The goo thickens

Well, this morning, the Times (Registrar’s act deepens school furor) is playing catch-up re the wacky Capistrano school district story.

On Monday, the OC Reg reported that, according to Capistrano’s former spokesman, the district’s superintendent secured a list of parents who participated in an effort to recall district trustees. (For the Reg's update, see Parents protest recall lists. The Reg focuses on last night's board meeting.)

Following the Reg, the Times today reports that the Registrar's Office apparently broke the law in releasing the names.

But it gets better! According to this morning's Times, Capistrano's former PR guy also says that the Supe had an "informant" who had infiltrated the recall campaign!

Here are some excerpts:

An affluent south Orange County school district consumed by a drive to recall all its trustees was swept into deeper controversy this week when a county official admitted that the registrar of voters office had improperly let two school officials view the names of people who signed the recall petitions.

The names, which are confidential by state law, included parents and teachers in the Capistrano Unified School District, a sprawling and academically distinguished district stretching from San Clemente to Mission Viejo.
.....
Parents who organized the recall drive against the seven trustees said the registrar's action called into question the integrity of his office. They also have been incensed by allegations that school district officials kept lists of the names of parents who supported the recall.
…..
[P]arents said they were angered and astonished that the district reportedly kept a spreadsheet with the names of 150 people who backed the recall effort. Although the superintendent has denied any knowledge of the spreadsheet, the district's former spokesman said he saw it and was asked to keep it secret.
.....
Former district spokesman David Smollar, who resigned in late May, said Supt. James A. Fleming ordered him to withhold three versions of a spreadsheet list containing the names of parents, their e-mail addresses and the schools their children attend.

"I told him if anyone found out about the list, it would be an absolute embarrassment," Smollar said. "Fleming ordered me not to give it out [and] I complied. I didn't have a death wish to be fired."

He said he was also asked to block a public records request for a memo by the district security director on talks with an informant who had infiltrated the recall campaign. The superintendent "was more upset about releasing that than the spreadsheet list," Smollar said. "His mindset is to get all the background, all the ammo you can on people. He's a street fighter."
…..
Smollar said Fleming had asked him to go to the registrar's office in the first place, to "take notes of interest."

"Fleming took the sheet, smiled and placed it in his to-discuss-with-trustees box," Smollar said.
…..
"I quit because I didn't believe I was being told the truth as a spokesperson by the superintendent," he said. "I was tired of continual lies he told to me that I passed to the public."…. [Boldface added.]

Well, I don’t wanna beat a dead horse, but this sure does remind us here at Dissent of Raghu "Mr. Goo" Mathur, the Chancellor of the SOCCCD.

Especially the part about the PR guy quitting because his boss is a liar.

Perhaps some of you will recall this story:

9/25/98

IRVINE VALLEY SPOKESWOMAN QUITS

On the job a month, she says she was pressured to present a false view of the college.

By KIMBERLY KINDY
The Orange County Register

Irvine Valley College’s new spokeswoman has left after just one month, saying she was asked to present the public with a view of the embattled college that was tantamount to lying.

Bevin Zandvliet said she repeatedly asked college President Raghu Mathur for information about campus protests, lawsuits aimed at the administration, and controversy over the school’s accreditation, but she was rebuffed.

“I was told that there were some things I was not to focus on,” she said. “From my own research, old files and press clippings I got a picture of an administration that was doing some things that I don’t think I could represent without violating my own ethics.”
…..
“People are walking on eggshells around there [IVC],” she said. “He said he has an open-door policy and that he believes in communication, but I didn’t see it.”

No doubt Capistrano's supe will soon lose his job. But Raghu was rewarded for his multifaceted unethical conduct (keeping secret files on faculty critics, distributing a student's transcripts, sneaking into the Chancellor's back door and then lying about it, whatnot). Not only was he made Chancellor, he received valuable cash prizes, namely, a quarter million dollar salary.

See also Gila's CUSD ENEMIES LIST 7/10 blog on Orange Juice (CUSD Enemies List) for one insider's perspective. Check out the comments, too, though some seem to be coming from way out in left field.