Thursday, July 14, 2016

Legal bill for Joplin R-8-P1 lawsuit passes $600,000 mark

When the Joplin R-8 Board of Education meets in special session 12:30 p.m. today at the Memorial Education Building, it is scheduled to approve a bill for $112,926.57 to the Polsinelli PC law firm for its work in the P1 lawsuit.

The payment of that bill raises the total R-8 taxpayers have paid the powerful Kansas City firm to $612,061.88.

And that amount does not include the $50,000 the district paid former Superintendent C. J. Huff to act as a consultant, a fee which was exclusively designed to keep him available to help with the lawsuits he had a hand in creating.

In one way, the P1 lawsuit differs from others that were filed during the Huff Administration. This time it was the district that filed the lawsuit ... after it became aware that P1, a Lexexa, Kansas, electrical contracting firm, was preparing to file a lawsuit asking for more than $6 million it says the district owes it for extra costs associated with Huff's unsuccessful race to get Joplin High School open on time in August 2014.

Polsinelli will not be the only law firm receiving money from the R-8 District this month. The bills also include $141 to the Guin Mundorf law firm of Kansas City and $25,136.60 to Ellis, Ellis, Hammer, and Johnson.

Other interesting items in this month's bills:

-$28,619.50 to the P1 Group, for what is appears to be a final payment for its work (unless, of course, the lawsuit does not turn out the way the district wants)

-$252.94 to Schlotzsky's Deli

-$72.62 to Communications Director Kelli Price for mileage reimbursement for attendance at a Missouri School Public Relations Association meeting

-$291.92 to Sprint for bus wi-fi

-$499,040.80 to Apple Inc. for MacBook Airs

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The gift that keeps on giving. Thanks CJ for your ridiculous lawsuit. In case you didn't know, you have to pay people that do work for the district. Did he thing they would just say never mind to the $6million in extra work?!

Tax Payer said...

There was a commercial a while back that used a humorous scenario to stress the importance of responsible use of credit cards. The father hands his son a credit card on his first day of college with an empahatic instruction to use the card "only in an emergency." The next scene shows the young man at a party surrounded by his friends,one of whom shouts that an 'emergency'has ensued due to the group's lack of funds for more pizza. The dad's voice echoes "emergency" in the young student's head. Then there is a knock at the door. The son, clad in expensive scuba gear, pizza in hand, and surrounded by big boy toys, opens the door to an irrate father holding up what was presumably the credit card statement.

That student was CJ Huff. The dad was R8 taxpayers. Our trusted BOE at the time gave a man-child a "credit card" only to be used for the expenses necessary to educate district children. This unproven untested facade of an educator/administrator did what any kid would do with power not tempered by accountability. This brat was allowed to create an environment where a CFO who fully knows the seriousness of fiduciary and fiscal responsibility responded to millions of dollars in unnecessary frivolous spending with "might as well."

Temper tantrums of little Napoleon and his henchmen evolved into expensive lawsuits, firings, and a huge talent drain that might take decades to fix.

Congratulations fellow Joplinites. The bill is now due.

Anonymous said...

Price and Warren......still employed.

Why?

Anonymous said...

R-8: Winning like Charlie Sheen!

Enablers: Turner is the problem!

Anonymous said...

And somehow, Jennifer Doshier STILL has a job. You've got to be kidding me BOE???

Anonymous said...

I remember Jennifer Doshier getting a two year contract like Cravens just before Huff was shown the door. Randy, can you confirm?