Now Judge Rules This Board Violated Brown Act, Too ...

 

Judge finds Capistrano Board of Education

Violated “Brown Act” Open Meeting Law

Ruling confirms CUSD Board solicited assistance from attorney with known history of open-meeting violations

CUEA News Release

 

ALISO VIEJO – ‘This entire school board ran on a campaign dedicated to restoring ‘honesty, integrity, and accountability’ to public education,” said Capistrano Unified Education Association President Vicki Soderberg, “but if their action in this case is their definition of these qualities, I want no part of it, and thankfully, neither do the courts.”

In a writ of mandate issued March 16, 2010 stemming from a lawsuit initiated by CUEA against the Capistrano Unified Board of Education on November 3, 2008, Orange County Superior Court Judge David T. McEachen found that the CUSD board did violate California’s Brown Act open meeting law when it met in an illegal closed session meeting on August 11, 2008. The ruling specifically states that the school board ". . . did not adequately set forth closed session topics and is in violation of the Brown Act as to the unnoticed attendance of Spencer Covert and the proposed disciplinary action against Superintendent Carter."

The ruling confirms CUEA’s suspicion that when CUSD Board President Ellen Addonizio invited school-law attorney Spencer Covert – not under contract with CUSD at the time – to advise the board as it engaged in a sensitive evaluation of then-CUSD Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter, the board violated California’s open-meeting laws. An Orange County Register article published October 3, 2008, cites news reports confirming Covert as having “run afoul of open-meeting laws at least four times over the past 15 years,” with Covert’s school-board clients being reprimanded by a judge in each instance, for not complying with the Brown Act.

CUEA made three Public Meeting Requests – August 27, 2008, September 22, 2008, and October 6, 2008 – to obtain details about the illegal closed session. When the CUSD board stonewalled each time, CUEA filed suit. “If we had not taken this to a lawsuit, the board would have just brushed it under the rug,” said Soderberg, “exactly the kind of behavior for which these members had attacked the previous school board.”

Soderberg cited two more recent closed-session CUSD board meetings, hastily called and without public notice, that while technically not illegal, still stand in stark contrast to the board’s espoused climate of openness and inclusion. The first was a February 21, 2010 meeting that Terry Francke, one of the state’s top public-meeting law experts, described as unusual and almost without precedent. The second such meeting was held March 15, 2010.

 “The court ruling proves that the Capistrano School Board has not kept its promise of openness and transparency when conducting business,” said Soderberg.

Comments

[Judi Heidel]

Forgive me for quoting from my own poem that I read at the board meeting on December 18, 2008.

"...Now Ellen,now Larry! Now Anna and Sue!
Now Jack, Mike, and Ken, you join us too!

No one is looking, it's a school day you know,
At this time of year, there must be a show!

The parents are busy, the teachers at school,
Let's do it now, we're nobody's fool.

You know we've been yearning to ship Carter away.
Let's do it right now, let's do it today!

We'll just shut the door, we've done it before.
Behind the closed door, we can even the score..."

Whether Superintendent Carter was rightfully or wrongfully terminated, this board violated the law to do it.

[Palazzo is a Brown Act Violation]

Sue Palazzo should be recalled too!

Dear Sue: If you ever approach me while I am getting signatures it will not be pretty. Please take my picture, take video, ask my name....please, please, please. What happens next Susie will make you wish you were never elected. Then you can show the pictures to your other crooked cronies during one of your secret meetings that violate The Brown Act and your campaing promises.

[Tabby]

RESIGN, RESIGN, RESIGN, RESIGN, RESIGN, RESIGN, save yourselves some dignity, and RESIGN!!

[FBoard]

They will not resign. Their handlers will protect and support them (at least financially.)Expect more bulls... from the Board.
The only way to stop them is to recall them. Everyone should start educating neighbors, friends, and family why this is important. In November the one with a better propaganda machine wins. And they are good in lying.

[curious]

What generally happens to a school board that has violated the Brown Act?

[Recall Now!]

Unbelievable! No not really, it was fairly obvious at the time they were working to fire Carter no matter how they did it. Busted on this one guess.

NOW, they are trying every way possible to force the teachers to strike because they think that will help their position (and they don’t have a pesky superintendent advising them not to-Bobby wouldn’t dare). I don’t think this will gain the approval of the parents but their “handlers” will like it. It’s too bad because know none of the teachers want to do it either. They teachers are in a very hard situation. They truly want to do what is best for the kids but this board is hitting them where it does hurt - their own ability to support their family. This board NEEDS to be called out on this IN PUBLIC! Tell everyone you know what is really going on in CUSD - it certainly isn't the education of our children!

[SICK]

Judi, thanks for posting your poem. It was perfect then and now. You are so right - whether Carter should have been terminated or not, THEY BOARD DID IT ILLEGALLY.

[Julie]

Please email the OC Register and ask them to report this story! Here are the email addresses of the education reporters: cmeyer@ocregister.com, fleal@ocregister.com, and smartindale@ocregsister.com. It only takes a second to send an email, and if enough of us do it, they may actually write the story. The community really needs to know the truth about this board; it is vital right now!

[Rules are for others]

I think these Republicans took some of their training from Nixon. This is from the OC register story:
"The complaint also notes that during the evaluation, the tape recorder used to audiotape the discussion "may have been turned off for a portion of the closed session meeting" and that an attorney not on the district's payroll, Spencer Covert, was "admitted to the closed session through a back door out of the view of the public."
Addonizio confirmed that the tape recorder had been mistakenly switched off by a staff member during a meeting break and not turned back on, but said Covert had been acting on a pro-bono "consult" basis that night.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/board-194211-act-brown.html

[Discerning Reader]

The obvious pro-union bias of the Capistrano Dispatch family of "newspapers" is once again on display for the whole world to see.

I just received an email blast on this story, and now I see the editors of the Dispatch have rushed to post this press release from the teachers union without seeking any comment from the board of trustees...while at the same time continuing to completely ignore the news that last week the CUSD reform board saved CUSD 5.5 million dollars when the judge dismissed disgraced former superintendent Carter's bogus lawsuit against our school district.

Remember, hundreds of union members fought loudly for months to protect corrupt Carter from being fired.

Shame on the owners of the Capistrano Dispatch for allowing such unfair and biased editorial abuse.