Knox Schools ending credit card use

Knox County Schools is doing away with the six credits that it had previously assigned to top-ranking officials and will participate solely in the county's electronic purchase card, or e-card,  program and travel card system.

The move comes after officials fired Roger Underwood, the KCS accounts payable supervisor, for misusing his school-issued card, and a WBIR 10News investigation that detailed how the cards were rarely paid on time.

State and local officials are investigating Underwood.

The Knox County Audit Committee also called a special meeting for Nov. 10 to talk about the system’s credit card use.

The county, unlike the school system, does not use credit cards. Instead it allows some officials to charge goods and services under its "electronic commerce card program."

Many department heads and managers are assigned e-cards issued by SunTrust that look like credit cards, but don't accrue interest and restrict what gets charged.

The program also stores images and receipts electronically, so the county can easily put them on its website.

The e-cards also come with a rebate program. Since 2011, the county has received roughly $1.5 million through the program, according to finance records.

The school system also participates in the e-card plan, but still has credit cards.

A WBIR analysis of one year’s worth of credit card invoices and check requests discovered:

• The Knox County school system in the past year did not pay its credit cards on time, nor did it pay off the full balance, leaving taxpayers on the hook for late fees and finance charges.
• In addition, the school system is still months behind on its current credit card payments, according to finance records secured by WBIR 10 News under the state open records act.
• School officials who use the cards often pay sales taxes that government entities are exempt from paying.
• Some credit card users also charge items that are not allowed.
• And, the cards in some instances were used to make personal purchases, which employees would then reimburse – something that is against county policy.

Bob Thomas, assistant schools superintendent of administrative services, is currently working on a comprehensive plan tied to credit card and e-card use, school officials have said.

You can find our original story RIGHT HERE.

Find the rest of today's story RIGHT HERE.

Nakia Towns headed to state DOE

Towns

Well, well, well. Check it: Word going around is that the Knox County School System's chief accountability officer, Nakia Towns, was appointed by DOE Commissioner Kevin Huffman to serve as assistant commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Education.

She currently earns $104,750 with KCS.

Towns for what it's worth was in the 2010-2012 Broad Residency Class. At one point, she was also the school system's director of human capital strategy.

As assistant commissioner for the state DOE, she'll be in charge of research and assessment for public education statewide.

Nakia Towns
The Broad Residency Class of 2010-2012

Current Organization: Knox County Schools, Chief Accountability Officer
Placement Organization: Knox County Schools, Director, Human Capital Strategy

- See more at: http://www.broadcenter.org/residency/network/profile/nakia-towns#sthash.Qeu8Eky7.dpuf

Nakia Towns
The Broad Residency Class of 2010-2012

Current Organization: Knox County Schools, Chief Accountability Officer
Placement Organization: Knox County Schools, Director, Human Capital Strategy

- See more at: http://www.broadcenter.org/residency/network/profile/nakia-towns#sthash.Qeu8Eky7.dpuf

Ed, Bob not taking votes; will help de-wing some chickens on Nov. 13

The Ed and Bob show returns. Sort of. Heh. Commissioners Bob Thomas and Ed Brantley (notice how I switched their names around to be fair?) will host another "once-a-month community meeting with the citizens," this time from 5-7 p.m. on Nov. 13 at Big Kahuna Wings on Kingston Pike.

Check out the flyer RIGHT SMACK HERE.

The two note that "this is not a commission meeting. There is no agenda. There will be no votes taken; however, many chicken may be injured and lose their wings during the two hours."

Heh.

Records: Knox County Schools not paying credit card bills on time

So the county in this year’s budget set aside something like $427.8 million for the school system.

You’d think that would be enough money to pay some $5,000 in credit card bills on time, right?

Wrong.

Click RIGHT SMACK HERE for the story.

Last night Gentle Jim Matheny and I broke the story that the school system pretty much does not pay its credit cards on time (why do they need credit cards again?), and when they are paid, they don’t even pay off the full balance.

That means interest fees, late fees, whatever fees.

Is it a lot? No, but that’s not the point. It’s just another example of waste. (Don’t get me started on the school secretary on paid administrative leave for more than two years – another story we broke.)

Now, I’m sure school officials are going to blame Roger Underwood, the accounts payable administrator they recently fired because he was misusing his card. (Why do they have credit cards again?)

I mean, heck, why not? There’s some folks in the county who still blame every problem in the solid waste department on its former director, John Evans, and he’s been dead since late October 2007.

But I digress.

Anyhoo, school officials have declined to comment, citing the investigation into Underwood. We actually explained to them that the credit cards – late payments, etc. – have nothing to do with the investigation. Heck, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office at one point stepped in and tried to prevent us from getting the records.

Then the investigator looking into Underwood read them over and realized they weren’t apropos to what he was looking into.

(We’d have probably gotten them anyway, but it would have taken a little longer).

After that, we were told that the finance charges were self-explanatory. Wow.

So, the records we’ve got are what I imagine the county’s internal auditor and the Knox County Commission will get their hands on in the coming days.

It will probably be discussed during tomorrow’s BOE meeting.

I don’t see this one going away.

There’s a lot of questions that school officials haven’t answered. The easiest being why they need a travel agency to book flights. No, really.