Ex-Supt. Brown defends Birmingham record amid financial review

Posted 8:03AM on Sunday 24th November 2002 ( 22 years ago )

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - Former Superintendent Johnny Brown, joined by attorneys, defended his record as head of Birmingham schools while the system's ex-chief financial officer and six other finance employees were placed on paid leave in a spending probe. An eighth school system employee was put on leave last week. Among those placed on leave is Glenn Dickerson, the chief financial officer under Brown, said Board President Phyllis Wyne. Wyne told The Birmingham News that she knew few details behind the reasons for the leave, except that ``irregularities'' had been found. Dickerson did not immediately return a phone message for comment Saturday. Brown, now head of DeKalb County, Ga. schools, held a news conference Friday with his wife, two top staffers and two attorneys. Brown and lawyer Jock M. Smith spent nearly two hours responding to criticism from the current school board and interim Superintendent Wayman Shiver. Shiver and the board claim that Brown's leadership left the system in financial shambles and his spending helped create a deficit expected to reach $17 million by September. ``I think some of the statements made by these people do border on libel. There is malice intended in statements, obviously, where the speaker knows the statement is untrue,'' said Smith. Brown left Birmingham in May for the Georgia post. Taking a day of leave from his job, he returned to defend his record because reports about the Birmingham schools have made headlines in the Atlanta suburb. Brown said his work in Birmingham is history, and he wants to focus on his new job, leading a 98,000-student system. Shortly after Brown's departure, Birmingham officials began uncovering excessive overtime, overspending and suspicious loans. Shiver and board members have publicly faulted Brown. Brown claims that unprepared, frustrated new board members are making him a scapegoat. ``Let us move forward on behalf of the children. Let's get out of the past,'' Brown said, reading a 17-page statement at the news conference. About the time Brown left for Georgia, Birmingham switched from an appointed to an elected school board. Brown said the new board's refusal to meet with him left them unprepared. Brown said he tried, providing members with a hefty notebook that included financial details such as the impact of proration, the state-mandated cuts caused by unexpected revenue shortfalls. ``The state's funding program is the real issue here,'' Brown said. ``The state is providing far fewer than the necessary resources needed to support children.'' Brown went from being Alabama's top-paid superintendent, with a salary and benefit package of $215,000, to Georgia's top-paid schools chief with a $245,000 package. ``That doesn't in my view reflect whether or not the state provides resources for the needs of our children,'' Brown said. ``Somebody has to be the highest.'' The new board has requested a forensic audit, more comprehensive than routine audits done under Brown. The Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts is conducting the audit, which will be completed in early spring. Board members and administrators including Shiver say they were led to believe that the system had $25 million in reserve. At issue is whether that much money existed. ``Dr. Brown and his chief financial officer told us $25 million, and every one of us remembers the same amount,'' Wyne said. She said she does not intend to back down from her claims that he misled and mismanaged schools. ``I cannot reconcile Johnny Brown. The only reconciliation he can get is through the truth,'' Wyne said. ``Johnny Brown thinks it's about him, and it's not. I feel that's why the system is in the shape it's in now, because everything was about him, and our charge now is to make it about the boys and girls in their system, the teachers and the staff.'

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/11/187332