Nick Alioto is the current Vice-President of Business and Finance at Southwestern College, and the guy calling the shots now that Raj K. Chopra is "on vacation." Just a couple of years ago, a chap named Nick Alioto made a lot of news in Wisconsin for some business dealings with the Racine Unified School District.
Were they the same people? This question came up in the comments on my recent ACLU piece. It interested me, and I did a little digging. I posted my thoughts in comments, but decided they were worth putting here instead. (I've modified my own answer in a few places to better suit the format.)
I don't think that they can be the same person. Wisconsin's Nick Alioto was a financial genius able to save Racine USD somewhere between $15 and $18 million dollars in the first six months that his company - Public Business Consulting Group (PBCG) - went to work. They painstakingly sought out "savings" that no one else had ever considered*, transferred money from one fund to another**, and implemented energy savings programs.***
That Nick Alioto was so successful that his company made an estimated $1.8 million is less than two years - based upon an agreed-upon pay rate of 20% of all found savings****. That Nick Alioto almost forced the Racine USD to pay a multi-million dollar penalty from breaking a contract with PBCG, but still collected a $750,000 settlement when the district insisted on parting ways.
Southwestern College's Nick Alioto clearly isn't that guy. Knowing that this question must come up, our Nick Alioto is the guy who arrived at the last Governing Board meeting unable to narrow down the amount of budget shortfall any more than, "somewhere between 1.3 and 1.7 million dollars." Our Nick Alioto is the guy unable to divine any way of saving the college's big fat bank account, short of putting faculty and students on the street.
Nope. There's no way this is the same guy.
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*Stuff that almost every other Wisconsin public school district had been doing for decades.
**A shell game that meant that taxpayers paid more for those savings, and then paid PBCG its percentage for the privilege of getting ripped off.
***Claiming money saved on hypothetical situations.
****Twenty-five percent.
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Seriously, you need more proof these can't be the same guy? These these links:
JSOnline (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) - "Firm Overbills Racine Schools"
JSOnline - "Director Left Last District in the Hole"
FoxPolitics.Net - "Racine: The Tragedy of Smoke and Mirrors Savings"
Real Debate Wisconsin - "An Interesting Story About PBCG Head Nick Alioto"
JSOnline - "District May Renegotiate With Consulting Firm"
LawyersAndSettlements.com - Settlement Details
Contact Emily Alpert at the Voice of San Diego. She writes a blog on education in San Diego. I think that many people will be interested to hear about Alioto's former ties. emily.alpert@voiceofsandiego.org
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americantowns.com/ca/chulavista/news/southwestern-college-welcomes-newly-appointed-administrators-201265
It is the same guy. I know as a fact! And Racine School District got ripped off! He was also in Florence WI where he had troubles.
DeleteThank you! If that link you gave me is good (just cut-and-paste it into the browser, folks!), then it appears that it IS actually possible that Racine USD's Nick Alioto IS Southwestern College's Nick Alioto.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it was the blogger (on the linked-to site) or Alioto's resume that failed to mention his work with Racine USD?
THIS IS THE SAME NICK ALIOTO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHE WAS FORCED TO RESIGN HIS POSITION AS ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF BUSINESS WITH THE KENOSHA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT . WHEN HE WAS PUSHED OUT OF KENOSHA HE WENT TO RACINE WISCONSIN (next community over) AND WAS FOUND OUT TO HAVE BILKED THAT SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS UNTIL THE SCANDAL WAS BROKE BY THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL REPORTER. PLEASE BE CAREFUL OF THIS MAN!!!!! I REPEAT PLEASE BE CAREFUL. I BELIEVE HE MOVED SO FAR AWAY FROM WISONSIN SO NO ONE WOULD RECOGNIZE HIM. IN MY OPINION HE IS A TERRIBLE, GREEDY UNETHICAL, MANIPULATIVE CHARLATAN WHO SHOULD NEVER WORK IN PUBLIC EDUCATION AGAIN. PLEASE BE CAREFUL !!!!!
