Conflict of interest questions about SDCOE: Lisa Jensen writes checks to husband Chris, private investigator

From the San Diego Reader:

Going off the rails on a gravy train?

Alleged conflicts of interest within county office of education

By Dorian Hargrove 

San Diego Reader

April 20, 2015

...For more than 12 years, nearly $100,000 has been paid to private investigators from ESI International Incorporated, run by Robert Price. Much of that money has been paid to investigator Chris Jensen for surveillance and research on claims made to the agency.

Since 2003, Jensen's wife Lisa Jensen has worked as senior claims representative for the San Diego County Office of Education. One of Jensen's tasks was to write checks to outside firms, including ESI International.

According to public records obtained by the Reader, Jensen and her colleagues wrote checks to ESI for surveillance work in cases throughout the county, including investigation work in the lawsuit filed by the parents of Scott Eveland, a student and football player at Mission Hills High School in San Marcos who suffered a traumatic brain injury during a game. Eveland's family later settled the lawsuit for $4.375 million in 2012. 

Other documents show Chris Jensen, through ESI, charging the office of education and National City School District nearly $1200 to travel to the downtown Superior Court building to obtain copies of criminal files in an unrelated case. Jensen was also reimbursed for mileage driven and for photocopies made. 

In September 2013, as reported by the Reader, Sweetwater Unified School District's then-superintendant Ed Brand, who has since been accused of collecting thousands in pension benefits while simultaneously collecting a salary, asked his colleagues to pay ESI International over $65,000 to investigate employees. That request was later scrapped. 

A spokeswoman for the office of education says much of the time Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz had already hired ESI before the county agency's joint powers authority made any payments on certain claims. 

The office of education has since suspended future hiring in order to avoid any future potential conflicts.

“[The San Diego County Office of Education] has directed [Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz] to refrain from subcontracting to ESI on any and all [joint powers authority]-related cases in order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest," writes spokesperson Music Watson...

If student hackers are "depraved," then Poway Unified School District is deeply depraved

This post was first published in May 2008.

I am republishing it in the light of the 2015 convictions of black teachers in Altanta for cheating on standardized student tests.

Apparently Atlanta is a lot like San Diego. 

When illegal activity happens in a school, local officials handle the issue in two very different ways. When the wrongdoer is an adult with political connections, taxpayer money is poured into that person's defense, and the schools go into cover-up mode. On the other hand, if the wrongdoer has no political connections, the school goes after him or her with a vengeance. The justice system stands ready to support schools and other public entities. You're fighting an uphill battle when you want justice from a pubic entity. See series of posts about shenanigans in Poway.  

There was an amazing case at Guajome Park Academy where teachers improperly changed grades, but instead of censuring the teacherd, the school sued a whistle-blower kid who hacked the school computer to prove the wrongdoing.
 
See also my comparison of the Atlanta cheating scandal and the bizarre color-coordinated indictments of school officials in San Diego.
ORIGINAL MAY 2008 POST:

I've learned a lot about dishonesty among San Diego County school officials over the past seven years.

I've been amazed and astounded by it.

However, I never thought of using the word "depraved" to describe Poway Unified School District. I'm thinking about it now. To start with, I will say this: if students who cheated on tests and changed grades are "depraved," then PUSD is definitely deeply depraved.

The San Diego Union Tribune reports that Assistant Principal Keith Koelzer says that the current cheating scandal at Rancho Bernardo High School is "unique in its depth of complexity and depravity."

PUSD has taken $100,000s of taxpayer dollars from education and used it to protect the arbitrary power of individuals in power. For example, at the same time that they are saying that Tyler Chase Harper can't wear an anti-gay T-shirt, they are appealing a court decision that they should pay $300,000 to two gay students whose harassment was ignored and permitted by PUSD.

Which is it, PUSD? Do you think gay students should be protected or not?

Poway has paid far more than $300,000 to fight this case: Donovan and Ramelli v. Poway Unified School District.

It would have been better to give the money to the students, or, better yet, to have protected the students and used the money for education.

But is PUSD depraved?

Encarta dictionary says depraved means "showing great moral corruption or wickedness."

Well, then, yes;  PUSD is depraved. But the students? I think they're too young to earn that title. We can't excuse PUSD on the basis of youthful hijinks.



RBHS assistant principal on hacking case: 'Unique in its depth of ... depravity'
By J. Harry Jones
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 1, 2008

RANCHO BERNARDO – An assistant principal revealed details of a cheating scandal uncovered at Rancho Bernardo High School, and his reaction to the decline of morality among some students, in an emotional memo to teachers.

“Our (worst) technological nightmare has just occurred,” Assistant Principal Keith Koelzer wrote. “At this point, we have identified 8 students (with varying degrees of involvement) who hacked into our school network, downloaded several teacher's files on the flashdrives, distributed tests to students days before they were administered and altered grades on student transcripts. The eight students are all Advanced Placement students, they are all smart, but they have no wisdom. “This case is unique in its depth of complexity and depravity.”
Koelzer sent the memo Saturday to teachers and other staff members by e-mail, the day after the scandal was uncovered. The San Diego Union-Tribune requested the memo, and the Poway Unified School District released it Thursday, with small parts of it redacted.
Until now, school officials have released few details about the ongoing investigation.
“On Friday, one student went into incredible detail of his movements in this deceit over the past two months,” Koelzer said in the memo. “After listening, I turned to his mother and asked, 'What do you think of this kind of morality?' The mother replied, 'I am not a mother anymore.' I asked the same question to the boy's father and he responded, 'This is not the morality of my ancestors.'”
Koelzer wrote that the pressure to get into a good college “has overly consumed one of our students. He described to his father and me how his transcripts were altered and personally delivered them to a college. As the student talked, I watched his father's face and I could see his 18-year dream of his child's UC education disappear.”
The names, ages and grade levels of the students have not been released.
“We must honor the due process of these students,” Koelzer said. “The stakes cannot be any higher for these students. They are staring at expulsion, questioning by police, questioning by our district technicians, (a) potential lawsuit by the district” and a rescinding of college offers.
On Monday, district Superintendent Donald Phillips said six students have been suspended while the investigation continues. Principal Paul Robinson said the police are aware of what has happened but are awaiting the results of the school investigation before proceeding..

I can't believe that SDCOE-JPA executive director Diane Croiser has suspended attorney Dan Shinoff

Update: See San Ysidro v. Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz complaint on U~T San Diego website.

Original Post:

Officials at SDCOE-JPA have worked closely--and almost exclusively--with attorney Dan
Shinoff for decades, but have now cut him off from new case assignments!   What???
SDCOE itself should be investigated if Dan Shinoff should be investigated. 

Dan Shinoff always had SDCOE officials looking over his shoulder as he
conducted cases.  SDCOE administrators sat in the courtroom during trials, made
decisions with Mr. Shinoff.   SDCOE-JPA executive director Diane Crosier,
Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Lora Duzyk, and
Superintendent Randy Ward are responsible for Shinoff's actions.  They
oversee him.  Why aren't they being investigated?

Schools office suspends law firm
2015-03-16
U~T San Diego

A law firm that does legal work for school districts across San Diego County has been
suspended from new assignments by the agency at the Office of Education that taps
attorneys for certain liability cases....
[Diane] Crosier wrote to [Dan] Shinoff...
"Due to the severity of the allegations [by San Ysidro School District] we feel it is
in the best interest of our members to suspend any new assignments until the
lawsuit and bar complaint are resolved. We appreciate your many years of
dedicated work for the JPA membership."

...Shinoff told the U-T on Friday that the San Ysidro actions were baseless. He issued
this statement today, in response to the JPA reaction:
   The JPA felt it was in everyone’s best interest to suspend new assignments to the firm
until all issues have been resolved. We certainly understand why the JPA feels this is
necessary, given the misguided action of one of its school district members. We have
had a long and successful relationship with the JPA members. We expect a speedy
resolution to these issues and look forward to our continued relationship with its
members.

