Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials are trying to decide whether the district's chief planner did anything wrong when he shared information about CMS with other districts while working as a private consultant.

The planner, Eric Becoats, was hired by school systems in Union County and Little Rock, Ark., to advise them on developing student assignment plans based on parental choice. Becoats has played a key role in building the choice-based plan that has replaced busing for desegregation in CMS this school year.

After an NBC6 report on Becoats' consulting activities, school board member Larry Gauvreau asked Superintendent James Pughsley to investigate Becoats' outside employment, and to report on broader issues of outside employment by other CMS staff and school board members.

In a memo sent Friday to CMS attorney Maurice Green and the school board, Pughsley said he and board chair Wilhelmenia Rembert agreed the investigation should focus on "issues surrounding Dr. Becoats' outside consulting activities."

Government employees who use public information for an outside consulting business are not necessarily committing an ethical or legal violation, said a UNC Chapel Hill expert.

"It would be inappropriate for him, for anyone, to be using the resources of their public employer to gain privately in a private business," said Robert Joyce, professor of public law and government at the N.C. Institute of Government. "It would be inappropriate for anyone to use letter and ink and printer and photocopier and that kind of stuff from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system. But I don't see anything inappropriate about using information."

CMS policy allows employees to work outside the system, as long as it does not interfere with their work for the district. The policy also prohibits employees from making a personal profit during work time.

It's unclear whether or to what extent Becoats used CMS offices or supplies to do his consulting. The consulting firm -- Queen Educational Planning -- has an address in Harrisburg.

Through CMS spokeswoman Jerri Haigler, both Becoats and Pughsley declined to comment.

The board discussed the matter in closed session Tuesday, but because it is a personnel matter, members, including Gauvreau, have declined to say what they talked about.

In an e-mail to Pughsley sent Wednesday, Gauvreau asked for details of Becoats' consulting work, including whether he has used the services and time of other CMS employees, whether he has used CMS e-mail, phones and supplies, and how he solicited his outside business.

He also asked what policies and laws cover outside employment of CMS professional staff, whether any others are involved in outside business ventures linked to educational policy, and whether board members have used CMS resources to earn money.

"Until the facts are on the table, no one's going to know anything," Gauvreau said in an interview.

Becoats' presentation to the Union County school board in August included advice on developing a choice-based student assignment system. His handout contained no description of CMS's choice-based system.

Becoats was paid $1,625, said Union County Public Schools spokeswoman Luan Ingram.

She said Union County Superintendent Jerry Thomas got Becoats' name from former CMS Superintendent Eric Smith. It was Becoats, Ingram said, who mentioned his consulting business. According to state records, the business was started in July.

In Little Rock, Becoats was paid $2,000 for a November visit, plus $1,200 in airfare, said schools spokeswoman Suellen Vann.

His presentation included a history of student assignment in CMS, successful strategies for a choice plan and a description of CMS's approach, including demographic data.

NBC6 - http://www.nbc6.com/news/specialreports/nbc6-051303-al-becoats.1657154d.html

CMS board discusses plans for profit following 6NEWS investigation

05/14/2003

By STUART WATSON / 6NEWS

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board is considering whether a top school bureaucrat should make thousands of dollars through consulting using a plan the taxpayers spent millions to develop.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg taxpayers pay more than $90,000 a year for Dr. Eric Becoats to work for them. But Becoats charges thousands of dollars on the side to consult other school districts using the CMS school choice plan.

When other school districts had questions about Charlotte's choice plan, CMS Superintendent Dr. James Pughsley referred them to Becoats.

“I don't see a particular conflict so long as he is not on the clock here," Pughsley said.

"He's receiving his information, his leads on his private consulting work at his taxpayer funded job in Mecklenburg County,” said Don Carrington, John Locke Foundation. “That's why you do have a conflict of interest."

School policy bars employees from soliciting customers or clients on Board of Education property.

"I'm not actively soliciting business," Becoats said.

School board member Lee Kindberg said she doesn't see a conflict.

“What they were asking him to do on his own time and vacation by the way was to explain to them what it takes to go through the process,” Kindberg said. “And because he used slides and information that were created here is not a problem.”

But board member Larry Gavreau disagrees.

"Just shows there's outside consulting work going on, using CMS data for profit and I just think that's wrong,” he said.

The investigators' Jeff Sonier broke this story. He will cover the board's closed door meeting and have a report Tuesday night at 11 p.m.