Quotes By Source
Open Meetings
Quotes By Source
Lackey filed lawsuit after obtaining evidence of improper closed session
Feb 23, 2007 | Permalink
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.
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Trustees stretch to make excuses for Brown Act violations
Feb 23, 2007 | Permalink
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.
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Trustees admit no wrongdoing, but settle and pay Lackey's attorney fees
Feb 23, 2007 | Permalink
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.
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Trustees tried to conceal settlement involving millions in illegal, closed session
Jan 02, 2007 | Permalink
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.”
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Smollar exposes Erin Kutnick's blind eye concerning Fleming's serious public records and open meeting violations
Aug 10, 2006 | Permalink
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.
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Grand Jury finds CUSD closed meeting violated Brown Act
Feb 01, 1991 | Permalink
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.
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