ALIOTO WAS FORCED TO RESIGN HIS POSITION AS THE ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF BUSINESS IN KENOSHA. WISCONSIN !!!
ReplyDeleteHE WAS RUNNING HIS CONSULTING BUSINESS FULL TIME WHILE HE WAS ALSO EMPLOYED AS THE BUSINESS SUPERINTENDENT IN KENOSHA. PLEASE ASK THE CURRENT SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT IN KENOSHA IF ALIOTTO WOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR REHIRE THERE, OR IF HE LEFT ON GOOD TERMS AND I PROMISE YOU NO ONE IN KENOSHA WILL EVEN COMMENT ABOUT HIM BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID THERE. THOSE POOR PEOPLE IN THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF RACINE, WISCONSIN ARE STILL FURIOUS WITH THE SCANDALL ALIOTO CAUSED. HE COST THEM HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IF NOT MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
RACINE SUPERINTENDENT DR. TOM HICKS WAS TERMINATED BECAUSE OF NICK ALIOTO !!!!! HE WAS ASKED TO RESIGN BEFORE A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION WAS FILED !!! PLEASE WAKE UP AND DO YOUR RESEARCH PEOPLE. ALIOTO LEFT WISCONSIN AND MOVED SO FAR AWAY BECAUSE HIS NAME IS MUDDD !!!!
ReplyDeletePlease be careful of this greedy, manipulative, self serving man.
He did sooooo much damage back here.
Hey by the way is he still 400plus pounds ?? He was back here.
Is he still single as well ?? Kind of strange for a 44 year old man hey......hint hint. He ran with some very ugly. nasty dysfunctional people back here in my opinion. Oh well maybe he has changed. Perhaps he found Jesus or something. Anyway please be careful.
Wow, that's a lot of information - and it's very much appreciated. I'll make sure this gets passed along. If you've got any links to more stories that I haven't already gotten, or if you have a bit more evidence, I'd be happy to see it.
ReplyDelete(I'm not in ANY WAY saying I don't believe you, by the way.)
But send it to me at this email: nickolasfurr (at) yahoo (dot) com. I'll be happy to chat with you further about it. :-)
And I hope you won't be offended if I add this for all the folks who are wondering where you're from: according to my handy-dandy Feedjit on the left column, our Nick Alioto-familiar visitor hails from Wisconsin. This is no local with an opinion; it's clearly someone who knows the story.
Thanks! If anyone up Kenosha/Racine-way has anything else, I'm available at that email address...
Well, there you go my friends... How many people have we hired without thoroughly vetting them? I know, I know, they sounded so gooood when they interviewed! We need to see beyond the WORDS! How much pain, drama, not to mention the immense loss and $$ for our students and our campus?
ReplyDeleteI believe we'll get rid of them. When the time comes to hire a new president and VP, we need to talk openly about how we failed miserably and avoid our mistakes.
What is it about the Southwestern College Governing Board that makes them want to hire administrators who all just raced out of Dodge City minutes before the posse?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, and this is a funny one (to me), this blog gets more hits referencing "Nick Alioto" than it does "Raj Chopra" - by a ratio of about 2-to-1.
The Raj Chopra hits from Google and Bing are pretty much split between Southern California and Arizona.
About 99% of the Alioto hits are from Wisconsin. Does that tell anyone how much of an impact he had there?
Absolutely infuriating! This speaks volumes to either the 1) mediocrity of our Board of Trustees in not doing a thorough "reference check" on Mr. Alioto before hiring him to preside over SWC's financial affairs, or 2) DOING the thorough reference check and deciding he was "the Man for the Job".
ReplyDeleteIn either case, the Board is bordering on criminal neglect of our students. Our current leadership is now disasterous to SWC as an institution, and it is up to the people of our District to step up to the voting booth in November and change it!
