Open Meetings
Quotes By Catagory

DA concludes old guard did violate Brown Act...again; District spokeswoman Beverly De Nicola’s spin about the “perception” of a Brown Act violation was wrong

Feb 28, 2008
Dan Hess, Letter to South OC Elected Officials "It appears that the CUSD Trustees who voted for these additional projects did violate the Brown Act by failing to adequately describe – on the agenda – items to be discussed in open session…since each project had been planned and discussed separately, and since all of the projects are controversial, each one should have been individually noticed on the agenda."

The DA's conclusion shows that CUSD attorney Ron Wenkart's "analysis" was wrong again, as alleged by reform advocates. Wenkart presented the sleazy, flawed analysis, and De Nicola announced it as cover for the Fleming-era trustees who had been warned about the the violation before their Dec 10 vote. Without Wenkart's "opinion" to coverup their intent to violate the law and their October 2007 agreement with DA, Trustees Benecke, Draper, Darnold and Stiff could (and should) have been prosecuted as criminals. Hess is Senior Deputy District Attorney for the Special Prosecution Unit of the Office of the Orange County District Attorney.

OC Register joins chorus of elected leaders, Republican Central Committee members and reform advocates and call for Fleming-era trustees to resign

Oct 29, 2007
page26_blog_entry69_summary_1
Editorial, The Orange County Register "Supporters of the recall have called on the four original board members to resign – a call echoed by the Orange County Republican Party Central Committee. New recall efforts are under way to remove two of the four members. Those four – Marlene M. Draper, Sheila J. Benecke, Duane E. Stiff and Mike Darnold – could make a second wise decision. They should resign and spare the county’s largest school district continued division."

OC Register: Fleming-era trustees' open meetings law violations were serious and chronic

Oct 29, 2007
page26_blog_entry69_summary_1
Editorial, The Orange County Register "The Capo board wasn’t caught simply making some innocuous errors. It engaged in a long-running pattern to conceal information from the public. That board was known as a rubber-stamp for the imperious former superintendent, James Fleming, who resigned and is now under indictment on charges related to his creation of an enemies list of parents who backed a recall of his board allies."

OC Register's Mickadeit explains the "flagrant, obnoxious" and "corrupt" nature of the Fleming trustees' Brown Act violations

Oct 22, 2007
page36_blog_entry342_1
Frank Mickadeit, The Orange County Register "D.A. investigators targeted meetings at which the board met in closed session to discuss a variety of topics that went beyond the narrow exceptions under which agencies can meet in private. It was flagrant, obnoxious and the very essence of what Lord Acton was talking about when he said, 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.' Not only were the most routine of district matters (“head lice”) put on agendas to be discussed in private, but also the weightiest, such as the $38 million district headquarters the board was building itself while pupils were attending overcrowded, deteriorating campuses.”

Mickadeit is a columnist for The Orange County Register.

OC Register's Mickadeit reveals slimey way Fleming trustees avoided a well-deserved criminal prosecution

Oct 22, 2007
page36_blog_entry342_1
Frank Mickadeit, The Orange County Register "Prosecutor Bill Feccia concluded this and many other items discussed were not within the law. But because the board can hide behind an attorney – one who wasn’t even there to provide Brown Act advice in the first place – and because Fleming told the board he’d run the agenda items by a second attorney (which the other attorney doesn’t recall), the D.A. would have a hard time proving the board had both the knowledge and intent to violate the Brown Act. Therefore a civil, not criminal, complaint."

Mickadeit is a columnist for The Orange County Register.

OC Register columnist emphasizes absurdity of trustee Draper's defense to repeated Brown Act violations

Oct 22, 2007
page36_blog_entry167_1
Frank Mickadeit, The Orange County Register "The catch-all Brown Act exception the board used to justify all manner of secrecy was 'Evaluation of Superintendent,' which were it strictly about Fleming’s performance would be OK. However, board President Marlene Draper told the grand jury she allowed the board to discuss just about anything in private because 'all issues pertaining to the management of the district fall under his evaluation.' "
    
Mickadeit is a columnist for The Orange County Register.

Former trustee Casabianca spills the beans: admits one of the real reasons the Fleming trustees intentiaonally violated the Brown Act

Oct 22, 2007
page59_blog_entry338_1
Frank Mickadeit, The Orange County Register "Then-board member John Casabianca admitted, however, that while the board used the legal excuse presumably given by its part-time counsel, the real reason seemed to be political when in 2005 the board discussed in private a $4.3 million cost-overrun on the headquarters."
    
Mickadeit is a columnist for The Orange County Register.

OC Register columnist has no doubt the Fleming trustees knew they were violating the Brown Act

Oct 22, 2007
page36_blog_entry167_1
Frank Mickadeit, The Orange County Register "But there’s no doubt in my mind the board, then populated by several members with more than 15 years of experience, knew full well what it was doing. Board members attend state seminars and learn in detail about the narrow exceptions to the Brown Act. It’s drilled into them. Lack of knowledge on this broad a scale should not be an excuse."

