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School board’s appointment violated state law, says critic
By Jason Dietrich
The process by which the Redondo Beach school board went about appointing ex-city manager Paul Connolly to a provisional seat on the board has one long-time district watcher crying "foul."
School-board critic Greg Anderson asked the board to reconsider their appointment at the special school board meeting Monday, July 10. He threatened to have the board prosecuted for violations of the Brown Act, the section of California’s Government code that regulates the manner in which public meetings are conducted, if members didn’t re-start the candidate selection process. The school board did not take action on his request.
The issue springs from the way the board chose the successor to Zeke Zeidler, a school board member who resigned in May to take a job as bench officer in the juvenile courts. Rather than hold a special election or wait until the position was up for re-election in March of 2001, the board decided to appoint the heir to Zeidler’s school board seat.
But the way the board came up with their first choice, holding a discussion on which member to choose without informing the public that kind of discussion was going to take place, is against state law, said Anderson.
In order to take a look at the dozen candidates who applied, the board scheduled three special meetings last week for interviews. A fourth meeting was tentatively scheduled for Saturday, July 8, to give board members more time in the public eye to debate the merits of the various candidates.
Though the board used a taped interview to evaluate Connolly, who could not be present last week due to a long-standing prior commitment, the board did not use videotape or audiotape to record the interview meetings. Most school board meetings are recorded; so Anderson brought along his own videocamera and taped the special meetings.
The type of meetings called by the board to interview applicants were different than regular school board meetings. Special meetings are restricted to a discussion of matters that are on the agenda. New issues brought up by school board members or the public may not be discussed, although issues brought up may be taken up at a later date, said Terry Francke, general counsel for the Sacramento based 1st Amendment Coalition, a non-profit organization concerned with laws of freedom of information and expression.
The agendas for all four interview meetings listed "interviews for a provisional vacancy on the Board" as the only items for discussion by the board. The other entries on the agenda were an approval of the last meeting’s agenda and an audience participation section.
But after evaluating the last of the 12 candidates at their third meeting, the school board members unexpectedly announced that they would compare notes and thoughts on the candidates at about 10 p.m. Friday evening.
After each member came up with their top two candidates, four front runners had emerged. Valerie Dombrowski selected Janis Smith and Judy Swanson as her top picks. The other three members had all selected former city manager Paul Connolly and Jay Kohorn, Zeidler’s domestic partner, as the candidates they thought would be the best addition to the board.
The next round of discussion narrowed the field further. School board member David Wiggins, who was supported by Zeidler in his run for school board, favored Kohorn, while Dombrowski and Rebecca Sergeant favored Connolly. School Board President Robin Shaw appeared to have the swing vote. By the end of the conversation, the board members had all agreed to call Connolly forward.
"As board president I would like to direct the superintendent and the secretary of the board of education to invite Paul Connolly to be present at the Board of Education meeting to be held Monday, July 10, to be considered -- and I want to say considered, because there is no action being taken tonight -- for a appointment to the provisional position on the board of education," Shaw said.
But Shaw’s definition "action taken" isn’t the one that matters. The Brown Act, in section 54952.6 of the California Government Code, defines "action taken" as a "collective decision made by a majority of the members of a legislative body, a collective commitment or a promise by a majority of the members or a legislative body to make a positive or a negative decision, or an actual vote by a majority of the members of a legislative body when sitting as a body or entity, upon a motion, proposal, resolution, order or ordinance."
By singling out Connolly, the board had "taken action," Francke said.
"The decision to eliminate all candidates other than the one they want to appoint is a critical decision. It’s an intention to appoint. Commitment of that kind requires notice under the Brown Act. If you’ve got consensus you’ve got action taken" he said.
"If your agenda process sends signals to public saying interview, interview, interview, but the actual appointment won’t be made until Monday, it also suggests that the decision won’t be made until Monday," Francke continued.
The school board also agreed to phone the other applicants and tell them not to show up to the next special meeting with the hopes of being appointed.
"The superintendent called me at 11 p.m. Friday," said board-seat applicant Judy Swanson, the wife of former school board member Bart Swanson. "His opening line sounded like damage control. But he wanted to let me know right away before the press called me. He told me they had already made the decision, and they had chosen Paul Connolly."
Despite the board’s apparent ahead-of-time decision, Redondo Beach Superintendent Bill Noonan said the board was not in violation of the Brown Act and had not picked anyone firmly.
"They could have decided to appoint someone else up until tonight," Noonan said.
Calls made to the district’s council Tuesday were not returned by ER press time, but district spokesman Jerry Klein said that the superintendent had spoken with council Tuesday morning, and that the district had not violated the Brown Act.
Board members said they went ahead with the after-hours meeting to spare applicants from finding out second hand they weren’t selected for the position.
"I do have a problem with leaving here tonight this close because it will beat us to the street. I’m speaking from experience. Tomorrow’s paper will announce who the four finalists are. Then we have eight people who aren’t getting the courtesy of a professional phone call," said Sergeant.
"In my heart of hearts I couldn’t sleep well knowing someone might open the paper and read whatever the paper said. We know it’s not always accurate," said Shaw.ER