Victoria Richart files new claim--my guess is that Diane Crosier at SDCOE-JPA will pay her off

You didn't think she was just going to apologize when the Court of Appeal ruled that she had ripped off taxpayers, did you?

Former MiraCosta College president Victoria Richart and her lawyers Randy Winet and Dan Shinoff seem addicted to playing power games that cost taxpayers millions. The continuing saga of these three musketeers has cost MiraCosta College over $3 million. Richart and Shinoff spent around $1.5 million to investigate $305 worth of stolen water for palm trees at MiraCosta College, and then Winet and Shinoff arranged a payoff of $1.6 million when the College wanted to fire Richart.

The California Court of Appeal says the payoff to Richart was illegal.

So do the three musketeers apologize for ripping off the taxpayers and throwing MiraCosta College into turmoil?

No. Victoria Richart has filed a new claim against MiraCosta. If Randy Winet is representing her, he should immediately become ineligible to work for SDCOE.

Now that she has filed a claim, SDCOE-Joint Powers Authority can pay her off. The previous deal was illegal because it was a severance deal that went over the legal limit. But paying off a claim for damages would not have such a limit.

My guess is that Diane Crosier at SDCOE-JPA will be only too happy to approve a payoff. Crosier is very close to Dan Shinoff, and he certainly isn't going to want to see Victoria Richart on the witness stand at a trial talking about how he advised her to conduct the Palmgate investigation.

See recent story in Voice of San Diego about Dan Shinoff's gifts to Diane Crosier


OCEANSIDE: Richart files claim against MiraCosta
By PAUL SISSON
North County Times
July 1, 2010

Former MiraCosta College President and Superintendent Victoria Munoz Richart has filed a claim against the college alleging potential damages worth more than $2 million for breach of her employment agreement, retaliation, wrongful termination and a host of other allegations.

The claim is the latest twist in a three-year legal battle over a pricey buyout Richart received when she left MiraCosta in June 2007. In a closed-door meeting held that month, the college's board of trustees agreed to give Richart a settlement of cash and benefits valued at up to $1.6 million.

The agreement led to a lawsuit by Carlsbad activist Leon Page, who argued it was an illegal gift of public funds. In November, the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal agreed with Page and ordered the lower court to reverse a previous ruling that had upheld the settlement.

A Superior Court judge will soon rule on whether Richart must return some of the money she has already been paid under the deal.

The claim against MiraCosta states that Richart is willing to return to her old job of running the community college if her previous settlement is undone.

Richart's stint at MiraCosta was mired in turmoil that started with her investigation of illegal sales from the college's horticulture department. Along the way, she ran afoul of MiraCosta's faculty senate, which vocally objected to her investigative methods...