Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/640287
Theratherblandreportingin the newspapers, both here and Redding, and on the local tele- vision stations does not portray the real drama during and be- fore the meet- ing of the County Board of Educa- tion on Monday night when the Board accepted the resignation of Charles Allen from his position as County Su- perintendent of Schools. The meeting was a victory for the public, and a defeat of cronyism and murky semi-le- gal manipulators. I was em- barrassed for the Board Mem- bers who were not prepared for the meeting, and who did not expect an audience of over 100 spectators to attend a hast- ily, and possibly illegally called meeting. Nevertheless, those people did show up, and the Board was not able to conduct a meeting in a very efficient or re- sponsible manner. Here is the chronology as I have been able to piece it to- gether. Close to closing on Fri- day the County Office of Edu- cation (COE) put out an agenda for a Special Meeting at 4pm on Monday. This may have barely met the legal requirement of a 72-hour public posting; how- ever, the actual agenda was not posted on the COE website un- til Monday morning. The agenda itself was murky and did not meet the standards of best practice. Both items on the agenda were labelled as "Discussion/Action" making it unclear just what was going to happen. Nothing on the agenda indicated the Board might con- sider waiving the residency re- quirement for the successor to the disgraced County Superin- tendent. There was no documenta- tion accompanying the agenda, and certainly no mention of a packet of letters of support for the resigning Superintendent's personal choice for his succes- sor presented to the Board dur- ing the meeting, nor a mention that some supervisors had re- quested staff to write such let- ters, and that those employee letters were mostly written on February 5 the day the agenda was "posted." The actual letter of resig- nation was not in the posses- sion the Board members, and it wasn't until a Board member asked for a copy, and a member of the audience asked for the specifics that the date of resig- nation was made public. After the meeting one Board member told me the Superintendent has spoken to each member about the details of his resignation on Friday. The letter of resignation talked about the outgoing Su- perintendent assisting his suc- cessor in making the transition, making some near me won- der if all this hurry was a way to assure the appointment of the outgoing superintendent's choice. The lawyer advising the Board agreed with me after the meeting that while the agenda may have been technically le- gal, it was not best practice. After the meeting was called to order the Board Pres- ident asked the legal advisor what its options were for fill- ing the upcoming vacancy. The advisor made a few re- marks, and at that point waiv- ing the residency requirement was mentioned. Later in the meeting, County Counsel Ar- thur Wylene corrected the im- pression the Board's advisor had made and stated that a special election was not an op- tion, so appointment was what had to happen. There were at least 100 peo- ple in attendance; some came out of alarm that the short no- tice meant that there was a plot afoot to appoint the cur- rent Deputy Superintendent as the new County Superinten- dent; this concern was exac- erbated after a teacher at the COE asked if she could apply for the position; this person had all the qualifications, but was told by the Executive Sec- retary to the Superintendent on the day of the Board meet- ing that the plan was already in place to appoint the Dep- uty Superintendent. The Dep- uty Superintendent had failed to win reelection after his first term as a County Super- intendent in another county; normally incumbents are re- elected handily. During the presentations to the Board one member of the audience, a former employee of the COE, reported that Larry Champion, the prior County Superintendent, told her not to apply for the Deputy Super- intendent position, then va- cant, because "we have to save Charles Allen from the Red Bluff Elementary." This state- ment was repeated to other staff. The conclusion reached by a knowledgeable person sitting next to me was that Allen was repeating Champion's bending of the rules for the current Dep- uty. It was Champion who said Allen had a "Master's equiva- lent." The entire allotted time for public comment was used; com- ments could generally be clas- sified as: 1) concerns the Board will make a good and swift decision; 2) support for Har- ley North; 3) kissy, kissy acco- lades about how well the COE is doing and how wonderful the County Superintendent has been and how good his cho- sen successor was; and 4) plac- ing all the blame on North for the brouhaha that was going on. It was actually the Tehama County Sheriff who reported Allen's misrepresentation of his qualifications, and he in turn turned the case over to the DA for prosecution; Allen pled no contest. North did file a com- plaint with the California Com- mission on Teacher Credential- ing, the agency that stripped Allen of his credentials. In spite of the fact the meeting was a special meet- ing with only two items on the agenda, the Board voted to ap- point a two-person subcom- mittee to draft a job descrip- tion and suggest an appoint- ment process for it to consider at its next scheduled meeting; the subcommittee may draft a survey for community mem- bers as well. How likely it is that Allen will be able to help in the transition depends on how swiftly and carefully the Board can act to appoint a qualified person before his de- parture on February 29. Plan to attend the next meeting, February 17 at 4 p.m. At best you might witness careful and wise deliberation and decision making; at worst it may be an entertaining ex- ample of poor leadership. