Nev. school finalist faced Air Force charges - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Nev. school finalist faced Air Force charges

Washoe County School District officials said Wednesday that a former Air Force officer who pleaded guilty and was reprimanded on charges related to a war profiteering case in Iraq remains a candidate to become superintendent of the district.

Kimberly D. Olson, human development officer at the Dallas Independent School District since 2007, is among four finalists for the Washoe job.

While a colonel in Iraq in 2003, Olson was accused by Pentagon investigators of establishing a U.S. branch of a South African security firm and helping it win more than $3 million in contracts. The firm provided protection for senior American and British officials and private war contractors including subsidiaries of Halliburton Co.

According to Air Force documents, Olson denied abusing her position and avoided a court-marshal by pleading guilty to conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to obey an order or regulation. She was reprimanded and resigned from the service with an honorable discharge and no reduction in rank. She also was banned from receiving further government contracts for three years.

Olson could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

School board President Barbara Clark said the board learned about her guilty plea weeks ago. Clark said Jim Huge, president of the company paid $29,000 for the job search, told board members he had interviewed Olson’s former commanding officer and Olson “had stepped forward to take the blame” for things that happened on her watch.

“[Olson] said that yes, she had made mistakes, and she takes full responsibility for that,” Clark said. “She was told what she was doing was OK at the time, but [the military] later decided it wasn’t.”

Huge said Olson didn’t plead guilty to criminal charges. He said she had permission to do things that military officials later said were against the rules and “she decided it was her responsibility as a good soldier to take the hit.”

He said her former commander, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, and 25 other people wrote letters supporting and exonerating her.

In 2005, the Office of Deputy General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force supported the ban on Olson and the security firm, Meteroric Tactical Solutions, from receiving government contracts. That document, signed by deputy counsel Steven A. Shaw, repeated the allegations that Olson set up a security company and then drafted contracts for the firm.

Meteoric was granted contracts worth about $3 million to provide security services to Iraq occupation forces and private contractors.

Shaw found that Olson’s actions were “fraudulent” and “seriously improper.”

Huge said Olson founded the security firm under verbal orders from Garner to quickly provide security for officials and convoys in Iraq. He said she applied for retirement before the government investigated the contracts, did not resign under pressure and never made any money on the deals.

When questioned about her guilty plea by someone in the audience at a Reno public meeting Tuesday night, Olson said: “I’m accountable for what I did and it’s all out there for the public to see.”

Olson is the second of the four superintendent finalists discovered to be the subject of controversy.

Hector Montenegro, an education consultant the Dallas suburb of Arlington, resigned as superintendent there after less than six months after questions arose over his acceptance of honorariums from nonprofit groups that do business with the district.

The other finalists are:

• Lawrence W. Fryer, Jr., chief operating officer of the Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland and formerly a senior managing consultant for IBM Global Business Services.

• Edmond T. Heatley, superintendent of the Chino Valley Unified School District in Chino, Calif.

Clark said the board will narrow the field to one or two after discussing the interviews conducted this week.