Starting today this blog will continue as a watchdog to follow, investigate, question and hold accountable the Lagunitas School Board. As I have documented during this campaign in earlier blog postings, a number of unethical actions by Mr. Sloan and Ms. Bohman have punctuated their tenure on the board. In addition, my complaints to the Fair Political Practices Commission and the Marin DA are still pending. Although the election is over, the spotlight of transparency must still be shined on the continuing slash and burn policies that are sure to be continued as the state and District face yet another round of neoliberal austeric cutbacks that will further attempt to dismantle and erode our local public school.
You can count on this blog as one source of information and analysis of school board policy. I hope you will continue to visit and stay in touch.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
This election has brought the spotlight of accountability to the board
For all of those who voted and supported me in this election I would like to say Thank You! It's clear that this campaign differed from the incumbents' in several important ways. The first is that unlike the incumbents I talked about issues not "who we know". There are real fundamental problems facing this District worsened by the cut first and ask questions later polices implemented by the incumbents. I was the only one who proposed solutions.
As of 10 pm last night I finished in 3rd place with 223 votes or 16.24% of the vote. I hope that my candidacy will make it clear that there are positive alternatives to bringing equity and fairness to our local tax revenue tax base. Laying off staff and teachers and freezing their pay, packing too many children into the classroom cutting the school library, bringing multinational corporations onto our campus to entrap our children as a captive consumer market, and pushing more borrowing from Wall Street at high interest rates is no longer acceptable.
Parents and residents are watching this board very closely and holding them accountable for their policies. I hope that more residents with new fresh ideas will offer themselves to run for the open seats coming up next Fall when voter turnout is more than the 33% it was in this election. Low voter turnout combined with an off year election always favors the more conservative incumbents.
Most importantly my campaign has brought to light several troubling questions about actions of Superintendent Larry Enos and Ms. Bohman. I expect the county DA will get to the bottom of why the Administration has failed or refused to turn over all the self-promotional campaign emails Denise Bohman sent using her District email address—a violation of California law. Superintendent Larry Enos is now 12 days late turning over all the emails sent by Ms. Bohman to promote her re-election and may be in violation of the California Public Records Act. I have some emails sent by Ms. Bohman which Mr. Enos has not yet turned over to me. I await the DA weighing in on this issue.
As of 10 pm last night I finished in 3rd place with 223 votes or 16.24% of the vote. I hope that my candidacy will make it clear that there are positive alternatives to bringing equity and fairness to our local tax revenue tax base. Laying off staff and teachers and freezing their pay, packing too many children into the classroom cutting the school library, bringing multinational corporations onto our campus to entrap our children as a captive consumer market, and pushing more borrowing from Wall Street at high interest rates is no longer acceptable.
Parents and residents are watching this board very closely and holding them accountable for their policies. I hope that more residents with new fresh ideas will offer themselves to run for the open seats coming up next Fall when voter turnout is more than the 33% it was in this election. Low voter turnout combined with an off year election always favors the more conservative incumbents.
Most importantly my campaign has brought to light several troubling questions about actions of Superintendent Larry Enos and Ms. Bohman. I expect the county DA will get to the bottom of why the Administration has failed or refused to turn over all the self-promotional campaign emails Denise Bohman sent using her District email address—a violation of California law. Superintendent Larry Enos is now 12 days late turning over all the emails sent by Ms. Bohman to promote her re-election and may be in violation of the California Public Records Act. I have some emails sent by Ms. Bohman which Mr. Enos has not yet turned over to me. I await the DA weighing in on this issue.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Lobby the Governor to declare a fiscal emergency and set aside Prop 13: Part 3 of My Save Our Schools—Tax the Super-rich plan
Many District residents may not be aware that the Lagunitas School District is a fee paying client of a lobbying group in Sacramento known as School for Sound Finance which advocates for the concerns of Basic Aid School Districts of which we are one. If elected I will spearhead a new coalition of school districts to advocate that Governor Brown declare a fiscal emergency and set aside Prop 13, which he has the power to do, and file a lawsuit against the Governor if he fails to do so. Since it passed in the 1970s Prop 13 has been the primary cause of our on-going revenue shortfall.
Freeing us the bondage of Prop 13 would allow our District to restore equity to our local property taxes. This would be done by adjusting property tax increases so that they rise proportionally to the value of the property, eg. the more valuable your property the higher your property tax rate. Those with less valuable properties may actually see their property taxes fall. It would also allow the District to recapture lost property taxes from those who have benefited from Prop 13 especially those who owned when it went into effect in 1978. Right now the longer you hold onto your property the lower your actual property tax rate relative to someone who bought the same value property more recently.
The Legislature lacks the political will to touch the holy grail of Prop 13 for fear of losing re-election by becoming the target of fanatical anti-tax groups such as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. It's up to the school board trustees of our state to take down Prop 13 or continue to see our system of public education drown in austerity, layoffs, increasing lass sizes, cutbacks, and privatization which both of my opponents advocate more of in our District.
