power point for luncheon club
https://ocpathinker.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Finding-Rio-final-1.pptx
facebook of Voices from Both Sides
Author: gary-watts@sbcglobal.net
A Story
The ironies:
It is about school finance officials in Oklahoma, from the State Department of Education to many of the largest school districts, who have not correctly reasoned through a numerical issue that can be understood using mathematical analysis taught in first year algebra and required for graduation from Oklahoma high schools.
It is about a State Superintendent who professes great outrage that Tulsa Public Schools financial procedures did not prevent the loss of $600,000 due to fraud by a former employee, but his own agency’s failure to correctly understand the purpose and effect of the state aid formula, i.e. simple algebra, it administers has cost Tulsa Public Schools $3.5 million (and their finance officials didn’t know it).
The Policy Implications:
This failure by the State Department of Education has cost some 270 school districts $22.7 million.
A state legislator, probably relying on the misinformation from school finance officials, sponsored legislation that cost his own district, Bartlesville, $500,000.
The Department administers the state aid statute which effectively apportions more than $4 billion in state revenues, yet those responsible apparently lack the numeracy skills to understand the formula’s financial impact on districts over time which can lead to other policy failures (there is a slow bleed that is penalizing districts like Tulsa that is not understood, but is easily fixed).
An Introduction:
Woodie Guthrie’s Pretty Boy Floyd: “Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered, I’ve seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen.
To fully appreciate this collective failure, you need to understand the mathematical mechanics involved and the best way I’ve found to explain it is with this example. You own a rental property that you lease jointly to Joy and Ryan for $100 per month. Joy and Ryan have stopped talking but have continued their practice of paying $70 and $30 per month respectively, most recently for February. When Joy pays you $70 for March you inform her that Ryan has only paid $20. Joy tells you that she will make up the $10 shortfall when she pays April’s rent. In April, Joy pays you $80. Are Joy and Ryan fully paid through April now? Using the reasoning expressed by many Oklahoma school finance officials concerning the real-life facts I’m about to share, they would say yes, absolutely, believing that Joy’s increased payment a month later corrects the March shortfall and nothing more need be known.
Using common sense and some mathematical reasoning you should say you don’t know if their shortfall is corrected until you know how much Ryan pays for April. If he has resumed paying his usual $30 then the $110 you received for April satisfies that month’s $100 rent with $10 left over to make up for the March shortfall. But if he again pays only $20, then, clearly, they still owe you $10. That’s mathematical relationship the State Department misunderstands in a nutshell.
If the previous example and analysis makes sense to you, then you have successfully mastered the second-hardest challenge to following this story. The hardest challenge is accepting that sometimes the experts who are supposed to know how something works, simply do not and fail those who depend on them to get it right, i.e. a plane falls out of the sky, a bridge collapses, or $22.7 million is wrongly taken back from 270 school districts.
The Story:
At the end of my service as CFO and attorney for Sand Springs Public Schools, I was preparing my last budget revision in December, 2015 for board action in January. I noticed that our motor vehicle collections administered by the Oklahoma Tax Commission were down substantially from my budget forecast. This source of revenue had been the most consistent, always up and never down, for the 11 years I had been preparing budgets so I had paid it no attention till then. I put on my lawyer hat and read the statute, which had been amended in the 2015 session, and learned that, in my opinion, the OTC was incorrectly applying the amended provisions to the detriment of districts like Sand Springs and Tulsa that had a lower share of statewide student population then than in the 1990s when the law was first in place.
Because motor vehicle revenues are one of five “lagging chargeables” in the state aid formula, i.e. the amount used to calculate state aid this year is the amount actually received the year before, I knew there were some in school world who believed that if you were underpaid one year it was no big deal because you would get it back the next year in greater state aid. I had never analyzed this belief because it had never mattered to my district before. So I did, using a simple table approach (same as used by opposing counsel for OSDE six years later) and confirmed that in fact the formula is not self-correcting. The gist of the analysis is that the greater state aid the following year prevents more loss of revenue when motor vehicle collections remain at the lower level, but it does not replace the revenue lost the prior year. That only is done when motor vehicle revenue rebounds to its previous level.
I calculated that the harm to Sand Springs was on track to be over $400,000 so, as lawyer and CFO for the district and with the full support of my superintendent, I took on the issue. First I presented my analysis to the statewide group of large district CFO’s and thought they understood, at least no one submitted a rebuttal. I went with the CFO of Tulsa (who moved later that year to Union, one of the overpaid districts), which was the largest loser, to present my analysis to the Executive Director of the OTC. He stood by his application of the statute. I went with the superintendent of Mid Del district, the second largest loser, to present our concern to then state Superintendent Hofmeister and the director of state aid, and asked that they advocate for a correct application of the statute with the OTC. They listened politely, never rebutted the analysis we showed, yet probably told the OTC that the formula would correct for any underpayments the next year, so no harm, no foul.
