Much ado about nothing By Mountain Democrat From page A4 | November 05, 2014 | “His words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes.” —Benedick from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing That quote summarizes the discussion by two lawyers at the Oct. 14 meeting of the El Dorado Union High School Board of Trustees. One was the district’s lawyer who claimed some “emerging area of law” that public officials should ask themselves, “Are my outside interests, duties or affiliations detracting from, or appear to be detracting from, my ability to exercise an undivided loyalty to the public’s interest and the organization that I serve?” What gobbledygook. What legal mumbo-jumbo. What inspired this voodoo lawyer-speak? Trustee Lori Veerkamp wanted the lawyer to say that Trustee Todd White couldn’t belong to a group called Friends of El Dorado County that is seeking refunds or reductions of school impact fees from school districts that are facing declining enrollments. Veerkamp claimed the group advocates lawsuits. White, however, told the Mountain Democrat reporter that Friends of El Dorado County wants schools to reexamine their justification for collecting impact fees and does not advocate litigation. General law and the Education Code say the only conflict that counts is economic conflict — having a financial interest in the outcome of board decisions. The other lawyer is Trustee Tim Cary, who agreed that White had no conflict of interest, but complained about the process White used for making the board aware of it (via Veerkamp’s complaint). Then he also objected to White’s membership in a group that advocated litigating the fee, according to our reporter. Cary should have stopped after saying there was no conflict of interest. The only mention of litigation is Veerkamp and that seems like a guess. There is nothing in the minutes of the Oct. 14 meeting that anyone from this newly formed group of three people has threatened any litigation. White “noted that this issue arises only from the way this county collects school impact fees. Mr. White explained that there is a prescribed way that school impact fees can be collected. Each school district in this county has to do a demographic study and a justification study. The problem for county school districts is that two different student yields are used. The county and the school districts, he stated, need to address the material inaccuracy that appears between the two reports,” the minutes stated. “Mr. White asserted that his loyalty does not lie with any special interest groups, but with the taxpayers of El Dorado County.” The real conflict appears to be Veerkamp, whose loyalty seems geared to the organization, and White, whose loyalty appears geared toward the taxpayers and voters. Our view is that board members are elected to represent the voters and taxpayers and at the same time improve the educational product. It is not a closed loop. So far the only person skirting the law is Veerkamp, who said she first brought up her complaint about White in closed session. That is not a closed session matter. Bringing that up in closed session is a violation of the Brown Act. Adding it to the public agenda with circumlocutions by the district’s lawyer just before the election, in which White was on the ballot, is more than a little suspect. It could have been agendized after the election to avoid the appearance of campaign chicanery. Enrollment figures we have seen show the high school district enrollment declining from its peak in 2007-08. Most of the feeder schools except Buckeye Union School District are seeing declining enrollments. Placerville Union School District is holding steady. Rescue Union School District appears on the bubble. Camino Union School District has shown incremental increases since 2010-2011. There are 13 district feeding into the high school district. Clearly there is a demographic shift under way.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 18:20:52 +0000