"...In direct, face-to-face
conversation with CTA
Vice-President Dean Vogel and
CTA Board Member Jim Groth,
on Friday, September 14, 2007, it
was made abundantly clear that
the SEA/CTA/NEA structure and
its nexus with Collective
Bargaining are in imminent
jeopardy with the Miller-Pelosi
NCLB Reauthorization proposal.
As a Union,we must speak
powerfully for our membership.
We do not accept a marginalized
role indetermining our salaries,
benefits, and retirement. We do
not accept a marginalized rolein
our own evaluation and
transfer..."
conversation with CTA
Vice-President Dean Vogel and
CTA Board Member Jim Groth,
on Friday, September 14, 2007, it
was made abundantly clear that
the SEA/CTA/NEA structure and
its nexus with Collective
Bargaining are in imminent
jeopardy with the Miller-Pelosi
NCLB Reauthorization proposal.
As a Union,we must speak
powerfully for our membership.
We do not accept a marginalized
role indetermining our salaries,
benefits, and retirement. We do
not accept a marginalized rolein
our own evaluation and
transfer..."
"Now, it is a time for action! The
Miller-Pelosi NCLB
Reauthorization proposal, should
it continue unabated and
uncorrected, may accomplish
what Schwarzenegger's plethora
of propositions, in November
2005, could not, specifically:
eviscerate Collective Bargaining
in California. To wit:
Miller-Pelosi NCLB
Reauthorization proposal, should
it continue unabated and
uncorrected, may accomplish
what Schwarzenegger's plethora
of propositions, in November
2005, could not, specifically:
eviscerate Collective Bargaining
in California. To wit:
| PRESIDENT'S REPORT: SEA President's Report September 17, 2007 |
An attachment is provided to
assist in conveying OUR
MESSAGE!
...
Sincerely,
Sam L. Lucero
President, SEA
assist in conveying OUR
MESSAGE!
...
Sincerely,
Sam L. Lucero
President, SEA
Dear SEA Members,
... Your SEA Board of
Directors are: Sam Lucero (MVM,
Full-Time Release President),
Chuck Patterson
(ORH, Vice-President), Al
Ohlendorf (BVH, Treasurer), Rene
Flores (CVH, Secretary),
Alex Anguiano (HH, Past
President), John Ray (BTSA,
At-Large), John Orcutt (RDR, At-
Large), James Love (CVH,
At-Large), Kathy Dyga (MoM,
At-Large), Sandra Robinson
(SYH, At-Large), Marylen Haines
(PH, State Council), Jason
Leichter (CVA, State
Council), and Marijane Moon
(SuHI, State Council).
... Your SEA Board of
Directors are: Sam Lucero (MVM,
Full-Time Release President),
Chuck Patterson
(ORH, Vice-President), Al
Ohlendorf (BVH, Treasurer), Rene
Flores (CVH, Secretary),
Alex Anguiano (HH, Past
President), John Ray (BTSA,
At-Large), John Orcutt (RDR, At-
Large), James Love (CVH,
At-Large), Kathy Dyga (MoM,
At-Large), Sandra Robinson
(SYH, At-Large), Marylen Haines
(PH, State Council), Jason
Leichter (CVA, State
Council), and Marijane Moon
(SuHI, State Council).