With no relief in sight, my superintendent agreed we needed to take legal action. I sent the analysis to all 270 affected districts (the remaining 140 were all being overpaid), and seven districts, including Mid Del, agreed to join us in litigation. Because of the way the formula mechanics work, our strategy was only to ask that the OTC get it right going forward, because that would bump back up motor vehicle revenues for the underpaid districts effectively correcting for the earlier losses. Again, the changes in state aid alone would not correct for the losses. The litigation was filed using the Riggs, Abney firm in June, 2016 at the same time I retired from full time employment with Sand Springs. I also started a blog, OCPAThinker.org, where I wrote extensively about the issue and the litigation.
Here is that litigation: OSCN Case Details
We won in District Court in December, 2016 with Judge Parrish ordering the relief we requested for the eight plaintiffs. The OTC appealed so the wrongful underpayments continued for the second fiscal year (Oklahoma fiscal years are July to June) resulting in more financial losses for the underpaid districts. Then, led by Representative Earl Sears of Bartlesville, the Legislature again amended the statute converting the motor vehicle revenues for districts from the method based on apportioning at least the amounts received the year before, to the current method based on each district’s share of statewide student population. I’m sure Representative Sears was advised by finance officials that there would be no losses because the formula would correct with greater state aid the following year. I’m sure legislators thought they were enacting a fairer system, based on student population which was probably supported by the State Department, when in fact all that matters in fairness is that districts actually receive in the current year the amounts that are used in the formula to calculate state aid (an example of why this matters going forward). Therefore, even if the court’s order was upheld on appeal, motor vehicle revenues for the underpaid districts would not be restored to their prior levels and no correction would happen.
The Court of Appeals in February, 2018, sustained the district court order and expanded it to include all districts, ordering the OTC to calculate the amounts that should have been paid and base future payments on those recalculations. The Court acknowledged the 2017 amendment to the statute but said that didn’t affect the OTC’s duty. The OTC appealed and the Supreme Court declined to take it, which left the order in place June, 2018.
Here is the Court of Appeals case: OSCN Case Details
That same year I became aware that the OTC had made an error in apportioning motor vehicle revenues one month and then corrected the error in a later month by adjusting that month’s apportionments up for districts underpaid by the error and down for districts that were overpaid. We reasoned that since the 2017 amendment had taken away our original plan for corrections, this provided a precedent for how OTC could administratively correct for the underpayments made in FY 2016 and FY 2017.
When the OTC completed its recalculations of what should have happened before the 2017 amendment went into effect, we made demand that they administratively correct the underpayments they had made. They refused, so we asked the District Court to order correcting payments be made over a thirteen month period, the length of time needed to be sure overpaid districts would receive enough to offset the corrections. The OTC then made us and the Court aware of the Stroud decision and argued, for the first time, that the underpaid districts had not been harmed because the underpayments of motor vehicle revenues were offset by greater state aid in the subsequent year. Needless to say I panicked.
The facts in Stroud involved underassessments of property taxes, but unlike motor vehicle revenues and the other four lagging chargeables, property taxes are charged in the formula based on current year assessments. The Supreme Court got it right for the formula’s impact on a district’s general fund, namely an incorrect assessment is offset in the same year by state aid. We showed the District Court, using the table analysis, that a different result happens when the incorrect payment is for one of the lagging chargeables like motor vehicle revenues, i.e. the change in state aid comes a year too late to offset the loss. So Judge Parrish gave us the relief we requested, that the losses the OTC had caused by the underpayments to 270 districts be offset over thirteen months with correcting payments that would come by deducting the amounts overpaid to the other 140 districts.
Her order in November, 2018 was not appealed by the OTC and we were faced with the happy question of when should the payments begin. I had to figure out if the timing of the payments mattered and what to recommend. For the first time, incredibly, I put the analysis in algebraic form and the answer became very clear. The resulting equations and proof is what math nerds would say is elegant. What it showed is that the timing of the payments didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the corrections not be treated as part of current year motor vehicle revenues when state aid is calculated the following year. If the corrections are included, then effectively the relief given by the court would be taken back by the State Department through the formula mechanics.
The first correcting payments were made in February, 2019. But, then several overpaid districts, including those whose CFO’s had seen my analysis for three years without ever presenting a different analysis or asking to discuss the matter with us, filed suit with the Supreme Court arguing that the correcting payments were unfair to them because they had received less state aid the year following their overpayments and underpaid districts had received more. They provided no multi-year analysis as I had done documenting the cumulative shortfall underpaid districts had suffered when compared to the Foundation Program amounts they were intended to receive. They simply said that the subsequent year adjustments were all the correction that was needed.
Here is the Supreme Court Case: OSCN Case Details
We intervened and made our argument that the subsequent year adjustments in state aid do not correct for the prior year underpayments, unless motor vehicle revenues rebound to their previous levels. And that was exactly why the District Court ordered the one-time correcting payments. I believe the hearing officer understood our argument and that she recommended the Court not take the case. That was the result and in June, 2019 the OTC was ordered to make the remaining 12 correcting payments all in FY 2020.