Nikolas we are local people from the Kenosha and Racine Wisconsin that are still sick and infuriated with what Nick Alioto did to the honest, law abiding hardworking people of our communities !!!
ReplyDeleteIn fact if you folks do not pass this information on to your Chancellor, University Committee, Faculty Senate and Governing Board within the next few weeks after verifying what we have told you
WE WILL BE SENDING ALL OF THE FACTS SURROUNDING THIS STORY TO YOUR TELEVISION, RADIO AND NEWSPAPER MEDIA !!
WHO IN THE SAM HELL WAS HEAD OF THE SEARCH COMMITTEE THAT HIRED ALIOTO ???? Please pull all of the files from that search and screen to find out who screwed up so badly. Don,t you require background checks on people before you hire them !!! Who gave Alioto letters of support ?? ALIOTO was forced to resign from the Kenosha Wisconsin Unified School District for running his public consulting business full time when he was under contract to be the assistant superintendent of business services !!! Why would you risk tarnishing your name like this ??
The only two former school board members that may have even remotely supported Alioto ( Eric Olson) and( Marc Hujik) WERE JUST RECENTLY crushed and VOTED OFF THE BOARD BY TAXPAYERS FOR LOOSING 38 MILLION DOLLARS ON A FAILED BOND SCHEME CALLED A CDO !!!!Former Racine Wisconsin Superintendent Dr. Tom Hicks, another unethical crook in our opinion was in bed with Alioto and FORCED TO RESIGN !!! Alioto is corrupt and crooked in our opinion. Please make these comments known to your governing board before you find yourselves on the front pages of the newspaper.
Dr. Tolli, I will somewhat agree with you - particularly on our shared opinion of the Board's judgment. However, I'm still a little in doubt about how much Nick Alioto actually put on his C.V.
ReplyDeleteThe non-link in the first comment on this string - this one...
http://www.americantowns.com/ca/chulavista/news/southwestern-college-welcomes-newly-appointed-administrators-201265
...points to a nationwide community blog that says (and I'm going to quote from it right now), "He has previously worked for the following school districts in Wisconsin: Tigerton School District, Kenosha Unified School District and Eau Claire Area School District."
It doesn't list Racine Unified School District, which several of the links in my piece claim he worked at. We can't be sure if that blogger included EVERYTHING from Alioto's C.V., but if he did then the question arises if Alioto falsified his resume/C.V. by not including it.
That's a terminating offense at any job I know of.
But, to be fair, it could be that the blogger left that out - either for space or redundancy issues.
The only thing I can suggest is that someone seek out a copy of the C.V. or resume that Alioto submitted to see if it was accurate, complete, and honest.
Alioto's self-posted LinkedIn resume
Deletehttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/nicholas-alioto/14/217/991
and Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/nick.alioto.1
To the anonymous Wisconsin folks:
ReplyDeleteYou should read more of this blog than just this piece. I am not an Alioto apologist. I found the original information online - which wasn't hard to do, and included several of the links in the original piece.
Our chancellor/president, Raj K. Chopra is about as popular here as Alioto is there. Which is to say, he ain't.
Of our Governing Board, there is one member who would absolutely like to know this, and one who might. We have three that almost certainly could care less about his past - which is why the public is collecting signatures to hold a recall election to yank the three of them.
And as for our Academic Senate, I assure you that several of them are regular readers here, and on other blogs that are watchdogging all this garbage going on at Southwestern College. They know.
What we need is a bit more proof, a bit more outcry.
I would be personally delighted if you WOULD contact members of the press here in the Chula Vista/San Diego area.
I recommend starting with the Southwestern College Sun, the campus paper. They'd love anything you have to share. You can also contact any of the television stations in the area - I think all but one have been quite receptive to hearing about SWC's troubles with its administration. There is also the major bilingual newspaper, La Prensa San Diego, which is infuriated and disgusted with our Board and admin. There is also the local public radio, KPBS, who might be interested.
You can also try the major daily paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, but they're so in bed with Raj Chopra that they only have to roll over to ask him what he wants for breakfast.
