Foothills Sentry April 2024

Foothills Sentry Page 4 APRIL 2024 Circulation … 40,000 Published on the last Tuesday of each month and distributed to residences, businesses, libraries and civic centers. Printing by Advantage, Inc. 714-532-4406 Fax: 714-532-6755 foothillssentry.com 1107 E. Chapman Ave., #207 Orange, CA 92866 © Foothills Sentry 2024 Publisher/Editor Anita Bennyhoff 1969-2013 Editor Tina Richards editor@foothillssentry.com Sports Editor Cliff Robbins sportseditor@att.net Graphic Designer Jef Maddock graphics@foothillssentry.com Advertising Sales Andie Mills advertising@foothillssentry.com 714-926-9299 Office Manager Kathy Eidson officemanager@foothillssentry. com "Recalled OUSD" continued from page 1 out Parker and Covert, saying he wasn’t convinced that firm was worth it. He specifically noted Attorney Spencer Covert who at- tended board meetings to provide legal advice. “He danced around questions,” Rothenberg noted. “He either didn’t want to answer or couldn’t answer.” Erickson questioned the in- crease in legal fees for both firms, noting that the district employs a variety of legal firms for different reasons, but with the increases, these two firms alone will be paid $1.1 million this year. That’s more than double what they earned last year. “That concerns me,” she said, adding that the higher costs were due to the way the board majority has conducted business. An issue of governance “Month after month, a variety of issues were brought up by way of special meetings, things were added with 24 hours notice. Poli- cies were brought up in an unusual way and passed on the first read- ing. We probably needed legal ad- vice more than ever, but that’s not the way it should be. We should not have a $300 an hour attorney sitting through every meeting, as Spencer Covert did last year. And that’s in addition to associ- ates who charge $280 an hour. We had meetings lasting until two in the morning. “He stops charging after six hours,” she acknowl- edged, “but that’s a crazy amount of money.” Andrea Yamasaki asked the amount of attorney’s fees paid for charter schools. She was told $184,444 through January. That was primarily for facility use agreements with Explorer Acad- emy, which never materialized, and Orange County Classical Academy. Ledesma reminded his col- leagues that OCCA will be pay- ing the district close to $1 mil- lion this year, and that the board constantly needed advice from council because it was accused of Brown Act violations “every five minutes and meetings were disruptive.” “We had to have legal ser- vices,” President John Ortega added, “There was an unprec- edented amount of Public Record Act (PRA) requests and they all had to go through legal. We were threatened with lawsuits, accusa- tions were rendered. We have to pay our legal bills. But I under- stand this is a political situation.” The end is nigh “To be clear,” Erickson noted, “PRAs were only $64,000 out of $1 million. Most legal bills were due to board policies. We’re looking at numbers, not politics.” Erickson, Yamasaki and Ana Page voted against the additional $450,000 for the two law firms. Ledesma and Miner joined Orte- ga and Angie Rumsey to vote “yes,” giving the board majority the four votes it needed to pre- vail. The meeting ended with public comments on non-agenda items, which were all about the recall. Soren Williams noted that it was hundreds of thousands of dollars of waste that started the recall. “You spent that much on law- yers,” he said. “I know that mon- ey was wasted by the majority.” Dan Rothenberg returned to thank the board for creating an opportunity to meet lots of won- derful people. “You took having a narrow majority as a mandate to do whatever you wanted. If you’d have slowed down a little bit, maybe you wouldn’t have galvanized us the way you did.” During the recall campaign, he said, he walked every neighbor- hood, knocked on thousands of doors, and people were "great." “Thank you for that.” Several speakers used their time to applaud Miner and Ledes- ma for “a job well done” and for “protecting children.” “You have been vilified,” an OCCA parent said. “This was about parents’ rights and the union.” There is discrimination here in OUSD, said another. “This was a relent- less persecution of your faith.” A number of recall advocates had submitted cards to speak, but chose not to. The meeting – the last for Rick Ledesma and Madi- son Miner -- ended at 10:35 p.m. Guest Commentary By Angela Rocco DeCarlo The good news is the charming City of Orange, where we have lived for more than 30 years, pro- fesses on its website to care about water conservation. The city in- dicates it is sort of a "Guardian of the Environment." Urinals in city buildings are waterless. Park grasses are watered infrequently. And for our part we've learned to turn off the water when brush- ing our teeth. The bad news is: Orange resi- dents experiencing an unknown leak on their property, which is recorded daily by the individual property water meter, are not alerted in a timely manner by the city. We recently received a nearly $800 water bill indicating unusu- ally high water use. That's a heart attack in an en- velope to us very senior citizens. There was a leak somewhere on our property, of which we were unaware. But, the city's water me- ter was recording that leak daily. Yet, it was a secret. We were not informed until months after it be- gan. When I phoned a local media outlet, the person who answered had a similar experience - senior citizens with an unknown leak resulting in a "heart attack" $500 water bill. That's $1,300 the city water de- partment generated by failing to inform two residents of a water leak when the data is collected daily. Ultimately, a yellow card was placed on our door on Feb. 20, telling us for the first time our home's water use was exceed- ingly high. However, printed city charts of water useage show high volume in late November, esca- lating into December, January and February. Of course, once informed, we were able to stop the leak. Which could have been done immediate- ly had the city let us know. Our home is on a hill and fear of it sliding down is not unfounded, as seen in many media photo reports of such things. Yet, the Orange city water de- partment did nothing to protect the environment, which its web- site states is so important. When I phoned the head of the water department to request the $800 bill be stopped, fully expecting something like, "oh, gosh, sorry, we'll fix that," instead I received a puzzling