Diane Rodriguez had no trouble shuffling her cost around and trying to convince everyone was no cost. There was, in fact, a cost and a steep one. To date, she has received approximately $70,000 with very little accountability.
She hid her cost from everyone by setting up a billing scheme. Diane Rodriguez became downright belligerent with me when I wouldn’t agree to her scheme. Generally, revenue is one thing, and expense is another. She determined they were one and not be reflected anywhere in the budget. Nowhere in the budget can you locate where she received exorbitant amounts of money.
I would encourage everyone to look at the current budget. There should be a line item for indirect costs. When I decided to depart, I had always recorded the fact that there were indirect costs associated with federal programs. Diane Rodriguez took it out. Her “free” money was anything but free. You see, indirect costs are, in fact, unrestricted revenue. That is why she attached herself to them like a leach and hid them from public view.
Indirect costs could pay for certified or classified staff. Instead, they paid for her, and nobody knew that the money went to the general fund. The transfer to the general fund could’ve paid for any number of things but instead allowed her to remodel her home with zero accountability, zero bids, and often mistaken advice. I would ask how she sleeps at night but will bet comfortably on a soft taxpayer-funded bed. The worst part is that the former Superintendent and Hope Blinco were okay with it as long as they had their secret items inserted into the budget.
The public should not allow people to hide revenues and expenditures in the fashion described above, especially when it is based on deceit. Perhaps a new policy would prohibit this type of behavior in the future.
Recommendation: Require the indirect costs to be properly accounted for in the budget as an available resource.