‘Not over’
Marturano fighting to get full pension


VOORHEESVILLE– Although a settlement has been reached between the Voorheesville School District and the retired assistant superintendent for business, Dr. Anthony Marturano, he says, "It’s not over for me."
Marturano is now fighting for his pension with the Teachers’ Retirement System. His income was reduced as a result of the January, 2006 audit released by the office of the former state comptroller, Alan Hevesi. The report accused Marturano and former Superintendent Alan McCartney of "inappropriately" paying themselves $216,000 for unused leave and other employment benefits.

Marturano went two months without his pension, he said, and has since been living on a reduced amount.
"There was no celebration in my house because we reached an agreement," said Marturano from his home in Florida last week.
"It’s like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer: You’re glad when it stops, but the damage is still there," he said.
Marturano has spent more than $50,000 on legal fees, which does not include medical bills, he said. "We’re looking at $70,000 more in losses for the TRS fight," he said, referring to the Teachers’ Retirement System.
The current superintendent, Linda Langevin, termed the settlement "neutral" as neither side paid. Marturano, accused by Hevesi’s office of collecting $89,069 over 11 years, has consistently maintained his innocence. Board members took no responsibility for approving most of the payments.

Contracts between the school district and the administrators obtained by The Enterprise through Freedom of Information Law requests showed multiple versions for the same time periods, some with stipulations that were not allowed by law.
"They seemed to have little interest as to whether it was true," Marturano told The Enterprise. "Those charges were baseless," he said of the audit findings.

He gave an example of the difference between the presentation to the press and his reality.
"Calls were made from Marturano’s district-issued cell phone from Chicago and Nashville on one day, but he did not charge time nor was he approved to travel for school business," said a release from Hevesi’s office in January of 2006.
The "real story," said Marturano, is that his wife, who, at the time, was in between operations for breast cancer, traveled to Nashville to visit their daughter. "I gave her my phone with the blessing of the school district," he said. "This is the nature of these charges."
Albany County District Attorney David Soares’s office found that there was no basis to prosecute the two retired administrators. Soares said the school district’s "weak internal controls" are what likely led to the problems.
The school board initially felt differently. At the press conference in January of 2006 where Hevesi made his accusations, Joseph Pofit, the school board president at the time who later lost his re-election bid, said the board was "outraged" the former officials would purposely manipulate people and internal controls to enrich themselves.
The district filed civil suits on the day of the press conference to recoup the funds and claimed that McCartney and Marturano were deceitful and the board was misled by its trust in them. (For further background, consult www.altamontenterprise.com; look under "Archives" for Jan. 26 and Nov. 23 in 2006 and April 12 and Aug. 9 in 2007, under "New Scotland.")

The district has spent over $120,000 on legal costs, internal auditing, and a temporary replacement for the current superintendent for business, Sarita Winchell. In all, the district recovered $40,000 from a settlement with McCartney. He was accused in a later comptroller’s audit to have spent nearly $12,000 on personal needs while Marturano was not implicated of any wrongdoing.
Marturano paid the school district nothing. "I agreed to drop my lawsuit against the board and pay nothing. They agreed to drop their lawsuit and help me in my fight against TRS," he said.
"We’re already working with him and his attorney to rectify the situation," said John Cardillo, a spokesman with the Teachers’ Retirement System. At this point, he said, "It’s a matter of confirming with the district that the information provided to us is accurate, and recalculate the benefits."

Board response

Robert Baron served on the school board from 1995 to 2005, during the period that both former administrators were accused of inappropriate payments to themselves. He told The Enterprise last week that he believes the school district "got used" by Hevesi’s office. "I think they got pushed to go public," Baron said.
The district "moved too quickly," he said. "They didn’t take the time to gather all the facts they should have" I was surprised they took action so early on. They cut down all the lines of communication."
The district had to respond in some way, Baron said. "If they had approached it differently, they may have come out with a different outcome.
"There is no question in my mind that he was a hard-working, dedicated administrator for the district," Baron said of Marturano. "I’m glad that the school board closed the door on this matter so we can move on and get back to the business of education."
"The $120,000 we spent is the cost of doing business," said school board Vice President C. James Coffin. Coffin has served multiple five-year terms on the school board. "On occasion, you’ve got to dig into your pocket," he said. "There are things you simply can’t walk away from" so you face them, and you get the debts cleared.
"We’re past it. The issue is resolved," Coffin said. "It’s another page in a long story" We’ve covered all the bases and life goes on," he said. "My job was to move the district forward and that’s what I did," Coffin said.

