respect to the um the Centiggics program in the schools when you do your investigations or your particularly number eight.
Are we sure that all of the substitute teachers that come on to the campuses understand exactly how that system works so that if there's a crisis and that uh you know substitute sees somebody with a gun or crawling over a fence that they know exactly what they need to do? And
are all the substitutes automatically given a strategic alarm button when they're on the campus for that day? That one is not part of this audit, but we will go back and then to revisit this area because that is handled by the
school police department. I I just think it's extremely important that, you know, the district spent millions of dollars on that system and everybody that's on the campus should be able to immediately, you know, notify that there's a code red on the campus, including the substitutes who might be
one school today and another school tomorrow. Um, I I don't know how that works interactively. Does the button follow the person or does it just assign to the school? Do they need a new strategic badge every time they check into a different school? I'd like to know how that works and whether
somebody's monitoring that to make sure that that's being handled. >> Okay. We we will you know uh uh consider it you know uh for this project or maybe for next year's to add to the like maybe a special uh a special request to do uh
how ID badges are issued and then the the access to individual school sites by uh even district employees and also including the sub uh substitute teachers too. >> Okay, >> excuse me. I have one. >> Go ahead. Why don't you finish up,
Michael, and then Gloria? >> Okay. I want to go back to this topic because this was such a priority over the last couple years talking about I remember talking if you look back at our notes, we probably talked about this three or four times, safety for the students in the schools. Number one priority.
>> And um >> with this exception that you said is not included, >> I would like to know what is included at our next meeting. Maybe could you share with that that audit plan for what you are actually reviewing on this safety
>> it >> because if that's missing what else is missing >> it is basic basically it's about the the planning process it's not about the ID batch issuance ID batch is separate from the planning is two different units within the the school police department
and also this one is more focused on how the schools assign employees to handle you know emergency mergency situations, >> how they assign the employees, not what the employees are supposed to do. >> Correct. >> Not not what they're supposed to do, but just how to assign them.
>> Assignment and how they are going to do it. That's why it's about the training part. The training part too >> in terms of the assigning, you know, access that is not in the, you know, crisis response part. >> I understand. And I think that that the
issues that you are looking for are handled by our inspection process that is done on the unannounced inspections and those are done by investigations and those are done of the schools and we are going to be doing a close session on that um coming in in a couple of months
where we'll be presenting our findings and what we looked at when we went out there. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah, since you asked this question I could just give you some you know a little bit little bit of information. We have another uh ongoing audit and then we did find you know one of the
potential issues with the access assigned it to someone else and then we are now working with the school police to see how they can resolve it. >> Okay. >> So it's the access to the the individual doors at on school campuses. So we found it there's some potential issue and then
we already notified the school police and tried it to work it out. >> Right. Okay. >> Okay. Gloria. Thank you. Um, being a substitute teacher and I sub almost every day in regards to strategics is I was given one, you sign out, they explain how it
works and it followed me to every school. I was given to it by one school and it followed me to every other school. So, just FYI. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, this is principal free uh from the elementary school. That is the exact process. It's outlined from the school
police department. When there's a new substitute teacher, they receive their ID badge from the district and the first school that they go to in order to substitute, they're provided with a strategic badge by the administrative assistant who then trains them on how to
use it. But they've also gone through a course through e-learning where they also learn the proper procedures for the use of that badge. Okay. Any other questions or comments?
If not, I'll entertain motion to >> No, no, no. If no, then I'll turn it over to Mr. uh Restor to cover the uh investigation. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Is that working? I'm good. Um unlike the audit committee, our
investigations department is mainly reactive. Um, so it's hard to plan for the future because uh as we handle investigations, those investigations often are open based on a complaint or maybe an audit finding or something to that effect. Uh,
but we do handle all investigations. We do handle all whistleblower um reviews. Every investigation, every complaint that comes into uh our office, I personally review for potential whistleblower status. And depending on those findings, we move forward in a a
more detailed in-depth review. Uh few years ago, we did start the care system which has increased our workload significantly. Uh prior to that, we were averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 complaints uh in a fiscal year.
Um last year we were at 966 and the year prior to that was over 1,200. Um so again trying to plan ahead is quite difficult because we're reactive. The one place we are proactive and it's kind of been brought up is our school safety assessments uh which a program as
Michael uh enacted a few years ago which is a great program to this point. We have reviewed um 99 schools some have been duplicates if we have findings and we go back and make sure that the issues have been addressed. Um this year as
part of the evaluation process, I have increased the number of uh inspections that each investigator is required to do. Um so we're hoping to get through all 177 by the end of this fiscal year. So, at least every school has been reviewed at least once and then we'll go
back and and reinspect um to make sure that we're meeting all Marty Stoman Douglas type u requirements and assisting school police uh with any findings that we have, report those to the district um with the goal of, you
know, keeping kids as safe as possible. >> Any questions for investigations? >> No. All right, Bob. >> Okay, good morning. I'm the officer of compliance and quality assurance. I'll briefly go over these four items. Uh these are four main categories of what I
perform through the year. Um there's a detailed just description of each of these on page six. Uh the first one, uh pre-awward contract oversight. Uh throughout the year, we regularly attend uh district contract evaluation committee meetings as well as contract
negotiation meetings. Um, we also attend the monthly cork meetings. That's the construct construction oversight and review committee and the quarterly ISOC meetings. And uh, if we notice any potential issues or problems, we we we immediately
inform management right after those meetings. And if they're serious enough, we will issue a management advisory to them in writing. And you also see that here at the audit committee on your quarter quarterly reports we prepared to you on our procurement related activities and that's actually on your
agenda today also. Uh number two contract reviews that's uh mostly determines uh we we determine whether contractors complied with the important terms of their contracts with the school district.