In comments on the Watchdog’s story about how the legal work is distributed, personal
injury attorney Daniel Gilleon spoke up for Shinoff and attorney Randy Winet, who
receives the second largest helping of legal work from the JPA.

“Randy Winet and Dan Shinoff represent the school districts for a simple reason,”
Gilleon said, “they are two of the best attorneys in San Diego, and their ethics are
beyond reproach.”
Maura Larkins note:

The San Diego Union Tribune reports in the above article that the SDCOE-JPA
is now " known as  the San Diego County Schools Risk Management JPA." Since when????
It's always been known as the SDCOE-JPA.
It sounds to me like SDCOE is trying to distance itself from its own JPA.
 A few short years ago it was easy to find
documentation about the JPA on the SDCOE website, but the whole operation
has become very secretive.
The UT also says the JPA "is governed by a board of
administrators from the school districts that use its services.  

The truth is that SDCOE gives orders to the school
administrators, not the other way around.  For example, it has
ordered them to DENY ALL CLAIMS!!!! "See Rick Rinnear's directive to all SDCOE-JPA schools."

Also, as the UT itself reported recently sometimes the "board members" don't even know that they're on the board, and they don't know when the (rare) meetings
are held.

A little sunshine on the clever folks at the San Diego County Office of Education

I have a question for Doug Perkins and Rick Shea, candidates for San Diego County Office of Education District 5

Will you work to make sure that top administrators Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava of SDCOE report ALL the gifts they receive from companies doing business with SDCOE--and require them to explain who paid for their cross-county trips to be wined-and-dined by those companies?

Voice of San Diego education reporter Emily Alpert reported in 2010:

In response to questions from voiceofsandiego.org, the County Office wrote in an email that it believed Crosier had followed the gift rules. But despite repeated questions, it would not specifically explain why the trips could be legally left off the forms. In an email, Crosier said only that the trips were not included “due to discussion with legal counsel.”

I have personal experience with one of the companies visited by Crosier and Puplava, as recounted in the above article by Emily Alpert. The company was Life Insurance of the Southwest. I was signed up for an insurance policy with this company against my will. The name of the company was written in below, after I crossed it out. I was told the agent did not have an extra form so I would have to use the form you can see HERE. Note the scribbles. The agent also took $12,000 of my money and put it into an account where it would be locked in for years. I was fortunate enough to figure out the ruse before the lock-in date.

I expect that county officials--and union officials--get sweet deals from financial institutions in return for access to employees. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported, "Incredibly, Superintendent Randolph Ward himself bought an annuity from Puplava shortly after Ward began work in 2006."

And how about the teachers unions? Are they any better? Dan Puplava used to work for teachers unions, as he told Forbes magazine.

Who is more shameless in taking advantage of teachers, the school officials or the teachers unions? That's a hard question. I haven't figured out the answer yet.


FROM THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE?

Convicted trustees out; SDCOE trustees in

SDCOE administrators and board members have assumed positions at Sweetwater: left to right in photo: SDCOE administrator Lora Duzyk, SDCOE Superintendent Randy War, SDCOE board members Susan Hartley, Mark Anderson, Sharon Jones, Lyn Neylon, Gregg Robinson. For some reason Sweetwater board member John McCann has been replaced, although he was NOT charged or convicted of crimes as his four colleagues were.

Bizarrely, the four convicted trustees of Sweetwater Union High School District--as well as trustee John McCann and Sweetwater administrators--had their seats taken over at the most recent board meeting by the five members of the current SDCOE board and top administrators at SDCOE. SDCOE got permission from the Superior Court to implement the takeover.

NOTE ON DOUG PERKINS AND RICK SHEA

Both of these candidates are insiders at SDCOE.

Before retiring, Rick Shea was Special Assistant to the County Superintendent of Schools.

Del Mar School District trustee Doug Perkins was involved in this shameful case. I attended the trial. The judge was amazed that the district thought it could play politics instead of fulfilling legal obligations. Perkins had been on the board since 2008. He supported and worked with SDCOE JPA attorney Dan Shinoff.

CANDIDATES ALICIA MUNOZ AND KATIE DEXTER ARE ALSO SILENT ON SECRECY AT SDCOE


I'd also like candidates Alicia Munoz and Katie Dexter (District 3) to answer the question at the top of this post.

UPDATE AND CORRECTION May 24, 2014:

I apologize to the La Mesa/Mt Helix Patch. It did NOT censor my comments.


Patch news websites

I now believe that the reason my comments seemed to disappear from a story by Helen and Jack Ofield was that Katie Dexter supporters decided to distract attention from the La Mesa Patch story and direct attention to the Lemon Grove Patch version of the same story. In fact, Tom Clabby erased his own comment from the La Mesa Patch and posted it on the Lemon Grove Patch. He apparently preferred to have his comment appear in better company.

It makes me wonder if perhaps some of Katie Dexter's supporters are opposed to seeing, hearing or speaking about problems at SDCOE.

When I wrote my comments I had no preference for either candidate in the Katie Dexter/Alicia Munoz race for SDCOE board. I didn't think that either one of them would be able to do anything about the secrecy and financial shenanigans at SDCOE. And I still don't have any preference.

Here's what made me reverse my unfair criticism of the La Mesa Patch: I just found a link to the article in the Town Square column on the home page.

ORIGINAL POST MAY 24,2014:

I made comments the other day on this La Mesa/Mt Helix Patch story about the race for a seat on the San Diego County Office of Education.

Then I discovered that the original La Mesa Patch story can not be found in the Patch archives and seems to have been erased from the Patch Facebook page. Google search results don't include the story.

But clearly the plan wasn't to get rid of the story itself. The exact same article has been published by the Lemon Grove Patch (without my comments, of course). Google readily produces a link to the Lemon Grove Patch article. It turns out that the La Mesa Patch story still exists; the link on my blog still works.

So I'm doing an experiment. I posted some new comments on the Lemon Grove Patch this morning, and we'll see what happens. Here are my new comments:

[Comments by] Maura Larkins May 24, 2014:

...The entire story seems to have disappeared, along with two comments I made regarding San Diego County Office of Education. This reminds me of the local Clear Channel billboards that were taken down after two days because they correctly stated that Carla Keehn is the only candidate for Judge of the Superior Court Office 20 who has not been convicted of a crime. Of course, I didn't pay $14,000 to publish my statements.

Maura Larkins May 24, 2014 at 09:27 am
CORRECTION AND APOLOGY TO THE PATCH: I believe that the La Mesa/Mt Helix Patch did NOT try to censor my comments. Instead, I think that Katie Dexter supporters worked to remove attention from the La Mesa Patch story that carried my comments and direct attention to the Lemon Grove Patch version of the same story. In fact, Tom Clabby erased his own comment from the La Mesa Patch and posted it on the Lemon Grove Patch. He apparently preferred to have his comment appear in better company. It makes me wonder if perhaps some of Katie Dexter's supporters are opposed to seeing, hearing or speaking about problems at SDCOE. When I wrote my comments I had no preference for either candidate in the Katie Dexter/Alicia Munoz race for SDCOE board. I didn't think that either one of them would be able to do anything about the secrecy and financial shenanigans at SDCOE. And I still don't have any preference.

The most common problem in public entities is not blatant corruption such as the outrageous salaries ($560,000 for the assistant City Manager) of officials in Bell, California, but the money that gets channeled behind the scenes. Millions of dollars get moved around, and the public doesn't know about the connections and motivations that are guiding the transfers. Voice of San Diego reporter Emily Alpert was investigating SDCOE when she suddenly went silent, and then got fired. SDCOE exempts Diane Crosier (the director of Risk Management; also, Dan Puplava's boss) from having to disclose the gifts she receives. Why don't we have transparency in government at SDCOE?


SDCOE Risk Management Director Diane Crosier and her close associate Dan Puplava work with AIG

SDCOE has silenced its critics.

When Scott Dauenhauer revealed that SDCOE fringe benefits manager Dan Puplava [who is still employed by SDCOE] was getting at least $355,000 in commissions from AIG while working for the taxpayers, Dauenhauer was sued by Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava.

