October 5, 2007
OC Weekly
A Timeline
BY DAFFODIL J. ALTAN
2005
March: Kevin
Murphy circulates recall clipboard at district board
meeting.
March:
First meetings and
formation of “CUSD Recall Committee.”
March:
Mission Viejo
parents create Modernization Committee at Newhart Middle
School, take pictures of poor facilities and put them
online.
Late
March: District office receives copy
of recall e-mail; Superintendent James Fleming and personal
secretary Kate McIntyre allegedly create first list of
recall proponents.
April
25: Recall
Committee serves intention-to-recall notices at board
meeting to all seven trustees.
May-October:
Recall movement
gathers 25,000 signatures per trustee.
Early
October: Petitions turned in to
registrar’s office.
November:
The
Orange County Register details how the district
administration building was funded.
Dec.
22: Registrar announces that
thousands of signatures are invalid, leaving too few for
recall election.
Late
December: Kevin Murphy leaves recall
group.
2006
Early
January: Recall group goes to
registrar’s office to review rejected signatures.
Early
January: Assistant Superintendent Susan
McGill and Director of Communications David Smollar go to
registrar’s office, review petitions and allegedly compile
the names of signature gatherers. List is typed up,
including names and schools of petition gatherers’
children, and given to Fleming (recall list No. 2).
February:
County district
attorney’s office launches investigation of the district.
February-March:
Recall Committee
prepares report detailing registrar errors—several thousand
signatures found by group to be wrongly rejected by
registrar.
April:
New recall group
(minus Kevin Murphy) decides to focus on electing three new
trustees during November elections.
May:
Smollar resigns.
July
10: Story
breaks in the Register
regarding recall
list No. 2. Fleming denies knowing anything about the list.
July
11: Register
story details how
Registrar Neal Kelly illegally permitted district
administrators to view recall petitions.
Mid-July:
Members of four
South County city councils call for Fleming
resignation/termination. Fleming again denies knowing about
the lists.
Mid-July:
Fleming sends
e-mail to district PTA and administrators detailing his
recovered memory over the lists. They were created, he
says, to see if anyone had hacked into the district’s
school databases.
July
19: Fleming
announces resignation.
July
29: Closed-
and open-session Saturday meeting. Closed session:
Fleming’s retirement package is approved. Also, board votes
on hiring retired judge Stuart Waldrip to conduct
investigation into the lists.
July
31: Ron
Lackey files lawsuit alleging Brown Act violations during
closed-session meetings.
Aug.
14: DA’s
office raids Fleming’s and other district offices;
confiscates computers and files. Fleming gives farewell
speech at district board meeting.
Aug.
16: Yearlong
grand jury testimony begins, featuring 14 district
administrators and employees.
November:
“ABC Reform” slate
succeeds at the ballot box; three incumbents defeated and
three new trustees elected to the board.
November:
Register
story: Facilities
director David Doomey admits publicly at district board
meeting that Mello-Roos taxes were used for administration
building.
December:
Waldrip completes
report.
2007
May: Fleming
and McGill indicted on charges of misappropriating district
funds and perjury (McGill).
July:
Petition to conduct
a recall of trustees Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper
presented at board meeting.
September:
New interim
superintendent Woodrow Carter presides over first board
meeting; recall committee begins new signature-gathering
drive.
Oct.
5: Pretrial
hearing scheduled for Fleming and McGill.