uh mostly to see if uh for example if allow uh the cost build were allowed if the billing rates were accurate uh things like that. You'll and then we issue we'll issue a formal report on those and present it to you as well. Um and also of course determine if we
receive the goods or service that uh they were contracted to provide. Uh quality management activities. Um, these activities help ensure the quality of all our audits, investigations, and reviews. Part of my responsibility is to make sure all our
audits, investigations, and reviews comply with professional standards. And one of those standards requires our office to design, implement, and operate a system of quality management. And what uh some quality management
activities that I do is I independently review all our audits, investigations, and review the draft reports. I review them before they're given to our council for review and then presented to you by Miss Michael. Um
I I have to revise our policies and procedures as needed which has happened a couple times in the last year and it's going to happen again soon with the new 2024 uh government auditing standards update. So by the end of the year we'll have another revision to our audit
procedures manual. Um, another quality management activity is to help make sure that the recommendations from our peerreview are implemented. And that summarizes number three. And number four is uh pretty self-explanatory.
Every six months, we follow up on the status of corrective actions taken by management for all prior audit recommendations or recommendations from investigations. And that's also on your agenda today and we present that to you quarterly.
Any questions? >> Mr. Sheriff, question for Mr. Bliss. Um I I I assume this is under compliance at contract oversight. Do you have a difficulty getting documents from contractors? Do you have subpoena power?
How do you make a contractor? I know it's in our contracts that uh that they have to comply with the inspector general's office, but do you have difficulty in getting documentation from the contractors when you're reviewing a contract? >> Generally speaking, no, we do not. But
of course, there's isolated instances here and there where it might take a little longer. And >> Madam Inspector General, do you need do you need um that authority? I mean, do you have that authority already to subpoena information? >> Yeah, we we do have um it may not
necessarily fall within um Mr. Bliss's area when he's doing the contract reviews. We have had issues in um conducting audits and investigations where we have had um problems um say with a uh charter school um getting some
bank records um or during an investigation where we need we've had an investigation where a teacher um was using um a GoFundMe type account to um supplement her Amazon Prime purches for
her family. And if we had had subpoena power, we could have gotten the Amazon Prime uh information. So, and that's something that the Association of Inspector General during our last peer review had recommended that we have and that's in the upcoming policy that we've
um are going to be presenting after or at the very end of the meeting today. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. And if I may add also, sometimes um we have to rely on copies of documents like bank statements as opposed to getting access to originals that we might be able to get directly
from a bank with subpoena power. Um, I think I'd like to add that this was probably the most efficient review that you presented to us as a committee for the upcoming year on your schedule. We've
never had this individual um detail and information particularly by the people that are in charge of each area. So, I think you did a really good job this year on presenting this Thank you.
>> I kind of have a general questions on the plan as whole. I mean, the 32,000 hours, is that similar to last year? I know this is based on 21 people and I know there's we're approved for two more. Like, how does the budget get updated if you hire the two additional people? And then how are we tracking
like budget hours versus actual hours? Because I don't know if I feel like we've ever really gone over that to see how that works at the end of the year. Does that the uh the 32,000 hours is based on uh the June
30th uh field uh vacancy uh positions even though you know the school board approved that 23 positions for our office but we have a two vacancies uh at the time. So that's how we uh develop this plan and then the how many hours is
available and right now the district has a hiring freeze that's also reason why we did not use 23 positions to count the number of available hours that is how we did and then for the rest is uh you know
basically is a uh past experience as to how many hour usually we needs to complete the projects. And like Miss Michael also mentioned about sometimes we may encounter some difficulties or delays in getting uh the
requested information that will also prolong the entire process of the project. There are >> we track number of hours you know for each of the projects you know uh individually in the working papers but
again you know there's a lot of uh uh uncontrollable uh you know uh factors that may affect how many hours that we need to spend and also sometimes when we do an audit if we found certain areas initially may not be in part of the
original scope if there's something really significant we'll expand the scope and the areas to look into it. Like I just mentioned it before another project when we saw something you know some uh uh individuals had you know uh
excessive access to our school campuses we immediately look into it and then try to figure out what happened and then to work with uh the appropriate departments to resolve the potential issues. So that may also uh change the number of actual hours uh needed to do the work.
>> Yeah. Which I guess which makes sense. And I was just curious then kind of an actual because like say 33% of investigation things happen and all a sudden like at the end of the year are you spending 60% there where where then I mean you only have so many hours where suffers I guess because you have to all a sudden spend more time in one area than initially budget. I'm just curious
how how that's tracked. >> Yeah. But with the investigations, each each investigator um has an activity log that they track and we they have deadlines in which they are 90 days to turn an investigation around. Um we will
make adjustments on the deadline sometimes if they if we're having an issue. So it might extend longer. um you can't really you can kind of guess or hope that we're going to get the investigations done within that a lot of time, but in all honesty that there
isn't. They're going to sometimes go over um and do more. We also have with the inspections, you know, that's there's a little bit of give on, you know, during the summer everything's quiet. Um there's not the schools aren't open, so they're able to get their
training done. they're able to do a lot of that administrative stuff during the summer and then we pick back up again. Um, so we do we make adjustments each one does and we will, you know, investigations will go over the hours that that does happen. One, one more thing I want to add to is
like I mentioned before during the summer time, you know, uh, it's the time that we start doing, you know, most of our performance audit and then like Miss Michael said that the summer time is a low season. A lot of people may taking a you know vacation you know during that
time period. So therefore when we are requesting information when we need to meet with the people to understand the process and processes it might also take longer time to do it rather than like uh during the regular school year. So that's the reason why in terms of the
time that we allocated to do the performance audits, we need to add a little bit more buffer to it because of the potential, you know, people may not be available during the time period. >> Okay, any further questions, comments? >> We have one more slide.
