On Feb. 2, I attended my first and, I think, last Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education meeting.
The meeting started out normal enough with recognition of community members and programs. Then came the open comment period, where several speakers asked for Trustee David Gerard’s resignation, plus a couple who supported him—one saying he was just “talking smack” and it was no big deal (certainly the threshold for acceptable behavior for some can be remarkably different than mine…).
Then came the big agenda item which was the public hearing for censure of embattled Trustee Gerard involving his emails from his MHUSD address.
The usual administrative readings were followed by questions/comments from the trustees themselves. Trustees Ron Woolf and Donna Ruebusch expressed how they had felt attacked and belittled in the now infamous emails.
Not surprisingly, Trustees Rick Badillo and Gino Borgioli offered Gerard their support.
It appeared to me that the cornerstone of Badillo’s comments was freedom of speech. I am prepared to accept that what Gerard said was not illegal but if we are to use minimum legal standards to justify actions then we are operating in the basement of behavior.
I think we all expect our elected public officials to operate at the highest levels of behavior, and not merely squeaking by on a legal judgment.
Then came one of the most incredible things I have ever seen in a public meeting, and I’ve been to a lot: Trustee Borgioli’s comments and alternate resolution for censure. I felt that the atmosphere at the meeting was turning a bit theatrical but this moved it into three-ring circus material.
Borgioli had previously asked President Benevento who wrote the current resolution under consideration. The answer from the president was fellow trustees, community members and an attorney.
All eyes were on Trustee Borgioli as he read a prepared statement, which I was not convinced he wrote himself from his reading. Then he proposed an alternative resolution which no one had seen and he could not easily describe.
President Benevento then asked Trustee Borgioli who wrote the resolution. You would think that what happened next was part of a comedy skit.
Trustee Borgioli, now faced with question reciprocity, did not answer for several seconds. I can only imagine how long those few seconds felt as all of the eyes in a packed room were on him.
“Armando Benavides” finally spilled out of Trustee Borgioli’s mouth, and there was a murmur in the room.
Apparently Mr. Benavides has been at odds with the three that were supporting the censure resolution. I was gobsmacked.
Is Armando Benavides the fourth man allied to the apparent trinity of Gerard, Borgioli and Badillo? He sure seemed to exert some influence over the hearing from his seat in the audience.
I left during Trustee Gerard’s very long prepared speech which finally included the apologies many had been asking to hear for so long. That apology rang hollow to me since he was under the pressure of a censure resolution.
Apparently I missed an incident later in the evening where Trustee Badillo was requested to be questioned by the MHPD. More theater was created when Badillo moved briskly to the front door past the audience and away from the police. He was met at the front door by another officer, and a chaotic scene ensued in which it was later learned that police received a report that Badillo might have been carrying a weapon (he was not; it was a utility tool on his belt).
This is getting ridiculous and I feel that the community of Morgan Hill is now starting to pay for the behavior of Badillo, Borgioli and Gerard.
Morgan Hill is becoming a laughing stock with the behavior of the trinity which I now call the “Holy Cow!” trinity.
Holy cow! We need a change in behavior at the MHUSD board level now!
John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner, Vice President of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.
