No More Illegal Secret Meetings at CUSD

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Posted by Daffodil J. Altan in Main

October 23, 2007 11:34 AM

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Things didn't quite hit showdown tenor last night at a special Capistrano Unified School District board meeting meant to address findings by the OC DA that four of the board's current members had repeatedly violated open meeting laws by holding illegal closed meetings. The meeting was scheduled for closed session but pressure from three newly elected board members to have the meeting in public won out last night.

The four "old-guard" trustees in question—Marlene Draper, Sheila Benecke, Duane Stiff and Mike Darnold—agreed that the meeting should be held in public given the "unique circumstances," said Marlene Draper. New Superintendent Woodrow Carter and Orange County Department of Education counsel Ron Wenkart favored holding the meeting in closed session. "I might not be comfortable answering questions in open session," Wenkart said. But trustees persisted.

Longtime "old-guard" trustee Duane Stiff moved to not only hold the meeting in open session, but to also accept the DA's findings without discussion. After some confusion, the board listened first to a round of scathing public comments, many which called for the resignation of some or all four of the board members in question, then proceeded to a vote. The board voted 4-0-3 (the three new board members abstained because they weren't there when the violations were committed) to accept the DA's findings. All seven board members voted to comply with the Brown Act in the future. "This is the total acceptance that bad things were done and that that can't be tolerated," said newly elected trustee Anna Bryson, who was not serving at the time of the violations. "This is what we were elected for, to change the course of the river."

"There are many things I would do differently," said board President Marlene Draper. When asked if she would apologize for having repeatedly engaged in closed session meetings where everything from building contracts to student suspensions and public speakers were discussed, Draper said she would only say that she would not rely on legal counsel in the future. In her grand jury testimony, Draper said the board relied on OC Department of Ed legal counsel to approve all board agendas being held in closed session. But Ron Wenkart, who was OC Department of Ed counsel at the time, said he never approved closed session agendas for the district.

Comments (2)

LifeWith3Girls says:
October 24, 2007 09:26

Dear Daffodil J. Altan ( reporter?)

You tried your best to give this Board Meeting event some community significance. You failed.

Ask yourself why Wenkart made this statement! "I might not be comfortable answering questions in open session," Wenkart said. And, you might get to the heart of 'who, what, when, where, why and how' CUSD is corrupted.

Instead, your article is written as if Wenkart wrote it himself.

You have taken one big step forward in supplying the mortar which is the status quo.

Max says:
October 24, 2007 21:09

Daffodil: The person who posted the previous message was not even at the Monday night meeting. He is a well known blogger on the OCR school blog and has no credibility. We who were at the meeting know what happened and we know your article was fair and fine. Keep up the good work. Just ignore this particular blogger, just like every one has learned to do.

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