You want to make the public, the faculty, and the students happy? Please go public with all this. You can contact me via email, or any of the suggested press outlets. I would suggest the Sun first - they've had to put up with the admin's garbage longer than most.
http://www.southwesterncollegesun.com
Of course, I'm happy to hear from you again, but I - like any others - will need a bit more than just opinions (however much I enjoy seeing them).
Thanks!
Our Sympathy, we have been there done that......
ReplyDeleteWhen we were trying to get rid of him in Tigerton, WI School District, he was coming to San Diego to interview. Sorry we could not tell you what you were getting. We all felt sorry you could not be warned.
We understand. He's been absurdly detrimental to this school, and he's apparently already seeking jobs elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen this? It's my message to any future possible employers. http://thewriterswashroom.blogspot.com/2010/11/to-prospective-employers-of-nick-alioto.html
He's found himself backing the wrong horse again and again - and last week the wrong horse resigned.
Thank you for the URL above.........
ReplyDeleteWOW, AND EVEN A PICTURE............THAT IS PROOF THAT IT IS THE SAME ONE AS RUINED THE TIGERT0N WI SCH00L.....WONDER WHERE HE WILL STRIKE NEXT. GOOGLE WI CIRCUIT COURT AND SEE HOW MUCH BACK INCOME TAXES HE OWES WISCONSIN. THAT IS PROBABLY WHY HE COULD NOT GET HIS CPA LICENSE RENEWED IN WISCONSIN. YOU ARE MY HERO.
How did the vote go at SWC in November?
Were they voted out?
It went well. Check out the other thread for details. Thanks for your interest in all this!! :-)
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to check into how unpopular Nick Alioto was in the Tigerton Public School System here in Wisconsin. He resigned, I'm sure under intense pressure. His resignation was announced publicly at 9:50 PM, Monday, June 08, 2009, when the school board came out of closed session. What a relief to be rid of him.
ReplyDeleteHopefully your school was not stupid enough to offer him a multi-year contract.
Nickolas, Any new info on Alioto? Keep us Wisconsin-ites up to date.....
ReplyDeleteNot much. He's been cut out of the loop to the point that he has no pull whatsoever. He's still employed, but only -- and here I *am* only supposing -- that the school needs a bit of stability until a new superintendent takes over.
ReplyDeleteanything happening lately?
ReplyDeleteNot at the moment. Ask me again in a week or two.
ReplyDeletewhy is something good going to happen?? Let us Wisconsinites in on it...... :)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to. But we're all just going to have to wait together...
ReplyDeleteAnything new? We have been waiting to hear.
ReplyDeletewhy no response these days, for Wisconsin Inquisitive's that are feeling your PAIN??? Let us know... We have heard he is no longer with you.... Is it true??
ReplyDeleteNice post dear. dumpster casters & machine casters & medical casters
ReplyDeleteNicolas was a teacher at Strayer University in Milwaukee, and as a student he didn't care if we learned finance or not. He would bribe students with food to report good survey's. When he found out that the school reprimanded him for his frothfull teaching,he made allegations that closed the Milwaukee Campus. I would hope someone has his credentials removed from Wisconsin and any other teaching institutions. All he did was brag about how long he held financing, and as reading the other compliments I see he was definitely a fraud.
ReplyDeleteA picture says a thousand words BICTH. You will pay for all your victims, and to be so cocky to respond to testimony as if no one will find it. YOU ARE A LOSER, AND FAT AT THAT. TAKE YOUR PIZZA, AND GO EAT IT IN THE CORNER. I AM NOT BASHING HE HAS COST ME THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, BECAUSE I SAW THE FRAUD IN HIM, AND HE COULDN'T EVEN TELL ME TO MY FACE THAT HE FLUNKED ME IN FINANCE 100.
ReplyDeletehttp://media.nbcsandiego.com/images/1200*675/Nick-Alioto-Southwestern.jpg
ReplyDelete