I expected that the State Department of Education was under the same misunderstanding as were the large school CFO’s about the formula’s effect, but I assumed that if they confronted our analysis with actual data, the tables we had shown the courts, and the algebra that proved there was no automatic correction, then they would understand and would not include the one-time payments when calculating state aid. Unfortunately I was wrong.
My first letter to Superintendent Hofmeister was answered by the Department’s attorney and stated their intent to include the correcting payment made in FY 2019 in calculating aid for FY 2020, which they did. I had a year to convince them otherwise before they included the remaining 12 payments when calculating aid for FY 2021. I sought help; if they wouldn’t pay attention to me, perhaps they would to someone with credentials. I found Matt Hendricks, an applied economist teaching at the University of Tulsa with research interests in public school finance. He readily saw how underpayments of the lagging chargeables are not corrected by subsequent year increases in state aid. Together with one of his students, we three co-authored an academic article that was published by the Education Finance journal at the University of Oklahoma.
Hendricks-Reaves-Watts-Full-Report.pdf (oucreate.com)
We showed using the actual data for all Oklahoma school districts, using the table analysis and the algebra, that the state aid formula does not correct for underpayments of a lagging chargeable. To date no one has rebutted our findings which were made available to the Department’s finance officials and school district CFOs.
The superintendent of Mid Del Schools, one of the plaintiffs in the OTC litigation, arranged meetings with Department finance officials in December, 2019 and January, 2020 where they listened as I showed our analysis and data. They had no substantive response other than knowing that state aid was greater the year after an underpayment was made. They did not engage our mathematical analysis or attempt to refute it. Their minds were made up entirely with the knowledge that state aid is higher a year later, which was always part of our analysis showing the losses still remain. We later learned from discovery that their attempt at analysis was done with using data from the wrong years.
With the pandemic in full swing and districts’ attention elsewhere than four-year old underpayments, we were left with five districts willing to pursue the matter. I was granted a meeting with Tulsa Public Schools finance officials to again show them the district had $3.5 million at stake in the matter, but they too, without data to show, were believers that the formula had made them whole. We filed suit against the Department in June, 2020.
Here is that District Court case: OSCN Case Details
The litigation with discovery, the pandemic, having to change attorneys from one whose “head was spinning” with the analysis and wouldn’t move the case, to one who did (Gable Gotwals), resulted in the District Court judge January, 2023, “adopting” the analysis presented by the Department which remained only that any earlier underpayments were corrected by subsequent year greater payments of state aid. I believe her head was spinning with the arguments made and at the end of the day sided with the Department which absolutely should know how to analyze the effect of the formula, even though they don’t.
Along the way the Department was represented by an attorney from the AG’s office who was also an engineer. I was delighted that he was involved, naively believing he would see the light and advise the Department to correct its thinking. He didn’t take our analysis seriously until I told him after a hearing on procedure that the Department’s position was like telling the court 2 + 2 = 5 and he should use his math skills to prove otherwise. In his next filing he adopted the same table method of analysis as I had done, but his hypothetical included having the motor vehicle revenues return to their higher and beginning level, which had not happened for the underpaid districts. In other words, he had the correct method of analysis, but assumed the wrong facts.
We pointed this out in our response to that pleading, but he had left the case for a different assignment and later became a staff attorney for the Department under superintendent Walters. I think he knows the error he made, but won’t acknowledge it since they are now winning the case. His successor at the AG’s office evidences no ability with math analysis, but is very convinced, and convincing, that all one needs to know is the subsequent year adjustment in state aid.
We have appealed the District Court decision and await the appellate court’s decision, which could be given tomorrow or a year from now. In the mean time I puzzle over how CPA’s, maybe an engineer, and others who are believed to be good with numbers, can be so easily misled by numerical relationships that are demonstrated using methods of analysis taught in beginning algebra. It has introduced me to a field of study called numeracy and the fact that so many adults lack skills that supposedly were learned in school. An OSU professor who has published about numeracy has suggested to me that it may be more a matter of psychology, such as not wanting to admit one is wrong and/or research that suggests those who know less think they know more and those who know more are more aware of what they don’t know (the Donning-Kruger effect). In any case, writing about this would be a real challenge since the audience will probably struggle to follow the analysis, as have more than one attorney and a district judge, possibly with heads spinning. My imaginary title is “Why can’t Oklahoma school finance official do algebra, or How I became the world’s worst math teacher.”
Further background on this website: The Grift that keeps on Grifting – Oklahoma Councilor for Public Accountability (ocpathinker.org)
Lunch on me for the first to identify the location of the photo.
Resources
Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Party is where they first articulate OSDE’s belief that the formula has corrected any harm done. Some of the introductory section is descriptive of the formula mechanics, though distorted, but the real argument with “proof” begins on page 13 through the end.
Plaintiffs’ Response to Motion to Dismiss is our rebuttal to the above. Part II and following.
Defendants’ Reply in Support of Motion. Note author is not same attorney who authored the Motion above.
Plaintiffs’ MSJ . Part I and IVB are most relevant.