| I don't understand why SEA doesn't like the following three ideas. Great teachers should be paid much more than mediocre or poor teachers. The Miller-Pelosi bill will do the following: 1) Restricts "merit“ to student test scores, classroom observations, and agreement to work in high- need schools for four years. 2) Requires that —master teachers“participate in evaluations of teachers in schools with a specific grant. These master teachers now performing supervisory function. 3) District would have to match funds for these merit pay / "Pay for Performance“ schemes. The amount of money available for across-the-board salary increases or benefits increases is subject to dramatic reduction. |
| “The systematic redacting in over 1,000 pages of legal bills of every single description of the services rendered can only reflect a knee-jerk impulse for secrecy,” Scheer said. “It also underscores how forgetful public officials are that this information belongs to the public.” Garcia himself billed the district as much as 15.3 hours in a day, and $131,708 between July 1, 2005, and the end of May. The district has not yet produced June's invoices. Garcia's legal meter starts running hours before he sets foot in the board room. In what Garcia terms “portal-to-portal” billing, he begins charging Sweetwater $200 an hour for his time the minute he leaves Los Angeles for a 2 ½-hour commute to Chula Vista... ...Board President Greg Sandoval said he believes Garcia can use drive time to talk with Sweetwater staff by phone. But when asked why the board doesn't use a San Diego-based attorney to save on the $1,100-per-meeting cost, he said, “I guess we're going to have to review that.” ...However, the Sweetwater school board appears to have leaned more heavily on attorneys than most other local boards. Garcia attends every Sweetwater board meeting, joined the board for a series of interviews with superintendent candidates during spring and sat in on a Saturday exploratory conversation with former Chula Vista Elementary Superintendent Libby Gil that Sandoval avoided calling a job interview... But the third-, fourth-and fifth- largest local districts – Poway Unified, Chula Vista Elementary and Vista Unified – only have an attorney present at board meetings when a particularly controversial issue is on the agenda. The next-largest district, Grossmont Union High, has an attorney present at every board meeting. Garcia said he could not comment on why he was at the superintendent candidate interviews during spring and why he's not attending this week's interviews. Spokeswomen for the Oceanside and Poway districts said attorneys were not present at their boards' interviews of the candidates who now hold the superintendent jobs. Sandoval said Garcia sat in on interviews with four Sweetwater finalists so he could negotiate on the spot with a candidate of the board's choosing. On the day of a special board meeting on March 2, Garcia billed Sweetwater $3,060 for 15.3 hours of work... In addition, Sweetwater was billed for 9.1 hours of Garcia's time on the day the board spoke with Gil, who was never officially a candidate... Garcia acknowledged that his time on the superintendent search probably helped boost Sweetwater's legal bills above their average. Billings to Burke, Williams & Sorensen were nearly $800,000 this year, Russo said. That's up from $442,441 in 2003-04 and $102,760 in 2002-03. |
| CHULA VISTA – The Sweetwater Union High School District busted its legal budget halfway through the fiscal year that ended June 30. Sweetwater reports it spent more than $1 million on legal services for the year, 77 percent more than in the past fiscal year, with some expenses for June yet to be logged. It's tough to tell why. Through a public-records request, The San Diego Union-Tribune got invoices documenting the district's legal bills, but the descriptions of services rendered were redacted by order of the district's general counsel, Bonifacio Garcia, who is based in Los Angeles... That may be true in a few instances, but most of the information would not give away any secrets, said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition. “The systematic redacting in over 1,000 pages of legal bills of every single description of the services rendered can only reflect a knee- jerk impulse for secrecy,” Scheer said. “It also underscores how forgetful public officials are that this information belongs to the public.” Months ago Garcia presented district trustees with his findings that Sweetwater's legal bills are in line with those of similar-sized districts in Northern California. [Maura's note: What a clever idea! Ask Bonny to determine if he's paid too much!] |
| Bonny Garcia has donated to the election campaigns of trustees Jim Cartmill, Arlie Ricasa and Sandoval. Campaign finance records show donations of $1,000 to Ricasa in 2001-02, $1,000 to Sandoval in 2002 and $975 to Cartmill in 2002. |
| Sweetwater attorney Bonnie Garcia and his erstwhile associates at Williams Burke Sorenson |
| Sweetwater racks up large, clouded legal bill Descriptions of services left off released forms By Chris Moran SAN DIEGO UNIONTRIBUNE July 22, 2006 |
| What kind of administrators control ACSA? Region 18 Chair is Ed Brand Term expires July 2009 |
| Should former Sweetwater superintendent Ed Brand direct our SDCOE lawyers? He is on the San Diego County School Legal Services Council until 2008! |
| As demonstrated by the Mary Anne Weegar case, (also covered in La Prensa) and many other cases handled by the SDCOE JPA and legal services, Ed Brand contributes to, and helps enforce, SDCOE's culture of dishonesty and secrecy. Should superintendents like Ed Brand be in a position over SDCOE lawyers, when they are the very individuals for whose wrongdoing SDCOE must pay? Isn't that putting the fox in charge of the hen house? The taxpayers have to keep paying and paying, while Ed Brand violates the law. Ed Brand directs SDCOE lawyers to assist him and other school district leaders in illegal actions! |
