Bloomberg Decides To Cut Dept Of Ed Contractors Instead Of Firehouses

[Hannah Bell]

Mayor Bloomberg is saving firehouses by cutting highly paid Department of Education consultants - after the Daily News started asking questions about the pricey contracts.

As schools struggle to keep class sizes from ballooning and hang onto after-school programs, the (NYC) Education Department paid more than 100 consultants six-figure salaries in 2010, records show.

The city forked over more than $200,000 each to close to two dozen of the education contractors - a higher salary than anyone in the department except the chancellor. Between 2008 and 2010, the city approved some $200 million in consultant contracts.

The City Council struck a deal with the mayor to cut $4 million from the high-tech consultants as part of a package to stop City Hall from closing 20 firehouses to save cash.

This must have been a difficult move for the Mayor of Accountability because Bloomberg LOVES paying outside contractors tons of money for doing little to nothing every year:

"It's utterly ridiculous," said James Dandridge, president of the parents council in Canarsie and Flatbush in Brooklyn. "They pay so much for these computer consultants, and we have schools in our district that don't have working computers."

One of the highest paid consultants during the 2009-2010 school year was John Whitson, who was brought in from IBM in Massachusetts to head up internal computer security. The agency agreed to pay $225 an hour and his fees totaled $516,881 in 18 months - more than twice the annual salary of Schools Chancellor Cathie Black.

The department has hired some of the high-priced, high-tech contractors for years, sidestepping competitive bidding rules meant to save taxpayers money by limiting contracts to 18 months, records show.

I am glad to see that the DOE has decided to cut these salaries, but I must ask, how come these consultants weren't cut BEFORE this?

Bloomberg announced salary freezes for all DOE employees in 2010 to save money.

And yet these consultants were STILL raking in between $264,000 and $516,000 for 18 months work?


http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2011/01/bloomberg-decides-to-cut-doe.html

[Occulus]

1. Wow. A positive outcome for a change.

I can't begin to imagine what those education contractors were doing that was worth that much money. After all, we once had an excellent public education system without any of them.

[aquart]

2. Definitely cutable fat. Is "cutable" a word?

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. "Bloomberg Agrees to " is more accurate than "Bloomberg Decides"

>>>The City Council struck a deal with the mayor to cut $4 million from the high-tech consultants as part of a package to stop City Hall from closing 20 firehouses to save cash.>>>>


Plus... I would doubt very seriously that the # of 6 figure " consultants" in DOE would be anywhere near as low as 100.

"Consulting" is what banks were to Willie Sutton were ... "where the money is."

Let's not give Mayor Snowstorm any more credit than he is due.