This Giving Tuesday, help ensure voters have the information they need to make confident, informed decisions. Donate now!
Secret tapes revealed, scathing audit expected in St. Joseph School District saga
January 19, 2015
By Sam Zeff
A long-awaited report from the Missouri State Auditor regarding questionable administrative practices within the St. Joseph School District is about to see the light of day. The report is expected to contain bombshells.
One central figure in the protracted saga is Beau Musser. Last year, after being on the job as chief financial officer of the school district for a few months, he knew what he uncovered about the district's finances and internal operations were incendiary. He suspected the information would make him a target. So, as he headed into a meeting with two district lawyers, he reached for his mobile phone and hit the record button.
The existence of that tape and many other recordings recently surfaced, and may prove to be the most important evidence to date.
Tapes no longer a secret
The tapes, according to court documents, are in the hands of lawyers involved in a lawsuit that Musser filed against the district charging slander and violations of Missouri’s whistleblower laws.
Musser’s lawsuit alleges that after he brought evidence of misappropriation of district funds and other irregularities to top administrators, they tried to silence him by buying out his contract.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation also has the tapes. The FBI is continuing with its separate investigation into the district, which began last April.
"When I was forced to blow the whistle I knew that retaliation was a possibility," says the 35-year-old Musser. "I wanted to make sure no one could dispute I was a whistleblower."
The saga is nearly one year old
The mess in the St. Joseph School District just kept growing.
It started a year ago when Board of Education member Chris Danford discovered what Musser already knew – that 54 administrators were each given $5,000 stipends by the new superintendent, Dr. Fred Czerwonka.
Those payments were never approved by the school board.
That led to the discovery of other secret payments to staff, charges of ingrained nepotism and a federal criminal investigation now focused on theft of district resources.
A grand jury in Kansas City has issued three subpoenas for documents, and more subpoenas are anticipated. The FBI has interviewed dozens of people and examined travel and bank records of some district employees.
But the revelation of secretly recorded meetings took everyone by surprise.
"So I just have to think that for Mr. Musser to do that there must be some huge concerns that he had," says Danford. "He was in the heat for the information that he knew at the time."
While only a few people have actually heard the recordings, information about who was recorded, and when, can partially be gleaned from the lawsuit and subsequent court filings.
For example, it’s clear that the first time Musser recorded a meeting was on January 28, 2014, when he met with Nick Robb and Steve Briggs, two outside lawyers who have represented the district for many years.
According to Musser’s lawsuit, both lawyers expressed concern in that meeting that Dr. Czerwonka wasn’t taking the proper steps to fix the legal problems the stipends created.
"I have no comment to make," says Briggs. "I will not discuss that matter. It is attorney-client privileged information."
Invoking the name of Watergate
After conducting interviews and reviewing all court documents, Ballotpedia has confirmed the recording of two other crucial meetings.
On the same day Musser met with the district lawyers, he also met with Board of Education member Dennis Snethen, at the time chair of the board’s personnel committee.
Recordings exist of Musser telling Snethen of the unapproved payments to administrators.
Snethen is accused in the Musser lawsuit of helping to spread the story that Musser sexually harassed employees. That charge of sexual harassment was later disproved in an investigation paid for by the district.
The recordings, according to people who know the content, show Snethen in a very unflattering light. He is, according to these people, profane and dismissive of district leadership.
Snethen wouldn’t discuss the content of the Musser recordings, but he was disdainful of them.
"I’m a volunteer," he says. "I just do this to help. I didn’t do this to be in Watergate. I thought he was my friend. I’ve known his family. He’s a good kid. I’m sorry all this happened. If there’s anything I can do to apologize or make it go away I certainly would do it."
Ballotpedia has also confirmed Musser has recordings of the school district’s human resources director Doug Flowers on April 1 of last year, a few days after Flowers and Czerwonka allegedly tried to silence Musser by buying out his contract. The meeting happened on Musser’s front porch. The lawsuit says, "Mr. Flowers informed Mr. Musser that his allegations of sexual harassment had morphed into allegations of creating a hostile work environment."
This confusion caught on tape could indicate Czerwonka and Flowers never had any evidence of sexual misconduct by Musser. The revelation of secretly recorded meetings couldn’t come at a worse time for the St. Joseph School District.
School district could lose millions of dollars
This year, a significant part of the district’s property tax levy sunsets. If voters don’t renew it, the district stands to lose $6.5 million at a time when the district is already deficit-spending and eating into its reserves.
A poll just released by the district shows the levy is in big trouble.
If it was on the ballot today, 48 percent would vote against it, 39 percent would vote to renew it and the remaining 14 percent are undecided.
"We’ve been talking about starting some community engagement," says board president Brad Haggard.
But the poll includes no demographic information, nor did it ask voters if they support Superintendent Czerwonka or whether residents believe the school board is doing a good job.
It’s hard to build a community engagement campaign without that information.
"As we’re talking about it we might have to do another survey," says Haggard. "We’re not opposed to doing that if it will help us focus on what that message needs to be."
What’s most frustrating to many, including teachers, is how these troubles with the district have come out a little at a time.
"It just seems like all the investigations have been like slowly peeling a Band-Aid off," says high school government teacher Jeff Leake, who is also a local National Education Association representative.
He thinks opposition to renewing the levy is worse than the poll indicates. "I think there’s so many people who’ve made up their mind right now it’s going to be tough to win them back."
Sam Zeff covers education for KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri. He's won a National News Emmy for investigative reporting, four National Headliner Awards and four Edward R. Murrow awards. Zeff has managed newsrooms in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City. He was educated at the University of Kansas.
See also
| |||||