| SEA is not as secretive as Chula Vista Educators; it has a website and freely and openly discusses its plans. |
| District crossover raises questions Educators can have dual roles on boards By Chris Moran STAFF WRITER August 4, 2007 SOUTH COUNTY – School employees commonly serve on the governing boards of school districts that don't employ them. What makes a case in South County different is three administrators' dual roles at Southwestern College and the Sweetwater Union High School District, because they're in positions to vote on each other's budgets and salaries. Greg Sandoval is interim president of Southwestern and a member of the Sweetwater board. Arlie Ricasa is director of student activities at Southwestern and is on the Sweetwater board. Jorge Dominguez is director of the Educational Technology Department at Sweetwater and a member of the Southwestern board. The arrangement is legal. Governance ethicists raise questions about appearances, though, especially when the crossover votes occur as close together as they have recently. How close? In May, Sandoval joined the majority in a 3-2 vote rejecting $500,000 for Dominguez's department. Sweetwater Superintendent Jesus Gandara said he was shocked by the vote because he considers training educators in technology essential to the district's success. Gandara brought the item back for reconsideration in June. Sandoval changed his mind – and the outcome of the vote. The $500,000 was restored on a 3-2 vote. Ricasa voted for the funding both times. Nine days after his department's funding was restored, Dominguez joined a unanimous college board in approving raises for Sandoval, Ricasa and 19 other administrators. The amount of the raise will be calculated later based on state funding. When asked whether he had considered recusing himself from the vote on the raises, Dominguez said he thought he had done so. It had been his intent to recuse himself, he said, but he may have inadvertently cast a vote because he was distracted by a controversy at the same meeting over whether to extend a vice president's contract and whether to give that vice president a raise that split the board 3-2. Dominguez said that if he voted for Sandoval's raise, “I will definitely look at changing my vote on that.” Robert Fellmeth, director of the Center for Public Interest and the University of San Diego School of Law, and Bob Stern, president of the independent, nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said Dominguez deserves praise if he recuses himself, even if it's after the fact. There's no inherent conflict of interest in being a board member one place and an employee in another, Fellmeth said. “If anything, you're probably more qualified than most to sit on the other board,” he said. South County is replete with examples. Chula Vista school trustee Bertha Lopez teaches at an elementary school in National City. Mountain Empire Unified School District Superintendent Patrick Judd serves on the Chula Vista school board. Sweetwater trustee Pearl Quiñones works for the San Ysidro School District. South Bay Union School District board President Althea Jones works for the San Diego Unified School District. But the Southwestern- Sweetwater overlap creates an appearance of possible conflict, Stern said. “You can't have two masters, so the question is, 'Where is your loyalty?' ” he said. “I really think that they need to re-evaluate whether they should be on each other's boards.” Sandoval said he saw no conflict of interest in his two votes on funding for Dominguez's department. Sandoval said he votes on recommendations that come from the Sweetwater superintendent, not from Dominguez. Gandara made a better case for the funding and provided more specifics the second time around, Sandoval said. He said he's conscientious about consulting with Sweetwater's attorneys to steer clear of improper votes. He said, however, that he may have to go one step further and seek legal counsel on how to avoid even appearances of impropriety. Dominguez and Sandoval both denied making any deal to swap votes. The two must regularly communicate about Southwestern College issues, but both said they haven't discussed Sandoval's Sweetwater votes. The biggest problem of appearance with overlapping jurisdictions is the potential for a deal for personal gain, Fellmeth said... Chris Moran: (619) 498- 6637; chris. moran@uniontrib.com |
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| Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) |
| Sweetwater Union High School District |
| Sweetwater Education Association |
| Griego endorsement puzzles some Re: "Davis and Griego/Their experience can improve Chula Vista," (Editorial, Feb. 25): I am so disappointed that the Union-Tribune would support a candidate like Bob Griego for Chula Vista City Council, considering what you already know about him. I worked with Griego at the Otay Water District and can tell you first hand he had plenty to do with the problems there. He was not, as your paper suggests, part of the solution; he was part of the problem and continues to be part of the problem. Griego was the general manager who secretly hired Bonafacio "Bonny" Garcia as legal counsel when the district already had in-house legal counsel. It was not a coincidence that Garcia is also the legal counsel for Sweetwater Union High School District, on whose board Griego sits, and an associate of Jaime Bonilla, who bought a seat on the Otay board. Since December 2000, Bonny Garcia has charged the district almost $1 million for legal expenses. In-house legal counsel salary was $130,000 a year. As far as Griego's story that he quit and only came back after the board promised to behave, the facts are that Griego did quit, but immediately became a "consultant" collecting his $145,000 a year salary. When he did come back, he received a $25,000 raise