Freeing us the bondage of Prop 13 would allow our District to restore equity to our local property taxes. This would be done by adjusting property tax increases so that they rise proportionally to the value of the property, eg. the more valuable your property the higher your property tax rate. Those with less valuable properties may actually see their property taxes fall. It would also allow the District to recapture lost property taxes from those who have benefited from Prop 13 especially those who owned when it went into effect in 1978. Right now the longer you hold onto your property the lower your actual property tax rate relative to someone who bought the same value property more recently.
The Legislature lacks the political will to touch the holy grail of Prop 13 for fear of losing re-election by becoming the target of fanatical anti-tax groups such as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. It's up to the school board trustees of our state to take down Prop 13 or continue to see our system of public education drown in austerity, layoffs, increasing lass sizes, cutbacks, and privatization which both of my opponents advocate more of in our District.
Complaint filed with Marin County DA over Denise Bohman's use of District email for her re-election campaign
This week I filed a complaint with the Marin County District Attorney over Denise Bohman's use of District email for her re-election campaign. According to California Government Code Section 8314(a) “It is unlawful for any elected state or local officer, including any state or local appointee, employee, or consultant, to use or permit others to use public resources for a campaign activity, or personal or other purposes which are not authorized by law.” I have included the full text of my letter to the DA below.
On October 18th I filed a Public Records request with the Lagunitas School District when I came into the possession of emails Ms. Bohman sent as part of her campaign. The District turned over several emails none of which included the ones I already possess. They exceeded the 10 day limit to turn over these emails by 3 days and are still in violation of the California Public Records Act request. Has the District overlooked some of the emails they should have released to me or are they withholding these emails to help Ms. Bohman win re-election? I hope the DA can get to the bottom of this.
---------
November 2, 2011
Mike McBride, Esq.
Marin County
Office of the District Attorney
3501 Civic Center Drive, Room 130
San Rafael, CA 94903
Re: complaint regarding California Government Code Section 8314
Mr. McBride,
I wish to request that your office initiate an investigation of Lagunitas School Board Trustee Denise Santa Cruz Bohman’s use of public resources for her re-election campaign. According to California Government Code Section 8314(a) “It is unlawful for any elected state or local officer, including any state or local appointee, employee, or consultant, to use or permit others to use public resources for a campaign activity, or personal or other purposes which are not authorized by law.”
As you will see from the two attached emails, Ms. Bohman has been using her official District email for her re-election campaign. As a candidate for one of the two open Trustee positions I find this use of public resources to be illegal under 8314a, a violation of the public trust which she was elected to uphold, and gives her an unfair advantage in the campaign—the very kind of abuse this law was intended to ban and punish.
While I currently only possess these two emails I have a good reason to suspect that Ms. Bohman may have further used her District email address for her re-election. On October 18, 2011 I filed the attached California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq.), request with the Lagunitas School District. Thirteen days later I received several copies of emails sent by Ms. Bohman. However, the two emails attached to this letter were not included. As a result, I have asked the District to stop withholding these and all other emails sent by Ms. Bohman for campaign purposes and turn over all the emails they have in their possession. I have not yet received a reply.
I look forward to your immediate attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Robert Ovetz, Ph.D
On October 18th I filed a Public Records request with the Lagunitas School District when I came into the possession of emails Ms. Bohman sent as part of her campaign. The District turned over several emails none of which included the ones I already possess. They exceeded the 10 day limit to turn over these emails by 3 days and are still in violation of the California Public Records Act request. Has the District overlooked some of the emails they should have released to me or are they withholding these emails to help Ms. Bohman win re-election? I hope the DA can get to the bottom of this.
---------
November 2, 2011
Mike McBride, Esq.
Marin County
Office of the District Attorney
3501 Civic Center Drive, Room 130
San Rafael, CA 94903
Re: complaint regarding California Government Code Section 8314
Mr. McBride,
I wish to request that your office initiate an investigation of Lagunitas School Board Trustee Denise Santa Cruz Bohman’s use of public resources for her re-election campaign. According to California Government Code Section 8314(a) “It is unlawful for any elected state or local officer, including any state or local appointee, employee, or consultant, to use or permit others to use public resources for a campaign activity, or personal or other purposes which are not authorized by law.”
As you will see from the two attached emails, Ms. Bohman has been using her official District email for her re-election campaign. As a candidate for one of the two open Trustee positions I find this use of public resources to be illegal under 8314a, a violation of the public trust which she was elected to uphold, and gives her an unfair advantage in the campaign—the very kind of abuse this law was intended to ban and punish.
While I currently only possess these two emails I have a good reason to suspect that Ms. Bohman may have further used her District email address for her re-election. On October 18, 2011 I filed the attached California Public Records Act (Government Code Section 6250 et seq.), request with the Lagunitas School District. Thirteen days later I received several copies of emails sent by Ms. Bohman. However, the two emails attached to this letter were not included. As a result, I have asked the District to stop withholding these and all other emails sent by Ms. Bohman for campaign purposes and turn over all the emails they have in their possession. I have not yet received a reply.
I look forward to your immediate attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Robert Ovetz, Ph.D
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