>> Oh, we got who who else do we have? I'm sorry. Okay, I will take this one. This is the administrative and legal support. Um, again, this is is a a hope sometimes in our prayer that we're going to only have it in that time frame. But, you know, we
we do adjust. We don't I we don't stop at 4,920 hours and nobody gets to walk home at that point. Um, trust me. Um so if if you look at one of the you know we have we're fortunate to have our own uh council here and a lot of his
time he reviews every report every audit report every investigative report. Um we also are very cautious and very um concerned about public records requests. We got to make sure that because those public records laws are so um detailed
and and they're very nuanced. So he handles all those as well. Uh so that that number one is is kind of the most of the the hours taken. We also do training and outreach um programs for the district and we will customize that
uh depending on the request or the issues that are brought forward and we're always open to that at any time. um the IG advisory and annual report that's done every year. Um you all have seen that and that takes um it takes quite a bit of time, but we're getting
better and better at turning that over. And then um lastly, we have the supervision of staff and then the time it takes us to make sure we have everything ready for you all here at the audit committee. >> Is there any questions about admin? >> No.
>> Okay. >> Michael I just have one question before you ask us to uh approve this or whatever. Uh I'd like to ask Heather a question. Um
as the CFO of the school district when you see this type of a work plan for auditing, do you have any comments on it that you would like to make from your vantage point?
I know I am I've got to catch you blind on this, but >> I mean I I am used to I we are audited by so many different entities throughout the year. So we look forward to working with uh the inspector general's office
and the feedback that they provide. I really see that as their role. We're always looking to improve each year. Um so I I'm one of the ones who is always surveyed. you never want to volunteer areas within your department, you know. So, but you know, there are, you know,
certain areas where I know where we have certain risks and because we don't have the control. I know what controls that we have within our finance division where I I see the weaknesses in our charter schools because they do not have the same accountability and and fiscal
oversight. So that's the recommendation that I always give every single year because and you know so like I said I just appreciate uh the input and feedback that we receive each year so that we can always improve. >> Thank you. Thank you. And I I will say
that that Miss Frederick um the unallocated um time that we have there for special requests um her office and and um finance and accounting uh we get requests all the time from them and that's we make sure that we try to
because if they're reaching out to us um number one we appreciate that they trust us and look at us as a partner in that. Um so that we go to the top priority and the charter schools is a concern. We we do have one audit right now um that we
will be presenting on a charter school hopefully next month. Um and we are also looking at some processes in order to monitor what the charter schools have been speaking to the internal auditor in Miami date and received his program um
to kind of take a look at because they are all submit CPA um audit reports and we want to start monitoring that a little bit more closely. So I have taken it. It just it's part of my analytics now. Um so I kind of added it to my um
my my job list and not necessarily to the the audit staff. Um and I don't put down everything that that I'm doing on the audit plan, but we have taken it and we are working forward. >> Thank you. >> Any further questions or comments?
>> If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I. >> All opposed? Passes 6. >> Uh, this, by the way, is a very comprehensive plan. I I share Mike's
feelings about uh boy, you all have got your hands full, but we're proud of you, so keep up the good work. Okay, we'll go on to item eight, uh, compliance and QA. Uh, I think Bob Bliss, right? >> Yep. >> Okay, this is mostly as an FYI. This
summarizes our procurement related activities for the quarter ending June 30th. We attended the three monthly cork meetings as well as the um well there was no ISO meeting this quarter, but uh we attended two contract evaluation committee meetings and three contract
negotiation meetings. And those meetings had a contract value of over $105 million. And we did not identify any potential issues or concerns during those meetings. That's about all I got to say on this
report unless there's any questions. >> I have a Hey, >> yes, >> just quick question about you and I talked about this before the meeting. How does how does that Roosevelt High School fit into this program? Where is it? I mean, I don't see it on here.
>> It it was on the last quarter. Uh isn't it's not on this quarter >> or maybe I missed it. >> It was on the last quarterly report. >> But isn't it still ongoing? Oh, this is just for your meetings. >> Yeah, at the front of the contracts when they're procuring the uh good an ongoing
services, right? >> Not an ongoing report of what's happening. >> It's not unless we selected for a specific review. We'll do a procurement review and we'll really hone in on the one item if it's a higher risk. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Okay.
Okay, next item. >> Okay. >> Um, >> we'll go on then to uh the next which is a review of proposed amendments to board policy. Uh, Terry's going to present this, but let me ask you all please let her do her entire presentation before you ask questions.