and a district automobile. No one at the district can tell me what he did as a "consultant." Griego was quoted in a Union-Tribune article when he quit saying he was doing so because he did not want to have a conflict of interest while running for the City Council seat. Suddenly, that conflict of interest is not a concern to him. Under Griego's management at Otay, public information and reports have been selectively withheld from some board members, contracts have been awarded through improper procedures and the district's environmental program ceased to exist, prompting a warning from the state Department of Fish and Game. There must be a reason why two Chula Vista City Council members, the mayor, law enforcement, firefighters, the city employees' union and La Prensa are opposed to Bob Griego. Experience is a good thing, but not the kind Griego has. DONNA BARTLETT-MAY Spring Valley Before electing Bob Griego, Chula Vista voters should remember the scandal ending his employment as deputy chief administrative officer for San Diego County. To refresh your memory and quote the Union-Tribune from a July 2000 article: "Griego's departure came not long after an audit showed he had used county staff, time and equipment to do business for the Sweetwater High School District, where he has been a board member for eight years. The audit also showed he had attended 173 school-related meetings on workdays in a two-year period." Nothing has changed in the way he does business as general manager of the Otay Water District. Chula Vista residents can expect that if Griego is elected, he will continue his past practices and misuse city staff and abuse city hiring policies to achieve his political goals, while dispensing jobs and other favors to those who he perceives to be his loyal supporters. JAMES CLEMENTS El Cajon You state that as a 12-year member of the Sweetwater Union High School District governing board, Griego gets "high marks from some of his colleagues." Now there's a lofty testimonial. Why not high marks from all, or even most, of them? Maybe because most of them remember the SUHSD scandal in 1995 and the close call Griego experienced in the resulting recall election. That's probably good experience to bring to Chula Vista city government. Griego says his position with the Otay Water District, an agency the city of Chula Vista wants to acquire, should not present a problem for him as a City Council member. Huh? He also claims the turmoil at the Otay Water District is not his fault, and when its board members got crazy, he quit and wouldn't return until they calmed down. Is this a trait the people of Chula Vista and the Union-Tribune find attractive? What will Griego do when things get a little crazy around the council chambers? Take his impressive record of public service and go home? CHARLIE CASSENS Lake Havasu City The letter writers are former Otay Water District employees. http://www.watchourcities.4t.com/ |
| Sweetwater USD board member Greg Sandoval resigns as VP of Southwestern College Sandoval accused of harassment By Chris Moran June 13, 2008 Southwestern College's governing board has approved the resignation of its vice president for student affairs after a sexual harassment claim was filed against him. Greg Sandoval, a career South County college administrator, submitted his resignation last week, but this week he asked college President Raj Chopra to withdraw it, a college spokeswoman said. Chopra refused, the spokeswoman said... Trustee Jorge Dominguez voted against approving the resignation... A student services employee ... accused Sandoval of sexual harassment in an administrative claim filed with the college. The governing board denied the claim Wednesday night... Dominguez, the lone vote against Sandoval's resignation, works for the Sweetwater Union High School District, where Sandoval is a board member. Their crisscrossing affiliations put them in a position to vote on matters benefiting each other, and Dominguez pledged to recuse himself from future votes on Sandoval after being asked about it by The San Diego Union-Tribune last year. A grand jury report released last month made note of a reciprocal relationship between unnamed high school and college trustees. Dominguez confirmed at the time that the report was referring to him. The report praised the college trustee for recusing himself from further votes concerning the high school trustee... Agosto, the board president, said he recused himself because he has known Sandoval since the 1970s. “My vote would be biased,” Agosto said. Sandoval has been a vice president at the college for five years, and last year served about 5½ months as the college's interim president. He has also served on the Sweetwater school board since 1994. Lopez's resignation was unanimously approved by the board Wednesday night. His attorney did not return a call late yesterday afternoon. |
Chula Vista, California
| [Sorry, the link to the San Diego Union Tribune no longer works. Maybe Mr. Garcia pressured them to hide the story.] http://www.signonsandiego.com/n ews/%20education/20060722-999 9-6m22legal.html |
| Link (This link is now broken.) |
| Lawsuit Against Chula Vista Educators and former President Gina Boyd 2007 |
| CTA Lawyers Ann Smith Fern Steiner Bernhard Rohrbacher |
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| Lawsuit Against CTA and CVE (Donlan coverup) |
| More stories and commentary: CVESD Reporter (Jaime Mercado and Bertha Lopez) |
| 2006 vote Board Member; Sweetwater Union High School District Seat 1 Jim Cartmill 39947 votes 61.48% Lorenzo Provencio 25033 votes 38.52% Seat 3 Greg R. Sandoval 38763 votes 60.03% Archie McAllister 25815 votes 39.97% [2008 update: Archie McAllister is endorsed by the Republican party for CVESD board in 2008 in his race against David Bejarano. I'm a Democrat, and I also prefer McAllister.] Seat 5 Arlie Ricasa 37990 votes 60.21% Ed Herrera 25102 votes 39.79% |
Shall GREG R.
