April 5, 2010

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Dear Mary Ronan and Sam Malone,

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This is a very important public information request for Cincinnati Public Schools.  This public information request will test if Cincinnati Public Schools has turned the corner in its desire to be transparent and fair with the Cincinnati NAACP and the Baptist Ministers Conference.  Both organizations have verbally requested any and all information related to the $84 million reported to have been spent in the area of Minority Inclusion.  The Cincinnati NAACP identified many problems with the report over the last year and a half.  The first issue was a company by the name of Shook out of Dayton, Ohio that was classified as a minority company.  CPS  stated that $2.5 million of the $9 million did involve minority companies.  However, we all know that this was not accurate information and CPS had to retract their public statements 24-hours later.  Ben Fisher with the Cincinnati Enquirer broke the story that $9 million was not reported correctly for Minority Inclusion which brought the total spend down to $75 million.   CPS responded by pulling all information off the website. 

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This is a formal public information request.  CPS has two weeks to respond or our institutions will have to consider taking CPS to court.  The request is involving the $707 million spent on building Cincinnati Public Schools.  The Cincinnati NAACP and Baptist Ministers Conference are requesting all updated information the audit has revealed to date regarding the $84 million publicly reported as being spent with minority businesses.  CPS had publicly stated that Minority Inclusion at the point of $707 million was 12% or $84 million.  Even if the $84 million was accurate it is a failure.  It is impossible for our institutions to work together if Cincinnati Public Schools is unwilling to "come clean" publicly with the financial records that our institutions have requested months ago.  It does not take 3 months to audit $84 million.   

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It is our hope that CPS will read this public information request and call my office at 751-3888 and say the information is available to be picked up today.  However, CPS has never responded with this type of cooperation.  Remember we are requesting all notes and preliminary findings of the auditor regarding the $84 million Minority Inclusion numbers.  Your institutions lack of response to our request for information now has elevated a small issue into a public struggle. Our institution will audit any numbers that your institution provides.  Our numbers show a pattern of inflating the Minority Inclusion numbers to make CPS look like it was involving African American contractors.  This was not a human error but fraud and CPS must own up to the problem. 

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Regretfully,

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President of the Cincinnati NAACP