Mickadeit is a columnist for the Orange County Register.

County counsel denies advising Draper on Brown Act after she blamed him to save her own skin under oath

Oct 18, 2007
page26_blog_entry113_summary_2
Ron Wenkart, OC Weekly “I went back and double-checked the records,” he says. “I didn’t speak with them. . . . I was not involved with that.” His office was advising the district on “other legal issues” at the time, he says, but nothing relating to closed meetings or the Brown Act.

Past board president Marlene Draper contended in her grand-jury testimony that the closed meetings and the board’s non-disclosure were legal because all of the agendas for Saturday performance-evaluation meetings were pre-approved by counsel from the Orange County Department of Education. But Ron Wenkart, general counsel for the department and the attorney who would have approved such agendas at the time, says he has no records of him or anyone in his office ever having conversations with Fleming about the Brown Act or of approving CUSD closed meeting agendas.

Lackey filed lawsuit after obtaining evidence of improper closed session

Feb 23, 2007
Jonathan Volzke_2
Jonathan Volzke, The Capistrano Dispatch “Lackey filed his lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court after a former district employee provided copies of agendas for Saturday meetings trustees held under the guise of evaluating the performance of then-Superintendent Fleming ...”

Volzke is the publisher of the Capistrano Dispatch.

Trustees stretch to make excuses for Brown Act violations

Feb 23, 2007
Jonathan Volzke_2
Jonathan Volzke, The Capistrano Dispatch “While employee performance evaluations are allowed to be discussed privately, trustees relied on the reasoning that since Fleming was responsible for anything that happened in the school district, a wide range of topics could be discussed privately.”

Volzke is the publisher of the Capistrano Dispatch.

Trustees admit no wrongdoing, but settle and pay Lackey's attorney fees

Feb 23, 2007
Jonathan Volzke_2
Jonathan Volzke, The Capistrano Dispatch “Trustees admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, but agreed to pay $16,000 in legal fees for Dana Point resident Ron Lackey and undergo training in the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s public meeting law.”

Volzke is the publisher of the Capistrano Dispatch.

Trustees tried to conceal settlement involving millions in illegal, closed session

Jan 02, 2007
Mike Winsten, Trabuco Canyon News “The minutes from the illegal July 30, 2005 CUSD closed session meeting which were published in the O.C. Register reveal that Draper attempted to conceal the terms of a multi-million dollar settlement with the construction contractor for the infamous $52,000,000 administration building. Despite the fact that CUSD had a “Guaranteed Maximum Price” contract with Valley Commercial Contractors to construct the building, CUSD agreed to pay an additional $3.8 million in settlement costs without any public explanation.”

Smollar exposes Erin Kutnick's blind eye concerning Fleming's serious public records and open meeting violations

Aug 10, 2006
David Smollar, The Capistrano Dispatch "Maybe Erin Kutnick could develop some journalism skills by exploring Fleming’s deliberate underreporting of his true 2004-05 compensation by some $65,000, or his efforts to subvert the public meetings act through bogus closed sessions on his “evaluation,” called by state Brown Act experts the worst violations they’ve seen in a quarter century! An easy question to start with: Why would Fleming even want to have mundane topics about school uniforms, calendars, etc. etc. in a closed session?" Kutnick is a columnist for The Capistrano Dispatch. Smollar is the former Director of Communications at Capistrano Unified School District.

Expert calls CUSD worst violator of state open-meetings seen in 25 years, calls for district attorney to file charges

Jul 27, 2006
page59_blog_entry52_1
Terry Francke, The Orange County Register "This seems to be one case for drawing a line in the sand. This is the worst example of a Brown Act violation in closed session I have ever seen in 25 years."

Francke reviewed staff notes on a CUSD closed-session meeting held July 30, 2005, during which 31 items of school business were discussed as part of the "superintendent's performance evaluation." Francke said, "I don't see any noted discussion on the superintendent's performance whatsoever." Francke is one of the state's foremost experts on open-meetings law. He is also general counsel for Californians Aware.

Grand Jury finds CUSD closed meeting violated Brown Act

Feb 01, 1991
1990-1991 Orange County Grand Jury, Examination of CUSD Mello-Roos Election "A meeting to discuss clandestine 'incentive pay' cannot be reconciled with any of the above listed Code sections [the Brown Act]. Neither can a decision to employ a political consulting firm to assist in the efforts to pass Measure A. Therefore, it is the opinion of the Grand Jury that the closed door meeting held on March 6, 1989, was highly improper." Not only was the subject matter discussed found to be illegal express advocacy (i.e., incentive pay for school principals who succeeded in obtaining favorable voter results), the closed meeting at which this was discussed was found to be a violation of the Brown Act, as well.