THE FLEMING FOUR SHOULD RESIGN OR BE RECALLED NOW!
Last Fall the voters in the Capistrano Unified School District spoke loud and clear that they wanted change: a school district that built facilities for students and teachers rather than administrators, accountability and true open government in their local public school district. They overwhelmingly voted for the Reform Candidates Anna Bryson, Ellen Addonizio and Larry Christensen and rejected the two incumbents who were running for re-election.
The remaining four Trustees from the era of former Superintendent James Fleming, Marlene Draper, Sheila Benecke, Mike Darnold and Duane Stiff, also known as "The Fleming Four," apparently did not get the message the voters were sending them. At their last meeting of May 7, 2007 Board President Sheila Benecke simply skipped several items on the Board's publicized agenda. The other members of the Fleming Four (Draper, Darnold and Stiff) apparently did not object to Benecke's action, (although Ms. Bryson did object vigorously).
What was on the agenda Ms. Benecke skipped and did not cover? Five important proposed revisions to the Board's policies on Conflicts of Interest, Hiring and Placement of Relatives, Purchasing Procedures, Bids and the Use of District Vehicles. All of these reforms being proposed by Reform Trustee Ellen Addonizio (with support from Ms. Bryson and Mr. Christensen) in response to the various misuse of District property and the awarding of contracts to relatives, such as Ms. Draper's daughter, that have caused public scandals and investigations by both the District itself and the Orange County District Attorney's office. It is apparent from this action that The Fleming Four have not learned the lesson of last year's recall attempt or the November 2006 election results.
To add insult to injury, the Broad very recently settled a lawsuit brought against them by Mr. Ron Lackey (who was represented by Brown Act expert James Lacy) regarding the old Board's prior violations of the Brown Act open meeting laws. Part of the settlement was that the Board members attend seminars on the Brown Act.
Apparently The Fleming Four were asleep during the seminar because the skipping of these publicized agenda items may be a violation of the Brown Act! In addition, Government Code section 54954.2, subdivision (b)(3) "...mandates that action on continued agenda items must occur within five calendar days of the meeting at which the continuance is called." Chaffee v. San Francisco Library Commission (2004) 115 Cal. App. 4th 461, 469. To this writer's knowledge, the Board did not reconvene another board meeting within five days of May 7th to consider the items on the agenda they did not consider on May 7th despite what would appear to be a clear legal mandate that they do so!
Of course this is all now in the backdrop of yesterday's indictment of former Superintendent James Fleming for misuse of public funds and other alleged criminal activity. All actions he committed while the former board (including these four holdovers) where allegedly overseeing Mr. Fleming's activities.
In this writer's opinion, these four holdovers have failed in their duty by:
1. Not properly overseeing Mr. Fleming and the Senior Administration Staff;
2. Not focusing on the needs of the children and teachers by building a very expensive and over sized Administration building while children and teachers remain in old, sometimes unhealthy, portable classrooms;
3. Diverting funds from redevelopment funds from San Juan Capistrano that were intended to contribute to the upkeep and construction of school facilities and using those monies to build the Administration building;
4. Entering into professional services contracts with companies who employed the adult daughter of one of the trustees (Ms. Draper);
5. Refusing to listen to the concerns of the voters and citizens when they came to Board meetings to express their concerns about these issues;
6. Condoning disgraced former Superintendent James Fleming's compilation of an "enemies list" and used District facilities to disseminate and expand on it; and
7. Even now stonewalling needed reforms in the District put forth by Trustee Addonizio, perhaps in violation of the Brown Act (which appears to be their pattern and practice).
This list of violations of the public trust is definitely NOT exhaustive and I am sure there are many more!
The Fleming Four must resign now or they should be recalled at once!
Craig P. Alexander, Esq.
Education Alliance Member
Last Fall the voters in the Capistrano Unified School District spoke loud and clear that they wanted change: a school district that built facilities for students and teachers rather than administrators, accountability and true open government in their local public school district. They overwhelmingly voted for the Reform Candidates Anna Bryson, Ellen Addonizio and Larry Christensen and rejected the two incumbents who were running for re-election.
The remaining four Trustees from the era of former Superintendent James Fleming, Marlene Draper, Sheila Benecke, Mike Darnold and Duane Stiff, also known as "The Fleming Four," apparently did not get the message the voters were sending them. At their last meeting of May 7, 2007 Board President Sheila Benecke simply skipped several items on the Board's publicized agenda. The other members of the Fleming Four (Draper, Darnold and Stiff) apparently did not object to Benecke's action, (although Ms. Bryson did object vigorously).
What was on the agenda Ms. Benecke skipped and did not cover? Five important proposed revisions to the Board's policies on Conflicts of Interest, Hiring and Placement of Relatives, Purchasing Procedures, Bids and the Use of District Vehicles. All of these reforms being proposed by Reform Trustee Ellen Addonizio (with support from Ms. Bryson and Mr. Christensen) in response to the various misuse of District property and the awarding of contracts to relatives, such as Ms. Draper's daughter, that have caused public scandals and investigations by both the District itself and the Orange County District Attorney's office. It is apparent from this action that The Fleming Four have not learned the lesson of last year's recall attempt or the November 2006 election results.
To add insult to injury, the Broad very recently settled a lawsuit brought against them by Mr. Ron Lackey (who was represented by Brown Act expert James Lacy) regarding the old Board's prior violations of the Brown Act open meeting laws. Part of the settlement was that the Board members attend seminars on the Brown Act.
Apparently The Fleming Four were asleep during the seminar because the skipping of these publicized agenda items may be a violation of the Brown Act! In addition, Government Code section 54954.2, subdivision (b)(3) "...mandates that action on continued agenda items must occur within five calendar days of the meeting at which the continuance is called." Chaffee v. San Francisco Library Commission (2004) 115 Cal. App. 4th 461, 469. To this writer's knowledge, the Board did not reconvene another board meeting within five days of May 7th to consider the items on the agenda they did not consider on May 7th despite what would appear to be a clear legal mandate that they do so!
Of course this is all now in the backdrop of yesterday's indictment of former Superintendent James Fleming for misuse of public funds and other alleged criminal activity. All actions he committed while the former board (including these four holdovers) where allegedly overseeing Mr. Fleming's activities.
In this writer's opinion, these four holdovers have failed in their duty by:
1. Not properly overseeing Mr. Fleming and the Senior Administration Staff;
2. Not focusing on the needs of the children and teachers by building a very expensive and over sized Administration building while children and teachers remain in old, sometimes unhealthy, portable classrooms;
3. Diverting funds from redevelopment funds from San Juan Capistrano that were intended to contribute to the upkeep and construction of school facilities and using those monies to build the Administration building;
4. Entering into professional services contracts with companies who employed the adult daughter of one of the trustees (Ms. Draper);
5. Refusing to listen to the concerns of the voters and citizens when they came to Board meetings to express their concerns about these issues;
6. Condoning disgraced former Superintendent James Fleming's compilation of an "enemies list" and used District facilities to disseminate and expand on it; and
7. Even now stonewalling needed reforms in the District put forth by Trustee Addonizio, perhaps in violation of the Brown Act (which appears to be their pattern and practice).
This list of violations of the public trust is definitely NOT exhaustive and I am sure there are many more!
The Fleming Four must resign now or they should be recalled at once!
Craig P. Alexander, Esq.
Education Alliance Member
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