By Bob Walsh
Regular readers will know that I have reported a little
bit on the trials and tribulation of the Stockton Unified School
District. Two weeks ago the cops raided the house of the board
president, AngelAnn Flores. The search warrant was unsealed (possibly
in error) yesterday.
They
were looking for evidence supporting the theft of government funds,
failure to produce government documents, witness intimidation and Brown
Act violations. The allegations of theft of public money relate to
alleged misuse of a district credit card.
Deputies
seized two iPhones, an iPad, a Mac Book Air laptop and assorted
documents. The cops also asked Google and Meta for access to Flores'
accounts. Also a USB drive with info related to Flores' credit card was
seized from the SUSD offices.
The
investigation has been running for seven months. It was triggered when
the former interim superintendent, Traci Miller, contacted the S.O.
and blew the whistle. It seems that Joann Juarez, who is still the
Chief Business Official, has also given input to the Sheriff's Office
and possibly the FBI which is looking into matters involving the SUSD.
The suspected problems
appear, at least to me, to be sort of small beer. Things like spending
money on meals and other personal expenses when there was no travel
involved. The total of maybe flaky expenses for this calendar year
appears to be something like $1,000 for the whole year. She is also
accused of being kind of casual about turning in expense receipts. She
is blaming that on the idea that her expense reports are being leaked to
the media. I am unsure why that should be an issue as long as the
expenses were kosher.
The
intimidate beef comes from an email Flores sent informing staff that she
needed to be informed BEFORE any conversations with pretty much anybody
that wanted to know pretty much anything about her personally or
professionally. The Sheriff and D.A. seem to be considering this an
attempt to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime.
The
Brown Act concerns public meetings and public notice. Members of pretty
much any government legislative body are forbidden to meet in the
majority to discuss or decide public business. This can include serial
meetings, like Joe calling Fred who calls Mary who calls Joan etc. etc.
etc.
1 comment:
These kind of shenanigans have been going on since elected officials began serving their terms. The Open Meetings Act is constantly violated by city councils, school boards and county commissioners. People have taken to Public Information Requests to monitor elected officials activities. Guess what? It's working.
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