William Harner, acting Pennsylvania education secretary, resigns abruptly

[Divernan]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Tom Corbett on Monday forced out his nominee to lead the state Department of Education, William Harner, three months after the selection was announced.

The government source said that Mr. Harner's troubles began in January or February, when an employee of the school district, while vacationing, received an email from Mr. Harner asking how the employee looked in a Speedo swimsuit. That email, according to the source, led to a complaint to the district's human resources office, which in turn led to the school board hiring outside counsel to investigate the matter. That outside counsel turned up more than a dozen other complaints about Mr. Harner, most involving comments he made in poor taste.

His personality "rubbed people the wrong way," the source said. The school board's behind-closed-doors probe was running concurrent to the Corbett administration's own vetting. On May 15, Mr. Corbett announced that his education secretary, Ron Tomalis, would leave the department to become an adviser to the governor on higher education, and that he would nominate Mr. Harner as secretary.

Sometime this month, the source said, the Corbett administration caught wind of the fact that the Cumberland Valley school board had held a closed-door vote to not renew Mr. Harner's contract. Sen. Andrew Dinniman of Chester County, the ranking Democrat on the Education Committee, said the announcement Monday showed a failure by the administration in checking its nominee. "If the governor's office is going to put people before the Senate without proper vetting, how in the future can we trust any nominee he puts before us?" Mr. Dinniman said. "Why did it take three months, while education is facing crucial questions?"



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/politics-state/william-harner-acting-pennsylvania-education-secretary-resigns-abruptly-700825/#ixzz2d9nKH0HU

---

Interesting that the investigation by the "outside counsel" for the Cumberland Valley School Board turned up "more than a dozen" complaints, but then tries to downplay the severity by calling them simply "in poor taste". Defense counsel's "poor taste" is a District Attorney's sexual harassment crime, and clearly the school board's own outside counsel wouldn't want to open up any doors to lawsuits. Classic institutional reaction: scandal control.

So, did any of those complaints involve students, or only people working for the school district? Sandusky redux? Will Cumberland Valley be able to suppress all those complaints? According to Harner's biography on Project Vote Smart, he also has a long-standing involvement with Boy Scouts of America. Another red flag to be investigated.


http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/144649/william-harner#.UhxazX9ASSo

Member, Boy Scouts of America, present.
Former Board Member, Blue Ridge Council, South Carolina.
Former Member, New Birth of Freedom Council, Pennsylvania.

[DrDan]

1. relax - Pennsylvania is in good hands educationally

Frank Brogan is on his way to lead the Pennsylvania's university system - the state's highest-paid job state-job at $327,500.

Frank used to carry Jeb's bag in Florida and was rewarded with the similar position in Florida.

Glad to see him leave - I always feared his progression to Governor. (Guess he couldn't be worse than Rick Scott.)

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/07/3549251/florida-ex-lt-governor-to-lead.html

[Supersedeas]

5. like minds

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Heard this on the news yesterday along with the fact that

apparently, unbeknownst to many Pennsylvanians (thanks to the so-called "news-gatherers" propping up the fraud Governor), there have been a number of PA cabinet members that have come and gone. It's been a revolving door in Harrisburg as I learned yesterday, as the local news reluctantly added as an aside to this latest revelation.

People in this state have GOT to come out and vote in 2014 and get rid of this scourge.

[Divernan]

3. Corbett can't seem to find anyone competent in Pennsylvania to take the top jobs! What a sick joke!

Corbett hires Jeb Bush's former lieutenant governor to replace Harner. Has the man ever even set foot in Pennsylvania? Who says Corbett can't make snap decisions? Not like Corbett needed to take the time to find someone in Pennsylvania, familiar with the system to take the job. As per usual for Gov. Corbett, he went out of state for one of top jobs in the Commonwealth. Obviously, there was NO ONE in Pennsylvania competent to take this job.

"On Wednesday, Brogan — a former Florida lieutenant governor and later president of Florida Atlantic University — accepted a similar job in Pennsylvania and will start work Oct. 1. Coupled with the abrupt resignation of Education Commissioner Tony Bennett last week, Florida is now without permanent leadership in its top education posts.

The position is the highest-paid job in Pennsylvania’s state government, but Brogan, 59, will take a slight pay cut; he will make $327,500 compared to his current $357,000 base salary. Because of Florida's deferred retirement plan, Brogan will leave Sept. 30 with a hefty one-time payment — $622,109 — and begin collecting benefits. Together, that income will still be about $102,000 less than the $1.1 million lump sum he would have received if he had stayed on the job through 2015.

The Pennsylvania system — which comprises universities at Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester — voted unanimously in January to keep the search process secret for the first time in 31 years, so the announcement Wednesday came as a surprise to many in Florida.

[Divernan]

4. I expect Brogan to be the hatchet man, eliminating programs & then whole campuses.

And those will be the campuses selected by Corbett's fracking friends as having the best potential for drilling.

[wordpix]

6. His personality "rubbed people the wrong way"---one way to describe sexual harassment, I guess