Local Government School District Attorney Announces Plans to Retire Next Year

BRADENTON -- The Manatee County School District's highest-paid employee announced plans to retire in the next fiscal year as members of the board questioned department expenditures. Board Attorney John Bowen’s position may be outsourced; he currently makes approximately $173,000 as a base salary, but with his benefits package it amounts to over $250,000. His package includes life insurance, health insurance, a district-issued cell phone and $6,000 of which he earned as worker’s compensation.

In addition to Bowen’s legal services, the district paid out a total of $117,500 dollars for outside attorney’s fees, professional technical service and judgments against Manatee County School Board. Over half of that funding was paid to Kirk Pinkerton and Attorneys, a legal team involved in land negotiations for the Palmetto ballfield deal, a land acquisition agreement between the school board, City of Palmetto and the county that has yet to be resolved.

Bowen said he thought the outside attorney’s fees were extremely reasonable at $150 per hour. Board member Harry Kinnan said that he would like a report on the total that is equivalent to nearly 750 hours, or three months of employment.

”The thing is, you can have a really low hourly rate, but if the job takes a lot of hours to complete, was it still a good deal?“ board member Robert Gause asked.

The superintendent said he would provide a more detailed report. According to district documents, the total amount of expenditures for the legal department was nearly $569,000.

”I am asking for a real analysis of what is going on,“ said board member Barbra Harvey.

Superintendent McGonegal said he would dig into bills to see what Pinkerton’s billable hours were for.

As the district puts the squeeze on administrative costs, Bowen’s contract has come under scrutiny in the past few months. The department has been a common target of the board, especially fiscally minded newcomers Julie Aranibar and Karen Carpenter, the latter of whom said she met with the legal department three times regarding budget information. Both women have questioned Bowen’s legal advice during public meetings.

The legal department has also drawn attention because Bowen earns more money than anyone in the district – including the superintendent. Since the legal department was created in 2005 in an effort to cut costs, legal spending has increased by over 100 percent, while several key cases that it tried were lost, resulting in great expense to the taxpayers. Board members raised the option of getting rid of Bowen earlier this year and outsourcing his work, but provisions in his contract would have led to around $450,000 in costs, were they to buy him out.