Defendants’ Counter MSJ Part II beginning at page 13 is most relevant
Plaintiffs’ Response to MSJ Part IV most relevant. At page 6
RPI Response filed in S Ct when overpaid districts sought original jurisdiction. Especially part IV
Petitioners (overpaid districts) brief in S Ct, especially affidavit of CFO Burkett.
Here is pleading in the first litigation where OTC introduced the Stroud decision, at page 5, about current year property tax assessment error, and claimed it was relevant to MVC.
Here is how we responded beginning at page 3.
The Gospel According to Barbie
These are resources my granddaughter Sofia and I used for teaching Sunday school at College Hill Presbyterian Church. Here is the You Tube link for the class on August 13, 2023:
The Gospel According to Barbie – Bing video
I have not thought much about Barbie dolls during my life, except that they were not consistent with the feminist movement that Linda and I generally embraced during our married life together from 1968 to 2021. As a result, our daughter, born in 1975, did not have a Barbie doll while growing up in our house. We never bought one for our granddaughter either. Therefore, I had absolutely no interest in seeing the new Barbie movie in the weeks leading up to its release on July 21 (my birthday), until the day before when it was determined that I would accompany my friend and daughter-in-law to the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego so they could shop the morning of July 21. I had less interest in shopping than in Barbie, but was motivated by a promised lunch and spending time with them. So, on a whim and desire to be a bit silly, I decided to see Barbie at its first 10 am showtime at the AMC Fashion Valley 18 theater.
I bought a ticket at the kiosk, ten minutes late, and made my way past women dressed in pink waiting for the 10:30 show time, to the theater. My worst fear—that it would be filled with girls and moms in pink wondering what an old geezer like me was doing there—was not realized so I sat alone in a mostly empty theater and watched as Barbies and Kens happily interacted with each other mindlessly in Barbieland. I was neither impressed nor entertained. So I decided to see how many other movies I could see part of before exiting for the world of shopping. Then the plot shifted to Barbie having some very human thoughts and I remained for the duration being surprisingly entertained. Here’s our synopsis of the story:
All Barbies and Kens live in Barbieland (later described as being like a town in Sweden) where every day is the best day ever and Barbies are its President, Supreme Court and do every thing else, except Kens who do “beach” only. The main character, stereotypical Barbie, is the original doll that was the ire of feminists and source of Mattel’s original success. It seems that Mattel adapted by turning out a variety of Barbies and Kens to capture woke consumer dollars.
So when stereotypical Barbie has her human thoughts she is told to go see Weird Barbie, where we see the infamous dashed lines off China’s coast. Weird Barbie tells her the human thoughts are coming from the human in the real world who has been playing with her and she must travel there and confront her human to get back her Barbie balance. She does so, with Ken joining along the way, by traveling to Venice Beach in Los Angeles.
There she finds her human handlers, a woke teenager who despises Barbies and what they stand for and her mother, who is her actual handler, and who works at Mattel. Out of nowhere the FBI informs Mattel that Barbie is in the real world and directs that she cannot be allowed to roam. Mattel tries to put her back in her box to avoid disruption of the real world.
Meanwhile Ken discovers his masculinity and the patriarchy in the real world and returns to Barbieland to empower the other Kens.
When Barbie’s handlers, mother and daughter, help her escape Mattel, they go with her back to Barbieland and find that the Kens have taken over and all the Barbies have assumed their subservient roles in the patriarchy. The mother handler gives a rallying speech, that you will hear in the sermon, and one by one the Barbies are rescued and work to divide the Kens. With the Kens thus distracted, the Barbies retake Barbieland through an election and all is well again. Except, stereo typical Barbie decides to return to the real world with her handlers and become human.
When I first googled “The Gospel according to Barbie” there was only one sermon posted, which we will listen to shortly. Now there is a second from a UCC church in North Hollywood, CA.
The Gospel according to Barbie – Rev. Dr. Pat Langlois – August 06, 2023 – YouTube
Beginning at the 49th minute Dr. Langlois uses the imagery of Barbieland being Eden with Barbie and Ken leaving for the real world and how they encounter the God’s love through their experiences. I highly recommend it as a thoughtful commentary and her experience watching Barbie was so similar to mine, BUT at 30 minutes it is too long to play this morning.
Instead let’s listen to the sermon from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco by Rev. Dr. Malcom Clemens Young, which includes a nice segue from the lesson we heard from Dr. Lisa Davison on Rowdy Broads of the Hebrew Bible: Women Who Get Things Done.
I suggest College Hill take up his challenge by inviting Jane Via, ordained as a Catholic priest and ministering at Mary Magdaline Apostolic Catholic Church in San Diego, to share her story here as a Harold Hill lecturer.
State Question 820 Resources
Reefer Madness:
Reefer Madness | Original Trailer | Coolidge Corner Theatre – YouTube
- Bruce Dart, Ph.D. continues after Kunzweiler
Executive Director, Tulsa Health Department - Steve Kunzweiler at beginning of long one
District Attorney, Tulsa County - Damion Shade at 17 and 29
Criminal Justice Policy Analyst, Oklahoma Policy Institute - Michelle Tilley 8 minute on short one
Campaign Director, Yes on 820
The panel will be moderated by League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Tulsa board member, Wayne Greene.