I went down to the courthouse and read the pleadings in the case.

The SDCOE managers claimed that Dauenhauer didn't know that what he said was true. I'm not kidding. They didn't claim he said something false. They claimed that he didn't actually know that what he said was true. Since he couldn't afford to keep paying an attorney to fight the case, he settled. SDCOE has also tried very hard to silence me. SDCOE lawyers had more success with Grossmont student representative Rick Walker, who obligingly shut down his website.

My other comment was about the MiraCosta College scandal, in which SDCOE's favorite law firm got paid $1.3 million to investigate $305 of water stolen and used to water palm trees. (After investing all that taxpayer money, MiraCosta let the palm trees die. It was never about water or palm trees. It was all about power and politics.) Sounds a little bit like Bell, California, doesn't it? And if our media silences discussions about things like this, how can the taxpayers protect themselves?

[Comment by} Helen Ofield May 24, 2014 at 12:22 PM

Maura - I was hunting around for the coverage and thought it was "just me" when I couldn't find a comment I'd sent to you. I think the Clabbys had a little difficulty posting and, like them, I wouldn't know how to erase something if I tried. Really, there is no conspiracy here, just well-meaning people trying to navigate the Internet.

Maura Larkins May 24, 2014 at 04:30 pm

Hi Helen,
If you look at the line below your post you will see the words "Recommend...Reply...Delete". Just click on the word "delete". It looks like Tom Clabby found it. I got an automatic notice telling me about his new comment soon after I posted my comments. Then I got another automatic notice saying his comment was a blank.

I wonder what Katie Dexter and Alicia Munoz think of all the Dan Puplava shenanigans as well as the other SDCOE cases and the secrecy surrounding gifts to Diane Crosier. It seems that all we get from either candidate is political posturing and platitudes. Wouldn't this be a good time for one or both of them to address problems inside SDCOE?

Who's replacing the four corrupt Sweetwater trustees who were forced to resign? Four people who have controlled the legal shenanigans of Sweetwater for years

UPDATE: Add Gregg Robinson to the list of SDCOE trustees who are taking over the Sweetwater board. Even though he wasn't charged or convicted of a crime, Sweetwater trustee John McCannn is also pushed out. SDCOE administrators also took the place of Sweetwater administrators at the most recent board meeting.


SDCOE board members Mark Anderson, Susan Hartley, Lyn Neylong,
Gregg Robinson and Sharon Jones

All of the above except Robinson will take over the Sweetwater
Union High School District board. (See all posts on South Bay Indictments.)
These individuals have maintained secrecy about gifts to Diane Crosier,
the director of Risk Management. Also, they have kept Crosier's pal Dan Puplava
in his position despite revelations of enormous amounts of money
he received from financial institutions connected to SDCOE.

Troubled Sweetwater school district served with temporary trustees
KUSI News
May 19, 2014

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Four members of the San Diego County Board of Education will serve as temporary trustees for the troubled Sweetwater Union High School District, the county Office of Education announced Monday.

The appointees will fill the seats of Sweetwater board members who were suspended or ousted after pleading guilty to various corruption charges.

The selections were made today by county school board President Susan Hartley, three days after Superior Court Judge Judith Hayes granted a request by the district to allow Hartley to fill the leadership posts.

"This decision allows the San Diego County Board of Education and the San Diego County Office of Education to provide whatever services to the district that may be necessary to ensure the smooth operation of its programs," Hartley said. "We have always been focused on supporting the district in educating students."

The appointees are Mark Anderson, who represents inland North County and rural East County; Sharon Jones, who represents most of the southeastern portion of the county; Lyn Neylon, who represents the southwestern part of the county; and Hartley herself, who represents the North County coast.

Last month, board President Jim Cartmill and Trustee Bertha Lopez pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor accepting gifts charge, and then-Trustee Pearl Quinones was sentenced to three months of house arrest after her admission to a felony conspiracy count and a misdemeanor of accepting gifts above the state limit.

Former trustees Arlie Ricasa and Greg Sandoval, ex-Superintendent Jesus Gandara and a construction company executive, Henry Amigable, previously pleaded guilty in the case.

It makes no difference who wins the East County seat on the San Diego County Office of Education board--Katie Dexter or Alicia Munoz

May 20, 2014 UPDATE: This post became deeply ironic one day after it was published.

See: Who's replacing the four corrupt Sweetwater trustees who were forced to resign? Four people who have controlled the legal shenanigans of Sweetwater for years

Four SDCOE board members are replacing the four members of the Sweetwater Union High School District board who were forced to resign due to corruption convictions. See all posts on South Bay Indictments.

Katie Dexter: The Right Choice for San Diego County School Board
by Jack & Helen Ofield
Patch
May 16, 2014

Alicia Munoz has insulted more than 25,000 residents of Lemon Grove with her recent hit piece attacking our 12-year, very effective Lemon Grove School Board member Katie Dexter. Munoz and her supporters in the American Federation of Teachers Local 1931 trashed our school district and everyone who serves it and, by extension, our city as a whole.

She scorns Dexter's work in business (Sam's Club, GMAC) and casts herself as a "professor." She works in the community college system where there is no such academic rank. Her occasional lecturing at SDSU does not make her a "professor." Thus has she also insulted the academic community with her fake title.

Because Munoz and her handlers are ignorant of Lemon Grove's stirring history and of its successful efforts to educate a highly diverse population (some 22 languages and dialects spoken in our schools), they are unaware that the Lemon Grove School District is in the vanguard of classroom technology, interdisciplinary learning and STEM curricula, art and music (we've had a music program since 1933), healthy diets for students and, not least, construction in 2013 of a beautiful, joint use library that is a runaway success story in the county library system.

Munoz' absence of judgment, sensitivity and community research, and acceptance of her union's gutter tactics make her a poor choice for County School Board. She should withdraw from the race now.

By contrast, Dexter's widely-respected grasp of school financing, ability to forge public-private partnerships to help our schools, long-time service to local, county and state education organizations, volunteer service as a mother and board member in community groups, respect for teachers and classified employees alike, and managerial skills have won her a who's who of support -- Supervisor Dianne Jacob, La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid, Lemon Grove Mayor Mary Sessom, Brian Marshall, Superintendent of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Kevin Ogden, Superintendent of the Julian School District, CSEA Chapter 568, Lemon Grove City Council members Howard Cook and Jerry Jones, and the list goes on to literally thousands of voters inside and outside of Lemon Grove.

...Jack is an Emeritus Professor of Film and former Filmmaker in Residence at SDSU and Fellow of the American Film Institute, and Helen is a writer and member of the San Diego County Historic Site Board and president of the Lemon Grove Historical Society...

Sincerely,
Jack and Helen Ofield


Comments

Maura Larkins
No matter which one of these candidates wins, the SDCOE board (as well as the superintendent, Randy Ward) will continue to be a rubber stamp for Diane Crosier and her stable of lawyers.


Jack & Helen Ofield
Maura - They will have a fighter in Katie Dexter. Until we begin to place people of Katie's caliber on that board, it will be business as usual.


Maura Larkins
Hi Helen,
Public institutions in Lemon Grove exhibit higher integrity than most of the other public entities in San Diego County that I'm familiar with, but SDCOE (and SDCOE-JPA) are connected to powerful people--including the folks at AIG (the insurance company that got over $180 billion during the financial crisis).

No candidate would be able to make the slightest dent in the corruption.

Remember the MiraCosta College scandal? Remember board member Judy Stratton? No, of course you don't--because she resigned right after she spoke out about corruption.

You can't make the lawyers mad and remain on the board.

Maura Larkins

The AFT attack on a middle and working-class community reminds me of an attitude I've seen among many teachers. They prefer working in upscale areas where the kids are born on third base; the test scores make the teachers think that they themselves hit a triple! (I'd like to acknowledge the late, great Molly Ivins as the originator of the quip that I'm paraphrasing here.)