SANDOVAL be recalled
(removed) from Seat No.
3 of the Governing Board
for Sweetwater Union
High School District?
=====================
=====================
==
YES
6,805 41.51
NO 9,588 58.49
To
succeed GREG R.
SANDOVAL should he be
recalled by this special
election.
=====================
===================
BOB
WHITE
5,780 59.33
DONALD
M. SWANSON, SR.
3,962 40.67
Shall
ROBERT GRIEGO be
recalled (removed) from
Seat No. 4 of the
Governing Board for
Sweetwater Union High
School District?
=====================
=====================
YES
7,229 43.73
NO 9,303 56.27
To
succeed ROBERT
GRIEGO should he be
recalled by this special
election.
=====================
================
NORMAN
YAGGIE
5,235 50.30
ALYCE
ARNOLD 3,571
34.31
DENNIS J.
McCARTHY 1,601
15.38
SANDOVAL be recalled
(removed) from Seat No.
3 of the Governing Board
for Sweetwater Union
High School District?
=====================
=====================
==
YES
6,805 41.51
NO 9,588 58.49
To
succeed GREG R.
SANDOVAL should he be
recalled by this special
election.
=====================
===================
BOB
WHITE
5,780 59.33
DONALD
M. SWANSON, SR.
3,962 40.67
Shall
ROBERT GRIEGO be
recalled (removed) from
Seat No. 4 of the
Governing Board for
Sweetwater Union High
School District?
=====================
=====================
YES
7,229 43.73
NO 9,303 56.27
To
succeed ROBERT
GRIEGO should he be
recalled by this special
election.
=====================
================
NORMAN
YAGGIE
5,235 50.30
ALYCE
ARNOLD 3,571
34.31
DENNIS J.
McCARTHY 1,601
15.38
| SWEETWATER UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT RECALL ELECTION Tuesday, February 27, 1996 Shall STEVE HOGAN be recalled (removed) from Seat No. 2 of the Governing Board for Sweetwater Union High School District? YES 7,195 45.59 NO 8,587 54.41 To succeed STEVE HOGAN should he be recalled by this special election. LARRY E. CUNNINGHAM 3,250 32.06 LORENZO PROVENCIO 3,227 31.84 LITA DAVID 2,519 24.85 WALDRON SALLY JANKE 1,140 11.25 |
Statistics as of August 2008 Year established: 1920 Enrollment: 42,662 Grades: 7-12 Superintendent: Jesus M. Gandara Address: 1130 Fifth Ave., Chula Vista |
District picks firm to design new
school
By Chris Moran
STAFF WRITER
May 11, 2005
CHULA VISTA – The Sweetwater
Union High School District board
split on choosing an architect for
a 4,000-student school Monday
night, ultimately siding with
professional planners over two
board members who favored an
architect who bankrolls a political
action committee that supports
board incumbents.
The board voted 3-2 for Trittipo
Architecture and Planning, a firm
recommended by an architect
selection committee, the district's
chief operating officer and its
director of planning and
construction.
Board members Greg Sandoval
and Pearl Quiñones did their
own interviews of firms and
recommended Martinez + Cutri,
which has designed the last five
Sweetwater schools. The firm
has also directly and indirectly
contributed thousands of dollars
to four of the five board
members' campaign committees.
