“Do you want to change your testimony about these numbers?” asked the trial lawyer.
No, replied the witness.
The lawyer dived into an extensive cross-examination about the amount of money New Haven spends per student in its public schools.
The exchange took place not in a courtroom, but in the Aldermanic Chambers of City Hall. The cross-examiner was Mike Stratton, a trial lawyer who, when he’s not pursuing personal injury cases, has taken on a second job as a city legislator.
On Wednesday night at a Board of Alders Finance Committee on Mayor Toni Harp’s $511 million proposed new city budget, Stratton, a Prospect Hill/Newhallville alder, spent nearly an hour grilling two star witnesses who also have legal backgrounds, schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark and Superintendent Garth Harries.
The debate raised questions over whether New Haven is spending too much money on its students — and to what extent courtroom techniques and strategies translate to legislative hearings.
The exchanges became so heated at times Wednesday night that Finance Committee chair threatened to shut down the meeting.
“We can terminate this whole thing right here, unless you can come to an agreement to be civil,” Jackson-Brooks warned at one point.
Harries and Clark approached a table of 12 alders at 8:30 p.m. for their department’s turn at presenting its budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. They were the next in a series of department heads who came before the Finance Committee, which is charged with amending and voting on Harp’s proposed budget.
In their opening statement, Harries and Clark outlined how much money the city spends on school-related costs. Less than 20 percent of the city’s general fund (the money raised by local property taxes) goes towards education, they claimed.
Harries and Clark said the city pays $98.7 million on school-related costs if you include medical benefits, workers compensation, pensions and debt service and exclude the Education Cost Share grant, which is state money that passes through the city.
Click here to read a detailed Power-Point presentation.
Stratton has publicly questioned the legal basis for listing certain school-related costs — medical benefits, workers compensation, pensions and debt service — on the city side of the budget instead of separating them out in the schools budget.
He has argued that this obscures the amount of money the city pays for education, thus allowing the city to pay more than minimum required by state law on education. He has claimed that some of the spending is “illegal” and has threatened to sue.
In a letter from city budget chief Joe Clerkin earlier this week, Stratton found out an answer to the historical question of how long the city has been paying for school-related medical benefits, workers compensation, pensions and debt service.
In the 1980s Biagio DiLieto administration (when City Hall was sometimes at odds with the Board of Ed) those costs were all counted on the schools side of the budget. In Fiscal Year 1990, Mayor John Daniels started counting those costs on the city side of the budget. That practice continued through the current year, according to Clerkin.
Harries said he spent the week digging into that history and found that the costs were moved to the city side “so that the city could control them.”
On Wednesday, Stratton asked about that history. Then he began a line of questioning that sought to establish a legal case that the city is not required to pay for certain school-related costs.
Stratton asked if, when the school board settles union contracts, “there is any indication that the city would be paying the benefits” for those workers.
Clark said yes: The city has a representative in the room and negotiates those benefits. He added that the cost to the city of the pensions is low, because paraprofessionals don’t have pensions and teachers’ and school administrators’ pensions are paid for by the state.
The city even handles payroll for school board staff, Clark added.
Stratton then tried a different angle: Calling the witness’s credibility into question by showing that the numbers the city was using were not accurate.
Stratton held up a chart that compared New Haven’s per-pupil spending with comparable cities. It showed New Haven in the middle of the pack, spending $14,600 per school.
Harries had previously said he could only “dream” of getting as much money as Hartford does.
Stratton employed classic courtroom rhetoric to grill Harries and Clark.
“Do you want to change your testimony about these numbers?” Stratton asked.
No, Harries replied.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Stratton (pictured) accused New Haven public schools of sending the “wrong numbers” to the state. He was talking about the “net current expenditures” all school districts report to the state. (Click on the video at the top of the story to watch.)
His argument went as follows:
• There’s a curious dip in the numbers New Haven reported.
• In the 2010-11 fiscal year, New Haven reported spending $353 million on its students; in 2011-12, $316; and in 2012 – 13, $309 million.
• That last figure is the basis of the per-pupil calculation. Stratton said it can’t be trusted; he claimed the $309 million figure does not reflect the true spending on education.
Stratton’s remarks essentially accused Clark, who’s in charge of the schools budget, of a coverup.
“Don’t make hand gestures at me,” replied Clark at one point during a testy exchange.
Stratton and Clark, who is also a lawyer, continued to interrupt each other and argue over the numbers.
Harries (also an attorney) interjected at one point to ask where Stratton was heading with his line of questioning.
Three-quarters of the education budget is paid for by outside sources, not city money, Harries calculated. (Check out the chart for his math.)
“Would you propose that the city pay less than 26 percent of our budget?” he asked.
Board of Alders President Jorge Perez also attempted to guide the conversation towards the matter at hand. He said staff should definitely “go back to those numbers, and determine what the right number is.”
But “the real discussion is going to be” how much money the city spends on education in the upcoming year,” Perez said. “We’re really spending time not on the real policy.”
The debate continued with testy exchanges like this one:
“I’m sorry if I upset you,” Clark said.
“I’m not upset,” Stratton replied. “You’re getting a little red in the face.”
Jackson-Brooks (pictured) suggested Stratton and Clark set up a separate time to meet and come to agreement about basic facts in the budget.
Clark said he’d prefer to have the debate in public.
“You can sit here by yourself if you want,” Jackson-Brooks offered, but she said the current line of questioning was not productive.
“We’re just going back and forth,” she said.
Stratton agreed to compile all of his questions in one coherent document; The school board officials agreed to return to the committee and discuss the matter another night.
Things just got really interesting!
If I recall correctly, another article had alders and city officials denying these allegations, now Garth mysteriously did some research and it turns out that Stratton is telling the truth about the allegations that he (Stratton) made!
During the last administrator, everyone blamed NHPD and NHFD for expensive pensions and it seems as if money was being manipulated all along, and the Mayor wants to raise taxes? WOW!
Man I love "NHI" Keep the information coming.