The school district placed its director of business services on
paid administrative leave following a clerical error that sent the
school district scrambling to recoup $6 million in missed taxes,
trustees said.
The school district placed its director of business services on paid administrative leave following a clerical error that sent the school district scrambling to recoup $6 million in missed taxes, trustees said.
Director of Business Services Keiko Mizuno has been on paid administrative leave since April 21 but is still on the district’s payroll collecting an annual compensation of $161,554, according to Superintendent Deborah Flores and district records. Flores would not say how long Mizuno would remain on paid administrative leave or if she was returning to the district. In the meantime, the Santa Clara County Office of Education has provided the school district with extra personnel to fill the position vacated by Mizuno, who has “been around for years,” trustees said.
The county will provide the school district with extra assistance for the rest of the year, Flores said.
“We are very grateful and pleased with their response,” she said. “The new county superintendent’s focus on service to districts has allowed this to happen.”
Flores would not comment on the details of Mizuno’s leave.
Mizuno’s position had not been posted on EdJoin, the job listings Web site the district uses to advertise its vacancies, as of Thursday morning. Flores would not say how or if the district planned to fill the position after the end of the year.
Though Flores had not spoken to the county about whether there would be any costs associated with their assistance, she said she expected them to be minimal, if any.
During a time of year when the budget balancing process is complicated by several May 19 special election propositions that could either mean additional funds for the district or even more cuts to the classroom, the timing is “horrible,” said trustee Mark Good. Although he would not comment specifically on Mizuno, he said he hoped to have someone responsible for the position’s duties as soon as possible.
Trustees said the multimillion-dollar tax snafu that omitted Measure J from the last tax roll and put a $5.3 million bond payment in jeopardy was not the only reason for Mizuno’s leave and that they hoped to have more information about the position at the next board meeting. Flores said previously that the tax mistake resulted from a “breakdown at all three levels” – the school district, the Santa Clara County Office of Education and Santa Clara County.
The district will recoup the $6 million by taxing residents at a higher rate for the remaining two years of Measure J’s life span. The district initially passed a resolution to issue a corrected tax statement, but the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors refused to place the item – calling for a corrected tax on their agenda absent a court order, according to a district-issued statement. In response to the school board’s original resolution, the county presented the district with two unsavory options – pursuing a writ of mandate directing the county to issue the tax or indemnifying the county against potential claims – that could have cost the district in excess of $100,000 in potential legal fees and the hard and soft costs associated with issuing a corrected tax bill.
The district’s final option was to increase the tax in the remaining two years of its lifetime to recoup the levy that should have been issued this year.
“Basically, we were forced into option three by the other two being so unpleasant,” Flores said.
Trustees voted to increase the Measure J tax – which voters approved in 1974 at a rate of $102 per $100,000 of assessed value – from its current rate of $70.50 per $100,000 to an amount not to exceed $105.70 per $100,000 in the next two years.
As for paying the $5.3 million bond payment due in less than five months, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Enrique Palacios said the district has options: It can either borrow money from the county or internally from its own budget, “something school districts do regularly in order to deal with cash flow issues,” he said. With about $2.5 million currently sitting in its Measure J fund, the district needs about $3 million to complete the September payment, Palacios said. The next step is to plan for this September payment, Palacios recently told concerned trustees who asked for monthly updates on the status of the payment and advocated for a prompt public information campaign explaining to taxpayers why their rates will increase next year.
