Dearest reader,
Lady Budgetdown has now arrived at Step 4 of the St. Johns Public Schools ledger — and this time, I brought the 69-page Accounts Payable Register. 🧐📜
Rather than simply plucking out the largest checks and declaring them interesting, I sorted through the register, applied credits and reversals, and separated out several categories worth a closer look.
Tonight: travel, payments made directly to individuals, and consulting/professional/legal services.
✈️ TRAVEL
I identified at least $44,421.62 in airfare, hotels, resorts, airports and travel-related charges.
Among them:
Southwest Airlines — $12,947.46
Comfort Inn — $7,000.49
Amway Hotel Corporation — $5,763.64
Holiday Inn Express — $4,302.09
Grand Traverse Resort & Spa — $3,730.35
Gaylord Palms Resort — $2,876.93
Plus additional hotels, airfare and smaller travel-related charges.
And I use the words "at least" deliberately.
This is what I could readily identify as travel from the payee names in the AP register. It does not necessarily capture every conference registration, meal, mileage reimbursement, parking charge or other expense associated with travel.
👤 PAYMENTS DIRECTLY TO INDIVIDUALS
I also identified $30,130.95 among ten individuals selected from the register.
The largest:
Robert Stephenson — $7,000.00
Samantha Buggia — $6,243.82
Neil Feldpausch — $4,257.78
Julie Konieczny — $3,670.00
Andrew Tisdale — $2,000.00
Now, pearls firmly secured here:
The AP register tells us WHO was paid. It does not necessarily tell us WHY.
These could represent reimbursements, contracted work, stipends, refunds, mileage or any number of perfectly ordinary district expenses.
So Lady Budgetdown isn't assigning a purpose where the receipt doesn't provide one.
That is a question for another receipt.
⚖️ CONSULTING, PROFESSIONAL & LEGAL SERVICES
Among the selected vendors I identified:
Flippen Group — $25,000.00
Thrun Law Firm — $21,640.56
Matrix Consulting Engineers — $18,525.00
Denno Research — $13,000.00
Stiegert Consulting LLC — $12,238.41
Secure Education Consultants — $3,100.00
Triple R Consultants — $1,920.00
Combined: $95,423.97
And here's something important about this Step 4.
I deliberately left plenty of large expenditures off this graphic.
Food service. Utilities. Fuel and propane. Retirement and benefit-related payments. RESA payments. Ordinary supplies.
Why?
Because the point isn't to make a large number look scary.
The point is to understand where public dollars are going.
That distinction matters.
Over the first three steps, we learned that St. Johns lost nearly 20% of its pupils over the decade, district-level administrative FTE increased 75%, and its 2025 compensation disclosure showed 9 employees over $100,000 in Medicare wages, representing more than $1.8 million in total compensation.
Now we're beginning to see another layer of the ledger: the checks leaving the district.
None of these expenditures, standing alone, proves something is wrong.
But taxpayers shouldn't have to guess where the money goes.
They should be able to see it.
So I will continue doing what Lady Budgetdown does best:
Follow the money.
Read the receipts.
And let the ledger tell us which questions should come next. 🧐📜
With receipts and respect.
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