On March 10th, the Oyster River School District will vote for new School Board members. I endorse Jocelyn O'Quinn (Durham), Henry Brackett (Lee) and Mark Townsend (Madbury) in this election.
These three candidates support greater accountability, communication and transparency in the Oyster River School District. In a competitive global economy, challenged by economic recession, we need competent representation to make every dollar count and to strive for academic excellence.
Recently the Oyster River School District has been questioned for not obtaining multiple bids on large projects, neglecting to vote on contracts and awarding large salary increases with multi-year terms contracts to the District's Superintendent and Business Administrator. The time is now for a change. We cannot afford wasteful spending in today's economy. Moreover, we should not spend valuable tax dollars that detract from vital, academic priorities.
The Oyster River District tradition for excellence needs to be renewed. Elect O'Quinn, Brackett and Townsend on March 10th.
Durham Council candidate Michael Skubisz named in civil fraud action case
ReplyDeleteBy AARON SANBORN
asanbornfosters.com
asanborn@fosters.com
Friday, March 6, 2009
DURHAM — Town Council candidate Michael Skubisz is named, with several others, in a civil fraud action case filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging a scheme to fraudulently inflate revenues at Cabletron Systems in Rochester and its subsidiaries from March 2000 through December 2001.
The complaint was originally filed in February 2007 but later thrown out because a judge ruled the allegations weren't specific enough. The complaint was then amended in October 2008 and remains in litigation.
According to the SEC complaint, Former Cabletron Systems Chief Executive Piyush Patel led the conspiracy and Skubisz and others assisted in artificially inflating the financial condition of Cabletron, Enterasys Networks and Aprisma Management Technologies.
This was done to "convince investors that Enterasys and Aprisma were viable independent companies with consistently strong revenue growth and earnings per share performance, according to the complaint. The complaint alleges the scheme came after Cabletron announced in February 2000 that it would split into four publicly traded companies.
"The Defendants knew that Cabletron and its subsidiaries needed to report consistently strong financial results in the quarters leading up to the announced spinoff," the complaint says. "The Defendants also knew Cabletron's stock would increase in value if they could perpetuate the myth of the subsidiaries' shareholder value in the quarters leading to the announced spin-off."
Skubisz, who served as the chief executive officer and president of Aprisma from 1999 until August 2002, is accused of improperly recognizing Aprisma's quarterly revenues on multiple occasions.
One allegation claims that Skubisz entered into a side agreement with information technology company Wildflower International. The complaint says Aprisma submitted a purchase order to the company a few days before the quarter ended but couldn't recognize the revenue in that quarter because it couldn't guarantee delivery to Wildflower by the end of the quarter.
Skubisz then entered into a side agreement with Wildflower concerning FOB shipping terms, so Aprisma could recognize $360,000 in revenue in the current quarter, according to the complaint.
Neither Skubisz nor his attorney, Ann Pauly of Boston, would comment on the allegations when contacted, citing ongoing litigation.
Pauly filed paperwork in federal court in February asking a judge to dismiss the complaint against Skubisz.
Skubisz, 42, is a 15-year resident of Durham and is currently the vice president of Technology and Planning at Enablence Technologies in Portsmouth.
This article does nothing except create division. Moreover it fails to articulate each candidate's position on the issues. I was very saddened to see this.
ReplyDeleteI saw that email too. If you look at Board policy, it states that in a vacancy, the board will interview potential candidates and select a replacement. So there was really nothing untrue in it.
ReplyDeleteThe article above speaks to the character of the candidate for town council in question and potentially those who attach their names jointly to a campaign sign.
I don't feel sorry for the person in the article, I feel sorry for those who lost lots of money due to his deception on financial reports that he was responsible for filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
I believe strongly that when corporate executives mislead shareholders, it is a crime worthy of prosecution. However, Mike Skubisz DOES NOT fall into this category. Mike is a hardworking, ethical person and I would be happy to see him serve our community.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the recent Foster's article, the facts do speak volumes. Mike is not and never has been the target of any criminal investigation. Unfortunately, there are some people who have been spreading rumors to the contrary. Anyone who knows the details, which are publicly available, surrounding this case will attest that Mike is clean.
It is unfortunate we are spending time on misinformation, especially when there are clear issues worthy of debate in our upcoming election.
Regarding the aforementioned e-mail where a District staff person used District resources (i.e. ORCSD e-mail services), I am hoping this situation was an innocent mistake or simple misunderstanding. Otherwise, this is a violation of the District's Code of Ethics Policy GBC #4 (found on Page 8, item #4) which states the following:
Employees “shall not use institutional privileges for private gain or to promote political candidates or partisan political activities.”
Again, let's focus our energies on picking the most qualified candidates to address the issues facing Durham and the ORCSD.