Pofit, who was ousted in the 2006 school-board election, told The Enterprise last week that, because he wasn’t involved in any negotiations with either of the retired administrators, he didn’t think it was "proper" to say anything regarding the settlements.
As a taxpayer of the district, he said, "I am pleased with the fact that this is now behind us." The district can now focus on providing the "highest caliber education" to its students, he said. "It’s time to move on and forge ahead," said Pofit.
"My life is literally over"
Marturano said that he has always wanted to teach. "I can’t remember ever not wanting that," he said, recalling how he tutored classmates when he was in the sixth grade.
"I loved Voorheesville — the town, the kids," Marturano said. "I devoted myself to making it the best place it could be for the kids," he said.
"Al McCartney and I made sure it was safe," said Marturano. "We, many times, would be at school functions while our own children were doing things we couldn’t see," he said. "That job is not a 40-hour-per-week job," he added.
"Apparently, no good deed goes unpunished," Marturano said.

He retired from his position at Voorheesville in 2002, and moved with his wife, Leslie, to Florida, where the couple still lives.
They have been married for nearly 39 years, Mrs. Marturano told The Enterprise.
"It’s been hell," she said bluntly of the past 18 months since the audit was released.
Her husband "devoted his life to education and was a wonderful administrator," she said. It has been a horrible monetary, emotional, and physical experience, she said.
"This has just been awful," said Mrs. Marturano. "I find it hard to forgive the people who did this to him.
"It’s the guilty-until-proven-innocent thing that hurts the most," said Mrs. Marturano.
Dr. Marturano has done his best to not burden his wife, she said. "Fighting this together has made us stronger," she said. "I think it has strengthened our relationship," she said, adding, "There is never any peace of mind."
The wounds inflicted by this, said Dr. Marturano, extend deeper than a tarnished reputation and thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees. "All of this has irreparably affected our health," he said.
"We’re just not the same people — physically or psychologically," Marturano said. "One doesn’t eat, one doesn’t sleep," he said. He has lost a significant amount of weight, suffers from headaches, and, he added, "the recurrence of cancer is an issue.
"The list goes on and on," he said. "My life is literally over."

No winners
"In the end, everybody spent a great deal of money, and reputations were ruined," Baron said. "If we took the money that was spent on everybody’s legal fees and what the state spent on the audit, and put it into education, imagine where we’d be," he said.
McCartney treated people with respect, Marturano said of his former colleague. "I think he was treated as badly as a person can be treated," he said.
"There are no winners here," Marturano said. "There’s no moving on."
Though Marturano was teaching at a college in Florida when the audit came out, he considers himself now to be unemployable. "Who wants someone who is tainted"" he asked.
The settlement states that, if the district is contacted for a reference regarding Marturano, it will respond, "Dr. Marturano served as assistant superintendent and chief fiscal officer of the district from January 1991 to August 2002, but there is no one still on staff able to provide any particulars." The district may also suggest, that any prospective employer "contact whatever references [are] given them by Dr. Marturano," the settlement says.
"There’s no public exoneration here," Marturano said. "The state is not coming out and saying they made any mistakes," he said.
"We’ll stand by our audit findings," Emily DeSantis, a spokesperson with the comptroller’s office, told The Enterprise last week.
"Sometimes it’s lost that they did not find a penny not properly spent under my watch," Marturano said. "Thirty-five years of dedication to kids is irretrievably gone," he said.
"I just hope people understand that I always conduct myself with honor and integrity," he said. "That’s what I taught my students — that it was never worth it to do something like that."
Marturano is "grateful" that the board was finally willing to settle, but, he concluded, "My nightmare continues."