Remembering the San Diego Union-Tribune expose of Dan Puplava

Current SDCOE board members Mark Anderson, Susan Hartley, Lyn Neylong, Gregg Robinson and Sharon Jones still don't require that Diane Crosier, executive director of SDCOE's Risk Management Department, report the gifts she receives.

Remember this story? Here's how the San Diego County Office of Education's Dan Puplava scandal started four-and-a-half years ago. SDCOE Superintendent Randolph Ward and the SDCOE board allowed Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava to silence whistle-blowers and anyone else in their way.

“He's getting paid a salary by the taxpayers to manage the registered representatives, not to be a registered representative..."

Benefits manager’s work questioned
County employee also acted as a broker
By Jeff McDonald
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 17, 2009

A San Diego County Office of Education employee tasked with managing a retirement program for thousands of teachers and administrators supplemented his salary for years with commissions on outside investments he sold to those same clients.

Daniel Puplava makes $100,000 to $108,000 a year as the deferred compensation manager for a consortium that serves public educators in three counties. At the same time, Puplava has been allowed to pursue those clients for his private broker business.

In 2006, Puplava collected at least $355,000 in commissions as a broker for AIG Financial Advisors Inc., according to documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune. He was named to the 2008 Achiever's Council, an honor reserved for agents of AIG Financial Advisors whose commissions and fees exceed $250,000 a year.

His attorney said Puplava shared that money with other brokers.

[Maura Larkins comment in 2013: Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava never produced any evidence that Puplava "shared that money with other brokers." Their lawsuits seem to have been intended to intimidate their critics into settlement rather than to have their day in court to prove their innocence.]

Officials at the county schools office said they knew about Puplava's broker business and saw no conflict of interest because he has done the work on his own time.

“It's not unheard of for public employees to have a business on the side,” spokesman James Esterbrooks said.

The arrangement does not appear to violate federal securities laws, but it tests the limits of the state education code and has become one of the main sticking points in litigation involving the office.

Puplava's work as a broker also appears to have been done at county offices. Client statements obtained by the Union-Tribune list Puplava's phone number at the county schools office as his primary contact.

“It certainly strikes me as an apparent conflict of interest,” said Ronald F. Duska, director of the Mitchell Center for Ethical Leadership at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. “It just sets up incredible temptations for the guy who's supposed to be acting as a manager.”

Puplava, who is 47 and lives in Escondido, declined to be interviewed. His attorney, Randall Winet, responded to questions with a March 6 letter to the newspaper stating that Puplava has divested himself of his personal clients and received only a portion of the commissions cited in documents.

“The funds from financial services companies were paid directly to him, which he then was required to distribute to a number of brokers working for him,” the letter says.

Winet also said Puplava had “a significant, thriving practice prior to ever joining the County Office of Education.”

Puplava is a registered broker for SagePoint Financial Inc. in Phoenix, which until recently was called AIG Financial Advisors.

His full-time job is to manage the deferred compensation retirement program for the Fringe Benefits Consortium, which provides access to health insurance, annuities and other services for school employees across San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties.

The consortium was created in 1982 to help school employees negotiate better deals on health insurance by pooling resources.

Twelve districts representing 2,500 or so teachers initially joined the self-insurance partnership, but the client roster grew to 72,000 as the consortium attracted more districts and expanded its services.

When the Office of Education hired Puplava in 1997, he was permitted to keep his “book of business,” or private clients, county schools officials said.

Puplava also was allowed to grow his client base by soliciting teachers he met through his county job.

Four years after his hiring, the county schools office was among the first agencies in the country to organize an umbrella retirement program for teachers, who as public employees receive government pensions but often supplement those benefits by setting up individual investment accounts.

The idea was to give teachers the opportunity to buy investment products without paying the high fees and commissions normally associated with individual transactions.

Puplava was put in charge of the deferred compensation program. He contracted with outside financial advisers to promote the services, and together they hosted hundreds of informational seminars outlining the various products and services.

About 6,000 teachers and administrators have bought supplemental investment products offered through the deferred compensation program.

Consortium director Diane Crosier said that after a new superintendent was hired in 2006, a decision was made to allow Puplava to keep existing clients but restrict him from accepting new teachers and educators as customers. But by then, even incoming Superintendent Randolph Ward had bought an annuity from Puplava.

[Maura Larkins comment: Did your employee give you a good deal, Randy?]

Running an outside business is legal for full-time county Office of Education employees. But according to the California Department of Justice, a deferred compensation program manager is supposed to be a neutral party – not someone who profits from marketing financial products.

“The statute prohibits school employees from acting as sales agents for 403(b) vendors in return for commissions,” according to an August opinion from the Attorney General's Office analyzing the state's education code.

Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Service doe allows public and nonprofit employees to pay into tax-deferred supplemental accounts to boost their retirement nest eggs, much like 401(k) programs in the private sector. Former employees and independent advisers say the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Puplava's dealings. Crosier said the SEC has looked into Puplava, but that was more than a year ago and nothing has happened.

The San Diego County District Attorney's Office requested copies of related civil case files but closed its investigation in July after finding no evidence of criminal conduct.

The SEC and the District Attorney’s Office declined to discuss the situation, as did Ward.

In August, the consortium terminated the contracts of six brokers who had been enrolling and serving clients for years. Three weeks later, the schools office sued those brokers, claiming they had stolen clients and business from the consortium.

The brokers fought back, filing a 26-page cross-complaint last month that lodged numerous allegations against Puplava, Crosier and county schools office officials.

Among other things, the cross-complaint says Puplava opened a partnership with three of the fired advisers – Barry Allred, Christopher Dougherty and Michael Zeiger – that operated as FBC Insurance Services.

The partners shared tens of thousands of dollars in fees and commissions paid by FBC clients, the cross-complaint alleges.

Court papers also say Puplava negotiated a deal with Aviva Life and Annuity Co. that paid him 30 percent of all commissions the partnership received from Aviva. In 2006, Puplava personally collected more than $26,000 in Aviva commissions from February to October, the cross-suit says.

Citing the ongoing litigation, Crosier declined to address specific allegations, including why Puplava was permitted to sell his clients financial products not available under the consortium when the fired brokers were sued for the same activity.

“There are huge inaccuracies in that lawsuit,” Crosier said. Kris Kertzman, who worked as a consortium broker from 2002 to 2007 but is not part of the pending litigation, said Puplava's clients think he “has their best interests in mind because he works for the county.”

“He's getting paid a salary by the taxpayers to manage the registered representatives, not to be a registered representative,” Kertzman said.

Diane Crosier is still at San Diego County Office of Education--and so is the infamous Dan Puplava

Diane Crosier still works at SDCOE.

Update Sept. 3, 2013 8:52 a.m.:

Wow, I really messed up on this story. My information about Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava leaving SDCOE was incorrect. But I'll tell you exactly how the misunderstanding took place, and what I have learned about Crosier and Puplava.

1. I suggested that an acquaintance call Diane Crosier to get some information. The acquaintance told me "dcrosier@sdcoe.net doesn't work anymore." I thought someone at SDCOE told her that Diane Crosier at SDCOE didn't work anymore. Instead, it was the email address that didn't work anymore. My bad. I sincerely apologize.

2. Did SDCOE give false information when it said last year that Puplava was no longer in a supervisory position?

Office of Ed manager was fined, suspended [by FINRA]
FINRA found issues with his side business
By Jeff McDonald
SDUT
May 18, 2012

The official in charge of a $270 million public investment fund for 6,400 educators in the region was fined $7,000 last year and had his broker’s license suspended for three months. He retained his official post.

Daniel Puplava, 50, manages the deferred compensation program for the San Diego County Office of Education. He has simultaneously worked for private brokerage firms, one of which was fined $300,000 in January for failing to supervise him and guard against conflicts of interest.

The fines were issued by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the nonprofit regulatory agency that was reviewing the matter when the U-T wrote about Puplava’s dual roles in 2009.

At the time, Puplava worked for AIG Financial Advisors of Phoenix. He now works for his brother’s company, Puplava Financial Services of San Diego.