Share on Social: https://fb.me/e/1RDBCXGdS
Watch Live: https://www.facebook.com/LWVOK/live_videos/
The Channel Six report:
Oklahomans To Decide On Recreational Marijuana On March 7 – YouTube
The Religions of San Diego, Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community
I first visited San Diego almost forty years ago and since have spent more time there, second only to the Tulsa area, than any other place primarily because it is the home of my first-born child. My most recent visit added a third experience with religion that I associate with San Diego. This is my final of three posts describing those three experiences and it is about my encounter with Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community.
Let’s kick it off with the last of the three phenomena, unrelated to my topic, that I call the San Diego trifecta, namely Slomo, here he is:
Dr. John S. Kitchin, M.D., a retired San Diego neurologist trained in psychiatry.
and this photo taken in January, 2020 with him and my Linda :
My third experience with the Religions of San Diego began in June, 2021 when I read this article in the New Yorker.
The article begins with the personal stories of three women, living in Dublin, Ireland, Rochester, New York and Portland, Oregan, telling how they felt called to be priests, but couldn’t do so. It then discusses the Church’s position on ordination only of male priests and dissent from several in the Catholic community about that. Then it describes the ordination of seven women in the Danube River in 2002 by two Bishops not in good standing, followed by more in 2005 at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the idea being that no diocese has authority in the middle of a river boundary. In 2006 Jane Via was ordained in the Bodensee River between Germany and Austria with others who are now part of the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement.
The world-wide movement is named Roman Catholic Women Priests and here is their website: Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA:
Jane Via founded the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community which is featured at the end of the 15 minute video from RCWP site at 12:30. She has a PhD in theology and was a staff attorney with the District Attorney’s office in San Diego. On Sunday, October 16, 2022, we attended the mass at Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in the evening at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church. We were welcomed and, unlike other Catholic masses I have attended, invited to receive communion.
Here is an interview from December, 2009 with Jane Via hosted by the Osher program at University of California San Diego:
She addresses three challenges she faced in establishing the MMACC. First her experience with breast cancer; second her excommunication by the Church; and third growing an inclusive and relevant community. Let’s listen at 8:45 to her description of the excommunication.
9. Min addresses excommunicated
20. End of argument on her. Then to removing man who ordained her
23. Then on to describe mmacc. Liturgy etc.
30. Describes experience at mmacc.
37 questions start
Here is a video about seven women priests in New Jersey:
The Religions of San Diego, Yogis
I first visited San Diego almost forty years ago and since have spent more time there, second only to the Tulsa area, than any other place primarily because it is the home of my first-born child. My most recent visit added a third experience with religion that I associate with San Diego. This is my second of three posts describing those three experiences and it is about my encounters with three yogis.
Let’s kick it off with another of the three phenomena, unrelated to my topic, that I call the San Diego trifecta, namely a Grunion Run:
When my San Diego son finished his fourth year of eligibility at BYU he was recruited to play professionally for the United States Olympic team in preparation for the 1996 Olympics to be held in Atlanta. At that time the team trained in San Diego and we enjoyed visiting him there and often stayed at a motel, Surf and Sand, between Pacific Beach and Mission Blvd. It was on one of those visits that Linda and I strolled down to the beach for a moonlight walk and encountered lots of people and lots of grunion, a surprise to us.
Of course, we attended the Olympics in Atlanta to cheer on the men’s volleyball team and see our son. We broke up our stay by enjoying the hospitality of three different hosts, the last being a college roommate of mine. We left his house with two books he recommended: one which I read on training for a marathon by Jeff Galloway and the other which Linda read, The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. Here is a video about his life and work:
From reading the autobiography she became aware that a community of followers had established a Self Realization Fellowship Temple in San Diego. After our son married and they chose San Diego as their residence in 2000 we visited the Temple on occasion and attended services there.
Here are the images at the front of the Temple’s hall for services, being the yogi’s spiritual lineage.
The teachings of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India are founded upon the original Christianity of Jesus Christ and the original Yoga of Bhagavan Krishna (a diety?). The spiritual lineage of SRF/YSS consists of these two great avatars and a line of exalted masters of contemporary times: Mahavatar Babaji (not human? 1865-1931), Lahiri Mahasaya (1828-95), Swami Sri Yukteswar (1855-1936), and Paramahansa Yogananda (last in the line of SRF/YSS Gurus).
Each of these Great Ones played a role in Self-Realization Fellowship’s mission of bringing to the modern world the spiritual science of Kriya Yoga.
The passing of a guru’s spiritual mantle to a disciple designated to carry on the lineage to which that guru belongs is termed guru-parampara. Thus, Paramahansa Yogananda’s direct lineage of gurus is Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Sri Yukteswar.