uh feel free to write down your questions, but give her the opportunity to go through this whole thing before uh before we ask any questions. So, with that, I'll turn it back over to Terry. >> And again, um this is just the first stop. Um we are just um from here it
will be going to all the the directors, all the chiefs, um legal, CFO, the superintendent, and then we workshop it with the board. Um so, this is just the first stop. So, please don't think that it goes from here into, you know, adoption. And I'm going to actually turn
this over to our esteemed attorney. >> I'm esteemed this morning. Oh, boy. Um, thank you all. But before before I be No, it isn't. That's why I'm >> Let's just let that with my Snoopy socks. I don't know if those are showing
up. Um just like um Miss Michael said, you know, this this process is to receive input from the audit committee as to the very specific proposed changes that we will ultimately be workshopping um a couple months from now. This is
still subject to review by district management. Uh I've been working closely over the past couple days actually speaking to executive leadership. I spoke just this morning with uh Deputy General Counsel um Patricia Morales. So, we have our heads together reviewing
this policy and what we really want to do today is just again present it and and get input from you all. But this isn't the time for for word smithing and and and haggling and that sort of stuff. That's the the board's prerogative once we get to the workshop uh and
development phases. Um, that being said, what I kind of want to start off with, I have a PowerPoint prepared, but before we get to it, just want to share a little bit of an anecdote um, regarding what I've been working on in a former life. I don't know if everyone here
knows this. Um, I used to be a criminal defense lawyer and, uh, I did that for about 16 15 16 years defending people in in state and federal court uh, as well as juveniles. Actually, some students and former students here in the district
were my clients. And uh many years ago, I was trying a case over in Tampa in front of Judge Barbara Fleer, who was the first female judge that was elected to uh to the bench in Hillsboro County. And uh she was very proactive. She ran a
trial division. And um I was conducting voadier. And when I got up to start, I said um to the panel, and voadier is jury selection for those that don't know. I said, um, I don't want to waste your time this morning. I'm going to get through this. I'm going to be up here
babbling. And I I think I might have used the phrase drone on and on like the IG did this morning. And uh it was my attempt to be affable and and and really just sort of let the people know that that I was doing my level best to uh to to not um
I guess upset or inconvenience them. Well, after the trial was over, um what happened is is irrelevant. It was delivery of cocaine case. it didn't go well. Um the judge would always have sort of a post-mortem meeting with the attorneys, you know, to discuss and and kind of give give advice. And one of the
things she told me that's resonated with me is um you may be trying to be affable, but this stuff is really important, right? What you do is important. Jury selection is important. Policy development is important. So
today, I'm going to do my best to be as as um as the new Carrie was after that jury selection to present this um and really stress upon you all the importance and the fact that a lot of thought and a lot of time and a lot of reflection has gone into what we've put
forward today. And um hopefully it'll be well received. And um that being said, I have a PowerPoint All right. So, here we go. All right. Look at this. Not even 15 seconds in. The following are not additions to
existing policy. They are just a uh reflection of my inability to redline properly. So, as you guys are following along today, note uh section 1.0925A9C. [Music] the specific lines there, those were already in the policy. As I was
formatting, it ended up looking like there's been an amendment. It really wasn't. It was already existing language that is still on your version in bright red. Same thing for this section here, uh 1.0927 J through L, 877 through 907. Same kind
of deal. Um those are not additions. It's just existing policy language that was moved and and I haven't yet mastered the red lining. Um, and that language is currently in 1.0927 A through D. Okay, there was one addition. I just
lied to you guys. I was a former criminal defense lawyer. All right, here we go. Uh 1.092B. I neglected to add the word completed. The um that line should read each completed report or investigation and that's on line 54. So again, if you're
following along, um just make those notes. Um and uh here we go. Let's have fun. So what are some of the key changes? The um this presentation is going to outline how we have enhanced independence, increased accountability, and we've put together procedural and
substantive um added, excuse me, and provided procedural and substantive clarity by updating the definitions. There's a lot of new definitions that that are being added and you'll see those in uh section two. We've also articulated processes for
specific complaints. Um what I'm referring to here is complaints against what we sort of colloquially in the IG's office call the big four. Those would be complaints against the board or any members of the board, against the superintendent,
against the general counsel or against the IG or anyone in the IG's office. And we can get into that a little bit more um if you guys have any questions about that, but for independence reasons, those folks um they cannot be investigated by the inspector general.
We have to use what's um actually going to be defined today as a conflict-free investigator. uh we're going to align some due process rights with current laws and standards related uh to reporting. Right? And again, that's in the definition section. It's also in the sections uh relating to
cooperation um and access to the uh inspector general uh as well as report distribution. And then lastly, um I think I just mentioned this, increasing accessibility to and cooperation with the gets back to what Mr. Barbieri asked about um and
what the Association for Inspectors General has strongly recommended we pursue and obtain um uh subpoena power for us to conduct administrative investigations. All right, so here we go. So what are some of the updated definitions? Right. The first one, conflict subject and
conflict free investigator. All right, what we've done is is we've basically changed the title for conflict free investigator. Originally, we used the term external conflict agency because when we were working on um I guess
retaining and engaging potential uh conflict free investigators, we first started using other uh inspectors general offices. the Penllis County IG we have an interlocal agreement with um and so we utilize the term agency but
then we quickly realize that sometimes um if the agency itself has a conflict or has doesn't have the bandwidth to to take on an investigation you might end up procuring uh the services of of a law firm or an individual lawyer or an investigator who is is again independent from the district. So, we've suggested
changing the title to conflict-free investigator and then defining conflict subject as those big four that I just mentioned before. The board or individual board members, superintendent, general counsel, IG or member of the IG's office. The next definition is entities contracting with
the board and individuals substantially affected. All right, these terms are mouthfuls and they come directly from our friends up in Tallahassee. The language in those I'm not judging but somewhat cumbersome definitions are
pulled right from Florida statute. Specifically, it's section 20.055 par B and par C. those um terms uh while they're why they're utilized for agency inspectors general is to really allow uh
for clarity involving um reporting of of findings and the ability of subjects who are either contractors or vendors with the board or what the statutes uh label as individuals substantially affected to
respond to our reports to give them an ability to to weigh in and and basically answer any of the conclusions that we have made. Right? We've obviously been following the law. However, um you'll see when you look through the the
specific changes, we've really been kind of going above and beyond as it relates to uh what the definition of an individual substantially uh affected really means. And that includes um allowing district employees and and
folks who are not by law individuals substantially affected, folks who have an ability to to do process and to seek redress based on a finding um at the state level and with state inspectors general. Those people don't have the
ability to respond in the same way the entities and individuals substantially affected do. So we'll get into that a little more. I know that was a lot. um independence, right? We've added this term and we've updated it to to uh to really codify this idea that the
inspector general's office is um it's it's its own unique entity and and the definition that I've put together and has been approved, you know, at least by our office, it comes right from the uh green book, which are the principles and standards for inspectors general. This
is something that's that's nationwide. uh it is looked to by both states and federal and local IG's and we really wanted to put this into the policy so that people understand that that the IG is independent and the definition of independence it really doesn't in many
ways align with what common parliament means it actually means very specific um tasks that we have to undertake um care that we have to engage in when we are doing our job. So, so independence will come up again.
