Jefferson Parish school officials and their lawyers will soon begin poring over dozens of photocopier contracts to determine their validity and the extent to which schools might have been overcharged.
At a special meeting Wednesday at Bonnabel Magnet Academy High School in Kenner, the board directed Superintendent Diane Roussel and her staff to investigate the contracts of the system's 89 schools and report her findings to the board as soon as possible.
The board will use that information to determine whether it will pursue legal action against some vendors and try to recoup as much as $1 million in possible overcharges over the past 15 years.
Ray. St. Pierre"Sometimes a machine was sold to one school for one price and another school for another price," board member Ray St. Pierre said. "We have evidence of that."
St. Pierre first raised the issue of questionable photocopier contracts last year, but the dispute came to a head earlier this month when board members accused copier vendors of taking advantage of principals, and vendors complained that the board, with a new policy designating a single vendor, is unfairly excluding them from business.
The board approved the new policy in November only after a more general policy requiring principals to use approved vendors on the state contract failed to get the copier situation under control.
The latest policy requires principals to buy or rent Kyocera copiers from Bell Office Machines of Metairie, which has been providing copy machines to the central office since 2002 and is on state contract. St. Pierre, who proposed the measure, is a friend and golfing companion of Bell owner John Poole.
Board President Gene Katsanis called Wednesday's special meeting to gather information from principals about how they have handled photocopier contracts at their schools.
Bonnabel Principal John Kulakowski said he has lost about $25,000 through overcharges. When he signed contracts for two copiers, the mandate to use vendors on the state contract had not been passed. "It would be nice to get some of that money back," he said.
Maria Landry, principal of John Ehret High School, said the company that she dealt with refused to renegotiate a lease when her enrollment declined from 2,700 to 1,800 and she no longer needed as many copy machines. "They were not in a position to renegotiate, or so they told me," she said.
Jackie Daniilidis, principal of Estelle Elementary, said copy machine acquisition should not be the responsibility of principals.
"I feel that the system is losing a lot of money because individual principals are having to deal with things like copiers," she said. "I didn't go to school to be a business person. I would much rather be dealing with my students."
St. Pierre said it's the board -- not principals -- who should be blamed for not getting the situation under control sooner.
"The fault lies with us," he said of the board. "It's not your fault. We're going to fix it."
Last week, St. Pierre said many of the contracts that principals have signed include non-cancellable clauses, lasted five years and were resold to third-party financing companies. If a machine started having problems, he said, vendors persuaded principals to sign new long-term leases for an upgrade yet they were still obligated for payments under the old lease.
Several vendors spoke at Wednesday's meeting, defending the way they do business and asking the board to reconsider its decision to go with a single company.
"If you really wish to save money, you need to look at other programs," said Johnny Guyton of Econ-o-copy of Metairie. "We can put out a product that is lower than state contract."
Poole said he is more than happy to share business with his competitors as long as they follow state rules. But he also said that any vendor who overcharged a school should make restitution.
"I think that's fair," he said.
Original Post