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On The Money: Executive Chef

Look What's Cooking At District Issuing Pink Slips

By Mike Luery

At a time when hundreds of teachers are getting pink slips – and public school districts are in the red, a CBS 13 investigation reveals one local district is spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on an executive chef.

CBS 13 went undercover to capture hidden camera video inside "The Bistro".

It's a cafeteria located inside the headquarters building for the Sacramento City Unified School District. The restaurant caters primarily to district administrators – along with some parents and students – and it features an Executive Chef, David Edgar.

CBS 13 submitted a public records act request and discovered Edgar makes $83,176.56 a year, plus another $15,025.74 in benefits, for a total compensation package of $98,000 a year.

Here is the detailed breakdown of the SCUSD Bistro staff with salaries, obtained from a Public Records Act request by CBS 13:

Employee Salary Taxes & Benefits
David Edgar (Manager, Serna Center Operations) $83,173.56 $15,025.74**
Food Service Assistant (Full-time) $29,484.80 $28,810.42
Food Service Assistant (Full-time) $26,292.00 $28,222.47
Food Service Assistant (Part-time) $11,547.51 $1,471.19
Food Service Assistant (Part-time) $8,439.91 $854.75

**Health benefits are NOT PROVIDED for all district management (other benefit costs include Workman's Comp, Retirement)

Executive Chef Edgar has two full-time assistants, plus two part-timers. Altogether the five employees make $222,000 in salaries and benefits – from a district that just sent out 300 pink slips to teachers.

"Outrage, frustration, anger," stated Cheryl Sims a 4th and 5th grade teacher C.P. Huntington Elementary School in Sacramento.

Teachers contacted by CBS 13 were not happy about the District paying for the position of Executive Chef.

"I guess Serna Center and Superintendant Raymond are going to eat their way out of this budget crisis," noted Eric Knudson, a 6th grade teacher at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School in Sacramento.

"Truthfully it's an outrageous expenditure. There's no reason why we should have any Executive Chef in this district," Knudson told CBS 13.

CBS 13 also talked to students who expressed surprise.

"Eighty-three-thousand a year?" asked Veronica Bolds, a junior at McClatchy High School. "That's a lot of money. That's kind of unbelievable," Bolds told CBS 13.

"They're being overpaid I feel," said Alex Cunningham, a sophomore at McClatchy High School in Sacramento. "I mean why can't we have a chef, executive chef that's maybe well trained or can prepare some better meals?" Cunningham wanted to know.

Having an Executive Chef at SCUSD headquarters is a nice perk to have, given the economic times. But the bottom line is – The Bistro restaurant is losing money (see chart here):

Here is the P/L for the Bistro for this year:
2010-11*
Revenue
Bistro $135,506
Catering $198,462
Total Revenue $333,968

Expenditures
Salaries and Benefits $222,892
Materials, Equipment Parts, Paper Supplies, Food $161,210
Laundry, Rents and Leases, Other $9,306
Total Expenditures $393,408

Net Profit/Loss -$59,440

*Through May 31

The Bistro is nearly $60,000 in the red this year according to records obtained by CBS 13.
In fact, The Bistro has been losing money every year since it opened in 2002, district officials admit. SCUSD provided the most recent financial records which show these losses:

2006-07: ($-62,825)
2007-08: ($-77,970)
2008-09: ($-42,781)
2009-10: ($-47,976)

Add it all up and the losses amount to $290,992 since 2006.
On The Money wanted to know how the district could justify the expense.

"The bottom line is you're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an executive chef and staff to work at a restaurant that's losing money," this reporter asked District Spokesman Gabe Ross.

"Well again I think it's important that there are two separate conversations," Ross replied.

SCUSD says there are two separate pots of money – One for teachers that comes out of the District's general fund – and another for nutrition that's paid for with federal money.

"Under no circumstances could that money be used to save a teacher's job." Ross explained.

Both pots of money come from taxpayer dollars. So why spend public funds on a school district restaurant that's in the red – a café that had more empty chairs than patrons - on the day we came to visit?

In response, SCUSD said the administration office was trimmed by nearly $6 million last year to keep cuts away from the classroom. And with fewer staffers, there are fewer patrons for the restaurant.

"If it doesn't pencil out in the long term, if it's not at least breaking even we're going to have to look about making some changes," Ross told CBS 13.

But there's one change that some teachers say administrators could be doing now.

"Eat what the students are eating because in many cases the teachers are doing just that," Cheryl Sims told CBS 13. "And the food is very good," she added.

It's food for thought in a district that's hungry for answers.

CBS 13 surveyed other local school districts and couldn't find any others with a position of Executive Chef. On The Money has learned The Elk Grove Unified School District is shutting down its restaurant, "The Café Express", on June 30tht because it is losing money.

If you see examples of government waste, send us an e-mail to onthemoney@kovr.com.
You can also follow On The Money stories in progress via Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/mikeluery.

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