External entity. All right. This is one that we crafted from whole cloth, but it was to again make it clear that as we are working through um the possibility of subpoenaing people. That subpoena authority will only be exercised for
external entities. want to make it very clear that should the board grant uh subpoena power through process excuse through through this um uh policym process we're not going to be subpoenaing our own employees I'll say that again we're not going to be
subpoenaing our own employees this would be for those vendors the example that was given by Miss Michael earlier it would be that that person who has developed a business relationship with some entity outside whether it's a a GoFundMe
or whether it's Amazon Prime or whether it's a bank that that is again handling an account for a foundation. Those are the kind of external entities right now where if um if we had the ability we would uh subpoena records from them. Um OIG activities this was actually brought
up at our last meeting. I think Mr. by master might remember. Um this is a situation where we have decided to uh to really clarify what OIG activities are and um and again it really focuses on our investigative audit review CARES
administration inspection and and other duties and responsibilities that we have. and it specifically uses language um implementing the statutory mandate for districts to develop policies for investigation of misconduct. Right? And
I've cited to that specific statute there 101.42 parent 7 parent B3 which again it really says um just to sort of summarize that that all school boards are responsible for adopting policies that that are
designed to investigate instances of educator misconduct. administrator misconduct, support staff misconduct, and if the board fails to do that, the superintendent, you know, stands to um to to end up in a tough spot with the department of education. So, again, all of these authorities are things that
come from the law that we are u we are implementing. All right. So, misconduct. All right. Um this definition is another one that we adopted from the Florida uh Department of Ed, Office of Professional Practice Services or PPS. Um it's added
some OIG terminology to be a little bit more specific, but just again referring to the use of misconduct by both the DOE and the legislature is not something unique. We've had for the past few years a lot of um folks within the district express concern and confusion about what
misconduct means. And so we've utilized these uh primary authorities to put a definition together that that hopefully will help to assuage some of that. Um, I must confess that initially when these policies are put together, I was in favor of using the term wrongdoing. You'll see that term throughout the
policy as it stands now. Wrongdoing is not the um it's not as easy to define misconduct. You uh you can find a lot of uh of of authority out there. So, we're switching to uh to utilizing misconduct. Now, a non-misconduct complaint. Okay,
that'd be any complaint that doesn't articulate specific misconduct, right? Duh. in the form of law, policy or other governing directive. Right? Again, we get a lot of complaints. I think Mr. Estrepo really captured it well when he said that the CARES complaints um were
over,200 I think last year and I think we're at 900 now. A lot of those come in and they're non- misconduct related. You know, they're complaints and and they may be valid but it's not something that would be actionable for the IG to take up and either audit or investigate. Uh, for example, let's say that a complaint
comes in that the inspector general is really Alaba Throp and her staff are flying monkeys. >> Really? That would be a non-misconduct complaint. Is everyone awake right now? I'm just making sure. It got real quiet.
All right, we got to laugh. As a as a side note, for the last Halloween costume um they there was a group that came in. There you go. And um nobody knew, but that was us. That was me. I was the wicked witch of the west because
somebody had mentioned that I have I am the the wicked witch. And I send my flying monkeys out to audit and investigate. So we kind of crashed the party and nobody really knew it and we quickly left and I got all that green guck off my face. though that it's just a little joke there.
