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By Steven Matthews
Staff Writer
FAIRFIELD — The stir that was caused by Fairfield City Schools’ bus maintenance contract with Tom Burer’s company, Universal Transportation Systems, is over in the eyes of the district’s Board of Education.
After seeking outside legal counsel, board president Jerome Kearns declared the matter “closed” at Thursday night’s school board meeting.
When both the bus maintenance and special transportation contracts expire at the end of the school year, Kearns said the district will then seek competitive bids.
“It is important for our community to know that we were acting in a responsible manner as it relates to these contracts,” Kearns said. “There were questions raised by members of our community, and we owed it to them to answer them. ... I do believe this issue is resolved.”
A letter from McCaslin, Imbus & McCaslin to Fairfield Superintendent Paul Otten states that the two contracts “remain valid contracts that were not subject to the competitive bidding statute and cannot be rescinded by the school board as a result of the criminal acts of Tom Burer.”
The FBI unraveled a plan in which Burer secretly funneled approximately $26,000 in campaign funds to the Moms on a Mission group through family members and employees of his company in an effort to unseat Arnold Engel — who opposed the unbid bus contract — during the 2009 school board race.
Burer was sentenced to 60 days in jail as part of his guilty plea to attempted tampering with a campaign finance report. He also was fined the maximum $10,000 by the Ohio Elections Commission.
“Even though it’s a contract that does not require a bid,” Otten said, “it’s an extremely large dollar amount. It would be very beneficial to look and see what type of services we could get at what cost. We passed a levy, and we need to look at every dollar that comes in and out of the door. This is one of those pieces where we can see savings regardless of how large or small it may be. It’s a no-brainer to go in that direction at this point.”
Fairfield signed a three-year, $1.5 million bus maintenance contract in 2009 with Burer Garage, LLC, that expires Aug. 17, 2012.
It also has a contract with UTS to transport special needs students on a per student rate. Fairfield Treasurer Nancy Lane said the district spent $300,000 last year on this service and projects it to be around the same amount for this school year.
Lane also said the district was charged $225 per hour by McCaslin, Imbus & McCaslin, and those fees will be paid out of the general fund. A final total has not been determined.
The Burer family has had no-bid vehicle maintenance contracts with the school district for more than 70 years, except for a brief stint in the early 1980s.
“I don’t like it. I positively don’t like it,” Engel said. “The bottom line is, the contract that they have was received by fraud, and the fraud was the 2009 school board election. In my opinion, take the contract away. Not only take it away, don’t let him bid again.”
Burer retired as president of UTS on Sept. 1 and no longer has a “direct stake” in the company, according to UTS’ website. His wife Carolyn is now UTS president.
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5113 or steven.matthews@coxinc.com.
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