School committee to review draft conflict policy

loading...

BANGOR – The school committee tonight will take its first crack at a draft conflict-of-interest policy developed in the aftermath of last month’s election flap, which resulted in the resignation of a member-elect.

The policy will undergo a first reading during a meeting at 7 tonight in the council chambers at City Hall, School Superintendent Robert Ervin confirmed Tuesday.

The second reading, and possible adoption, will take place at the committee’s next meeting, he said.

The point behind the conflict-of-interest policy, in large part, is to avoid the kind of drama that surrounded last month’s school committee election.

“It’s very straightforward,” Ervin said.

“I think it cleans up a number of different issues and it has very much in common with the conflict policies that exist in other school systems,” he said.

The proposed policy on conflicts is one of two being contemplated by school officials.

The other, which will be presented to the school committee in the near future, will deal with nepotism, another issue the committee has heard complaints about in recent weeks.

Ervin said he initially thought he could address both issues in a single policy. After some research, however, he decided the issues needed to be tackled individually.

“Really, they are two different animals,” Ervin said, adding that the two were handled separately in virtually every group of sample policies he examined as part of his research into how other school and municipal bodies handled them.

School officials decided to develop policies on conflict of interest and nepotism shortly after the resignation last month of Dan Tremble, a former city councilor who also served a term as mayor.

Tremble stepped down from his school committee post Nov. 16, one day after Ervin informed him that, under state law, he could not serve on the seven-member panel while his wife, Molly Tremble, was employed by the school department.

Molly Tremble was hired in early September as an education technician at Fairmount School, where she staffs the computer room.

The incident raised eyebrows around the community and prompted two residents to register a formal complaint over how Ervin handled the conflict.

The only guideline school officials had to go by at that time was a state law prohibiting school committee members from serving in jurisdictions in which their spouses are employed.

Afterward, both Ervin and Tremble said they were unaware of the state law until it was too late to do anything about it.

Tremble said he thought he was free to serve because another school committee member had a daughter and son-in-law employed by the school department, which is not prohibited by state law.

Ervin said he learned about it after the election but before Tremble was sworn in as a school committee member.

On Tuesday, Tremble said the draft policy broke no new ground.

“It’s just restating state law and city codes,” he said. “Maybe it’s good just so that they have it in their member handbooks, but they are not creating anything new.”

According to the draft, the policy is not intended to prevent the school department from contracting with corporations or businesses because a committee member is an employee of the firm.

Rather, it aims to avoid putting school committee members “in a position where their interest in public schools and their interest in their places of employment … might conflict and to avoid appearances of conflict, even though such conflict may not exist.”

Among other things, the policy would bar school committee members from:

. Having any direct or indirect financial interest in a contract with the school department, or providing any labor, equipment or supplies to the department.

. Being named to any paid position created by the school during that member’s term of service and for year afterward.

. Serving on the school committee of a school system in which their spouse is employed.

The proposed policy also would prohibit members and their spouses from serving as volunteers for programs and activities when that volunteer has primary responsibility for a program or activity and reports directly to the superintendent, principal, athletic director or other administrator in the school committee’s jurisdiction.

In addition, the draft policy would require that:

. Any committee member employed by or with a secondary interest in a business providing goods or services to the school department declare such, and refrain from debating or voting on contracts with the business.

. Submit a statement disclosing professional, fraternal, social and other affiliations, as required of city councilors in the city charter.