Initially, a six-person district
committee reviewed 10 firms and
identified four as finalists. Trittipo
was among them. Martinez +
Cutri was not. The committee
selected Trittipo as the top firm
in March.
At the April board meeting,
Sandoval said new presentations
were in order because firms had
been pitching a concept for a
creative and performing arts
school for seventh-through 12th-
graders in eastern Chula Vista.
District polling later indicated that
an arts school was not the
community's preference, and the
arts theme was dropped.
Martinez + Cutri was invited back
into the pool of candidates, and
a finalist firm dropped out.
In late April, the board's finance
and facilities subcommittee,
which consists of Sandoval and
Quiñones, interviewed and
scored the four firms. So did
Bruce Husson, Sweetwater's
chief operating officer, and Katy
Wright, the district's planning
director.
Sandoval ranked Martinez
highest. Quiñones ranked
Trittipo and Martinez equally.
Husson and Wright – who are
not board members and
therefore not subcommittee
members – both gave Trittipo the
highest marks. So the staff
recommendation stayed with
Trittipo, but the subcommittee
proposed the board hire
Martinez.
Martinez + Cutri directly
contributed $250 to Quiñones' re-
election campaign last year and
$750 to board member Arlie
Ricasa four years ago.
The firm also contributed about
$25,000 in cash and services to
the Bahia Del Sur political action
committee last year, as well as
$27,000 in 2002. Bahia Del Sur
in turn has donated to the
campaign committees of four
current board members in the
past three years: Quiñones
($10,000 last year), Ricasa
($9,000 in 2002), Sandoval
($10,000 in 2002) and Jim
Cartmill ($10,000 in 2002). Jaime
Mercado – who was elected to
the board in November – has
received no money from either
Martinez or Bahia Del Sur.
On Monday night, Cartmill,
Ricasa and Mercado voted for
Trittipo. Sandoval and Quiñones
voted for Martinez...
school
By Chris Moran
STAFF WRITER
May 11, 2005
CHULA VISTA – The Sweetwater
Union High School District board
split on choosing an architect for
a 4,000-student school Monday
night, ultimately siding with
professional planners over two
board members who favored an
architect who bankrolls a political
action committee that supports
board incumbents.
The board voted 3-2 for Trittipo
Architecture and Planning, a firm
recommended by an architect
selection committee, the district's
chief operating officer and its
director of planning and
construction.
Board members Greg Sandoval
and Pearl Quiñones did their
own interviews of firms and
recommended Martinez + Cutri,
which has designed the last five
Sweetwater schools. The firm
has also directly and indirectly
contributed thousands of dollars
to four of the five board
members' campaign committees.
Initially, a six-person district
committee reviewed 10 firms and
identified four as finalists. Trittipo
was among them. Martinez +
Cutri was not. The committee
selected Trittipo as the top firm
in March.
At the April board meeting,
Sandoval said new presentations
were in order because firms had
been pitching a concept for a
creative and performing arts
school for seventh-through 12th-
graders in eastern Chula Vista.
District polling later indicated that
an arts school was not the
community's preference, and the
arts theme was dropped.
Martinez + Cutri was invited back
into the pool of candidates, and
a finalist firm dropped out.
In late April, the board's finance
and facilities subcommittee,
which consists of Sandoval and
Quiñones, interviewed and
scored the four firms. So did
Bruce Husson, Sweetwater's
chief operating officer, and Katy
Wright, the district's planning
director.
Sandoval ranked Martinez
highest. Quiñones ranked
Trittipo and Martinez equally.
Husson and Wright – who are
not board members and
therefore not subcommittee
members – both gave Trittipo the
highest marks. So the staff
recommendation stayed with
Trittipo, but the subcommittee
proposed the board hire
Martinez.
Martinez + Cutri directly
contributed $250 to Quiñones' re-
election campaign last year and
$750 to board member Arlie
Ricasa four years ago.
The firm also contributed about
$25,000 in cash and services to
the Bahia Del Sur political action
committee last year, as well as
$27,000 in 2002. Bahia Del Sur
in turn has donated to the
campaign committees of four
current board members in the
past three years: Quiñones
($10,000 last year), Ricasa
($9,000 in 2002), Sandoval
($10,000 in 2002) and Jim
Cartmill ($10,000 in 2002). Jaime
Mercado – who was elected to
the board in November – has
received no money from either
Martinez or Bahia Del Sur.
