As reported previously, Cairo School District Number One has spent over $300,000 fighting over...James Gibson, specifically, to keep him from working!

Funny how Marion and Marion Unit 2 can recognize their folly...

...while Cairo School District Number One has paid its attorneys to "win" yet another IELRB hearing this coming July! That hearing will cost a minimum of another $50,000...more likely $75,000.

Insanity...

...on your and my dollar!

Taxpayer dollars...earmarked for "education"!!!

I will have more about the upcoming James Gibson versus CSD #1 hearing in the days and weeks to come.

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore...

...again.

I am planning on sharing the results of my investigative journalism.

Hey, it's the First Amendment "Freedom of the Press"...

...the public has the right to know!!!

My first scheduled stop, however, will be with the Illinois State Board of Education (since they have "boots on the ground" with the Cairo Financial Oversight Panel.)

Stay tuned...

From the Southern Illinoisan...

Link to the Original Story

Marion ends legal fight with Unit 2

BY STEPHEN RICKERL, The Southern
Posted: Thursday, May 3, 2012 4:00 am

MARION — The dismissal of litigation between the city of Marion and the Marion Unit 2 School District over Tax Increment Financing District revenue was formally endorsed by Marion City Council during a special meeting Wednesday.

The city and school district have been entangled in the litigation over TIF funds dating back to October 2008. The district, under a previous administration, claimed the TIF districts diverted about $7 million from the school district into city coffers.

The Unit 2 Board of Education on April 26 voted during a special meeting to accept an offer of $250,000 from the city to end the lawsuit.

“I think it’s something that is long overdue,” Mayor Robert Butler said. “We think that the school board has received some bad advice all along. They were advised that the city might owe them $7 million, we felt we owed them absolutely nothing — but it’s dragged on for two- three years now, and we felt it was time to get off of dead center.”

The city isn’t admitting any wrongdoing by agreeing to the settlement, but offered agreed to it to end the costly litigation.

School Board President Wayne Tate told The Southern Illinoisan on April 26 that the school district spent about $300,000 on the litigation. Butler said the city spent about $250,000.

Butler said with the litigation over, the city can put the money it would have spent on legal fees to good use.

“We will have money that would have been going to legal attorney fees that we can use now for other projects that will benefit the city and the people of the city,” he said.

“The money that has been spent between the city and the school district, an amount of probably $500,000 to $600,000 … has been a complete waste,” the mayor said. “With all due respect, the only people who have benefited have been the attorneys involved.”

Interim Associate Superintendent Randolph Tinder said the settlement is an important step for the city-schools relationship. He said ending the litigation was something he and the two other interim associate superintendents, Greg Moats and Frank Barbre, have been working on since they arrived last summer.

“I think it’s an important step in the relationship between the city and the school district to get this behind them,” Tinder said.

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

Curiosity prompted me to google Marion versus Marion 2...

...to see who the school district's lawyers were, to see if it was our "friendly" Robbers All.

Well, my curiosity remains unsated.

However...

I did discover an earlier article describing the "Aha Moment" experienced by Marion school officials...

...a moment that will not come freely to Cairo school officials.

Cairo officials are damned and determined (and financed by the taxpayers)...

...they will make James Gibson pay for their mistake!!!

Anyway...

...the article:

From The Daily Republican...

Link to the Original Story

City, Unit 2 reach settlement

Daily Republican
Posted Apr 27, 2012 @ 08:55 AM

Marion, Ill. — A settlement approved by the Marion Unit 2 Board of Education will end a lawsuit brought against the City of Marion.

The school board approved the agreement at a special meeting Thursday evening. The lawsuit was filed by the district in 2008 and petitioned for a portion of TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district real estate tax proceeds, past and future.

At Thursday’s meeting, the amount spent on legal fees in the lawsuit was stressed. School board president Wayne Tate said Unit 2 has cut down legal fees by 90 percent.

“And the only way to keep them down in the long run is to settle some of these court cases,” Tate said.

The settlement approved by Unit 2 includes a $250,000 payout to the district.

An agreement to share future TIF proceeds already approved by the Marion City Council was tabled. The school board wants to continue negotiations on that agreement before approval.

Under the agreement approved by the city, the schools would receive 5 percent of TIF revenue from the Hub TIF District. That TIF district is the city’s newest and includes much of the downtown and adjacent

FOOTNOTE:

I hate people who hand you something and then read it to you, but...

...did you notice (from the first article) Marion Unit 2's "prize"?

They "won" $50,000 from the City of Marion...in return for the $300,000 spent on lawyers over the 4-year period.

Sad?

Consider Cairo School District Number One...

...having already spent more than Marion Unit 2 in fighting James Gibson.

Scheduled for a July hearing where they will spend another $50,000 to $75,000.

If they "win", they get NO money (although they do get out of paying James Gibson what the IELRB ordered them to pay.)

But...