response letter from a person who believes he is a "civil servant" rather than the taxpayer- paid city employee, advising that nothing can be done about the overcharges. Further, other city officials with whom I spoke were cour- teous but seemed bewildered by the notion the city should uphold its duty to conserve water and protect the environment by alert- ing residents to leaks of which the city knows. One phone call from an official said he wanted to apologize for the letter, but couldn't do any- thing about the bill other than suggest payments. That seemed rather amusing: sort of like a nice mugger dis- pleased one has only $10 to give him so suggests sending him ad- ditional money. As water bills are usually less than $150 for two months, the $800 demand from the City of Orange seems hostile and unproductive when directed to senior citizens. We wonder how many other Orange residents and business owners were also hit with sky- high water bills due to unreport- ed-by-the-city leaks. It would be good to learn what revenue is obtained due to such overcharges for secret leaks. This puts one in mind of the great ancient Roman statesman Cicero. While declining a politi- cal payoff in Sicily, he declared, "The chief thing in all public ad- ministration and all public service is to avoid even the slightest sus- picion of self-seeking." To show our good faith I mailed a check of $150 to Orange Mayor Dan Slater, city hall. Have not heard back from that office as of this time. To solve the "secret leak" situa- tion, a competent computer tech- nician would advise an electronic alert be installed on the data sys- tem. This may result in dimin- ished water department revenues from the overcharges for the se- cret leaks. But this would certain- ly serve the city's professed con- cern for the environment as well as give residents better service. Angela Rocco DeCarlo is a journalist originally from Chi- cago where her work appeared in the Chicago Tribune and other publications. Her column The Business Traveler ran in the Las Vegas Review Journal's business section. Her most recent work ap- peared in the Wall Street Journal. It takes a village Dear Editor Fourteen months ago, a move- ment was born. Incited by the fir- ing of our superintendent, Orange Unified School District parents, teachers and community mem- bers came together to return our district to a place where students are the first priority. It was ap- parent on Jan. 5, 2023 that the current board majority did not prioritize our students, nor input from OUSD parents and teachers. Since then it has become clear what their priorities are. They fast-tracked pet projects that ben- efited their individual interests at the expense and safety of our children. They have risked the financial health of our district in order to benefit their campaign donors or themselves personally. Trustees for the Orange Unified School District should have two priorities: students’ education and management of taxpayer dollars. While the Registrar of Vot- ers may not officially certify the results until this month, it is evi- dent the voters of Orange Unified agreed with the OUSD Recall campaign regarding the need to end the chaos and corruption that this board majority has inflicted on the students, staff and commu- nity these last 14 months. Madi- son Miner and Rick Ledesma have been recalled and will no longer be able to push their per- sonal agendas on our students. This is democracy at work. We appreciate the support of the community, shown by this de- finitive win. We have hundreds of volunteers, and this win is valida- tion of the sacrifices they made in order to make our community a better place. The campaign would never have existed without their passion and commitment. The actions of the board majority and subsequent recall have been difficult for our community. The unintended benefit is more peo- ple than ever paying attention to what happens in local elections and how school boards are gov- erned. We look forward to a time where school board meetings can be boring again, with a board that is focused on the financial health of our district. Because democracy is never over, it is likely the OUSD Recall group will move forward. What that looks like is yet to be deter- mined. We will continue to fight for our one core, uniting princi- ple: Public Education that serves all students is vital to the success of our community and must be protected. Those who choose to serve should serve our students first, not those with access or with abil- ity to pay-to-play. With transpar- ency and accountability this can be a reality in Orange Unified, and under the watchful eyes of our parents and community this is our future. There is nothing more important than education, we cannot fail in our mission. Darshan Smaaladen, Michelle Weisenberg, Scott Resnick, Kim- berly Buchan, on behalf of the hundreds of parents and commu- nity members who participated in the OUSD Recall Kind words Dear Editor: Thank you for your journal- ism. Your reporting is a service to our community. I found your reporting on the Orange Unified School District especially helpful. Because of the Foothills Sentry, voters had the opportunity to read about the egregious mismanagement by the school board majority. I found the school board’s deci- sion to grant one privately man- aged charter school less than half priced rent, and a different pri- vately managed charter school an option to mortgage district prop- erty, unacceptable. This type of fiscal mismanagement should not be tolerated. Voters in our district seem to agree, as it appears that the recall effort of trustees Madi- son Miner and Rick Ledesma will be successful. We are fortunate to have a community newspaper for our area. Thank you to the Foothills Sentry for keeping us informed. Carol LaBounty Orange Dear Editor: The importance of the role of the free press in a democracy cannot be emphasized enough. The Foothills Sentry has pro- vided a sounding board to resi- dents, giving them the opportu- nity to express their views over the recent takeover of the Orange Unified School Board. Ironically, freedom of speech has been one of the rights compromised by the new majority on the school board. There is nothing more impor- tant to the survival of democracy than the freedom of speech and freedom of the press. They are the basis of a democratic govern- ment and are the targets of au- thoritarian groups which want to challenge it. Lynn Lorenz Retired OUSD teacher City of Orange water leaks