Saturday, October 11, 2008

Who Is At Fault

From the Post Crescent.

"Editorial: Kimberly schools get hard lesson

October 8, 2008 " Editorial: Kimberly schools get hard lesson | Postcrescent.com | Appleton Post-Crescent

The Kimberly Area School District has been saddled with bad debt from a $5 million investment meant to build the trust fund for retiring teachers, according to a lawsuit filed in late September.

Its two-year-old investment has lost three-quarters of its value, according to a lawsuit the district filed against two financial institutions.

Kimberly, along with school districts in Kenosha, Waukesha, West Allis-West Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay, are seeking cancellation of their investments, return of funds and punitive damages through the lawsuit filed against the Royal Bank of Canada Europe Ltd. and Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
The districts contend that Stifel and RBC either knowingly or negligently misrepresented the details of the transactions. They also contend the financial entities collected large fees while positioning the districts as guarantors of an ultra-risky portfolio of assets.

Usually, schools play it safe on investments, so this is a surprising misfortune. Although the overall economic climate is riskier than in years past, it seems like the districts should have looked a little closer for red flags and gotten more independent investment advice early on.

At the same time, the districts claim fraud and misrepresentation. For instance, the complaint states it wasn't explained that a 4 to 5 percent default rate could result in a 100 percent investment loss.

You can't bank against such blatant misrepresentation despite a world of good-faith effort at the onset.

And it's more than unfortunate Kimberly and the other districts in our state are faced with losses of this magnitude at a time when schools are struggling to meet budgets.

A painful lesson to be sure.

Who is at fault? The School Board for risking some ones else's money. Will the same voters who lost their job at the New Page Mill vote the school board out of office? Note likely!

So now the people who lost their jobs will have to pay for the school boards mistake? Yes they will? So the hard lesson the people of Kimberly are left holding the bag!

People of Kimberly, your smarter then that.

Kick their butts out!

No comments: