CUSD School update, Sept. 12

Mission Viejo residents who live in the Saddleback school district should expect a quiet school board election on Nov. 7. The two incumbents up for reelection, Dore Gilbert and Nancy Kirkpatrick, are unchallenged.

The Capo USD turmoil continued during the past week with two developments of significance. On Sept. 11 the Capo trustees decided the taxpayers should pay for former Supt. James Fleming’s criminal defense lawyer. Payment will come from district coffers at a cost of $400 per hour. A supporter of the effort to recall all seven trustees reacted to the decision, “The trustees said everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. For a lot of people watching this, it’s too late to presume innocence.” She added, “It would have been more believable if they had said all the crimes were committed on the job.”

In a matter related to the CUSD recall effort, a team of investigators released on Sept. 12 a report regarding the Register of Voters’ handling of the recall. The Orange County Board of Supervisors requested the investigation last month, based on CUSD parents’ complaints the RoV mishandled petitions and the recall process. The county supervisors allocated $25,000 and brought in independent investigators who said they found mistakes and a need for improvement but no intentional lawbreaking on the part of Neal Kelley, Registrar of Voters.

The investigators generally found the claims of parents to be valid, but the report indicated the acts weren’t criminal. Numerous parents also independently complained the RoV had erred in telling them how to fill out petitions. The investigators sided with Kelley: there was no impropriety. Investigators said Kelley didn’t know the law, he misinterpreted the rules, and he didn’t apply or abide by the law because he couldn’t find the law or its exceptions. In case his ignorance of the law didn’t cover everything, they added he was new on the job and had a heavy workload.

A parent who worked in the recall said, “It reminds me of a jury trial where a defendant is so guilty there’s no reasonable defense. An attorney will say his client is only guilty of being stupid for not knowing the law, and stupidity isn’t a crime. With Neal Kelley, we’re talking about a top-level county official who got a team of investigators to buy the stupidity defense.”