The consultant hired to guide the Clark County School District’s reorganization process says he has been stymied in his attempts to obtain financial information and plans to file a public records request.

Tom Skancke, president and CEO of TSC² Group, said the unusual move comes after repeated attempts to get an itemized list of the school district’s legal expenses for the past three years. School officials have not complied with his requests, he told the Community Implementation Council (CIC) on Wednesday.

“I have clearly just run up against a wall,” he said.

Skancke said the school district exceeded its legal budget by more than 450 percent last year, which he called “unacceptable.” The Nevada Independent previously reported that the district’s outside legal expenses soared in recent years, topping $3.3 million in 2015.

The consulting team discovered that problems within the employee management relations (EMR) department have led to “turmoil, litigation and a hostile working environment,” Skancke said, hence his interest in the itemized legal expenses.

"We have seen impasse after impasse, arbitration after arbitration, and we have noticed a startling level of independent power relationships at play outside of the official leadership of the school district,” he said. “This is very unhealthy for an organizational culture, and unfortunately it affects very weighty issues like the budget and, in fact, the whole operation of the school district.”

Skancke said he has been asking senior management for the financial information for three months. School officials called it a “sensitive issue” and have not provided a detailed budget, he said.

Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky declined to comment on the situation, saying he needs to review the public records request first.

The tug-of-war over fiscal matters comes as the district moves to a school-empowerment model. Per the state-mandated reorganization, the district must transfer 80 percent of its unrestricted funds to the schools by the upcoming academic year.

That’s been a consistent sticking point throughout the reorganization process. Skancke said an analysis done by his team found that only 54 percent of the district’s unrestricted funds are spent at the local level, underscoring the need for school officials to remove any barriers to the funding shift. That includes  strained relationships with bargaining units that may be driving up legal costs.

John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said the district’s EMR department has a decade-long history of poor relationships with the employee bargaining units. He wasn’t surprised to hear Skancke has encountered similar dead ends when trying to work with or glean information from that department.

“You essentially have this department run by a management style that’s counterproductive to the business of human capital,” Vellardita said, adding that he thinks it’s part of a “power struggle” being waged by select senior administrators and trustees who oppose the reorganization.

Vellardita said the district’s chief negotiator, Edward Goldman, and school trustees Chris Garvey and Kevin Child have continually worked against the reorganization effort. Skancke and Glenn Christenson, who chairs the CIC, also have named Garvey and Child as consistent thorns in the side of the restructuring project.

When reached by phone Wednesday evening, Goldman said he has nothing to do with the reorganization and has never been approached by Skancke for information.

"I’ve never met the man,” Goldman said. “I’ve never spoken to the man.”

During the meeting, Skancke said he’s recommending the district place its EMR department under the umbrella of human resources.

Goldman didn’t take issue with that recommendation, given that it’s been set up that way in the past. “What difference will it make?” he said.

This marked the first CIC meeting since Gov. Brian Sandoval signed into law Assembly Bill 469, which codified the regulations for the reorganization. Three school trustees — Deanna Wright, Linda Young and Carolyn Edwards — addressed the council and shared concerns about the reorganization that they think merit changes to the law.

Those concerns included, among other things, the feasibility of transferring 80 percent of unrestricted funds, implementing a weighted funding formula and a requirement that only support staff members who are part of unions can join the school organizational teams.

Christenson commended the trustees for their recent public willingness to move forward with the reorganization process and work hand in hand with those already involved.

“I can’t necessarily promise you that all the things you’ve suggested to us will be done, but I can promise you we’ll consider them,” Christenson said. “This really, I think, is an important time in this process. I wish we could have done this several months ago.”

Updated May 15, 2017: This story has been corrected to clarify that only support staff must be union members to join a school organizational team.

Feature photo: Clark County School District school buses line up to pick up special needs students at Variety School, 2800 E. Stewart Ave. on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2017. Photo by Jeff Scheid.