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Sneak attack was thwarted, public prevails Cartoonist's take PinkOutanamazingevent Editor: Last Tuesday an amazing event occurred at Red Bluff High School. Our community came together for something bigger than basketball: the Pink Out night to raise funds for the fight against cancer. That night $1,700 was raised and donated to Mercy Founda- tion North. The atmosphere in the gym was electric and the night a most memorable one for every- one who attended. I would like to thank the Pink Out Committee, Shel- ley Macdonald, Toni Brunello, Stefanie Brunello, Rebecca Gallagher, Jennifer Vise, Wendy Drury, Denise Gamboa, Amber Ellenberger, Jeni Kitch- ell, Lisa Somavia, Ally Drury, Tyler Ellenberger, Katie Galla- gher, Kylee Kitchell, Kennady Sandow, Rylie Vise and Ryan Gamboa, as the Student Coun- cil representative, for working diligently to make the night successful. Joe Palubeski went the extra mile with sound, music and the flag to make sure the play- ers would have a night they would never forget. The Student Government and Leadership students, in- cluding Ryan Gamboa, Skylar Glines, Megan Boone, Noah Caylor and countless others did an amazing job promoting the game, organizing the Pink Out Dunk Tank lunch time ac- tivity, filling the bleachers and creating unforgettable memo- ries for all the players, coaches and fans who were there. Lastly, I'm grateful our ad- ministration, Todd Brose, Ron Fisher, Miguel Barriga, and Brad Wagner, who supported the event to make it possible. Many of us have been touched by cancer. It hit home with me this last fall as my mom fought the battle against breast cancer. She and numerous others were honored as survivors, which was a beautiful sight to see. Although my team won an exciting game, the highlight of the evening was to see a whole community come together and help those who have cancer win the true battle. — Kathy Brandt, Red Bluff Cam Newton's behavior a er the game Editor: During this 50th Super Bowl game I was cheering for Caro- lina merely because I felt that they may have been deserving of a win due to their success during the season. Unfortunately, though, af- ter watching Cam Newton's re- action to the press afterwards, as he sat sulking, hiding his head under a hoodie and tell- ing the media that "any good loser is a real loser," it shows me that Cam is the real loser in this game. How many young fans and countless children who look up to Cam Newton as a hero watched his embarrassing reac- tion to the loss? Instead of con- gratulating the Denver Bron- cos and Payton Manning, and admitting that the Panthers — especially Cam — could have played a better game, he showed the world that, to him, not winning means being poor losers. I'm a diehard NFL football fan and I love to watch and cheer on many teams. But after Cam Newton's display of low class sportsmanship, the Car- olina Panthers, and especially Cam Newton, will certainly not be one of them. — Joe Mandolfo, Red Bluff Pot propaganda still stinks Editor: Last week a local paper pub- lished a letter from Stan White — an alleged Dillon, Colorado man — defending marijuana legalization. From a Google search revealing he's published literally thousands of letters in newspapers nationwide de- fending marijuana use, White appears to be a paid lobbyist for the industry. In his letter, White argued le- galizing marijuana wouldn't in- crease demand for police, fire, legal, judicial, penal, healthcare and social services as I con- tended. He argued it hasn't had this effect in Colorado, where recreational marijuana's been legal since 2013. He went on to indicate Colorado's actually prospered from marijuana le- galization. He didn't reveal his source of information. My own findings indicate he's not being truthful. According to sources includ- ing Newsweek and the fed- eral government, in the first year marijuana retailers be- gan operating legally in Colo- rado, marijuana-related traf- fic deaths surged 32 percent. Further, almost 20% of all traf- fic deaths were marijuana-re- lated — compared to just 10% five years earlier. Marijuana- related emergency-room visits increased 29%, related hospi- talizations increased 38% and related calls to poison-control centers jumped 72%. Still illegal federally, Colo- rado's legalizing marijuana's also surely unraveling careers, marriages and families. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Irresponsible voting has consequences Editor: Multiple cities have gone bankrupt from overpaid and over-benefited public employ- ees, without a sufficient tax base to fund the golden re- wards. The latest example of irresponsible voters is the election of the Flint Michigan City Council and Mayor who bankrupted the city. To save money, to afford the overpaid city employees, the city lead- ership transferred purchase of water from also bankrupt De- troit, to a less costly tempo- rary supply from the auto in- dustry polluted Flint River. The rest is history, with the now heavy contamination of drinking water with high lev- els of lead. Responsible voters maintain public employee pay and ben- efits at the lower level of the non union private sector ma- jority. They reduce public em- ployee staffing levels to respon- sible levels, without raising taxes. Higher taxes force re- sponsible tax payers and em- ployers to abandon that city for more fiscally responsible cities and states. Corning voters should keep this in mind before increasing city sales taxes 7.1 percent. Few private sector retirees, whose income declines yearly at the high retiree inflation rate, can afford a 7.1 percent inflationary increase in taxes. — Joseph Neff, Corning Letters to the editor The Deputy Superintendent had failed to win reelection after his first term as a County Superintendent in another county; normally incumbents are reelected handily. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Joe Harrop Your officials State and National President Barack Obama The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500, (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461, Email: president@whitehouse.gov Assemblyman James Gallagher 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor.ca.gov Representative Doug LaMalfa 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 Senator Dianne Feinstein One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, February 13, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A8