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...

Victoria Richart's unusual "claim"

Attorney Bob Ottilie knows very well how to file a tort claim.

The question at MiraCosta College seems to be: why was Victoria Richart's $1.6 million agreement with the college conducted as a friendly operation between Richart's lawyer Bob Ottilie and the school's lawyer?

It was clearly an inside job.

Even now that Richart has a new lawyer, it turns out that he is Randy Winet, who is just as much a part of the San Diego County Office of Education-Joint Powers Authority as Daniel Shinoff, the college's lawyer.

Here's what the San Diego Union Tribune says about Richart's characterization of the deal during her deposition by attorney Leon Page:


Ex-MiraCosta president puts blame on 3 trustees
By Lola Sherman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 1, 2008
"...Richart never filed a formal action against the college. But in the deposition, she repeatedly cited an Aug. 15, 2007, letter to college trustees from her attorney, Robert Ottilie of San Diego, as constituting a claim..."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080301-9999-1mc1richart.html

MiraCosta trustee Gloria Carranza skewers cover-up at MiraCosta College

"These (legal) contracts can be avoided if we just tell the truth...The public perception is that we have all these attorneys to get in the way of the truth."
--Gloria Carranza, MiraCosta College Trustee, at yesterday's board meeting

North County Times staff writer Philip K. Ireland writes:

Click HERE for original article.

"...The college is paying three law firms to fight the [Leon Page] suit and deal with the district attorney investigation.

"One firm, McKenna, Long and Aldridge, has been providing documents and information requested by Page and by the district attorney's office. The college has spent more than $75,000 to provide documents to the district attorney and to Page, said Jim Austin, the college's vice president of business and administrative services. The board on Tuesday approved a new limit of $125,000.

"Law firm Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff and Holtz has been representing the college for years. Until now, a consortium of county school districts called the Joint Powers Authority had been paying the firm's fees in connection with the Page lawsuit. The authority has now reached its $10,000 limit, and the college must begin paying the bills. Trustees approved up to $25,000 to fight Page's lawsuit.

"Trustees also approved a third allocation of no more than $25,000 to pay the law firm Winet, Patrick and Weaver. When Richart threatened to sue the college late last spring, the Joint Powers Authority hired attorney Randy Winet to represent her interests against the district..."

Congratulations to Leon Page!

Judge Nugent says Judge Moon's private opinion will not prevent Leon Page's lawsuit from going forward.

Click here for the judge's decision.

MiraCosta/Richart attorneys Jack Sleeth and Randy Winet do not yet have the approval of the court for the $1.6 million deal to pay Victoria Munoz Richart to leave MiraCosta College and be silent about Daniel Shinoff's $1.5 million investigation which seems to have included extortion against Julie Hatoff. But perhaps the court will grant it in a summary judgment, with Stutz law firm keeping important documents and witnesses under wraps.

If this case goes to trial, I'll be really impressed with the justice system.

Should golfing buddies be chosen to run SDCOE?

Is it dangerous to put too many golfers in charge of our businesses or schools?

Sports commentator Frank Deford says it is.

Yet this is just what Rick Winet wants voters to do at San Diego County Office of Education.

One investment banker defended the practice of padding board rooms with golfing buddies: “A CEO wants a guy with shared experience and values...a guy, say, who gives him putts within three feet."

Frank Deford worries about organizations that are "dominated by golfers and their cozy links mentality," by people who isolate themselves with their golfing buddies.

"Was this country built on that attitude?" Deford asks. Did the founders of America "ask their adversaries to provide them with gimmes?...I think it is this 'You scratch my back, I’ll scratch your back' attitude which accounts for the fact that China practically owns us nowadays."

"Golf is only game where the weak are propped-up and strong penalized," notes Deford.

We already have Rick Winet's golfer/lawyer/brother Randy Winet advising and representing the Board of Education on legal matters. He has helped the board to prop-up incompetent school board members, lawyers, administrators and teachers.

Now the Winets BOTH want to decide SDCOE policies. It's a safe bet that they want to continue the deeply corrupt policy of indemnifying lawyers. This means taxpayers not only pay lawyers, but also have to protect those lawyers if the lawyers violate the law--even when the violation is a felony!

As Frank Deford says, "Golf is very socialistic. If golf were a country, it would be Cuba."

The Winets seem to want socialism--for the privileged.

Personally, I like the idea of people competing against themselves when they are trying to achieve something. But the idea of having the privileged acquire positions of power without competing against those who are stronger, smarter, more honest and hard-working doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, that is the current situation among many officials and employees in San Diego County schools.