De Blasio used ‘slush fund’ to support faulty pre-K programs | New York Post

 ...the practice of paying vendors with shady backgrounds who deal with vulnerable children is likely to recur in the future. ... Leonie Haimson

The ax is getting closer to DeB/Farina's neck as the scandal reaches into the DOE and PEP. The vaunted pre-k program was so rushed through it is loaded with fault-lines, especially in certain religious communities. deB/F better pray that a kid doesn't get hurt.

the practice of paying vendors with shady backgrounds who deal with vulnerable children is likely to recur in the future. ... the city gave a green light for pre-K programs to accept kids last school year despite problems including tax evasion, misspending public funds and failure to hire sufficient qualified staff — a move Sullivan called “irresponsible.”.... NY Post

I watched the PEP sit there like dummies last Wed with nary a peep. There are some very arrogant people on the PEP who claim they care about children but let this stuff go.

Patrick Sullivan is gone from the PEP because neither the new Manhattan BP (Gail Brewer) nor the Mayor would re-appoint him .... the PEP has never voted down a contract and the public doesn't get to hear any of this discussion or answers from DoE, which also sidesteps the open transparent process that's supposed to happen in the case of a public governing board.... Leonie Haimson

A plague on Gail Brewer for not reappointing Patrick. The Mayor could have also appointed him and he was lobbied to do so but he doesn't want someone asking questions. That is the essence of mayoral control - no accountability. I'm prepared to join with our enemies to take control away from him.

Yes, we had more info coming out of the DOE under BloomKlein than under DeFarina.

Leonie's full commentary:

The Mayors office asked a nonprofit called the  Fund for the City of NY to cover the costs of preK vendors who had evaded taxes, engaged in fraud and failed to hire sufficient qualified staff as well as engaged in other unspecified programmatic problems.
Now the DoE is asking  the Comptroller to retroactively approve these contracts so the city can pay the Fund back- in an end run around the city's procurement rules.
Good story by sue Edelman below.   What the story doesn't mention is the DoE is still asking the PEP to approve preK and special Ed vendor contracts before the background checks are completed- and the PEP complies.


This means  the practice of paying vendors with shady backgrounds who deal with vulnerable children is likely to recur in the future.  This is unacceptably careless behavior of questionable legality and risks taxpayer funds and kids' lives,
http://nypost.com/2016/04/24/de-blasio-used-slush-fund-to-support-faulty-pre-k-programs/
More detail you can see in the last few pages of this month's RAs - in the Addendum that Patrick spotted.  We also highlighted these issues in our comments to the PEP before their vote,  now posted on our blog at nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com  as well as other unresolved questions pertaining to the huge Amazon contract and the funds awarded special Ed vendors with similar problems as those found with these preK vendors,
Yet not one PEP member brought up any of these issues during the contract committee discussion or during the PEP meeting.

Supposedly there are backroom private discussions between the PEP members and DOE staff about some of their concerns, but the PEP has never voted down a contract and the public doesn't get to hear any of this discussion or answers from DoE, which also sidesteps the open transparent process that's supposed to happen in the case of a public governing board.
Sue Edelman asked me if it was better or worse under Bloomberg- I said about the same because a lot of rotten contracts were also approved during those years. But at least during much of the Bloomberg administration, Patrick was there to challenge the DOE and force them to answer questions in a public forum.  Robert Powell, the one PEP member from the Bronx who voted against the corrupt CCS contract , originally proposed to cost the city $1.1 B, also made his concerns public in that case.

Now Patrick is gone from the PEP because neither the new Manhattan BP nor the Mayor would re-appoint him,  and Robert Powell has left the PEP as well.