By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

February 7 -- Opening a new chapter in a growing controversy, some City Council members Tuesday said they want to know why the School District’s former Chief Financial Officer was paid $190,000 in a settlement agreement that effectively silences his views on the district’s finances.

The financial concerns come as the council prepares to give the district between $6 million and $7.5 million in City funds under a 2004 master facilities use agreement signed after intensive lobbying from education activists.

Council members Bobby Shriver and Bob Holbrook said they were concerned about the December settlement between former CFO Winston Braham and the district and may take action to secure some answers.

"It's troublesome," Holbrook said of the settlement signed December 14. "Why is (the settlement) all cloaked in mystery? What was so horrible that he felt he had to quit? How will it affect the school districts' budget, and how will it affect the money we give the district?"

The settlement agreement -- which pays Braham a lump sum of $189,653.94 -- stipulates that the former CFO cannot "make comments to any third party concerning the financial condition of the District unless requested to do so by the Superintendent or Governing Board of the district."

Braham submitted a one-sentence "irrevocable letter or resignation" in November, one-month after a dispute with new Superintendent Dianne Talarico over contracts with teachers that threatened to put the district in the red.

However, at least one council member, Bobby Shriver, said he would take action to get some answers -- including threatening hundreds of thousands of dollars in adjustments to the landmark agreement between the district and City enacted nearly three years ago.

"If the (School District) doesn't do things in a transparent way, then (the master facilities agreement funds) won't grow," Shriver told The Lookout Tuesday.

"If…what was quoted in the papers is accurate, I feel I have no choice but to bring this gentleman down here and ask him what his views are," Shriver said.

"If the superintendent or anyone on the board tries to prevent us from doing that, I think we are going to have a serious problem."

Holbrook said anything Braham knows should be public record for the future financial health of the district.

"I just think if there are disagreements in the district on the budget and what their priorities are, I think they should be public,” Holbrook said. "I find it disturbing that public financing is not being done in public."

School board Vice President Oscar de la Torre, speaking before the council at the scheduled meeting which largely covered budget priorities, agreed he would try and ask the District to lift the confidentiality so Braham could speak about the District's finances.

Shriver hoped such a move could deflate what may increasingly become a showdown over the issue between the City and the District.

"We hope that from Mr. de la Torre's comments tonight, they will release (Braham) from whatever contractual obligations they have in support of him coming down here and telling the council about whatever he has to say about the financial management of the district, and we'll have a full public airing of the issue," said Shriver.

"I'm optimistic that when (Braham) and other people come in, we will find out that there was some sort of disagreement that makes sense, that he had a view and there was another point of view, and that he was entitled to this severance package," he said.

With the City and District Masters Facilities Use agreement set to be adjusted by June, that testimony should take place soon, Shriver said.

"We are hoping to give the money to the district in an orderly and quick way,” Shriver said. “But we have to hear from him now that these questions have been raised.

"If people are getting muzzled by settlement agreements of almost $200,000, then it sounds funky, but we're hoping that it's not," he said.

The Braham settlement also bars the parties from disclosing the reasons for the CFO's resignation in the middle of a three-year contract that was set to expire on June 30, 2008.

While it remains unclear why Braham resigned, the decision came shortly after a public rift with Superintendent Talarico over a tentative agreement with the teacher's union that would all but deplete the district's nearly $7.3 million in reserves over the next three years.

While Talarico signed the document on October 18 certifying the District's ability to meet the costs of the agreement submitted to the County Office of Education, Braham put a check mark next to the words, "I am unable to certify."