...“Mr. Puplava is no longer in a supervisory position and this behavior is not acceptable to SDCOE under SDCOE policy or practice,” the office said in a statement.

Puplava’s pay remained the same when he was removed from a supervisory position, the office said....

I talked to a couple of people at SDCOE this morning, and they insisted that Mr. Puplava is a manager with staff that he supervises. I suspect that when SDCOE claimed that Puplava wasn't in a supervisory position, they meant that he was no longer illegally having subordinates sign financial documents. But I believe his staff continued to do exactly what he wanted.



from Dan Puplava's website

3. I visited Dan Puplava's website and it does not look like the website of an administrator whose intent is to help public school teachers arrange retirement benefits through a public agency. Why is Mr. Puplava posing with his motorcycles on the street and on top of mountains? And while the folks at SDCOE tell me that Mr. Puplava only gives trainings to SDCOE staff, his website says otherwise.

The website seems to be trying to bring in business:

Seminars and Workshops

All of these achievements are impressive in and of themselves, but what Dan is really known for are his educational workshops. He has spent years delivering and fine-tuning these financial workshops, in San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial County. They include his Comprehensive Financial Planning workshop as well as seminars and workshops focusing specifically on the current economy.

His most recent workshop, focusing on current economic trends, is called “The Coming Federal and California Debt Time Bomb.” The workshop has proven well received among those who have participated in it. For example, Dr. Ed Brand, current Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent, says “Mr. Puplava’s economic foresight has helped many.”

ORIGINAL POST: Diane Crosier is no longer at SDCOE

[There are two errors in the following post: Crosier and Puplava are still at SDCOE. But all the rest of the information is correct, and begs the question: Why are Crosier and Puplava still at SDCOE?]


Strangely, Diane Crosier is still listed on this page as Executive Director of the Risk Management Department as of September 2, 2013. I assume she retired, but I wonder why Randy Ward didn't announce it, and announce Crosier's replacement. Perhaps there are power struggles going on over on Linda Vista Road.

I should have suspected that Diane Crosier was gone from SDCOE when I found out this morning that Randall Winet's law firm is handling the MUNSHOWER VS. GROSSMONT UNION HIGH SCHOOL and JAN BRANNEN case.

Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz can't be happy about this. It really looked like Dan Shinoff and Diane Crosier were going to continue to rule the roost at SDCOE, even after Emily Alpert and Rodger Hartnett exposed the lopsided system at SDCOE-JPA for assigning cases to lawyers.

Crosier and her two Dans (Shinoff and Puplava) seemed able to kick all opponents to the curb. SDCOE decided Ms. Crosier wasn't required to report her gifts. Crosier and Shinoff and Puplava punished and silenced Scott Dauenhauer for revealing that Puplava received $355,000 in one year from finanical institutions while he was a public employee. And in October 2007 Crosier and Shinoff worked together on a defamation suit against this blogger (Maura Larkins) that is still going on.


SDCOE board: Mark Anderson, Susan Hartley, Lyn Neylong, Gregg Robinson and Sharon Jones

For years Susan Hartley, Sharon Jones and Mark Anderson have been supporting Diane Crosier's and Dan Puplav's shenanigans. Neylong and Robinson are newer on the job.

Did the SDCOE board suddenly become concerned about ethics? More likely it was the glare of publicity that concerned them.

After all, it wasn't until FINRA suspended Dan Puplava's broker license that SDCOE suddenly discovered some long-lost "SDCOE policy and practice" that forbade Puplava's actions. They supported Crosier and Puplava during a defamation suit against whistleblower Scott Dauenhauer that argued that Dauenhauer didn't know that what he was saying was true! Puplava claimed in the press that he shared the $355,000 with other brokers, but he never produced any such evidence in court.

I went to the courthouse and read the case file. I was shocked to see that Crosier and Puplava tacitly admitted the truth of what Dauenhaur was saying--but they insisted that Dauenhhaur could not have figured it out, even though he had a lot of documentation. In other words, they claimed that even though he hit on the truth, he didn't really KNOW it was true. They refused to admit that he was smarter than they wanted him to be. I believe Scott Dauenhaur would have prevailed, but he couldn't continue to pay a lawyer for the drawn-out legal battle, so he settled.

Why didn't the SDCOE board act sooner on "SDCOE policy and practice"? Because it has long been SDCOE's "policy and practice" to conceal the truth about wrongdoing in schools and at SDCOE itself. In fact, I don't see any evidence that Puplava was punished in any way by SDCOE.


Crosier's sidekick Dan Puplava is also gone, apparently since fall 2012. A search for "puplava" turned up only one result on the SDCOE website, and it seemed to be an old page.

Things were starting to go south for Mr. Puplava in May of 2012:

Office of Ed manager was fined, suspended
FINRA found issues with his side business
By Jeff McDonald
SDUT
May 18, 2012

...“Mr. Puplava is no longer in a supervisory position and this behavior is not acceptable to SDCOE under SDCOE policy or practice,” the office said in a statement.

Puplava’s pay remained the same when he was removed from a supervisory position, the office said....


SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Feckless, hapless, clueless
Handling of county schools conflict of interest is unacceptable

March 29, 2009

In the grand scheme of things, the San Diego County Office of Education is something of an obscure bit player. It provides administrative support to local school districts and runs continuation schools for students with disciplinary problems. This fringe status, however, does not excuse it from having to meet basic standards of good government.

That absolutely hasn't happened in the case of Daniel Puplava, who manages the office's retirement program while also working as a private broker who sells investments to administrators and teachers served by the program. This is prohibited, according to a 2008 opinion from the state Attorney General's Office.

But even with such an opinion, it is obvious that this is an unacceptable conflict of interest. While a full-time school office employee, Puplava lined up fellow government employees for his private brokerage and used his government phone as his primary contact number. Incredibly, Superintendent Randolph Ward himself bought an annuity from Puplava shortly after Ward began work in 2006.

Now Ward is refusing to answer questions on the matter. Board trustees John Witt and Mark Anderson also are stonewalling. Trustee Sharon Hartley says it's much ado about nothing, evidently concluding that the county schools office is not answerable to Attorney General Jerry Brown. Board President Sharon Jones pretends she's not allowed to comment on the matter because of “personnel” rules. Only trustee Jerry Rindone shows the appropriate level of dismay.

A respected high school principal and Chula Vista councilman before being elected to the county schools board, Rindone understands this isn't how government is supposed to work.

That doesn't hold for Ward, Witt, Anderson, Hartley and Jones. Their “what, me worry?” approach is an embarrassment.

[Maura Larkins comment: Jerry Rindone was the only SDCOE board member who wanted to look into these matters, and he's long gone. The other board members, as well as Superintendent Randy Ward and Asst. Supt. Lora Duzyk have fully supported all the goings-on in the Business Department... I'll try to find out what happened.]


...APPARENTLY RANDALL WINET'S NEW LAW FIRM WILL BE GETTING MORE WORK

His new firm is called Winet, Patrick, Gayer, Creighton & Hanes (formerly Winet, Patrick, Weaver).


The attorney in the Munshower case is Jennifer Creighton, who attended Cal Western.

Case Number: 37-2013-00054530-CU-OE-CTL
Case Location: San Diego
Case Type: Civil
Date Filed: 06/21/2013

Dan Puplava fined, broker's license suspended, but SDCOE still loves him

Dan Puplava and Diane Crosier had their pal Dan Shinoff sue for defamation when Puplava's dealings were exposed by Jeff McDonald of the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2009. Their target settled because he didn't have enough money to pay lawyers to carry on the lawsuit. I assume that was the plan all along, since I doubt that Puplava and Crosier wanted a trial where the whole truth might come out.

Regulators also imposed a $300,000 fine on Puplava’s broker-dealer, AIG Financial Advisors, now known as SagePoint Financial Inc.

See all Dan Puplava posts.

Office of Ed manager was fined, suspended
FINRA found issues with his side business
By Jeff McDonald
UTSD
May 18, 2012

The official in charge of a $270 million public investment fund for 6,400 educators in the region was fined $7,000 last year and had his broker’s license suspended for three months. He retained his official post.

