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.

Sharon Jones tries to pull the wool over our eyes regarding SDCOE

Sharon Jones didn't just fail to follow up on my public record requests about how much SDCOE-JPA paid to attorney Daniel Shinoff; she never even acknowledged my requests.

Now she's trying to claim that she's been conscientious in investigating complaints. Nice try, Sharon. (CLICK HERE to see all posts about Sharon Jones.)

The SDUT has, until now, been very helpful in keeping information under wraps when it received documentation of wrongdoing at SDCOE. But recently it published this editorial:

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.





Letter to the Editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune:
April 2, 2009

The Union-Tribune mistook our silence for inaction. As president of the county Board of Education, I wish to state that county schools Superintendent Randolph E. Ward and I take the allegations in the editorial very seriously. Omitted was the fact that three separate government investigations of the Fringe Benefit Consortium deferred compensation program manager have been conducted. Those investigations (by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the county District Attorney's Office) resulted in no charges of any kind.

It was also not mentioned that the consortium and its manager are the focus of on-going civil litigation. County Office of Education staff investigated the allegations prior to the three investigations. But the fact remains that we risk significant public and personal liability by offering comments on matters currently in civil court and dealing with confidential personnel issues.

Your readers should know that the county superintendent had legal counsel review all operational aspects of the consortium, commissioned a third-party audit of the consortium, and began to restructure the entire consortium program shortly after being appointed by the board. Those actions were taken to guard against the very kind of allegations the Union-Tribune has brought forth, and to ensure proper checks and balances are in place.

SHARON C. JONES
San Diego

SDCOE trustee Jerry Rindone is questioning the way Diane Crosier and Dan Puplava do business

We're lucky to have Jerry Rindone on the San Diego County Office of Education board.
It may not be a coincidence that the only trustee at SDCOE who sees a problem with the recently-exposed shenanigans in the Risk Management department is one of the new board members. Jerry Rindone is concerned about administrator Dan Puplava's having a side business with the same financial institutions that he manages on behalf of SDCOE. The state attorney general says this is prohibited.

Longtime board members John Witt, Sharon Jones, and Susan Hartley have been studiously looking the other way for years, ignoring my public records requests and refusing to investigate complaints about Risk Management executive director Diane Crosier.

I had hoped that Superintendent Randolph Ward would clean things up when he arrived, but it appears that he (literally!) bought into the Risk Management schemes within weeks after he was hired in 2006.

I'd like to think the other new trustee, Mark Anderson, is still contemplating the situation. Perhaps he'll have the courage to speak out against the cronyism in the SDCOE Risk Management department.





Employee-broker issue divides school trustees
Superintendent also was client
By Jeff McDonald
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 23, 2009


Background: The manager of the San Diego County Office of Education deferred compensation program ran a side business that sold investments to teachers and administrators served by the program.

One trustee of the San Diego County Board of Education [Jerry Rindone of Chula Vista] is so concerned about a manager's side business selling financial securities to educators that he requested a review of the situation by the superintendent.

...According to the state Attorney General's Office, public school employees – including those in the county education office – are prohibited from acting as commissioned sales agents for vendors of the educator retirement accounts...

County Superintendent of Schools Randolph Ward, who bought an annuity from [Dan] Puplava weeks after being hired in 2006, did not respond to requests for an interview.

At issue is the deferred-compensation program run by the Fringe Benefits Consortium...Over the years, Puplava and a group of independent financial advisers hosted hundreds of workshops to tell school employees about the program...The newspaper obtained one statement that showed Puplava earned more than $355,000 in commissions in 2006...

Board President Sharon Jones said she and her colleagues are “always concerned” about conflict-of-interest allegations but noted that there is no law against running a personal business while working for a public agency...

[Maura Larkins' note: Sharon Jones seems to be concerned about allegations, but not about wrongdoing. She wants SDCOE to keep its secrets. Jones is my representative on the board, and has ignored all my requests for help obtaining public records. The only board member who has ever been responsive to my requests was Nick Aguilar, the previous south county representative. It's interesting that Aguilar's replacement, Jerry Rindone, is the only board member currently concerned about SDCOE's relationship with insurance companies.]

Trustee John Witt declined to discuss the issue;





Trustee Mark Anderson did not return two messages left at his home.





Trustee Susan Hartley said the county schools office looked into Puplava's dealings and found nothing amiss.

[Maura Larkins' note: Maybe you should have someone from the outside investigate, Ms. Hartley.]

Tom Curtis, a retired university administrator from La Mesa with no ties to the county Board of Education...was so angry after reading the newspaper report that he called the headquarters to complain...

[The SDUT first broke this story last week; Voice of San Diego recently wrote about SDCOE lawyer Daniel Shinoff and his relationship with the folks in SDCOE's Risk Management department.]

I wish SDCOE trustees would act like this

Nick Aguilar seems to be the only SDCOE trustee who believes in producing public records.

Sharon Jones seems to think it's just fine that Diane Crosier covers up financial documents regarding Daniel Shinoff and Stutz, Artiano Shinoff & Holtz.

Why don't SDCOE trustees act like SEDC trustees?

Maybe it's because the media isn't covering SDCOE. How about it, Voice of San Diego?


Voice of San Diego
Petty Watch, Update 7

Day 10 of Petty Watch and still nothing from the Southeastern Economic Development Corp.'s Corporate Counsel Regina Petty, who is still stonewalling me. But members of SEDC's Board of Directors aren't happy that I haven't received the records I asked for more than a month ago.

I just called Petty's office and the woman who answered said neither Petty nor her assistant was available. I asked if either was in the office.

"They're just not taking your calls," the woman said. I left a message.

Over the last couple of days, I've spoken with three of the board members, Cruz Gonzalez, Rich Geisler and Gina Champion-Cain, and asked them what they think of Petty's continued refusal to speak to me, or to provide her SEDC invoices, records she must, by law, make available for public scrutiny.

They all want Petty to respond to my records request, which has been pending since early last month.

"I'd like to see her reply with the request as soon as possible and give you what you need," Geisler said. "We need to turn the page on SEDC not responding to people."

"I'll call Regina right now," Gonzalez told me last night.

"We'll get you the records you need," Champion-Cain told me.

SEDC is having a special board meeting tomorrow night. Petty is normally at those meetings. Champion-Cain told me she plans to raise the issue of the records at the meeting.


-- WILL CARLESS
October 15, 2008