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July 09, 2007
Needed: an aggressive DA to take a look at Grossmont-Cuyamaca
For years, the senior management and electeds running the Capistrano Unified School district bullied critics, browbeat the press, played fast and loose with rules. It would occasionally admit error and vow to improve, then go back to its same old ways when the cameras were gone and the media stopped paying attention.
Finally, there are repercussions:
Former Capistrano Unified School District superintendent James Fleming was indicted on charges of misappropriating public funds in creating "enemies lists" of political foes, making him the highest-ranking school official ever indicted in Orange County, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said. ...
Rackauckas said there may be more to come from the grand jury, which has heard testimony from 14 CUSD employees on allegations ranging from conflicts of interest to violations of open meetings laws to the use of taxpayer funds for political activities.
If only Rackauckas were free to investigate the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, who knows what he might find. Last October, it was revealed that district Chancellor Omero Suarez had surreptitiously altered his contract to make it more likely he'd get a big buyout if he were fired. District board majority members Deanna Weeks, Rick Alexander and Bill Garrett first tried to insist that the revelation of Suarez's wrongdoing was the real sin, with Weeks likening it to a "political dirty trick."
After a U-T editorial dissected all the hanky-panky going on in the district 10 days before election day, Weeks put out this statement:
I am appalled by the actions taken by Chancellor Suarez concerning his contract. I want a full and immediate investigation. The investigation needs to be by an independent entity with no involvement or participation by the chancellor. He can direct Vice Chancellor Austin to see that it gets done. This governing board has made tough personnel decisions in the past and will continue to do so. I want the results of the investigation placed on the November governing board agenda, closed session, as required by law, and the board will take appropriate action at that time.
The board majority got re-elected, and has since resumed its practice of treating Suarez like an educational giant and indispensable leader. Alexander, insultingly, goes around offering such observations as, "This whole thing got blown out of proportion because it was election time."
Got the sequence of events? Suarez does something that would get him fired in any private sector job; his bosses call exposure of this scam a "dirty trick"; his bosses realize they can't get away with such a bizarre claim in an election season so they pretend to be upset; his bosses get re-elected and promptly lose their ire; now his bosses pretend the contract alteration scam was trivial, "blown out of proportion because it was election time." Unbelievable.
This stinks. A lot stinks in GCCCD. I have no proof that anything criminal went on, but the idea that board majority members Weeks, Alexander and Garrett could execute such zigzags without coordinating them outside of board meetings -- which would constitute a violation of open-meeting laws -- seems farfetched. Tony Rackauckas, come on down.
Alternately, Bonnie Dumanis, deploy an investigator or two. What's gone on in GCCCD begs a closer look.
Posted by Chris Reed at July 9, 2007
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/afb/archives/012558.html
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