Altadena town councilman Keith "Sarge" Gibbs forwarded a message he received from Tom Selinske of the PUSD Board as the "conflict of interest" controversy rages. It appears after the jump:
Keith,
There has been a question raised if there is a conflict of interest in serving on an education advisory committee and also receiving a fee for service from the Pasadena Unified School District. In my understanding, by it’s nature, an advisory body can only make recommendations to the decision making body. Assuming the advisory body is sufficiently large and all members points of view are considered and communicated to the decision making body, having one member with a contract with the district, does not appear to overly influence the entire advisory body’s recommendations and may even add information and insights into the deliberations.
I would liken this to our teachers playing an important role in our advisory committees in bringing forth recommendations for text books or curriculum changes and yet they are paid by the district and their recommendations forwarded to the board for consideration. The test for a conflict of interest seems to be, is the recipient of the funds gaining economic benefit by serving on this advisory committee? Then I could see a conflict.
Based on my limited information, there does not appear to be a conflict of interest.
Sincerely,
Tom Selinske
Board Member
Pasadena unified School District