>> All All I'm going to say is that I cannot confirm or deny anything that there may be other people in this room who were those flying monkeys. Anyway, that's a non-miscond complaint trying to keep some levity. Okay, shout out to Judge Flecher. This is very serious
stuff. So, here we go. Internal uh this is some of the operational changes that have been operational changes rather that have been captured in the the policy amendments. Big thing internal procedures for draft reports. Okay. And this gets back to some of the definitions I was talking about before
involving the entities contracting with the board and those um indivi excuse me individuals substantially affected. Right now that we are aligning our practices with the standards that exist under the agency inspector's general uh
requirements. You'll see in um board policy 1.0929C 0929C that we are really specifically stating that only those folks are going to have that opportunity to provide a response in the form of a 20-day waiting period
to be able to review and and do what they need to do uh prior to the publication or the finalization rather of a report. um other folks who do do not meet that definition, they will again receive the report in the same course of business as as really any kind
of report that comes down and they will still have the ability to exercise any and all due process rights that exist as um basically non um uh substantially affected individuals or folks who are not um entities contracting with the
district. Increase compliance with existing policies. All right. This is something that was I think it gets brought up pretty much at every meeting. It might have even been mentioned earlier today. The um IG right now we can we're
supposed to by policy have immediate access to records and files and even employees for interview purposes. Obviously that that isn't a reality. You know we can't be everywhere all the time saying give us this give us that. You know the district has to function. But
what we found again is is based on the recommendations from the associations of inspectors general and based on experiences over the past few years, one of the best ways to increase that cooperation and really help to streamline and move our cases along would be through that establishment of subpoena power. And and this is what
you'll you'll really see under 1.0925 F8. Zero tolerance. This is something new that was added to the office. Um, basically the the authority and the establishment of the office. Uh, the
inspector general uh wanted to codify the sentiment that we have a zero tolerance policy for any violations of the district's code of ethics and and the the use of zero tolerance there. Um, I've spoken with, you know, general uh
deputy general counsel Morales this this morning about it. The intent behind that is just to express to the community and to to employees, taxpayers, administrators, everyone that our office wants to do everything in our power to
be on reproach. We want to make sure that in the event that someone within this office has violated the code of ethics, it will be dealt with and not swept under the rug. It will be addressed. It will be looked at. Um it's it's one of those things where when when
that label ends up getting attached, it really calls into question all of your other practices and whether or not they're legitimate. So the zero tolerance language is something that's new. So here we go. Clarification of authority. I promise we're uh we're moving through the okay does not never
has cannot will not I can't be more explicit about this uh discipline an employee. Okay. We never do that. A couple years ago when we adopted the CARES policy, some input that was offered by another department was to include the standardized language that
failure to utilize this policy could result in um discipline up to and including termination. That has brought me more confusion and chagrin and and I ru the day that we ever agreed to put that in because it's really it's wholly
inappropriate. Uh the OIG doesn't handle discipline. It really led a lot of people, and this was our fault for including it, to believe that we were going to turn around and discipline people for not using CARES. No, the policy calls for you to use CARES. We want you to use CARES. If you don't use
CARES, right, that could be a policy violation, but what the folks who handle discipline and human resources decide to do is up to them. So, we are removing that language because I do believe in retrospect it has been misleading and it adds unnecessary confusion.
um board workshops. >> Okay, this this again is just sort of harmonizing the procedural changes I mentioned before involving um and we mentioned actually last audit committee meeting involving 1.091 um rather than having the audit
committee uh uh sort of receive and and review investigations shying away from that and and moving in a direction where as investigations should be just presented directly to the board. We wanted to make sure that it was clear that the IG has the ability if
there is an investigation that warrants public discussion. We we've had a couple in the past. We'll we'll be able to schedule that um before the board. Obviously, that's with an understanding that the superintendent sets the board agenda. We would of course request um that that ability from him. May we get
on the agenda, Mr. Superintendent? But we want to make sure that while we're moving away from the audit committee, there still is that clarity that in investigations can be reviewed by the board directly in an open meeting. Here we go. Lastly, and this is another one that I think will really help uh a
lot of the um the district at large, uh particularly those that are educators or instructional personnel. The IG and OIG employees are not administrators. I'll say that again. We're not administrators. We never have been, never will be, nor do we want to be. I found out some reasons from the CFO as
to why being an administrator is really tough, right? Um, but what we've really done is just clarified that we are educational support staff, right? By being educational support staff, I'm going to show you an org chart in a second. We are very closely aligned,
just like the org chart shows, with the general counsel, right? We report directly to the board. We do not report through the superintendent. We are not part of management. And so just really wanted to clarify that because as being non-administrators, being
non-management, that helps to increase and helps to communicate that we are independent, right? Our our again responsibilities. We report directly to the elected officials and the office again reports all the findings to them
and and again it keeps us free from from managerial oversight. in that regard. Don't don't we still get managed but it's by the board. All right. Uh complaint processing. Okay. This is this is again the the big four. I talked about it uh at the beginning. All
complaints right against conflict subjects must be initiated using a specific conflict complaint form. Um that will be hyperl in the policy itself. I've provided hard copies to everyone who's in the room right now.
We'll have a digital copy available um for everybody who may be uh coming in um over Zoom. But this conflict complaint form is is something that after putting a lot of thought into it, looking at how other agencies handle these types of um
complaints, specifically the Commission on Ethics, uh as well as the um Florida uh elections commission and aligning with newly passed legislation um I can't cite to it. 112.326. Don't hold me to that. Um, it really
does require certain types of ethics complaints to be uh much more specific than they have been historically. They're required to be under oath based on personal knowledge. And so taking that law and basically implementing it here uh as it relates to complaints
against the big four, this will help us to avoid some of the uh difficulty that we've had historically when in the rare instance we do get those complaints that are against one or more of the people that the inspector general are
independent from. Um the form requirements are spelled out, but basically it's got to be, you know, sworn to. You have to identify specific misconduct. you have to address uh through a statement of fact exactly what it is you're complaining of. Um those with with long enough memories
