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Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD For two people prominent in Springfield's government the events of Thursday's Finance Control Board meeting (FCB) was a case of good news and bad news. For City Finance Executive Director Steve Lisauskas, Thursday's meeting of the board brought some vindication as the board's Chair Christopher Gabrieli announced that Lisauskas' involvement in the Merrill Lynch incident had been reviewed and investigated. School Superintendent Joseph Burke, however, was not only deeply criticized by education advocates Lois Smith and Orlando Santiago during the speak-out portion of the meeting, but Gabrieli announced that the search for a new superintendent would be accelerated so by April there could be three to four candidates to consider. Gabrieli said that he wants the school superintendent selection process to be as "inclusive and consensual as possible." He received permission from the FCB to hire a consultant that would perform a national search. Once candidates have been chosen, Gabrieli wants them reviewed in public interviews by a group that would include the FCB, the School Committee and an ad hoc group of Springfield residents. While not directly acknowledging the School Committee had recently voted to extend Burke's contract by three years in defiance of the announced search by the FCB, Gabrieli said he had reached out to members of the School Committee to try to include them in this process. The discussion of Lisauskas' performance took place in an executive session that lasted over two and a half hours, derailing the regular schedule of the meeting. Gabrieli refused to share any details of the investigation, as it was a personnel matter. He said the investigation of others in city government such as the treasurer, auditor and the former chief financial officer would continue. He added that the investigations should not imply any of these individuals were involved with wrongdoing. City Council President and FCB member Bud Williams had asked the board for a review of Lisauskas in a memo released to the press on Feb. 15. In the memo, Williams wrote, "In light of the Merrill Lynch situation a review of our financial personnel should begin immediately and it starts at the top. I'm not condoning anyone's performance, but obviously with the Merrill Lynch controversy, there were several discrepancies and many financial policy and procedural questions arose thus necessitating this financial review. This financial review will serve not only to review the current and past performance of our financial people, but it will also instill more confidence in the people we have as we tread the waters toward financial recovery.providing these reviews are positive. If these reviews are not positive then we know some changes have to be made." City Councilor James Ferrera told Reminder Publications that while he was happy the FCB had launched a review, "it's not over yet." "There are still a lot of unanswered questions," he said. Ferrera had sent Lisauskas a memo with 12 questions he wanted answered that had a deadline of 2:15 p.m. on Feb. 15. The memo criticized Lisauskas for not coming to a City Council meeting to speak about the issues and posed the questions. They included the following: "Describe in detail how and why the Albany Branch of Merrill Lynch was chosen to do business with the City of Springfield and why other local branches of Merrill Lynch were not given the opportunity to give a sales pitch." "Were these investments sent out to bid? Was there an RFP used? If yes, please send a copy of the bid/RFP that was used for these investments. If no, please state why no RFP was used. Please also send a copy of all the policies and procedures when handling these types of investments with the City." "As stated in the complaint filed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, please describe your 'longstanding friendship' between you and Carl J. Kipper, Vice President, Global Private Client Group for Merrill Lynch. When/where did you first meet him? Do you have any personal accounts set up with him or Merrill Lynch (active or non-active)? In Exhibit One of the Secretary's complaint, there is an e-mail from Carl Kipper to [e-mail address] which states 'Steve, thank you. Nice chatting with you this morning and I will give you a call so we can get together for lunch or dinner within the next week or so. Have a great day.' At anytime did you have lunch or dinner with Carl Kipper and if you did, who paid? Please provide receipts." Ferrera said he didn't get any answers from Lisauskas, but he did get a response that Lisauskas couldn't reply to any of the questions because of the investigation. Ferrera is sending a letter to the State Ethics Commission that would request an additional investigation. He said he has been very frustrated in not being able to get answers to the questions asked by constituents. "We have no transparency with Mr. Lisauskas," Ferrera said. "It's the out of control Control Board trying to sweep everything under the rug." | ||||||
