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CUSD Conservatives Prevail “In Capistrano Unified's hotly contested school board race this November, the ferocious rhetoric between two dueling slates of candidates is likely to boil down to two basic talking points – one side accused of being right-wing and anti-public education, the other of being left-wing and pro-labor union.” That’s how the OC Register described the intense court battles that played out in court two weeks ago. In the end, five separate lawsuits were heard in OC Superior Court, on the merits, and the conservatives won decisive victories in all five. This is the story of the first two (which were brought by the conservatives against the union sympathizers). Background Dana Point resident Greg Powers, an outspoken opponent to the effort by the public employee unions to take control of the Capistrano Unified School District on Election day, filed two legal actions in OC Superior Court against Erin Kutnick, Marilyn Amato and other leaders of the so-called “Children First” organization (a front for the public employee unions) – and against their endorsed candidate John Alpay. Both lawsuits asked the court to sanction Kutnick, Amato and Alpay for making false, misleading and illegal statements in the official candidate statements they filed with the OC Registrar. Attorney Wayne Tate represented Powers in the suit against the leaders of “Children First,” and Attorney Craig Alexander represented Powers in the action against Alpay. Court’s Ruling – CUSD Conservatives Vindicated Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Kim Dunning heard these two hotly contested cases. Judge Dunning held a full hearing, on the merits, and found as a matter of law that: Erin Kutnick, Marilyn Amato and other leaders of the so-called “Children First” organization had made illegal, false and misleading statements in their official ballot statements. The judge ordered the following illegal statements to be stricken: “With the backing of interests hostile to public education, the current CUSD Trustees diverted more than $100,000 from classrooms to the legal fees to prevent this [Measure H] from getting to you." John Alpay had made multiple illegal, false and misleading statements in the official ballot statements he submitted to the Orange County Registrar. The judge ordered the following illegal statements to be stricken: “By law, school districts cannot raise or lower taxes, I cannot pretend to tell you otherwise." "I will immediately move to cut unnecessary expenditures by terminating the hundreds of attorneys on retainer by CUSD and change the manner in which legal settlements are approved." In the end, the conservatives were successful in the two lawsuits they brought against the leaders of the union’s so-called “Children First” organization – and against their endorsed candidate John Alpay. |
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