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tommySchool Board Chairman Jack Lamb accidentally used work time to take care of personal matters:
Faced with a nearly $10,000 water bill resulting from a leaky pipe, the Tiffany Oaks Lakeside Condo Association appealed for help to one of its more public members, Hillsborough County School Board Chairman Jack Lamb.
Not long afterward, a letter had been sent to Mayor Pam Iorio on school board letterhead, typed by a school district secretary on school district time.
“Is there any way we can be granted a reduced bill?” wrote Lamb, the condo association’s secretary. He signed the letter, “Jack R. Lamb, School Board Chair.”
Yeah… on school board letterhead on school board time. Trib also has the letter (pdf).
In his voice mail, he said the condo association asked him to write a letter and he agreed.
“I said, ‘Yes, but I’m leaving for San Francisco,’” Lamb said. “I scratched out something, and I asked the secretary, ‘Can you please type this for me as a favor?’” Lamb said.
“And on the way to the airport, I’m saying to myself, I say, ‘Oh, God, I hope she didn’t use letterhead, and I didn’t tell her different,’” Lamb said. “And so I signed the letter, didn’t even pay attention to the top of it, and it’s not something I do, and I really apologize for it.”
The letter was dated April 3. According to Lamb’s appointment calendar, he didn’t leave for San Francisco until April 12.
Now, I know if you’re flying out of any airport in the US, you gotta get there early. But nine days early?
Asked to clarify, Lamb said Tuesday that he wrote the letter at home but his printer wasn’t working. So he asked the school board secretary to type it several days before his trip.
“I wanted to get it done before I left town,” Lamb said.
He said he thought about the incident when he was at the airport on April 12 - nine days after the letter was typed - and he said that’s when he realized the letter might have been written on district stationery.
You’re kidding me, right?
I’d guess the guy is used to taking care of all sorts of private matters while at work. And why not? He’s flying all over the country for the board, and when you gotta travel for work, it leaves you with less time for home life.
No, it shouldn’t be on the taxpayers dime, and using HCSB letterhead could be construed as an attempt to use undue influence. But there’s no reason to lie about it. Just say so, apologize, and be done with it. In the big scheme of things, this is nothing. Why so defensive?
Tags: city, county, news, tampa
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April 19th, 2007 at 10:16 am
It isn’t so much that he used time at work to take care of personal business. There are only so many hours in the day and to a certain extent we all do that. It’s that Lamb’s screwup combined with Elia’s issues and so many other examples of inappropriate behavior on the part of so-called superiors means that they have lost the moral high ground when detailing to the rest of us what is and is not appropriate.
We all make mistakes. I’ve learned more about these assholes by how they’ve handled their mistakes than by anything else.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:51 am
hahaha, 9 days early.
Good Catch!