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City fines teacher $10K for conflict of interest, “other conduct”

A $35 business proposition — among other offenses — cost a city teacher $10,000.

Fay Inovlotska paid two students $35 earlier this year to hand out flyers promoting a daycare center with which she was associated, according to a report today from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. That behavior violated rules prohibiting city employees from using their positions for personal gain, COIB concluded.

Inovlotska — who earned just over $80,000 from the city last year, according to payroll data collected by the transparency website SeeThroughNY — agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to the Department of Education for the behavior “and other conduct,” according to COIB’s press release.

Exactly what the other conduct was isn’t specified in COIB’s announcement. But Inovlotska’s case came to COIB from the office of Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon, who looks into allegations of fraud and corruption in the DOE. Condon publicizes only a fraction of SCI’s reports, even when allegations are substantiated.

The only way to see unpublicized reports that Condon has forwarded to the DOE or to the ethics board is to file a Freedom of Information Law request, which we have done.

SCI has published just seven investigation reports this year, down from 15 in 2010, 12 in 2009, 19 in 2008, and a high of 26 in 2007. The 26 reports released in 2007 reflected just 8 percent of all of the allegations that Condon’s office substantiated.

Another SCI report, released in May, documented how the DOE’s former chief financial officer, George Raab, used his city email account to discuss investments and line up a new job in the private sector. COIB announced yesterday that Raab had agreed to pay a $6,500 fine in that case.

  • NUFF SAID

    just curious—will Joel Klein have all his e-mails investigated for connections to Wireless Generation and their no-bid contracts , and to News Corp where he heads the IZone initiative? Remember he moved $1 Billion to open 200 IZone schools (and Walcott just recently verified the 200)–should News Corp recieve any benefit or  contracts -would it be a violation? If it is the fine could be enormous.

  • enpassant

    This is pretty pathertic stuff.  Big deal a teacher employed a few students to help out.  Who was being harmed here?  The kids earned a nice wage.  There have to be more serious issues out  there than this

  • http://pissedoffteeacher.blogspot.com pissedoffteacher

    A cerain administrator I know used to rent a coop he owned to two teachers in his department.  A conflict of interest?  Hell yes!!!!!  Was anything ever done about it?  Hell no!

  • http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

    This is a cautionary tale if ever there was one. I, for one, will not hesitate to advise my fellow teachers from engaging in “other conduct.” Frankly, I’m horrified by the very thought of it.

  • Guest

    $25k max

  • Clay

    I’d like to know what the other conduct was as Raab, who was making a lot more, was fined less.

  • Mike

    Paying people to work for you is “personal gain”?  This is scary.  Could we have a lawyer weigh in on this?  Does this mean we can’t hire students for anything?

  • Tim

    Do you really need a lawyer to tell you that paying your students to do work for you probably isn’t a great idea?

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