The tentative ruling is now final: Capistrano resident Jim Reardon's lawsuit against Capistrano Unified School District alleging violations of the Brown Act has been tossed out of court.
Reardon sued after trustees voted in closed session to restore teacher salary and pay. The suit initially wanted a judge to order the restorations nullified, but Reardon dropped that effort when all the budgets were approved.
Trustees, although their attorney said it was no violation, repeated the action in open session. They didn't admit a violation, but repeating actions in public is usually enough to correct any potential violation.
Reardon continued with his suit. His attorney, Wayne Tate, was quoted in Patch saying he didn't think the public action was enough -- because the district didn't admit its mistake.
But that's apparently not the law. The District Attorney's Office requires that when it threatens a public agency with a lawsuit over an alleged Brown Act violation, but that's their policy -- not the law.
Specifically, Judge James Loveder pointed out sections of the law that specifically counter that -- that taking an action over in public is NOT an admission of guilt. What Capistrano Unified did was enough, the judge said, granting the district's motion to dismiss the case.
Here's a copy of the order:
Jonathan,
How come nothing about the cases about McGill and Fleming being dropped by the CA Supreme Court? OCR had a story but buried it in their Education section after a day.
Posted by: About time | August 25, 2011 at 05:32 PM
I’m compelled to paraphrase my post from May 3rd:
Brilliant! Thankfully the judge agreed with the District and now, maybe, we can go about the business of education...
Posted by: Heather Paige | August 25, 2011 at 07:17 PM
Ha ha Reardon
Posted by: Loser | August 25, 2011 at 09:00 PM
Reardon is a loser! This man needs to be committed.
Posted by: A Good Republican | August 26, 2011 at 08:00 AM
Unfortunately, I seem to recall a comment this idiot (Reardon) said in a previous article about planning on appealing. Guess I'm going to have to wait a bit longer to get my teaching job back. They can't pay me and for these bogus self-serving lawsuits too.
Posted by: RIF Raff | August 26, 2011 at 08:13 AM
Something tells me that Reardon will be back....
Posted by: Rhetorick | August 26, 2011 at 08:14 AM
Poor Scotty Martindale's fingers must have been bleeding when he was writing that story. There's just nothing that pains him more than writing something with a positive slant for CUSD.
Penny Patch hasn't weighed in yet, since she tends to delay the positive articles as long as she can. Would someone please pass the popcorn while we wait?
Posted by: A friend | August 26, 2011 at 08:37 AM
Don't forget that Addonizio and Palazzo want to pay Reardon's friend Craig Alexander tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees in a related matter. That request is still pending. Ellen and Sue need to publically apologize and drop their suits. With the State Supreme Court throwing out the "enemies list" actions too we now need Reardon, Beall and Russell to return the money to CUSD as promised when that original suit was filed.
Posted by: Reardon needs to pay us back the money | August 26, 2011 at 10:20 AM
I agree with the above. These people need to stop draining CUSD resources and taxpayers' money away from educating kids. They need to find another way to line their pockets and leave our kids alone.
Shame on you - Palazzo and Addonizio!
Posted by: Pay Back CUSD. | August 26, 2011 at 12:29 PM
Ellen and Sue DO need to publically apologize to their fellow trustees (who they insisted should help them pay Alexander on their behalf) AND to the students, staff and CUSD community. Hey ladies - maybe at the September 12 board meeting?
Posted by: Welcome Back Kotter | August 26, 2011 at 07:34 PM