Members of the revived Panel for Educational Policy approved more than a dozen Department of Education contracts last night over the protests of colleagues who demanded that they be allowed to read the full documents.
Reconvened for the first time since mayoral control’s renewal, the panel now has the authority to approve contracts worth over one million dollars. It also reviews any contracts that were handed out without competitive bidding.
But the biggest change on panel last night was not a result of those contracts, $250 million of which sailed to approval with a nearly unanimous vote, including contracts with Octagon and the Future Technology Associates, which have come under criticism.
The main difference was that the person who has been the panel’s single active dissident, Patrick Sullivan, the representative from Manhattan, yesterday was joined in his protests by Anna Santos of the Bronx. Both objected to voting on the contracts because, they said, none of the panel members had read them in full.
“They’ve asked us to vote on the contracts, and when I’ve asked for the actual contracts, they say they’re not going to give them to us,” Sullivan told me on Monday afternoon. “They want us to look at summaries and take their word that the summaries represent the important provisions.” But he said the summaries aren’t complete. “I’ve found that as I’ve received the summaries, I can’t answer basic questions about the contracts,” he said.
Asked why panel members couldn’t read the complete contracts, Photeine Anagnostopoulos, the Department of Education’s chief operating officer, said members could read drafts of the contracts in the future, provided they weren’t made public.
“Before a contract is executed, it’s always open for negotiation. If we were to actually make them public, we risk the ability to finalize these contracts at the rates we negotiated,” she said.
When Santos called for the panel to delay the vote, her measure was voted down 10 to two. Sullivan’s bids to become chairman and later, vice chairman, were also voted down as the majority selected David Chang and Philip Berry, both mayoral appointees, for these positions.
Despite opponents’ efforts, Mayor Bloomberg retains the right to name eight of the panel’s 13 members — the remaining five are appointed by the borough presidents.
Though PEP meetings are often sparsely attended, last night’s event was packed with parents, students, and D.C. 37 union members who were protesting the DOE’s contracts with firms outside of New York. This left little room for those who arrived late, including City Councilman Robert Jackson, who used his minutes at the microphone to criticize the DOE for restricting access. “I am very annoyed and very angry,” he said, adding, “I insist that you have a meeting where there is public access until your meeting is over.”
Turning to address the panel, he advised them to be skeptical of the DOE’s statements. “With respect to these contracts, let me tell you, please don’t be a rubber stamp,” he said.