Ex-School District official challenges his firing under Pa. whistle-blower law
A former high-ranking Philadelphia School District administrator, fired amid allegations of leaks about a $7.5 million no-bid contract, has filed a court document challenging his termination under the state's whistle-blower law.
A former high-ranking Philadelphia School District administrator, fired amid allegations of leaks about a $7.5 million no-bid contract, has filed a court document challenging his termination under the state's whistle-blower law.
Francis X. Dougherty, who was deputy chief business officer, named the district, the School Reform Commission, Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman, and other top administrators, including Estelle G. Matthews, who oversees human resources.
Lisa A. Mathewson, Dougherty's attorney, declined to comment on the filing last week in Common Pleas Court.
It contains no specific details, but such a filing is typically a prelude to a civil suit. Dougherty could not be reached for comment.
Shana Kemp, a district spokeswoman, said the district would not comment on the action because "it is a personnel and legal matter."
Matthews sent a certified letter to Dougherty, dated March 30, informing him that the district would recommend that the SRC fire him for allegedly violating the district's code of ethics and state law. She said Dougherty had improperly forwarded more than 50 e-mails from his district account to his personal e-mail account.
Many of the e-mails, Matthews said, related to the $7.5 million no-bid emergency contract for surveillance cameras at persistently dangerous schools that was awarded to a small Mount Airy minority contractor.
That firm, IBS Communications Inc., received the work after Ackerman, according to district sources, abruptly directed her staff to have IBS replace a firm that had begun preliminary work on the project.
The SRC followed Matthews' recommendation and fired Dougherty in late April. The e-mails were discovered during an investigation conducted by an outside law firm, Pepper, Hamilton L.L.P., that charged the district $287,000.
According to a district-prepared summary of the investigation's findings, the inquiry cleared Ackerman of any wrongdoing. The district has refused to make the complete report public.