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Monday, September 21, 2015
SPECIAL REPORT: OUSD APPOINTS SALAS
SPECIAL REPORT
Orange Net News /O/N/N/
Greater Orange
community leaders stunned
Shock
and Awe
A stunned full capacity board room full of supporters of long
time Anaheim Hills resident and community leader Andrea Yamasaki watched four
Orange Unified Trustees vote to provisionally appoint Anaheim Hills new-comer Greg
Salas to the post of Area 1 Trustee. The vote came after over an hour of overwhelming
accolades for Yamasaki from every segment of the Greater Orange community. Not one person spoke on behalf of Salas.
 |
| Provisional Trustee Salas |
The Salas appointment came after a bungled appointment process
that saw a paper screening that had eliminated 5 candidates apparently over
ruled by a legal decision sometime over the weekend. The process appeared to
have left even the OUSD Trustees confused as Superintendent Michael Christensen answered
questions from Trustee Kathy Moffat about
the new agenda that he stating was posted at 6 pm on Sunday night.
After the new agenda was passed 5-1 ( Moffat voted against
it), public comments were taken. Thirty three speakers spoke before the
Trustees. Twenty-nine speakers from
across Greater Orange Unified addressed the Board each outlining the
qualifications and personal stories attesting to the character and deep community and educational connections of Andrea Yamasaki. One speaker attested to both Andrea Yamasaki and
Kenneth Rulon qualifications. Three speakers addressed the selection process. One
speaker was candidate Victoria Weber, who was initially paper screened. She
addressed the Board saying that she wanted to make her statement of
qualifications in case she was not able to make it later in the meeting.
The bungled process resulted in invitations to the
previously eliminated candidates to make a statement. Candidate Kenneth Rulan stated he had no
prepared statement because he "just got the call and email". Two others, Dr. Roberto Flores de Apodaca and
Barbara Christiano acknowledged that Yamasaki was the obvious choice from the
overwhelming support she was receiving from the community and reached out to
Yamasaki-with Flores de Apodaca pledging his support.
During his three minute rambling statement, Greg Salas (
who was a finalist in the paper screening) stated he had just moved to the Anaheim Hills
community two years ago. He said that since applying he had to "study"
the issues of the district. He mentioned he started to visit some schools and
mentioned Orange High School
Of the original three paper screened applications- Salas
was the only one hand written, with in-complete sentences and little punctuation.
click on: SALAS
The Salas Linked-In profile lists no local connections on
the 12 connections he has (click on: SALAS LINKED IN ).
The actual voting process for selecting Salas also caused
confusion. The process became that each Trustee would state their choice and
the first one to get four would be provisionally appointed. When Trustee
Timothy Surridge's name was called and he stated "Greg Salas" an audible
gasp went up from the crowd. With each
vote for Salas the gasp continued. Board President John Ortega, Trustee Rick
Ledesma and Mark Wayland all followed Surridge and voted for Salas. Salas was elected with the four males voting for him. The two women did not vote for Salas- Deligiani voted for her campaign manager and friend Chris Nguyen, Kathy Moffat voted for
The community members in the room stayed shocked and bewildered at what they had just witnessed.
The vote was not a celebration even for Salas- he, his
family and the four Trustees who voted
for him immediately left the room after the adjournment.
Community organizers at the meeting who had anticipated the
move by Surridge and his allies then immediately brought out petitions to force a Special Election that specifically
targeted the Salas appointment. In anticipation of the Surridge move to deny the seat to the
popular Yamasaki, separate petitions had been readied and brought to the meeting
for the possible appointment of either Greg Salas or Christopher Nguyen. The petition
drafting had been coordination with the
Orange County Registrar of Voters over the past few weeks. The community has 30 days to collect about 1600
valid signatures. The cost of a Special Election
to Orange Unified would be about $5 per voter.
Orange Unified currently has a budget surplus in excess of $70 million
As the petitions where passed out in the OUSD Board Room a
text message from the Greater Orange Community
Organization * to its members simply read: "OUSD's Surridge majority
declares war on Greater Orange
SPECIAL REPORT
is a
production of Orange Net News /O/N/N/
*/O/N/N/ is the communication committee
of the Greater Orange Community Organization
Comments:
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You know the special Appointment wouldn't have been necessary had Diane Singer not run-She knew she was moving and purchased a house outside of her district before the election. It was irresponsible of her to run in the first place if she knew she couldnt complete her term. There had to be a vote of four otherwise a Special Election would've been triggered anyway. So if all four of the trustees didnt vote for Greg, (Who I watched-looked like a bumbling buffoon with an incomplete application)-it would've gone special election anyway.
Even if a special election isnt held. Hes only in there until the next regular election-he doesnt get the full four year term or even a two year term.
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Even if a special election isnt held. Hes only in there until the next regular election-he doesnt get the full four year term or even a two year term.
# posted by 
: 9/22/2015 11:59 AM
: 9/22/2015 11:59 AM << Home
