If you’d like to look at the answers to the questions the District’s lawyers heaped on me, you will find them here. Bear in mind I only had two days to finish them up.
Questions and Answers together weigh in at 15,000 words. The first of the 28 questions and answers are these:
Interrogatory No. 1: Identify all Persons you believe have knowledge of any fact that is relevant to the claims or defenses in this litigation, and for each such person, describe in detail the knowledge you believe such person has.
Answer:
It is my belief that a great many people have some knowledge of at least a few facts relevant to this litigation. They would include any of a dozen or more Duluth School District administrators and employees and probably at least the same number, if not more, employees of Johnson Controls Inc. employed at the time of the consummation of, or subsequent to, the contract in question. As I know a great many of the District’s employees from my eight-year service on the School Board I am aware of the role they play in District operations which might give them access to this knowledge.
In addition, some members of the Duluth School Board should have been privy to details of the negotiations between JCI and District staff although it appears to me that Board members were relatively passive and incurious during the process despite their elective responsibility to approve all contracts especially one of such magnitude.
The most knowledgeable District employees would include Supt. Keith Dixon, Bill Hanson and Kerry Leider followed by Patrick Devlin in Purchasing, and Jody LeBlanc who currently oversees District finances. Two School principals who were drawing their salary from a federal grant for healthy schools while working in cooperation with Johnson Controls and who, I’ve been led to believe, subsequently went to work for JCI, Eric Kaiser and Greg Repensky may also be familiar with the contract’s development.
Among other administrators and secretarial staff that might have had an inside view of the contract’s development would be Bill Westholm, formerly the Assistant Superintendent in charge of school operations and his successor Joe Hill who succeeded Mr. Westholm after the contract’s development. Ron Soberg, the District’s lobbyist would likely have been consulted relative to the statutory authority permitting the contract’s initiation. The Superintendent’s Secretary’s Judy Maki and Bill Hanson’s secretary Melinda Thibault would have some knowledge of the negotiations as they would have kept track of the scheduling and perhaps the agendas of meetings. The District’s Public Relations director Katie Kaufman who has an office adjacent to the Superintendent and who has taken a leading role in defending the District’s actions and criticism of the LTFP. To do this effectively she would need to have some knowledge of the process that brought it about in order to answer questions addressed to the Superintendent by the public and the press.
Mr. Leider’s facilities management staff likely learned details of the contract negotiations as they would have been consulted about the condition of the District’s many facilities. These would include Dave Spooner and possibly John. Hoban who is in charge of district-wide maintenance.
While a similar number of Johnson Controls employees may also have played some part in the development of the contract I have only met one of them to my knowledge, Jeff Schiltz, but only to exchange pleasantries. JCI ‘s Michael J. David has also been mentioned in the Press regarding the project and in conversations I’ve had with others and I presume he would be a primary source of information about the contract’s development. Johnson Controls listed a great many experts that they would help them develop the LTFP in their response to the District’s RFP. I presume some of these individuals may be privy to information pertinent to this litigation.
Additionally, a number of attorneys were consulted during this process and one of them Mark Knudson (spelling) was in charge of drafting the contract on behalf of the School District. His counterparts at JCI would also have some knowledge of the contract its origins and possible defects.
I have been asked to detail the particular knowledge that each person has and for this I must confess that common sense and speculation are my guide. The District has not been forthcoming in providing background information which would make the contract negotiation process more transparent but I presume that each of the people I’ve mentioned, by virtue of their position within JCI or ISD 709, could provide details about the contract’s development. The only evidence I have of anyone’s knowledge comes from the documents presented in our pleadings.