On Monday night, Cartmill,
Ricasa and Mercado voted for
Trittipo. Sandoval and Quiñones
voted for Martinez...
| Castle Park High School Dan Shinoff prolongs Title IX problems |
Castle Park High School Title IX problems Former Supt. Ed Brand Mary Anne Weegar Bonny Garcia |
| Home Why This Website SDCOE CVESD Castle Park Elem Law Enforcement CTA CVE Stutz Artiano Shinoff Silence is Golden Schools and Violence Office Admin Hearings Larkins OAH Hearing |
| School Construction Firm Faces Fine for Campaign Finance Violations The Seville Group Inc., which is one of two companies jointly managing the bond program for Sweetwater Union High School District, is facing a proposed $44,500 fine from the Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to file campaign statements and contribution reports on time. The late reports include several contributions to campaigns for Sweetwater school board members, including Jim Cartmill, Pearl Quinones and Greg Sandoval, and for the bond, Proposition O., itself. Overall, Seville Group faces 19 counts for late filings over the past five years, some of which happened more than three years after the legal deadline. The FPPC website does, however, state that Seville Group did take steps to remedy the problems, including hiring a professional group to prepare campaign statements, and reporting its own violations to the FPPC. The commission will decide whether to approve the fine at a meeting next Thursday. Seville was chosen to manage the Sweetwater bond program two years ago in a process that proved controversial with some members of the last bond oversight committee. Read more about that issue here. -- EMILY ALPERT September 3, 2009 |
| Ranking High No Guarantee of Winning Work in Sweetwater By EMILY ALPERT Aug. 24, 2009 | To decide which attorneys should help advise Sweetwater Union High School District on its $644 million construction bond two years ago, employees and outside experts interviewed four firms. They ranked them on their experience, their credentials and their fees. Two of the four seemed unlikely to get the job. Bowie, Arneson, Wiles & Giannone was ranked third. Garcia Calderon & Ruiz, was ranked last. Yet two months later, both were hired over higher ranked firms. District staff said Bowie had helped sit on the committee that proposed the bond and would charge less than the competition. Garcia had "experience and knowledge of the district." The interview committee decided to override its own rankings, Chief Financial Officer Dianne Russo later explained. It had happened before. As Sweetwater hired help to spend the $644 million that Proposition O authorized for school construction, the district repeatedly ignored its own rankings of consultants. Superintendent Jesus Gandara pushed for an architect that built schools he liked, even though it ranked lower than others. Sweetwater chose a company to manage the construction bond that wasn't initially ranked first. Another company got points in its ranking for being local, but still rated lower than nine other firms. School officials moved it to the top anyway because it was a local company. Their recommendations then went to the school board for approval. To gauge how closely rankings were being followed, voiceofsandiego.org reviewed the scores for five major functions of the facilities bond. Lower-ranked companies won work four of the five times. The rankings are compiled by employees and outside experts in facilities, finance or the law. Firms are ranked on clear, agreed criteria. But getting the highest ranking doesn't guarantee that a company will get hired. School officials say rankings aren't final decisions, only the beginning of a process in which numerous other factors can intervene. Interviews and records show that Sweetwater often picked companies based on intangible factors that were not included in the rankings. Choosing a company based on factors that aren't quantified in a ranking "is the least transparent (method) and it is the most subjective," said Tad Parzen, formerly general counsel for San Diego Unified. "But the best decisions aren't always made on quantitative information." Those factors are often invisible to the public, unlike the listed criteria in rankings. That makes it difficult to gauge why a company was chosen and whether the process was fair. And when companies with lower scores are picked because of other factors, it appears to render the rankings irrelevant. The rankings became controversial when Sweetwater chose a program manager for the bond. The program manager schedules construction projects, tracks costs and documents progress. Nick Marinovich, a community member who sat on the oversight committee for an earlier school construction bond, complained about the process for picking the new program manager, Gilbane/Seville Group Inc., which had ranked lower than another company. "The superintendent steered it the way he wanted it to go. It was bogus," said Marinovich, who has worked for more than a dozen years as a project manager with the county of San Diego and briefly for the losing company. Marinovich said in his experience elsewhere, it's "very rare" that the highest-ranked company wouldn't be chosen. School districts and other government agencies have wide latitude to decide who to choose when hiring professionals such as architects or attorneys. They do not have to choose