https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Board-president-s-brother-out-of-a-80K-job-at-13002149.php
Board president's brother out of a 80K job at Hadley-Luzerne schools
District's $9 million capital project will be managed in-house, attorney says
Updated 6:54 pm, Sunday, June 17, 2018
LAKE LUZERNE — Duane Moulton, brother of Hadley-Luzerne Central School's Board of Education President, will not be acting as "clerk of the works" for the district's $9 million capital project.
In a June 7 letter from the district's attorney Kris Lanchantin to the Times Union, which follows a May 27 Times Union article about the district's hiring practices, Lanchantin said that the timing of the project will not allow Duane Moulton to act in his appointed role.
She also said that the buildings and grounds committee made that recommendation in January 2018 and that "Mr. Moulton ... was never contracted with or paid by the district." She said the committee also decided to manage the project in-house.
Duane Moulton is board president Eddie Joe Moulton's brother. Duane Moulton and his company, CMK Construction out of Pittsfield, Mass., were appointed to the $80,000 management of the project on Dec. 18, 2017, board minutes show.
The committee's decision to reverse its appointment of Duane Moulton a month after was not apparent at the Feb. 12 Board of Education meeting. At that meeting, Duane Moulton was introduced by Superintendent Beecher Baker as "clerk of the works," minutes show. At the same meeting, Duane Moulton spoke to the board about a meeting he had that day with the project's engineer.
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He also discussed timing for bids, recommending going out for bids on the project in September, when contractors "will be hungry" for winter work.
"I think today's meeting went very well," Duane Moulton told the board. "It was a very productive meeting."
At the same board meeting, Duane Moulton also said that the auditorium project would be done by 2019's graduation. He also discussed state approval for the project, which would not be complete until the spring, thus he recommended to begin the project in the fall.
When asked why Duane Moulton — if already dismissed as "clerk of the works" — was speaking as if he was still the project manager, Lanchantin said, "He offered advice based upon his knowledge, but as a taxpayer / community member – not as an employee or consultant of the district."
But in an April 9 email exchange between Lanchantin and the Times Union, she said her law firm Girvin & Ferlazzo, was reviewing Duane Moulton's district contract. And when asked if "clerk of the works" was Duane Moulton's job, in that same string of emails, she said "Can't answer that — I would assume so but we don't hire."
When Duane Moulton's firm won the bid, board minutes indicated that his contract would be subject to the district's legal counsel.
Duane Moulton was a defendant in a 2013 lawsuit filed by the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local of Albany. The union alleged that Duane Moulton's then firm Moulton Masonry and Construction, LLC did not pay into the union worker's pensions, health benefits, annuity and education and training fund. The $662,135 judgement against Duane Moulton was vacated in 2015 because, court papers noted, "the district court erred in calculating the damages entered against the individual defendant."
Lanchantin's June 7 letter to the Times Union article also claims that Duane Moulton's wife, Julia Moulton, who was hired as a teacher, was entitled to receive health benefits earlier than the other teachers appointed on Aug. 21, 2017 because the board resolution for her appointment was postdated to Aug. 1, 2017.
"(Giving people early insurance) is a common practice in the district for summer prep work for newly hired teachers," the letter states.
The other teachers hired at the same time did not receive their health benefits until the school year began, a former district employee familiar with the situation said.
Superintendent Beecher Baker said he gave Julia Moulton insurance before the other teachers, because he sent her to a conference, meaning she had to start 10 days before the school year began.