Daniel Puplava, 50, manages the deferred compensation program for the San Diego County Office of Education. He has simultaneously worked for private brokerage firms, one of which was fined $300,000 in January for failing to supervise him and guard against conflicts of interest.

The fines were issued by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the nonprofit regulatory agency that was reviewing the matter when the U-T wrote about Puplava’s dual roles in 2009.

At the time, Puplava worked for AIG Financial Advisors of Phoenix. He now works for his brother’s company, Puplava Financial Services of San Diego.

In his county schools job, Puplava meets hundreds of potential investors while hosting retirement workshops aimed at growing the deferred compensation program. He said in written responses to questions that he does not refer participants in the county program to his brother’s firm.

“I do not speak of or mention Puplava Financial Services at my presentations,” he wrote. “In addition, the (county schools office) has policy rules and practices that have been put into place that must be followed. If I violate the rules there would be consequences.”

Puplava is paid $108,696 a year by the schools office to run the deferred compensation program, which offers securities, annuities and other investments to educators seeking to boost their retirement beyond government pensions.

The Office of Education said it was aware of the investigation findings and penalties but could not discuss the case in any detail due to confidentiality requirements for agency personnel.

“Mr. Puplava is no longer in a supervisory position and this behavior is not acceptable to SDCOE under SDCOE policy or practice,” the office said in a statement.

Puplava’s pay remained the same when he was removed from a supervisory position, the office said.

Puplava’s dual positions were first reported by the U-T in 2009. The newspaper obtained client statements listing Puplava’s county telephone number as his primary contact for his private investment sales.

The paper documented that Puplava earned $355,000 in commissions in 2006 and was named to the 2008 Achiever’s Council, an honor reserved for agents of AIG Financial Advisors whose commissions and fees exceed $250,000 a year.

County schools officials defended their decision to permit Puplava to run his outside business, saying it was a viable company when Puplava agreed to run the deferred compensation program and there was NO need for him to give up that business.

Still, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority looked into the matter.

Puplava was not penalized for having conflicts of interest between his public-sector job and his personal brokerage business.

Instead, FINRA said Puplava failed to properly supervise a signature stamp that was being used by an assistant. He also kept blank forms signed by his clients, which is not permitted.

“Puplava had customers sign blank securities business-related forms and retained these blank securities business-related forms in his customer files,” FINRA said. “Puplava was aware of his member firm’s prohibition against this practice.”

Puplava said he would have prevailed in the case but admitted the allegations to minimize his legal expenses.

“I was informed by my attorney that I had an excellent chance of defeating any FINRA claims, but the cost would be prohibitive,” Puplava wrote. “Therefore, I settled with FINRA.”

Puplava, who said he shared his commissions with other brokers, accepted the $7,000 fine and two suspensions late last year — one for 20 days and one for three months. The longer suspension was satisfied in January.

The full-time county schools job requires Puplava to hold a broker’s license. Office of Education spokesman James Esterbrooks said Puplava avoided duties that required a license during his suspensions.

“He was in the office doing paperwork,” Esterbrooks said.

Regulators also imposed a $300,000 fine on Puplava’s broker-dealer, AIG Financial Advisors, now known as SagePoint Financial Inc.

“The firm failed to implement a supervisory system reasonably designed to address any conflicts of interest,” investigators from FINRA wrote in their published findings.

In response to questions from The Watchdog, a spokeswoman for the company said, “The protection of our clients’ assets is paramount to SagePoint Financial. Mr. Puplava has not been affiliated with SagePoint Financial since January 2010.”

SDCOE must pay Rodger Hartnett over $200,000

San Diego County Office of Education Superintendent Randy Ward and risk management director Diane Crosier lose in court.

Judge Orders Back Pay for Fired Schools Employee
March 3, 2011
by Emily Alpert
Voice of San Diego

A Superior Court judge has ruled that a former San Diego County Office of Education employee who filed a wrongful termination suit against the agency must be given more than $200,000 in back pay and medical premium reimbursements — more than 11 times as much as the agency initially sought to pay him.

Rodger Hartnett once helped oversee litigation as a claims coordinator for the Risk Management Joint Powers Authority, a public agency run through the county office that handles lawsuits for schools.

He was terminated more than three years ago and has been locked in a lengthy legal battle with the office since then. Hartnett claims he was fired for blowing the whistle on conflicts of interest at the agency; the office says he was fired for negligence, insubordination and dishonesty. An internal commission found that Hartnett's termination was "for good cause and not excessive."

The same judge ruled nearly two years ago that Hartnett should be reinstated and awarded back pay to the date of his firing, concluding that the office did not investigate Hartnett's claims about "insider dealings" before his firing. The judge didn't address whether Hartnett was justified in those claims.

We've reported on a several issues that Hartnett raised in his suit, including the fact that another employee has advised her boss on whether to retain attorneys for personnel cases, something that routinely led to business for her husband's law firm. The issue is now being investigated by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

The County Office of Education gave Hartnett less than $18,000 in back pay after his earlier reinstatement. He took the office back to court, arguing it had underpaid him. The key issue was whether the office could dock Hartnett for time when he was medically or psychiatrically disabled from working.

The court ruled that it could not, concluding that his stress was directly related to disputes with his employer. The judge did not settle larger issues that remain in the Hartnett litigation, including whether the alleged conflicts of interest were real and whether Hartnett was retaliated against as a whistleblower. The County Office of Education declined to comment on the ruling.

Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava cozied up to Life Insurance of the Southwest, among others

See all Diane Crosier posts.
See all Daniel Puplava posts.

Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava recently cozied up to Life Insurance of the Southwest, a company whose agents, Anthony Pavia and James Sanford, altered a document that I signed in 1999. The falsified document, approved by Chula Vista Elementary School administrator Lowell Billings, can be seen at the bottom of this page.


Hotel Stays, Flights and a $400 Bottle of Wine
December 26, 2010
by Emily Alpert
December 26, 2010

When San Diego County Office of Education employees flew to Boston to learn more about a company they were considering doing business with, they didn't need to worry about the bill.

The company paid for their flight to Boston. It also paid for their hotel stay. And when of the employees, Dan Puplava, picked out a bottle of wine from Napa Valley over dinner, he wasn't really sure who paid, but believes it was either the company or its marketing company. He thought the bottle cost $400.

"Here the bottle of wine would be, like, 150 bucks," Puplava later testified. "Out there it was outrageous."

Puplava manages a program that helps school district and charter school employees invest for their retirements. Four years ago, he and supervisor Diane Crosier made the visit to Aviva, a company they were weighing whether to do business with, to learn more about its investment products.

It wasn't their only trip. Between 2006 and 2008, the employees repeatedly took trips to visit companies the program worked with or was considering working with, paid for by those same companies.

Crosier is supposed to publicly report gifts she gets from companies or people related to her work. Yet the trips aren't listed on her economic disclosure reports. Ethicists say the free trips are also problematic because workers could be improperly swayed by gifts from companies they negotiate with.

"It smells bad," said Jessica Levinson, director of political reform for the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "They're clearly trying to influence them."

The County Office argues that the free trips did not compromise its integrity and helped spare resources. Trips to visit companies are indeed common among other investment programs run by government agencies, a way to keep up with vendors and the services they offer. But several other government programs surveyed by voiceofsandiego.org don't let companies pick up the tab.

"We don't want to be beholden to anyone," San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister said. His office runs a similar program for county employees and pays for its own trips to see vendors. "We will turn down offers like that because we never want to leave the impression that there is a conflict."

Boston wasn't their only destination. They took several other trips on the tab of companies they were visiting: In Philadelphia, Crosier and Puplava met with Lincoln Financial, a company they were considering to manage their brokers. In Ohio they stopped in to see both Meeder Financial, which helps school employees manage their money, and Nationwide, their investment platform.

In Dallas they visited Life Insurance of the Southwest, a company that provided a special kind of investment plan for the program. In Utah they visited the company that administers the program, National Benefit Services. And they repeatedly visited Aviva's marketing company in Santa Barbara...

