From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2018 11:04 PM
To: ‘John White’
Cc: ‘Demetria Tobias’ <demetria.tobias@pgcps.org>; ‘Shauna Battle’ <shauna.battle@pgcps.org>; ‘Raven Hill’ <raven.hill@pgcps.org>; ‘Monica Goldson CEO’ <ceo@pgcps.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act request
Dear Mr. White:
Thank you for partially fulfilling my Public Information Act request by sending me the Amendment to Kevin Maxwell’s Employment Contract. I requested Kevin Maxwell’s severance contract, which includes both his Employment Contract (which includes all side agreements to that contract) and Amendment to his Employment Contract. Neither his Employment Contract nor the Amendment to his Employment Contract taken alone fully describe his Severance Contract, so both need to be provided to comply with my request. For example, the Amendment to Kevin Maxwell’s Employment Contract makes references at various points to sections 3 and 8 of his Employment Contract. These contract terms are meaningless without access to the original document to which they refer. Please email me Kevin Maxwell’s Employment Contract within the 30-day limit required by the Public Information Act.
By not providing me any of the documentation I requested in 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d of my Public Information Act request, PGCPS is effectively asserting that the PGCPS Board of Education did not formally consider any expenditures other than cash compensation for fiscal years 2019 and 2020 in its severance contract budget calculations. For example, it did not consider the pension costs to be paid by the State of Maryland as a result of PGCPS’s FY2019 and FY2020 cash payments to Kevin Maxwell. Please note that all the dollar figures included in the Amendment to Employment Contract only included cash expenditures for FY2019 and FY2020.
If the PGCPS Board of Education did analyze the impact of its FY2019 and FY2020 cash payments on Kevin Maxwell’s long-term retirement compensation package, I would expect that it asked for those figures in writing, including the critical assumptions on which those budget calculations were made. Every PGCPS retiree calculates the impact of his final salary on his pension’s valuation, so any reasonable person would expect that the PGCPS Board of Education would do the same thing. The PGCPS Board of Education is clearly aware of both the existence of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System and how it works. I’d suggest that the gymnastics employed to get to the October 1, 2018 retirement date in the severance agreement are indicative of significant budget calculations concerning retirement benefits.
Please double check to ensure that the PGCPS Board of Education agreed to its severance contract without making any formal calculations, including the components of such a calculation as described in 3a, 3b, and 3c, concerning the impact of its FY2019 and FY2020 cash payments on the value of Kevin Maxwell’s pension. Again, please email me any documents responsive to my 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d requests within the 30-day limit required by the Public Information Act.
Lastly, please note that the Amendment to Employment Contract sent me was incomplete because it didn’t include the signing dates. If instead of sending me a signed copy you want to simply send me the signing dates, that would be fine.
Note, per my August 22, 2018 email to you (see below), I don’t know your vacation schedule this week, so I don’t know whether the 30-day limit is effectively tomorrow or this Friday.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider
From: ‘John White’
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2018 4:57 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Cc: Demetria Tobias <demetria.tobias@pgcps.org>; Shauna Battle <shauna.battle@pgcps.org>; Raven Hill <raven.hill@pgcps.org>; Monica Goldson CEO <ceo@pgcps.org>
Subject: Re: Public Information Act request
Hello Mr. Snider,
I am providing the attached response to your recent request for public records made under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA).
Best regards,
John White
Public Information Officer
Prince George’s County Public Schools
Sasscer Administration Building
14201 School Lane
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
Office: 301-780-6814
Mobile: 240-691-6744
Email: John2.White@pgcps.org
www.pgcps.org | www.facebook.com/pgcps | www.twitter.com/pgcps
From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2018 1:20 PM
To: ‘John White’
Cc: ‘demetria.tobias@pgcps.org’ <demetria.tobias@pgcps.org>; ‘Raven Hill’ <raven.hill@pgcps.org>; ‘karen.remington@pgcps.org’ <karen.remington@pgcps.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act request
Dear Mr. White:
Depending on whether you are working this Friday, tomorrow may be the last day for you to comply with the Public Information Act’s 30-day deadline.
Thank you in advance for complying with both the spirit and the letter of the Public Information Act.
I look forward to receiving the requested documents.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider
P.S. Please note that your acknowledgment missed the 10-day deadline. As I understand it, the law stipulates that if the 10th day will occur on a vacation, the required response must occur prior to the vacation.
From: ‘John White’
Sent: Monday, August 6, 2018 9:46 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Cc: demetria.tobias@pgcps.org; Raven Hill <raven.hill@pgcps.org>; karen.remington@pgcps.org
Subject: Re: Public Information Act request
Hello Mr. Snider,
I received your request for public records, under the Maryland Public Information Act, on Friday, August 3, 2018.
Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) was closed on Friday, as it is operating on a four-day work week for the summer.
I am acknowledging your request today and will fulfill it in accordance with the law.
Best regards,
John White
Public Information Officer
301-952-5830 office / 240-691-6744mobile
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
14201 School Lane
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Friday, August 3, 2018 11:40 AM
To: ‘john2.white@pgcps.org’ <john2.white@pgcps.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act request
Importance: High
Dear Mr. White:
Given the upcoming weekend, I believe that today is the last day for you to acknowledge my Public Information Act request so as to be in compliance with the Public Information Act.
Please comply with both the spirit and the letter of the Public Information Act. I look forward to receiving not only your acknowledgement but your fulfillment of my Public Information Act request.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider
From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2018 6:01 PM
To: ‘John White’
Subject: Public Information Act request
Dear Mr. White:
Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the severence contract between former PGCPS CEO Kevin Maxwell and PGCPS, including:
- the primary severance contract,
- all side agreements concerning the severance terms, and
- all written legal opinions, including summaries of such opinions and opinions written by both PGCPS and external entities, provided to the PGCPS Board of Education concerning the severance terms.
If the foregoing documents don’t include the calculations used to value Maxwell’s deferred compensation package, then I request this information should be provided separately, including 4)
- Maxwell’s highest three years of gross income as used to determine his pension benefit,
- the number of creditable years used to determine his pension benefit,
- the number of sick days the superintendent accumulated prior to his retirement (which is also used to determine his pension benefit), and
- the PGCPS Board of Education’s estimate of the impact on his pension of his $800,000 serverance package .
Please email me the requested data as an email attachment.
If fulfilling this Public Information Act request is expected to take more than 2 hours, then please provide separate costs for document requests 1), 2), 3), and 4) above in your response to me. In addition, in the unlikely event that any information cannot be provided to me in an electronic format, please cost it out separately.
If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information. As you know, Maryland law specifies that public employee compensation, including all contracts concerning compensation, is public information.
I look forward to your acknowledgement of this request within the ten calendar days required by the Public Information Act.
Sincerely,
J.H. Snider