the lowest bidder, nor do they have to follow any particular process to pick the winner. They don't have to rank candidates, as Sweetwater has repeatedly done. The law says only that for architects and engineering services, government agencies must use a "fair, competitive selection process" untainted by conflicts of interest. No such conflicts are apparent in Sweetwater. Some seemingly unlikely winners did donate to help the campaign convince voters to pass the construction bond in 2006 or elect school board members. But other winning companies gave less than their competitors or not at all. Neither Gandara nor the school board members report having any financial interest in the firms. Unlike Marinovich and other community members who oversaw the last round of construction projects, members of the new oversight committee for Proposition O said they don't get involved in decisions about which companies to pick, nor would they second guess them. Rudy Gonzalez, who leads the oversight committee for the bond, said he ultimately didn't care how the companies were chosen as long as the bond was run well. Not every winner was an unlikely one. Sweetwater opted for the same financial advisor that its panel of interviewers ranked as the best. But firms with lower rankings were repeatedly picked: * Sweetwater chose the two law firms, Bowie and Garcia, that were ranked lowest by interviewers. One interviewer wrote that he wouldn't recommend Garcia at all because the firm already worked for the district in a different legal capacity and he wanted to see "checks and balances." Russo, the district's chief financial officer, said the rankings were only the prelude to a discussion where the interviewers decided which firms they wanted to recommend. They chose not to recommend the highest-ranking firm because it had been used before, Russo said, and the school district wanted to give another firm a chance. So it chose Bowie instead. Russo said their recommendations then went to Gandara to choose the top candidates to send to the school board for approval. When asked why the staffers ranked candidates if the rankings weren't used to thin the herd, Russo said: "I don't know. I guess we didn't have to." She said they were nonetheless useful because they helped staff decide if any companies were ineligible. * To pick an architect, Sweetwater first screened dozens of applications and eliminated more than half. A panel then interviewed nine architects. Two firms that it ranked at the bottom of the list were later recommended to the school board over other, higher ranked firms, along with some of the top ranked firms. School district spokeswoman Lillian Leopold said one architect was recommended because it was local. Another winner, Ruhnau Ruhnau Clarke, had built two local schools that Gandara considered better looking than most in Sweetwater. The company was ultimately recommended to the school board despite having been ranked second-to-last. It was founded in Riverside and has a Carlsbad office. "If I wouldn't have participated in that process, Ruhnau Ruhnau and Clarke -- who is local -- would have been cut out," Gandara said. "What a shame if that would have happened." * School districts with construction bonds typically hire a program manager, a company that supervises the multi-million-dollar effort. An initial interview panel comprising district staff and outsiders ranked Harris Gafcon first among the companies competing to manage the bond. It was the program manager for the district's last facilities bond. But when the choice went to a second interview panel, another company emerged as the winner. Gandara said all but one interviewer chose Gilbane/Seville Group Inc. Meeting minutes indicate that then-facilities director Ramon Leyba said Gilbane/Seville "had a better sense of what diversity meant" than did Harris, and would do a better job of increasing minority hires among contractors. Gandara said Sweetwater had good reasons for weighing other factors besides Harris Gafcon's ranking. He was displeased with renovations done under the last bond at Sweetwater High School. Stucco around new windows didn't match the surrounding building. Rain gutters on the buildings were twisted. "Here's the bottom line. You can talk about process -- should you have filled out a form, could there be more transparency -- but the average person out there wants to know, 'Are you giving me a better product at the same cost as before?'" Gandara said. Not everyone was swayed. Marinovich wrote a letter to the school board questioning the process. Dan Malcolm, who led the oversight committee during the previous bond, said Harris had done a good job and it seemed unusual that the highest ranked firm would not win. * Sweetwater also needed a company to sell bonds to investors, known as a bond underwriter. Among the bond underwriters who competed to work in Sweetwater, a lower-ranked company, Alta Vista Financial, got moved to the top of the pack because it was a small local firm, Russo said. It was pushed ahead of nine firms with equal or better rankings, even though it had already gotten added points in the ranking for being a local firm. |
| Sweetwater Education Association (SEA) |
2009 Voice of San Diego Investigations: Ranking High No Guarantee of Winning Work in Sweetwater School Construction Firm Faces Fine for Campaign Finance Violations |