California also sets dollar limits on gifts to public employees, which bar them from taking more than $420 worth of gifts from each source each year. The rules are supposed to reduce the sway of money in government and allow the public to keep an eye on how public officials could be influenced.

In response to questions from voiceofsandiego.org, the County Office wrote in an email that it believed Crosier had followed the gift rules. But despite repeated questions, it would not specifically explain why the trips could be legally left off the forms. In an email, Crosier said only that the trips were not included "due to discussion with legal counsel."...

The investment program that Puplava manages is offered by a consortium of dozens of school districts and charter schools, which have joined together to get employee benefits at a lower cost. That pact, known as the Fringe Benefits Consortium, is run by the County Office of Education. The program has more than $210 million in assets and more than 6,500 participants.

The program says it offers a less expensive investment option to public school teachers. Attorney [XX], who fielded questions on behalf of Crosier and Puplava, said the agency had hired good, honest people.

"It's unfair to demonize people who have otherwise done great things," [XX] said in an interview earlier this year. "Public employees have saved millions because of their efforts."

But ethicists said the problem isn't whether Puplava and Crosier are good people. Taking the gifts could open Crosier and Puplava up to improper influence that public employees should try to avoid, they said.

Crosier and Puplava advise the committees that decide which companies get contracts with the program or what investments it can offer to employees.

[XX] said they don't give their opinion on companies. But La Mesa-Spring Valley School District Superintendent Brian Marshall, who sits on the executive committee, said that when vendors are up for approval, Crosier typically makes a recommendation to the committee...

The gifts came to light because the program is tangled in a lawsuit. Nearly two years ago, the consortium run by the County Office of Education sued a group of investment advisers it had terminated, accusing them of stealing trade secrets and other violations.

The advisers sued back, claiming the consortium had baselessly fired them.

After the Union-Tribune story on Puplava came out, County Office of Education employees Dan Puplava and Diane Crosier filed a defamation suit against one of the advisers, Barry Allred, and a former consultant, Scott Dauenhauer. Crosier claimed the two had given false information to a Union-Tribune reporter "to enact an unethical revenge."

Crosier's suit also argued that private emails between Allred and Dauenhauer were defamatory, including claims that did not appear in the newspaper. In one of those e-mails, Allred said Crosier and Puplava had accepted paid trips to Boston, Colorado, Utah, Ohio and Santa Barbara.

Attorneys for Allred and Dauenhauer declined comment for this article or didn't respond to phone calls by deadline. In their court filings, they attempted to counter the defamation claims by arguing that the emails about the trips were factual, quoting Puplava's testimony about his Boston trip.

The Diane Crosier/Daniel Puplava lawsuit by SDCOE has a status conference

The Diane Crosier/Daniel Puplava lawsuit by SDCOE has a status conference coming up. I think the "C: in front of Diane Crosier's name means "cross-complainant" or, more likely, "cross-defendant."

12/17/10 11:00AM Dept 62 Central
Judge Styn, Ronald L.
Status Conferen 37-2008-00090684-CU-BT-CTL
C)Diane Crosier
[represented by XXX]

It seems that Diane Crosier got a new lawyer in the case.

There Is a Free Lunch, and They're Not Telling You About It

June 27, 2010
There Is a Free Lunch, and They're Not Telling You About It
By EMILY ALPERT
voiceofsandiego.org

Top employees at the San Diego County Office of Education have been allowed to avoid reporting gifts despite a California law that is supposed to ensure that the public can peek at who is paying for meals, handing out baseball tickets or giving other gifts to influential government employees.

The office has allowed employees to report their income without revealing gifts, an exception that could obscure important information about who is wining and dining public officials. California law says that gifts are income, no different than the other earnings that top employees already must report on annual statements of economic interests.

The Fair Political Practices Commission urged the County Office of Education to change its guidelines after being alerted to the issue by voiceofsandiego.org earlier this month. Depending on how long the office has failed to report gifts, its employees may need to report gifts they received years ago. Office spokesman Jim Esterbrooks said the agency is updating its guidelines to comply.

Gifts have played a role in a contentious lawsuit filed by a former employee that alleges free meals contributed to a "culture of corruption" at the agency that steered County Office of Education business to specific law firms.

For instance, employees who help oversee legal work for school districts regularly accepted free lunches from an attorney who is frequently hired by their department, according to testimony by employee John Vincent taken as part of the lawsuit. Attorney [XXX] usually paid for the meals, which happened more than once a month, Vincent said.

Diane Crosier, who directs the office's risk management department, was one of the employees that accepted the meals, according to the testimony. Her department controls millions of dollars in legal work for school districts across the county. While Crosier does not decide which attorneys to assign to each legal case, she oversees Rick Rinear, the worker who does. Rinear also went to lunch with [XXX] from time to time, along with other employees, Vincent said in the deposition this year.

Crosier is required to reveal her economic interests to the public because she helps make decisions with a financial impact for a public agency. The County Office of Education does not require Rinear or the other employees to do so.

California law typically requires employees like Crosier to reveal gifts worth $50 or more from a single source annually, so frequent free lunches would likely need to be reported.

Yet Crosier did not report any lunches with [XXX]. VOSD sought to learn why Crosier hadn't revealed the lunches and learned that the office does not require most of its employees to report gifts.

That makes it impossible for the public to gauge whether Crosier or other office employees are getting gifts that could compromise their objectivity.

Accepting the gifts also appears to violate a County Office of Education regulation that states that no employee should accept personal gifts from people or companies selling services or supplies to the public agency, except for promotional items like calendars that everyone gets for free.

Neither Crosier nor the agency responded to questions about the lunches' cost or whether they are still happening. Nor did they answer whether the gifts violated their own office rules, saying they don't want to communicate with the press during a lawsuit.

The former employee who is suing the County Office of Education, Rodger Hartnett, specifically names [XXX]'s firm, [WXYZ], as one that got work "based on personal relationships" and not merit. The firm was paid nearly $7 million between 2002 and 2008, dwarfing other firms.

Gifts are only one of the questions that Hartnett has raised. Other issues have emerged from his suit: XXX and another attorney from his firm have helped screen potential employees who later oversaw outside attorneys' work. Another office employee advises her boss on whether to retain attorneys for personnel cases, which routinely leads to work for her husband's law firm...

Hartnett himself testified that [XXX] also gave him lunches, golf games and baseball tickets. He also said he got dinner and free concert tickets from Randy Winet, an attorney from another firm hired by the agency...

SDCOE's Diane Crosier and Lora Duzyk get themselves dismissed simply by declaring that Rodger Hartnett had a management position

Here's the latest in Rodger Hartnett's suit against SDCOE and its top brass. The court has found that Hartnett was a management employee because his bosses, the people he is suing, said so.

"As PERB has not yet taken action, this court must defer to SDCOE's designation and any evidence offered by plaintiff must be disregarded.

Therefore, plaintiff is a management level employee such that section 4114 does not apply and summary judgment is granted on this basis."

Diane Crosier and Lora Duzyk, executives at San Diego County Office of Education, have been dismissed from Rodger Hartnett's lawsuit because they say that Rodger Hartnett was a management employee, and the court must take their word for it.

See tentative decision.

There Is a Free Lunch, and SDCOE's Diane Crosier Is Not Telling You About It

"Attorney...usually paid for the meals, which happened more than once a month," SDCOE employee John Vincent said in a deposition.

There Is a Free Lunch, and They're Not Telling You About It
June 27, 2010
By EMILY ALPERT
Voice of San Diego

Top employees at the San Diego County Office of Education have been allowed to avoid reporting gifts despite a California law that is supposed to ensure that the public can peek at who is paying for meals, handing out baseball tickets or giving other gifts to influential government employees...

The Fair Political Practices Commission urged the County Office of Education to change its guidelines after being alerted to the issue by voiceofsandiego.org earlier this month. Depending on how long the office has failed to report gifts, its employees may need to report gifts they received years ago. Office spokesman Jim Esterbrooks said the agency is updating its guidelines to comply.

