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Ethics suit hits Ashland schools Charges target system's maintenance department By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- The school employees union has filed a complaint with the state ethics commission against two school district supervisors. The complaint alleges "use of office or position for personal financial gain" by business manager Loren Luman and maintenance foreman Bill Richardson. Investigators from the State Government Standards and Practices Commission -- also known as the ethics commission -- will review the complaint and present their findings to the state board on Jan. 7, said investigator Alan Priest. The board will then determine whether a complete investigation is warranted. Richardson could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Luman said he hadn't heard about the complaint and was unaware of breaking any school policies. "They are welcome to investigate all they want," Luman said. The complaint stems from allegations made by several employees within the maintenance department, according to maintenance employees and an attorney contracted by the school district. "We came forward initially through the union with concerns around treatment of employees past and present, day-to-day operations and financial responsibility," said Keith Rigby, who worked for the district as a painter for three years. Rigby is currently appealing a decision by the school district denying his stress disability claim. "Our concerns were for taxpayer dollars," he said. Maintenance worker Leon Walker, who continues to work within the department, said the department lacks supervision. "The biggest problem with the maintenance department is supervision and work ethics," he said. Both men said they have sought the advice of an attorney in preparation for filing an unfair labor practices lawsuit against the school district for retaliation they believe they have received as a result of their complaints. A union representative said the union tried getting the school district management to investigate the problems itself, but got stonewalled, according to Steven Araujo, the director of field operations for Oregon School Employees Association. "We have been trying to get the district to investigate its management team in regards to maintenance," Araujo said. "There's been no movement to that end. We were left with no other choice than to seek the assistance of the commission." School Superintendent John Daggett denied that allegation, saying the union has been unwilling to meet with district officials. Araujo declined to be specific about the complaints against Richardson and Luman. "The overall management of the operations of the maintenance department is our issue," Araujo said. "We can't discuss the allegations until we get confirmation back from the commission." The school district contracted with Gary Peterson, a private attorney specializing in employment law, to deal with the issues being brought up in the complaints. Peterson did not know about the ethics commission complaint until Tuesday, even though it was filed on Nov. 10. Peterson said most of the union's allegations were about people taking home school property, or management allowing "improper things to happen in the maintenance department." He said he and Daggett were unable to get the union to give them names and details about the problems so they could investigate. "This letter he (Daggett) got from the union is nothing more than vague accusations," Peterson said. He said the two workers who are making the complaints are disgruntled and have at times refused to do work. Rigby and Walker vehemently denied those accusations. Peterson said this is the strangest complaint he's ever seen from a union. "They are saying employees are stealing district property and it's your fault because you are letting them," Peterson said. "If we find people stealing district property they will be disciplined." Peterson said he knows Luman personally, and that Luman is a very honest person. "To charge him with an ethics complaint is ludicrous," he said. "He has saved that school district so much money over the years." Peterson said if there are problems in the maintenance department it's because the school district has tried to "put every dollar it has into teachers and kids and stretch the work all the employees are asked to do." "It's fair to say we've got a management issue," he said. "If there were really a problem (with misuse of district property) out there, no one would be more interested in curing it than the school district is." Daggett said the school district has addressed some of the concerns that were brought up by the union already. Employees now wear uniforms and school district vehicles are posted with the school district's logo. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA