CHICAGO - Ben Pittman, the ousted treasurer of the Columbus City School District, filed a lawsuit last week against the school board, claiming it did not renew his contract because he is black.
Despite recent signs of fiscal improvement at the district, which suffered through years of budget shortfalls and plummeting enrollment, the board voted 4-to-3 last month not to extend Pittman's contract.
Board members said the decision was based on the findings of a 1997 financial audit by the state and a performance evaluation conducted this summer. Four white board members voted against Pittman, while one white and two African-American members voted for him.
In an affidavit filed with the suit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Pittman said he has saved the school system millions of dollars by reorganizing its life insurance, medical insurance, payroll, and investment programs. The performance evaluation praised Pittman for these changes.
Pittman, 51, also pointed to a credit upgrade for the district. "Recently, Moody's Investors Service upgraded the schools' outstanding debt from an A3 to an A2 rating," he said. "This was done as a reward for the financial strides that the school system has accomplished during my term of office."
Moody's upgraded the district's $89 million of general obligation bonds one week after the board voted against Pittman. The upgrade was based on a "narrow but improving financial position."
Pittman's suit says the firing was illegal because it came after the two-year probationary period that state law requires treasurers to serve. After two years, treasurers' contracts extend to four years unless the school board votes otherwise.
Because Pittman served for 11 months as interim treasurer before he was awarded the full-time job in May 1996, the suit contends the board's action was tardy and that his contract can't be terminated without cause. The suit says Pittman, who had worked for the district for 25 years in different capacities, never received a reason for his termination.
The suit also claims that board president Karen Schwarzwalder, who voted against a new contract, tried to make Pittman look bad by conspiring with a local utility to send a notice that the schools' gas would be shut off for nonpayment.
Pittman, who is scheduled to leave Dec. 31, was not in his office on Friday, and his attorney, Dennis M. McGuire, did not return phone calls. Schwarzwalder also did not return calls.
The alleged conspiracy and the racial claims are without merit, according to Greg Scott, an attorney for the school board. And the question of when Pittman's probationary period began and ended is a statutory interpretation with no legal precedent in Ohio, he said.
Pittman is seeking $4 million in compensatory, punitive, and noneconomic damages and has asked the court to order the board to reinstate him.
Of the 80 top positions in the school system, 28 are held by African- Americans, including the superintendent. Fifty-six percent of the student body is black.