Later our daughter-in-law made us aware of the gardens overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Encinitas, CA that are part of the Self Realization Temple there. We have visited those gardens a few times.
Another yogi encounter I’ve had in San Diego was introduction to the Jyoti-Bihanga vegetarian restaurant by our daughter-in-law. It is operated by students of spiritual master Sri Chinmoy.
A favorite of mine that I have brought to College Hill potluck lunches is Neat Loaf. Here is the recipe, though I prefer to substitute rice and flour to deconstruct the Special K ingredient and seasonings in place of the onion soup mix. https://eatdrinkbetter.com/articles/neatloaf-a-tasty-vegetarian-vegan-gluten-free-fake-meatloaf/
Here is his website: http://Sri Chinmoy – United States Sri Chinmoy Centre
Even our most recent trip generated a fresh yogi encounter at Seaport Village in San Diego by the harbor was a man balancing rocks. I sought him out because I find the practice pretty cool but wasn’t prepared for what followed.
What more is there to say; yogis abound.
The Religions of San Diego, Mormons
I first visited San Diego almost forty years ago and since have spent more time there, second only to the Tulsa area, than any other place primarily because it is the home of my first-born child. My most recent visit added a third experience with religion that I associate with San Diego. This is my first of three posts describing those three experiences and it is about my encounter with the Mormon religion.
Let’s kick it off with one of the three phenomena, unrelated to my topic, that I call the San Diego trifecta, namely the Green Flash:
Now to my actual topic, the Mormon religion. My San Diego son joined a boys volleyball program coached by Tulsan Peggy McCaw his senior year in high school, 1990, and, after graduation, played with Peggy’s club team in the Junior Olympic volleyball competition held in Albuquerque that summer. He was scouted by a coaching friend of BYU volleyball coach Carl McGown and recruited by him to enroll that fall as a member of the Cougar volleyball team.
Linda and I were delighted that he would have the opportunity to play volleyball at a fine university, but as long-time mainstream Protestants, we were more than a little concerned about the attendant exposure to the Mormon faith about which we knew so little. When the time came for him to attend orientation some thousand miles away at a place he had never seen, we decided that I would go with him. The trip began with meeting his coach, who assured me he would receive no pressure to convert through the volleyball program but added that there are a lot of young Mormons at the university who are very enthusiastic about their faith. Following a couple of days of freshman orientation, we took a weekend backpacking trip to successfully climb the high point of Utah, Kings Peak in the nearby Uinta Mountains.
I said good bye to our son the following morning as he began his four-year stint as a student athlete at BYU and drove to Salt Lake City to await my return flight departing a few hours later. I spent that time tearfully scouring a couple of bookstores near Temple Square for a variety of books about Mormons that Linda and I could read and learn more about the culture our son would be immersed in. One I remember well is: Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders (1989) by Linda Sillitoe and Allen Roberts.
After devouring those, a couple of years later I concluded my Mormon obsession by reading Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman’s Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond, a 1993 autobiographical book written by American journalist and columnist Deborah Laake.
By then we were fairly certain our son would not become a “hormone Mormon” as I had come to respectfully label those young male athletes who converted so that they could call the love of their lives into heaven (read the book).
There you have it, in my mind the Mormon religion will always be associated with San Diego through my son’s BYU experience. There are more connections I will mention later. Here is a video I found by “Saints Unscripted” that is a nice introduction to the Mormon faith:
So as they described, in 1820 Joseph Smith had his first vision in Palmyra, New York during the Second Awakening. After the Book of Mormon was transcribed and followers recruited, Smith leads the new group of saints in 1931 to Kirtland, Ohio where the first Temple is built.
At some point it is revealed to him that Jackson County, MO is the Garden of Eden and they try to establish themselves there, but are violently resisted by its residents. During this time the Mormon center locates at Nauvoo, IL which is kind of a jumping off point for their ventures into Jackson County and later to Utah. Joseph Smith is jailed in Liberty, MO
In 1844 Joseph Smith was killed by a violent mob in Carthage, IL. The Mormon faithful then divided into those who believed Brigham Young was the right leader and those who believed Smith’s son, Joseph Smith III should be the leader.
Note: This split is similar to what happened after Mohammed died, Shias, a term that stems from shi’atu Ali, Arabic for “partisans of Ali,” believe that Ali and his descendants are part of a divine order. Sunnis, meaning followers of the sunna, or “way” in Arabic, of Mohammed, are opposed to political succession based on Mohammed’s bloodline.
Those following Brigham Young re-located by handcarts to Utah and Salt Lake City, in 1847 “This is the place”. It is the political center and location of the signature Temple and Brigham Young University less than an hour south in Provo, Utah becomes the epi-center of young, faithful Mormons. The church is officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, or LDS.
Those following Joseph Smith, III, remain in the Illinois/Missouri area and are initially known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, or RLDS. Their political center and signature Temple are in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri (as is the Harry Truman Presidential Library). The RLDS founded/sponsored university is Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, just off I-35 as you go north from Missouri. While he was not, many of my Linda’s father’s family from Hulett, Wyoming were and are faithful RLDS, now Community of Christ, members. She had cousins living in the Lamoni area we have visited.