know that we had a conflict investigation a few years ago where there was a complaint that came in. It very generally alleged corruption across large departments, across whole offices, and it it was difficult to manage because we lacked something like this that allowed for uh complaints to be
essentially scoped on the front end and and vetted. This is something that um the Association of Inspectors General I believe two peer reviews ago suggested that we take a look at. We we weren't able to really get our our hands around
it um at the time, but then after um again the experience from a couple years ago, we we decided we need to put something in um in policy. This is a new term, right? The point of contact. We can talk more about that, but really um for conflict investigations now,
whenever there's a complaint that comes in and and if it does involve one of the big four, for instance, something against a complaint against uh Mr. Burke, a superintendent, what we do is we have to make sure that that is referred to the um outside conflict-free investigator, but there still has to be
somebody in the district who's able to serve as that point of contact for administrative purposes. you know, make sure that if the investigators need to get access to district resources, you know, we're able to do that. Make sure that the investigators are aware of the standards and timelines and and really
other um requirements that are unique to uh inspector general investigations. For the vast majority of them, I happen to have been the point of contact. I don't know if I'm an esteemed point of contact, but I've been the point of contact and um it normally works very smoothly, right? Um, however, in the
rare instance where there was a complaint, if there were a complaint, to have been alleged or filed, naming numerous people in the inspector general's office um or the IG herself, what this point of contact would do is
it identifies the highest ranking member of the office who can effectively be walled off or or basically be be uh removed from any kind of appearance of of a conflict. ICT to be able to serve as that point of contact. Um, what we've
provided for, and this is a lot of creative reflection, if it can't be the highest ranking member in the inspector general's office who isn't named in the complaint, or if all members of the inspector general office are named in the complaint, um, it would revert to the audit committee chair. We decided
that really makes sense because I don't I don't know if the camera can can capture that expression, but we decided on that. There really is a rational reason for it. It's not to to make Mr. Tally or whoever his successor's life uh difficult. It it's to really show that because by the
policies that we're hopefully going to be adopting involving 1.091, 091 the audit committee is highly familiar the chair and and the committee is highly familiar with IG practices understands what this office does but will also be removed from investigations right so
what we're doing by peeling away that investigative sort of sort of oversight function it would again be another assurance of independence and and it would allow like I said in the very rare circumstance again hopefully this never happens but you know from my lips to the
to the ears of God um If it does, we we have a plan in place and it is uh very specifically prescribed and spelled out as to what needs to be done. The reason is because we don't want investigations to spiral. We don't want them to turn into half million dollars where you end
up with no findings whatsoever. So, that's that's the um intent behind that. That being said, I I think at this point we can open it up to any Oh my gosh, they're back. uh any investigations, any questions rather, whether it's about
investigations or um audits or policies. Joyce, if you want to pull up the policy redlinining itself, we can take a look at that. Um and I know that there's been a whole lot that was just thrown at everyone and um
what uh >> I have a question. >> Sure. Yeah. Um just in summary because it's uh it's a lot of information. Do you think the making the changes to the policies will result in less complaints being followed
by IG or more complaints or there'll be no change? >> I I can attempt to predict the future. the the goal is I mean we want as many legitimate complaints to get to us as as are out there, right?
But but a lot of the challenge is and and Mr. Estrepo might be able to speak to this a little better is having to to kind of move through and and weed through what is really, you know, and again when I say legitimate, I mean one that is sufficient for purposes of the
IG exercising jurisdiction. So I believe that with these policy changes it will result in more focused complaints as far as volume number I I really I can't say I don't know if anyone can but but the goal is that the complaints that do come to us will be higher quality and they
will be of a nature where it will be easy for us to assess and if need be referred to other places. Some of the the the issues that we have is that when when complaints come in and we get complaints everything from the bus is late um to a secretary is not answering
the phone and they will file those complaints um with the IG's office through CARES and that's what we're talking about non-misconduct complaints. They're like customer service type complaints or we'll receive um complaints that um a citizen is unhappy
with a board decision. All right, they they're changing policy. Uh that that's a board's decision. That's their up to them to to look at. But if a person file it, the way the the policy is written right now, if they were to say, "We're not happy that the board is removing the
DEI um issues, and I believe that they're doing this because they're they're corrupt." Well, the way the policyy's written right now, we are forced to initiate an investigation into that. Um, so that what it does is it it kind of
limits that you have to have a specific complaint. You know, is it that the board is taking bribes to do this for the DEI or is it that you have firsthand knowledge that one of the board members mentioned to you that I am voting for this uh because of um a threat or
because um I'm going to get something out of this. Um because right now we there's no vetting process. It's just automatic and we end we could possibly end up spending, you know, half a million dollars uh to find out that's the board's prerogative. It's not
misconduct. >> And and I I would add to that if if it helps, Miss Powerman that there's actually another layer if that that sort of allegation were made against the board right now, remember that because we couldn't investigate it, we would have to go through the process of engaging and referring an external
conflict investigator to to take that case. So again, with the specific policy changes involving that process, you know, section seven, you know, complaints against the big four, what that would do is if it is truly a sufficient complaint, it packages it up much nicer. It it it effectively
provides what I would hearken back to again my days as my former life, a charging document. You know, it really spells out with specificity what it is that the complainant is alleging one of those big four is done, right? Um so that's again that that's maybe more than
you asked, but >> No, thank you. That was very informative. By the way, the form that uh was created, it's it's very straightforward, very easy to follow. So, I personally love it. >> Appreciate that. The um that form, I don't know if Joyce, if you can bump it
over to the form that will be hyperl um in the um that's the one that that will be hyperl in the policy itself. Um I was te talking, excuse me, or emailing with um Miss Morales from general counsel's office. It may need to go through a form
approval process because this will be something that that's utilized districtwide. It's something that the public will be engaging in um or or utilizing as well. So it's not an internal document. This is this is the the formal, you know, conflict uh subject complaint form. Um so thank you.
