An embattled board of education trustee attempting to work his way back to respectability among certain members of the public recently lashed out at the district’s bond oversight committee for violating their own bylaws in order to plan his demise.
Trustee David Gerard—loathed by some for his use of the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s email server to distribute offensive materials about his colleagues—pointed a finger at the Measure G Bond Oversight Committee at the March 15 school board meeting.
The committee, however, was well within its scope of authority to discuss the concerning matter since it could have negatively affected their bond rating, according to district staff.
An independent expert on state open meetings laws said there doesn’t appear to be a major violation.
“I don’t see any problems necessarily under the law with them having a special meeting, particularly if it was addressing an issue within that body’s subject matter jurisdiction,” said staff attorney/legislative advocate Nikki Moore with the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
After Measure G committee representative John Horner’s brief quarterly overview on the district’s construction projects, Gerard said he had “serious concerns” about a special meeting called on Dec. 11, 2015 by the oversight folks for a discussion of the email scandal, which was revealed by the Times in November 2015. Gerard called the committee meeting a “mobbing exercise,” and one that was “an excessive breach of authority” by the committee formed to provide oversight over the district’s use of the $198 million Measure G capital improvements bond. The bond was approved by voters in 2012.
“I wasn’t there. I wasn’t even aware that the meeting was called,” Gerard said. “I’m a governing board member and I was not alerted that there was a special meeting for this committee. I would have liked to have been there, frankly.”
Gerard claimed there were no minutes yet of the special meeting for him to review, and the committee violated policy by holding a second December meeting when its bylaws limit them to only one meeting per quarter. The bylaws, which are posted on the district website under the “Measure G” tab, state that the committee “shall meet at least once a year, but no more frequently than quarterly.”
District staff immediately came to the defense of the oversight committee. Along with Horner, other committee members listed are Roger Beaulieu, Nancy Reynolds, Cristy Gieg, Mike Rusch, Marty Cheek and Brad Ledwith.
“I’m neither an attorney nor an expert on matters involving this,” said Horner, also the executive director of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce. “At the regular Dec. 9 meeting, some of the members had brought up concerns about what was in the news at the time and felt strongly that the committee should make some comments on that.”
On the Dec. 11 agenda, also posted on the district website, the one discussion item reads “Preparation of December 15, 2015 Board of Education Meeting Public Comment,” with Ledwith listed as the presenter.
Horner noted they were advised by the district to call the special meeting rather than talk about it at the Dec. 9 gathering since it was not an agendized issue. At the meeting, Horner said members expressed their varying levels of concern with Gerard remaining on the board after his email related transgressions were exposed in the news.
“The nexus that I think you’re asking for is how does this affect the bond, and I think there is a clear nexus,” responded Assistant Superintendent Kirsten Perez who attended the oversight meetings. “We have one of the highest bond ratings in the state of California that is driven by the governance of this board, and any fluctuation in the change of governance of the board and leadership team affect our bond rating.”
Credit rating could be impacted by instability in leadership
In November, Moody’s credit rating agency, an independent source of credit risk evaluation, upgraded MHUSD’s rating from Aa2 to Aa1. The upgrade to Aa1 puts MHUSD into an elite group of less than 10 percent of California school districts rated by Moody’s, according to the district’s Nov. 9 press release. Moody’s does take changes in leadership into account when updating a rating designation.
In the months leading up to the oversight committee’s Dec. 9 quarterly meeting, former Trustee Amy Porter-Jensen resigned, a parent group unsuccessfully tried to force the resignation of Board President Bob Benevento and another community group was demanding Gerard step down for the public exposure of his demeaning emails.
“Having been at both meetings, I can say there was grave concern by several of the committee members related to activities of the board,” noted Perez, adding the special meeting was properly posted on the district website in accordance with the Brown Act, and the committee is allowed to hold more than one meeting per quarter if so desired.
Moore, a CNPA legislative advocate, described the dispute between Gerard and district staff on the actions of the oversight committee as “an internal governance issue” rather than a violation of the Brown Act, the state law that ensures government meetings and records remain open to the public.
Superintendent Steve Betando explained that the district was challenged by Moody’s on its bond rating due to having instability on the board. Betando continued that Perez “convinced them to go ahead and approve our bond rating at a higher rate in spite of the board’s instability; so it is a concern.”
At the Dec. 15 regular school board meeting, community members—including Ledwith—demanded Gerard’s resignation. Gerard refused and instead offered an apology with his own version of events. The board later deadlocked 3-3 in a vote to publicly reprimand him with a censure at the Feb. 2 meeting with Benevento and Trustees Donna Ruebusch and Ron Woolf in support. Gerard, along with Trustees Rick Badillo and Gino Borgioli, opposed the censure.
The bond oversight committee’s legal charge is to actively review and report on the expenditure of taxpayers’ money for school construction in accordance with voter-approved projects, ensuring the Measure G bond revenues are expended only for the purpose described, according to the description given on the district website. The Dec. 11 special meeting agenda is posted along with all meetings dating back to May 2013.
