Bloomberg Decides To Cut DOE Contractors Instead Of Firehouses

This has to be more fall-out from the Bloomberg Blizzard Disaster of 2010 as well as the CityTime payroll project scandal:

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 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.

Bloomberg's sacrifice of education consultants - coming on the heels of the snowstorm fiasco - is significant since he has long defended them.

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. That should be unheard of in this day and age."

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.

One of the consultants, Manikanta Krishnamoorthy, has worked for the Education Department since 2004, according to his resume, and took in more than $514,000 as a software programmer from October 2008 through June 2010 alone. He was hired as an official employee in October at an annual salary of $131,004.

The city has paid Hudson Valley Systems more than $415,000 for software programmer Michael Manner as part of a $12 million contract to put an automated personnel system in place for the system's teaching force.

The Education Department defended the spending as worthwhile but acknowledged they'll be scrutinizing the contracts more closely.

"Given the changing fiscal conditions, we are going to be taking a hard look at all of these contracts," said spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz.

But many parents said the money could be better spent.

"We need more teachers' assistants. They've cut so many of them. They need more help inside the classroom," said Anitrah Thomas, whose son, Jalend Milton, attends the Academy of Scholarship and Entrepreneurship in the Bronx.

City Controller John Liu said his office had beefed up its review of the Education Department's consultant contracts.

"As classroom and student programs are being cut and the number of teachers is being reduced," said Liu. "The last thing that should be a sacred cow are these expensive consultants."

Ah, but to Bloomberg they ARE sacred cows, because outside consultants are the emblem of his political and economic ideology - private consultants with ties to the mayor and/or the mayor's cronies good/unionized government workers.

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?

I bet John Liu's looking into these contracts had something to do with the DOE's move.

You see, outside scrutiny of Moneybags uncovers some amazing things.

He's not such a good manager after all.

CityTime employees steal $80 million.

CityTime project goes $700 million over budget.

Bloomberg continues to hand out six figure salaries to computer consultants to work on computer issues in schools without computers.

Bloomberg can't get 20 inches of snow removed from the city until Mother Nature melts it for him.

Not such good management by Herr Moneybags.

And if any independent auditor actually looked at the city crime stats, graduation rates, and other stats that Bloomberg is always promoting as proof positive he is a municipal managerial genius, we would see just how manipulative and dishonest Bloomberg has been as mayor.

There is still three more years for that.

You can see that the press have decided Bloomberg is no longer to be handled with kid gloves like he was during his first two terms.

I am hopeful that we will get some exposure of the "data" Bloomberg loves so much as the phonied up distortions and lies that it is.