I I I know that again it's a lot it's a lot of information that contains a lot of definitions but but the goal is to to really ensure that that the complaints that we do get we're able to um to properly assess and take action. >> Yes. >> Question on the form actually or what
stage does it get to the point of someone saying hey I think I should be protected under whistleblower like where does that get factored into this part? >> That's a great question. I mean I'll punt this one to our director of investigations. Um, like I said earlier, every complaint
I review and if I have I have to have the name of a subject, they have to identify themselves. Um, and there's an A and a B standard in the whistleblower statute. If it potentially meets that, then that process immediately kicks in,
which would require an in-person interview sworn statement, more than just the form, um, and then a full analysis based on our whistleblower form. So, um it could conceivably increase our uh
whistleblowers uh because we're requiring them to identify themselves. A lot of times somebody will say in for example you know the board is corrupt or previous you know this this whole office is corrupt and they don't have any specifics. uh that wouldn't kick in a
whistleblower, but if somebody's actually bringing straight forward and that's another positive from this form is real legitimate whistleblowers will come forward. Hopefully they'll be provided with that protection and even if we have to send it out to a um law
firm or conflict inspector general um those powers of whistleblower would also protect the identity of such complainants. That makes sense. See, I was just curious because I'm sort of thinking like this person filling out this form, they're putting their name all like are they going to get nervous and be like so I didn't know if there would be a spot
that says hey I think I'm I should be protected or something like that but I guess the process is >> yeah typically they can anybody can request it but anything that comes in I review and if there's a potential to meet the statutory definition then we go
that step further and if upon analysis yes it meets the requirements by whistle board statute then that identity will be protected even if an outside law firm uh provides the investigation. >> Thank you. >> That excellent.
>> Yes, sir. >> Madam IG, um I'm I don't know it was last year, the year before that there was a change in the law that hampered your ability to commence an investigation on your own. Would you explain where we're at on that and how that fits in with this policy? All
right. One of the the the changes was that we cannot initiate a purely ethical misconduct complaint um without a complainant coming forward and they have to swear to it and that's part of what
this this form does. Um it right now if when we have a complaint that comes in if almost every complaint that that we investigate or or turn over to to professional standards or whoever has an ethics component to it, but it also has a policy violation. So as long as
there's a policy violation in there, we can initiate. We don't need the sworn statement. But if it's strictly ethical ethics, um I just think that the that um that that Terresa Michael is just a bad person. She's just bad. She's, you know,
and and you know, there's no specific that I'm taking bribes or whatever. Um we can't initiate unless the person does a sworn statement. They have firsthand knowledge and so forth. >> Okay. Okay. So, if a schoolboard member came to you in your office and complained about something and it so you
would have no problem if if an individual schoolboard member wanted you to investigate something that is a policy violation. >> Correct. Yes. Most most definitely. It it it's just if it's a the only problem that we have is if it's just ethics. There's no policy associated with it.
Okay. >> Um then then then you have to be sworn it has to have an affidavit. You have to have have personal knowledge of it. And that's the new statute that that changed that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Other questions. >> Just one quick point of information.
Well, maybe I shouldn't do this because there are no questions. Um, this was brought up by um, Miss Frederick a few moments ago. One of the um sections, I didn't mention this in the slideshow that that we are looking to, again, we we clarified it, but it involves
contract oversight of of charter schools. We we previously have had the ability to review charter applications, charter contracts, that sort of thing. Um because again, as the sponsor um of of all charter schools, you know, the district has that it's a duty, right?
It's mandated by by Tallahassee and the board of education. But we've also, again, we're asking to expand that um if it's not expressly stated in the charter, sometimes it is to any foundations or or entities that are created for the purpose of benefiting the charter. We're looking to to expand
that as well. Um so that's just something that um I don't anticipate it, you know, being controversial based on what we've heard through the risk assessments and surveys, but um that's that's something that's proposed as well. Uh, in current charter contracts, we do
have an IG provision in there. If there's some additional language that you think um should be changed for future contracts, let's work together on getting that. >> Absolutely. And I know that some of them do. I think it kind of depends on whether at the time either the charter
application submitted or or approved or when the charter is reapproved. um if the foundation doesn't exist and the idea doesn't exist if it is developed later that that might be circumstances where it's not listed in the agreement but sure we'll absolutely work together on that
okay any other questions if not I'll entertain a motion to uh approve >> motion to approve is there a second >> discussion all in favor
>> all opposed passes 6. Okay. Uh, next, uh, investigations. Uh, this was previously sent to you by Joyce, so there's nothing really we need to discuss there. Are there any general
comments? Yes, Mark. >> I actually on one of those investigative reports that and it was necessarily part of the, you know, for what the report was for and this is probably a discussion to come up at a a later meeting. the the I had a concern about this is the one about the um unaccounted
time where where my concern wasn't about the unaccounted time but was the that the employee was able to have multiple students that it could check out and take and take the students off campus and I don't think this it was related to
those students and my concern is is is that policy allowed and if it is allowed are limitations or should it not be allowed because I just see so many problems with that
that pol if it is allowed for that policy to exist >> and I think you're you're you're talking I believe there was a staff member who was listed as the emergency contact for several students that were not their relatives and they and um they left and
um I don't I I believe that if it is e if you're listed as the emergency contact or if the parental is given permission. Um, they are allowed to, >> right? I mean, all all of those changes have to be added by the parent or the legal guardian. So, whoever is listed
would be able to have access to >> I I I see that's maybe it's a HR issue, but but I see that's concerning that you'd have an employee that in that in that report had a minimum of five students that it was allowed to remove
from school and legally and ethically, there's probably a lot of issues with that. >> And and and I and I agree. I think that there was issues on whether or not as an employee, especially if they're stolen the clock. Um are if they got into an accident, would that be considered the
district would be liable for that? um if the parent didn't know that he they were actually taking him off, they maybe they gave a permission slip um to allow it and then he's taking him off and we've got one of these, you know, nefarious people out there. Um I I agree that that
could be a significant problem. >> Like I said, it's probably a discussion for a later date. >> We most definitely >> there any uh any comments we want to make? If not, thank you for your patience. This was a very important meeting. And
uh if there are no further comments, our next meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 15th. And with that, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Okay. Passes unanimously. Thank you all.
Have a good weekend.