Some further trivia:
Mormon Temple off I 5 in San Diego. OKC has one also. Can you see Moroni?
Mormon Battalion Historical Site in Old Town San Diego, 1846 leave Council Bluffs, IA, arrive 1847
Salamander pipe bombings and RLDS and the new world history in the Book of Mormon.
Olympian Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner
Joseph Smith’s mother was Presbyterian.
Hormone Mormons and Secret Ceremonies
Sign in Downtown Provo store.
Campus life at BYU: caffeine, chapel bells, missions at 19 and the math therefrom.
My friend who made a career in SLC.
The Grift that keeps on Grifting
Mt. Ranier from east side. ID’d by my friend Sharry White of Estes Park, CO.
I have written several posts about the ongoing fiasco that began in 2015 with the passage of HB 2244 and have represented school districts in litigation concerning related matters since March, 2016: first against the Oklahoma Tax Commission which misapplied the new law; then against nine overpaid and misguided school districts that falsely believed my clients were being overpaid; and currently against the Oklahoma State Department of Education that also falsely believes my clients were overpaid so it has intentionally reduced their state aid to take back their court-ordered corrections. For your convenience I will list the titles of my prior posts at the end of this one.
In a nutshell, between August, 2015 and August, 2017, the Oklahoma Tax Commission underpaid 270 school districts by $22.7 million in motor vehicle collections revenue (MVC). The same amount was overpaid to 146 school districts at the same time. Following the success of the first two court cases, the Tax Commission, as ordered by the courts, restored the $22.7 million during FY 2019 and FY 2020 to the underpaid districts by reducing the same amount from revenues paid to the overpaid districts. Following this court-ordered correction, the Oklahoma State Department of Education willfully reduced state aid for the 271 underpaid districts, and increased it for the overpaid districts, in FY 2020 and FY 2021, thus undoing the correction.
This was done because the OSDE believes the underpaid districts had been overpaid and wrongly compensated. The truth is that the underpaid districts lost $22.7 million due to the OTC’s error, gained it back through the court-ordered correction, and then lost it back again due to the OSDE’s wrongful inclusion of the correcting payments in the calculation of state aid. The OSDE and the overpaid litigious school districts believe the underpaid school districts lost the $22.7 million, then gained it back through the state aid formula’s “self correcting” mechanics, then gained it a second time through the court ordered correction, and therefore were made whole, or even, when OSDE took it back again by miscalculating state aid. I’ll leave it to you to read more about this in my earlier blogs to see why the OSDE’s analysis is simply wrong and defies basic mathematical analysis and common sense.
The current happening derives from the original legislation which put a cap on MVC at the amount collected for FY 2015 which for school districts was the total of $261,403,113.92 collectively. In the following six fiscal years the total amount apportioned to school districts stayed below that level. Here are the amounts, rounded to the dollar, for each year from both the OTC and OSDE reporting:
2016 $251,872,023
2017 $240,145,328
2018 $245,031,147
2019 $250,188,432
2020 $245,872,294
2021 $260,116,565
These amounts, which are derived from the sales and other transactions of motor vehicles in Oklahoma, are kind of a crude proxy for economic activity in the state over that period with the 2016 slow down and COVID preventing a full recovery until this year. It was apparent to me in preparing a budget amendment for Sand Springs in February that the cap likely would be reached and cause a significant reduction in MVC paid out to districts in June. I had this discussion with a new school finance friend and we both were surprised when June apportionments were made and the OTC reported FY 2022 MVC paid out to school districts totaled $282,601,069.81, exceeding the cap by $21,197,955.89. It looked to us like the OTC simply had forgotten the cap given so many years had passed since it was established, but never triggered. Turns out we were wrong.
My friend alerted me this week that it appeared the OTC implemented the necessary reductions with the July, 2022 apportionments which, my friend said, totaled about $5 million compared to the same month in 2021 of $26 million. I don’t know how to get the monthly totals which under the OTC’s previous reporting system were provided, but are not with the current system. I do see that the Sand Springs district received $43,101 in July, 2022 compared to $202,248 in July, 2021. June, August and September apportionments in 2022 have been close to that normal amount.
After learning this it readily became apparent what has happened. Early in our litigation with the OTC we became aware that they apply laws governing their revenue collections based on the month of collection, not on the month of apportionment or distribution. That is why when the OTC misapplied the 2015 amendment, which took effect July 1, 2015, the incorrect apportionments did not begin until August, 2015, rather than in July. The new law was applied to the July, 2015 collections which were then apportioned to school districts in August, 2015.
Applying the same logic, the OTC would view the cap as being determined by their collections from July, 2014 through June, 2015, which in turn would be school district apportionments for August, 2014 through July, 2015. So I took the total MVC for FY 2015 apportioned to school districts of $261,403,113.92, then subtracted the $23,082,447.82 apportioned in July, 2014 and added the $23,083,395.22 apportioned in July, 2015, yielding $261,404,061.32 as the amount I believe OTC has established as the cap going forward. It is applied to August through July apportionment totals.
