Greater Clark County Schools on-leave CFO speaks out

Clark County

Discussion

May 14, 2009

Michael Hodgson says he’s still not sure why he’s on paid leave

By TARA HETTINGER The News and Tribune Thu May 14, 2009, 02:14 PM EDT

More than three months after he was put on paid leave, Michael Hodgson, chief financial officer for Greater Clark County Schools, hasn’t learned anything more about why he’s not on the job.

That means he’s been paid about $32,000 to not work, according to the amount he earned in 2008, which was $110,550.

Hodgson — who has worked for Greater Clark for nearly eight years — said he wants to work and wants to be told why this happened.

“I’ve heard numerous rumors — more than I’ve heard in my life, but to this day, I do not know why [I was put on leave],” Hodgson said, adding that friends he worked with are even being told to not talk to him. “That is the most frustrating and upsetting part. If they thought I’d done something wrong, that would be one thing, but as far as I know, the [state’s] audit is going good.

“If there’s misunderstanding, I could correct it. If you want me to do something differently, you just have to tell me, but the silence is really confusing and upsetting.”

That audit was initiated by the State Board of Accounts after Hodgson was put on leave in early February.

“We were requested to come down and do an audit based on a situation that could exist at Greater Clark County Schools,” Paul Joyce, deputy state examiner with the agency, said in a previous interview, adding that the agency comes in any time a CFO is put on leave.

“I even expressed that I wanted to come back and would be willing to come back to a different job. Anything other than sitting at home and not knowing what’s going on,” Hodgson said, adding that he offered to help with the buses, food service and more. “There was never an explanation. They didn’t do anything.”

Hodgson said he’s heard that people in the community have thought that his leave could be related to allegedly approving payments to two school board members, which he said is not true. The Evening News investigated other rumors via open records requests to get copies of his e-mails as well as Internet history. The reporter could find nothing that stood out from the norm.

He said he doesn’t feel the reason is job performance, because he has worked to warn the school board and former superintendents for years that Greater Clark was heading in the wrong direction, he said.

“Every year, I told the superintendent [at the time that] we were spending more money than we were taking in,” Hodgson said. “I had projections on where we were going to end up and that’s where we ended up.

“They didn’t want to do reductions. [Tony] Bennett came and that started turning that around.”

Meanwhile, the waiting is leaving Hodgson frustrated.

“Not knowing what’s next, why, how long,” he said. “It was in the paper and other potential employers have seen it and have asked questions about it. I don’t know how that’s influenced my job search, but I can’t think it’s a positive thing.”

He added that he’s sent out about 100 applications throughout the country and had a couple of offers.

“I will most likely accept a job in Texas,” he added.

He said he’s not sure if he can continue to cash in on his paid leave while taking another job. School board member Christina Gilkey — who said she can’t comment on this situation specifically because of personnel reasons — said in her opinion, she doesn’t see how a person could logistically accept a full-time job and still be employed somewhere else with their new employer being OK with it.

Larry Wilder, school board attorney, said he could not comment on this specific issue because of it being a personnel matter. Though, he added that Indiana is an employment-at-will state.

According to the state Department of Labor, Indiana employers may hire, fire, promote, demote, lay off, suspend, set their own work hours and policies at their discretion — so long as there is no contract of collective bargaining agreement and they do not discriminate against their employees because of their age, sex, race, religion, national origin or disability.

Hodgson said he does not have a contract with Greater Clark.

$32,000

— the amount Greater Clark County Schools Chief Financial Officer Michael Hogsdon has been paid in the three months he’s

been on leave