Gifts have played a role in a contentious lawsuit filed by a former employee that alleges free meals contributed to a "culture of corruption" at the agency that steered County Office of Education business to specific law firms.

For instance, employees who help oversee legal work for school districts regularly accepted free lunches from an attorney who is frequently hired by their department, according to testimony by employee John Vincent taken as part of the lawsuit. Attorney... usually paid for the meals, which happened more than once a month, Vincent said.

Diane Crosier, who directs the office's risk management department, was one of the employees that accepted the meals, according to the testimony. Her department controls millions of dollars in legal work for school districts across the county. While Crosier does not decide which attorneys to assign to each legal case, she oversees Rick Rinear, the worker who does. Rinear also went to lunch with... from time to time, along with other employees, Vincent said in the deposition this year.

Crosier is required to reveal her economic interests to the public because she helps make decisions with a financial impact for a public agency. The County Office of Education does not require Rinear or the other employees to do so.

California law typically requires employees like Crosier to reveal gifts worth $50 or more from a single source annually, so frequent free lunches would likely need to be reported.

Yet Crosier did not report any lunches with .... VOSD sought to learn why Crosier hadn't revealed the lunches and learned that the office does not require most of its employees to report gifts.

That makes it impossible for the public to gauge whether Crosier or other office employees are getting gifts that could compromise their objectivity.

Accepting the gifts also appears to violate a County Office of Education regulation that states that no employee should accept personal gifts from people or companies selling services or supplies to the public agency, except for promotional items like calendars that everyone gets for free...

The former employee who is suing the County Office of Education, Rodger Hartnett, specifically names ... as one that got work "based on personal relationships" and not merit. The firm was paid nearly $7 million between 2002 and 2008, dwarfing other firms...

Hartnett himself testified that ... also gave him lunches, golf games and baseball tickets. He also said he got dinner and free concert tickets from Randy Winet, an attorney from another firm hired by the agency...

[Maura Larkins note: ... was assigned to represent Peg Myers and Robin Donlan in one of many cases orchestrated by Diane Crosier of SDCOE.]

Why do schools litigate instead of settling when they have done wrong? Follow the money: JPAs, insurance brokers, lawyers

Photo: Lora Duzyk (left) is San Diego County Office of Education's Assistant Superintendent for Business Services.

Who is profiting from inflated insurance premiums in San Diego schools? Perhaps just about everyone involved in school liability insurance.

Sometimes my commenters know more than I do about a subject, and school insurance is one of those subjects. A recent comment caused me to do some research. I already knew that the San Diego County Office of Education-Joint Powers Authority was paying millions of tax dollars each years for lawyers who cover up wrongdoing in schools. I didn't know how far up (or down) the corruption went.

I found this:

County pushing suit alleging misdeeds in insurance industry
By Julie O'Shea
San Jose Recorder

Following New York's lead, Santa Clara County is suing several top insurance brokerage firms, claiming they have duped customers out of millions through secret "kickbacks" and other "lucrative" service deals.

"It's almost cartel-like," said the county's outside counsel, Louise Renne, a for-mer San Francisco city attorney who wasbrought on board because of her extensive experience with this type of litigation. "We believe that every public agency in the state of California has been affected."

In a complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court in November, Santa Clara is alleging that industry giants Marsh & McLennan Cos., Driver Alliant Insurance Service and Keenan & Associates are "steering" clients toward insurers that are offering brokers undisclosed commissions, funded through insurance premiums.

"In the end," the complaint alleges,"clients paid more for less insurance, with defendants siphoning off the difference to pad their bottom line..."





Here is part of what my commenter wrote:

"...Three insurance brokers namely Driver Alliant, Keenan and Associates and Marsh & McLennan manage these super pools. These insurance brokers are being sued in Alameda County where the allegations are for unlawful business practices, in violation of California Business and Profession Code section 17200 et. seq. false and misleading advertisement where they cream millions of dollars in public funds in violation of Business and Profession Government Code Section 17500 et. seq., breach of fiduciary duty, illegal and secret kickbacks, steering premium dollars and getting public agencies to purchase services at high rates.

"...Keenan and Associates has a “HYBRID SELF-INSURANCE and REINSURANCE” [SDCOE has SELF-JPA where Keenan is also a member of this “Super Pool”] pooling program for nearly 400 schools and community colleges.

"Keenan advertised for its Super Pool’s conference at Lake Tahoe as, “The Pudding is in the Pooling,” in their invitations. Yes, the pudding is good, they are raking in Millions of PUBLIC FUNDS through their billable hours...

"Daniel Shinoff and his SASH firm takes the cream of the Southern District billable hours for BOTH Keenan and SELF which are brokered by Marsh & McLennan. The premium billable hours are steered to his firm with the blessing of Keenan, SELF and Diane Crosier.

"Keenan and Marsh and McLennan as the agents of California’s public entities have a fiduciary duty to recommend the best coverage at the best price for its clients. They are to provide independent, objective advice, and to put ‘their clients best interests’ ahead of their own. Keenan and Driver and Marsh and McLennan are hired to act as consulting, billing/premium administration, and claims administration. Their duty is to provide full disclosure, candor, and loyalty. Disclose the amounts of income; Contingent Commissions Agreements and remuneration they receive form all transactions to the public agencies they represent. Keenan has a policy where every employee, associate and partner has to belong to several churches, golf clubs, non-profit organizations and civic groups. This is how they create friendships with judges, political figures, churches and organizations who look the other way. While attorneys like Daniel Shinoff bully public boards into contractual agreements and decisions that are not in the best interest of PUBLIC AGENCIES but bring in a lot of billable hours to his firm and bigger premiums for insurance Brokers and JPA’s.

"The agreements that the PUBLIC AGENCIES get pressured into signing with the JPA’s have different names like: “Contingent Income Agreements” “Production Service Agreements” “Volume Based Commission Agreements” “Profit-Sharing Commission Agreements” “Commission Override Agreements” Premium Value Contingent Commission Agreements” “Preferred Agency Agreements” and “Platinum Profit Sharing Agreements.”

"These commissions create a blatant CONFLICT of INTEREST and a direct financial interest for these brokers, JPA’s and preferred law firms. These commission and preferred agreements cause CONFLICT of INTEREST, along with premium prices in many cases with lower benefits. The insurance companies recoup the kickbacks paid to marsh & Marsh and McLennan, Keenan and Driver by higher insurance prices passed on to the public agencies. Whereby, suppressing competition in the market of insurance.

"This is the reason why the PUBLIC AGENCIES in San Diego cannot get insurance apart from the JPA’s. No insurance company can do business in California without belonging to one of the three “insurance brokers.” The insurance brokers have contractual agreements with certain JPA’s; like SDCOE SELF and these JPA use the same law firms they have contractual agreements with like Best Best and Krieger, Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff and Holtz “SASH” and Winet..."

(End of quote of commenter to this blog.)

It turns out that insurance companies were doing a lot of harm long before they helped bring down the US economy in 2008 with their credit default derivatives. The derivatives were too complicated and clever by half, a scheme to get rich quick while promising that there would be no consequences. The government failed to regulate these scams, pretending they weren't really insurance policies. Institutions began to fail once it was discovered that the institutions didn't have any protection against defaults because they were unknowingly insuring themselves.


Many local school districts belong to the San Diego County Office of Education-JPA. Diane Crosier is the Executive Director of the SDCOE-JPA, and she works under the direction of SDCOE Superintendent Randolph Ward and Asst. Supt. Lora Duzyk. Crosier represents the SDCOE-JPA at a bigger JPA called SELF.

Diane Crosier then goes on to represent SELF when the other JPAs come together to form what it is called a “super pool,” then she reports back (delivers instructions) to SELF and SDCOE-JPA (which she herself directs).

This complete circle leaves me wondering who is in charge, the people at the bottom or the people at the top? There is some evidence that the person in charge is Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz attorney Daniel Shinoff, whom Diane Crosier most often selects to represent school districts in San Diego.