Patrick Sullivan to Verizon: When will you give our schools back our money? BE AT THE PEP Wed.

"Verizon has sent the PEP members a letter asking us to approve the contract.  It blames CWA for the campaign against the contract.  It attempts to completely misrepresent the SCI [Special Commissioner of Investigation] report which clearly states Verizon concealed billing information and knew of inappropriate arrangements.   Rather than CWA, it was SCI who asked that all funds be recovered from Verizon and that external auditors be brought in to examine Verizon's books."

Laura,
Special Commissioner for Investigation Condon recommended that the DOE require that all funds from the Lanham consultants be returned from Verizon.
When will you give our schools back our money?  We have severe budget cuts and we need those funds.
Have you opened your books to our auditors as he also asked?

Patrick Sullivan
Manhattan member,
Panel for Educational Policy

 GEM started this ball rolling less than 2 weeks ago by teaming the Verizon contract with the strike and lookee at what's happening. The CWA is coming out strong tomorrow and so is the activist ed community - all the groups are on board. Don't expect much press at a mid-Aug. PEP.

Verizon is feeling the heat. Verizon's Laura wrote a letter to all the PEP members and Patrick responded above.

Media advisory: Wed. Aug. 17 protest rally at 5 PM before vote on NYC DOE $120M Verizon contract‏

CONTACT:

Bob Master, CWA: 212-344-2515/917-657-6483:
Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters: 917-435-9329
Julie Cavanagh, GEM: 917- 836-6465
Zakiyah Ansari, CEJ: 917- 309-5742

MEDIA ADVISORY: Rally to protest the NYC Department of Education’s proposed
$120 million contract with Verizon before Panel for Education Policy’s vote

TOMORROW, Wed. August 17, 2011, hundreds of parents, teachers, elected
officials, community activists and striking Verizon workers will speak out
against the NYC Department of Education’s proposed $120 million, two year
Verizon contract. A meeting and vote of the Panel for Educational Policy
will follow.

WHO:  Parents, teachers, community activists, elected officials, union
leaders, and striking Verizon workers

WHAT: Rally to oppose an egregious, wasteful and possibly illegal $120
million Verizon contract

WHERE: Murry Bergtraum HS, 411 Pearl Street, in lower Manhattan

WHEN: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 5 PM

The NYC Department of Education proposes to grant a two year, $120 million
contract to Verizon, despite the company’s demand for huge and unfair
givebacks from their workers, despite Verizon being implicated in a $3.7
million fraud against the DOE, despite twenty other instances of
questionable corporate activities, despite the fact that all schools are
already wired for the internet and schools are suffering huge budget cuts,
sharply rising class sizes, and stagnant achievement levels, and despite the
fact that this contract began last January, without any vote of the Panel
for Educational Policy (PEP), making it potentially illegal.  

The PEP will vote on this contract at a meeting at Murry Bergtraum High
School in downtown Manhattan, starting at 6 PM. 

Before the meeting, at 5 PM, hundreds of striking Verizon workers, along
with parents, teachers, elected officials, union leaders and community
activists, will speak out against it.

For more information, see "Five reasons to say NO! to the DOE's $120 million
contract with Verizon" at http://tinyurl.com/3glh8zq

### 

Here is the post at NYC Parent blog:
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/08/things-are-getting-hot-update-on-rally.html

Things are getting hot! Update on rally and letters from Verizon and CM Cabreras

Things are heating up.  Speakers at tomorrow's rally will include  elected officials,  labor leaders, and parent and teacher activists.  Be there or be square!

What: Rally and Protest 

Where: Murry Bergtraum HS, 411 Pearl Street, Manhattan (4/5/6 or N/R to City Hall / Brooklyn Bridge)

When: Wed. August 17, 2011 at 5 PM 

Why?  Verizon is shortchanging their own workers and stealing from schoolchildren!   

Say no to more giveaways to private contractors and more wasted spending on technology while our class sizes are increasing! Tell the PEP to vote down the Verizon contract with the DOE!

UPDATE: Meanwhile, Verizon has sent a letter to members of the Panel for Educational Policy, claiming the company was not involved or implicated in any fraud.  

And yet the Special Investigator in his report clearly said that " SCI has determined that Lanham stole millions of dollars in public funds and defrauded the DOE. IBM and Verizon, by their silence, facilitated this fraud. ....Verizon concealed from the DOE and law enforcement that they got millions of dollars in contracts through Lanham only after agreeing to hire CCS as a subcontractor.....It is the recommendation of this office that the DOE recover all the money paid to IBM and Verizon for the Lanham consultants. It is further recommended that the DOE bring in outside auditors to determine any additional cost to the DOE and the Federal government engendered by Verizon’s use of CCS as a subcontractor on work that Verizon could have done at a lower cost."
 

But up to this point, Verizon has failed to pay any of this money back.  Here is what  Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan member of the PEP, has to say about this matter: 
 
 "Verizon has sent the PEP members a letter asking us to approve the contract.  It blames CWA for the campaign against the contract.  It attempts to completely misrepresent the SCI [Special Commissioner of Investigation] report which clearly states Verizon concealed billing information and knew of inappropriate arrangements.   Rather than CWA, it was SCI who asked that all funds be recovered from Verizon and that external auditors be brought in to examine Verizon's books." 

Also, please check out what Council Member Cabreras, chair of the NYC Council Technology Committee, wrote in his own letter to Chancellor Walcott, asking him to postpone the vote until he can hold hearings about Verizon's involvement in the scandal. 

For more on this and related issues, see Five Reasons to Say No! to the Verizon contract, and Patrick's recent post.