However, as OSDE has made painfully clear in our current litigation, it will charge school districts with the MVC amount they are apportioned July through June the previous year. That means $282,601,069.81 has been used collectively, for the school districts “on the formula”, as their MVC chargeable amounts for FY 2023. But now we know that collectively school districts will receive no more than $261,404,061.32 from August through July. The difference of about $21.2 million is simply lost to those school districts receiving MVC and state aid in FY 2023.
It is a loss that will likely be for this year only as we may expect MVC to settle in at the $261.4 million level going forward, since the subsequent year formula adjustment prevents future losses at the same levels of MVC. It is also a loss to those school districts that insulates 129 charter schools and school districts not receiving MVC that will not experience similar losses.
There are exceptions, however, in the special world of Independent School District No. 29, Cleveland County, Independent School District No. 4, Cleveland County, Independent School District No. 4, Tulsa County, Independent School District No. 5, Tulsa County, Independent School District No. 22, Canadian County, Independent School District No. 9, Tulsa County, Independent School District No., 27, Canadian County, Independent School District No. 69, Canadian County, and Independent School District No. 6, Tulsa County, where they believe, as does the OSDE, that the formula is “self-correcting” and probably that 2 + 2 = 5 if it is repeated often enough. They will take comfort in their fantasy and, in their minds, suffer no harm.
With a correct understanding that the formula is not “self correcting” for year to year changes in the five lagging chargeables, the calculation of state aid for FY 2023 could have taken this one time loss into consideration and spread the grift if you will among all state aid recipients. By removing that $21.2 million from the formula calculations, the 415 MVC districts would still have born the brunt of the MVC cap being imposed, but I estimate about $2.4 million less than is going to occur.
As always, lunch is on me for the first to ID the location of the thinker photo above.
The previous posts about this subject are:
| House Bill 2244 Twas night before Sine die Motor Vehicle Litigation Update My Obsession |
| Okie Masterminds |
| Paradise Lost |
| Nuclear Option |
| Tables Rock |
| A picture is Worth |
| “WOLF!” The Oklahoma Tax Commission shorted Tulsa Public Schools $3.4 million of our taxes. |
| Oklahoma State Department of education has miscalculated state aid for FY2020 (and plans to do it again next year) |
| Munificent Obsession |
My Friend for Life
Linda Evelyn Mahoney Watts
June 7, 1948 – August 13, 2021
Linda Evelyn Mahoney Watts was born June 7, 1948 in Deadwood, South Dakota, the nearest hospital to Hulett, Wyoming where her parents Evelyn and Edward Mahoney resided. They relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma where Linda attended Hoover Elementary, Eli Whitney Junior High and graduated from Nathan Hale High School in 1966. She was a charter member of the Tulsa Youth Symphony and later first chair string bass at Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa. After she married Gary in December 1968, she continued her education at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania graduating with a Bachelor’s in Social Science in 1972. After their son, Ethan, was born in Philadelphia, Linda and Gary moved back to Tulsa in 1973 and later had daughter, Fritha, and son, Dylan. Linda was a founding board member of Emergency Infant Services (EIS) in 1977, serving as the first President of the Board. After years as a volunteer at EIS, Linda became Executive Director in 1983. After seeing EIS through growth and a move from Second Presbyterian to the First Presbyterian Bernsen Center location, in 1998 Linda’s role with EIS changed to Director of Social Services. Linda worked at EIS until its 40th Anniversary in 2017. Linda also volunteered with Helpline, Buckle Every Little Tot (BELT), Campfire Girls, Barnard Elementary, and College Hill Presbyterian Church which she and Gary have attended since 1973. At College Hill, Linda was a Sunday School teacher, member of the choir, ordained elder and member of the Session, and enjoyed many social groups including the book club. Linda and Gary enjoyed traveling across all 50 states of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe, often traveling with family and visiting family and friends. Linda loved spending time with her grandchildren, Sofia and Jesper, attending their sports and school events, traveling, and just making fun at home. Linda found much joy in music, books, and animals.
Linda is predeceased by her father, Edward Mahoney. Linda is survived by her husband, Gary Watts; children, Ethan (Manuela) Watts, Fritha (Patrick) Ohlson, Dylan (Belle) Watts; grandchildren, Sofia Ohlson and Jesper Ohlson; mother, Evelyn Mahoney; brothers, Roy (Rita) Mahoney and Bruce Mahoney and sister, Sandra Taylor; brother-in-law Clayton (Kathy) Watts; and many nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.
A service for Linda will be live-streamed (and available later) on Thursday, August 19, 2021, at 6:30 pm, on the College Hill Presbyterian Church Tulsa YouTube site LINK.
In lieu of flowers, you may choose to honor our remarkable wife and mother with your financial donation to Emergency Infant Services, College Hill Presbyterian Church, or the Alzheimer’s Association.