THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080381
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
In an unexpected move that has prompted a School Board member's resignation, Mordecai L. Smith was reinstated Wednesday as the school district's director of budget development.
The move came almost five months after he was placed on paid administrative leave in the wake of the worst financial disaster in the division's history.
On Wednesday evening, board member Susan L. Creamer notified chairwoman June T. Kernutt that she was resigning effective immediately.
``I have found a decision that the school board made on a personnel issue at our meeting on Feb. 6, 1996, is one I cannot support,'' Creamer wrote to Kernutt. Creamer could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The board voted 7-4 early Wednesday morning with board members Creamer, Kernutt, Karen O. O'Brien and Joseph D. Taylor opposing Smith's return. Smith's reinstatement is probationary, and he will not resume his duties as chief financial officer. Details remain to be worked out, including Smith's return date, according to his attorney, Tim Sceviour.
Sceviour called the decision a victory for his client. Smith could not be reached for comment.
``He's ready to get back to work,'' Sceviour said. ``Mr. Smith is very grateful to the board for providing him the opportunity to be heard and for the board's vote.''
Board member Elsie M. Barnes, who voted for Smith's reinstatement, declined to go into the details of her decision.
``Given the information and circumstances revealed, I felt that reinstatement with a demotion was the appropriate thing to do,'' she said.
Taylor, however, was outraged by the board vote.
``To put him in as budget director and call it a demotion in the area where the problems started in the first place is ludicrous,'' Taylor said. ``I'm just shocked at the outcome.''
``The actions that the man has expressed in his position . . . gives me every reason to believe he is incapable of carrying on in this capacity.''
Most board members who were reached Wednesday were reluctant to comment on the decision. Because it is a personnel matter, Smith's reinstatement was discussed by the board in private. Smith made a presentation to the board before Tuesday evening's meeting. ``He was able to tell his side of the story,'' Sceviour said.
The timing as much as the decision stunned some. It comes two weeks before the arrival of the district's new superintendent and with the results of a special grand jury investigation into the district's finances expected as early as this month.
Smith has been near the center of the district's budget crisis since the discovery of a shortfall eventually set at $12.1 million. An external auditor found that the district's 1994-95 budget document was essentially useless as a means to plan and to track money because of the miscalculations in revenues and expenditures as well as excessive transfers.
Smith had taken on the duties of chief financial officer along with his responsibilities as budget development director for much of that year, and he had assured the board days before the deficit was discovered that the year would end with a surplus. He has since said that many of his actions during that year were at the direction of then-Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette, who now leads a Georgia school district.
Smith has argued that he has done nothing wrong and that he expected his name would be cleared.
City Council members said they were shocked by the School Board's decision to reinstate Smith, particularly by its timing.
``I would just say to you that I tried very hard to figure out what could possibly have been going through their minds,'' council member Louisa M. Strayhorn said.
Council member W.W. Harrison Jr. said he thought another council member was joking when he told him of the board's decision.
Creamer's resignation, meanwhile, is one more unsettling blow for the school district, which only recently completed a search for a new superintendent while battling lingering financial problems.
Creamer has represented the Blackwater district on the board for five years. Her seat is up for election in May. It was not immediately clear if an appointment would be made to replace her until the election. MEMO: Staff Writer Karen Weintraub contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Mordecai L. Smith
Board member Susan L. Creamer quit Wednesday. Her seat is up for
election in May.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET by CNB