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Thursday, October 29, 2015
Petitions ratified Salas ousted
SPECIAL REPORT
OUSD in CRISIS
#5 in a series
a special series by /O/N/N/
Special Election Petition certified
SALAS APPOINTMENT
"TERMINATED"
 |
| Salas appointment terminated |
Thirty eight days after the historic September 21, 2015
Orange Unified School Board Meeting that appointed Greg Salas as
"Provisional Trustee", proponents
for ousting Salas and using a Special Election to elect an Orange Unified
Trustee to the vacated Area 1 Trustee Seat received news today from the Orange County Department of Education
that the Petition for a Special Election has been certified as valid.
The petition's 3670 petition signatures turned in exceeded
the required 1567 valid signatures by 134%.
The collection process of collecting petition signatures
was completed on October 19, within the
30 day legal requirement from the September 21, controversial appointment of
Salas in a 4-2 vote by the OUSD School Board.
(Click on: Shock and Awe)
The Orange County Department of Education in conjunction
with the Orange County Registrar of voters had 30 days to validated the
petition- they completed the process in 8 days.
All major community segments of Greater Orange responded to
the Anaheim Hills Community in their
quest to repeal the appointment of the unknown and unqualified Salas.
According to the California Education Code Section 5091 (2)
, when the Special Election petition signatures are turned in and "legally verified" then " the provisional appointment is
terminated, and the county superintendent of schools shall order a special
election to be conducted no later than the 130th day after the
determination" . (Click on
ED CODE)
That
Special Election has been ordered for March 1, 2016.
Salas'
name is so controversial across the district and with no experience in the local schools or community, long-time OUSD watchers doubt that Salas would run in the Special Election.
ORANGE
Unified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange News Service
are independent news services of /O/N/N/
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Another Special Meeting
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange Net News
/O/N/N/
More OUSD chaos
Tabled Bond items come back as a
Special OUSD Board Meeting
tonight
After the Orange
Unified School Board met in a Regular Meeting on Thursday October 15, 2015 to
vote on three items on the posted Agenda that was to lay the ground work
for some type of 2016 Facilities Bond election- the OUSD Surridge
Majority "tabled" items related to the Bond over objections of
Trustee Kathy Moffat. The official reason was that Trustee Timothy Surridge was
absent from the Board meeting.
Now a week later, with
Trustee Kathy Moffat absent-but teleconferencing a Special Meeting has been
called to address
October 15th's
Agenda Action Item 12 C (page 10) asks the OUSD Board to approve a
subcommittee's recommendation to hire Irvine based Fieldman, Rolapp &
Associates as OUSD's General Obligation Bond Fiscal Advisor ( the
firm also has experience with Community Facility Districts). While the
firm's service fee is not listed, it will only get paid if a Bond election is
successful. (See below for more information.)
On the October 15th
Agenda is Action Item 12 D to give the
OUSD staff direction on preparing for the possibility special tax districts
called School Facility Improvement Districts (aka Community Facility Districts)
now comes back to the OUSD Board as the Special Meeting Agenda Item 10 A.
These School Facility Improvement
Districts would allow specific areas in Greater Orange- that have traditionally
voted in a majority for the past failed OUSD Facility Bonds- to approve bonds
for their neighborhood's special district schools by approving a special
Mello-Roos tax assessment for their specific district. The firm recommended in
the Agenda Item to study the OUSD demographics for these specific special
districts is Escondido
Item 12 E on the
October 15th Agenda to give the OUSD staff direction on the OUSD Facilities
Master Plan comes back a week later as Item 10 B.
The agenda item reviews
the three different facility assessments OUSD procured in 2003, 2013 and 2014.
The agenda item offers four options to the OUSD Board: a six month Facility
Condition Assessment ( estimated cost $150,000); a 9 month
"update" of the Long Range Facility Master Plan-last done in 2003
(estimated cost $300,000); a 12 month "new comprehensive"
Long Range Facility Master Plan (estimated cost $500,000); or take no
action on Facility Master Plans.
To see the 10/22/15 Agenda please click on SPECIAL MEETING
Monday, October 19, 2015
SPECIAL REPORT 3670 signatures turned in
SPECIAL REPORT
OUSD in CRISIS
#4 in a series
a special series by /O/N/N/
Salas Repeal petitions turned in
Greater Orange voters 3670
Greg Salas 4
|
| Soon to be ousted Greg Salas |
The total signatures exceeded the required 1567 valid signatures by 2103 signatures or 134%. The whole process done in 30 days is just the latest example of a long line of examples when the voters in Greater Orange have followed through on threats to local politicians who crossed well organized community activists across Greater Orange.
All major community segments of Greater Orange responded to the Anaheim Hills Community in their quest to repeal the appointment of the unknown and unqualified Salas.
The sheer number appears to guarantee that the petition will be validated. According to state law, once the petition is validated, Salas will be ousted as the "provisional" trustee and a Special Election will be ordered. Salas was appointed in a controversial 4- 2 vote by the Surridge Majority of the OUSD Board exactly 30 days ago. The Surridge Majority just includes all the male trustees on the OUSD Board who follow the ideas of OUSD Trustee Timothy Surridge.
The whole Salas Affair is just another of a long line of political bungles orchestrated by Surridge. Those huge political missteps include the failed Surridge attempts to lease the Peralta Site to a developer for high density apartment buildings, then when that failed, Surridge tried to sell the Peralta Site to developers ( that too failed) , and a proposal by Surridge to eliminate two of the seven trustee positions on the OUSD seven member board ( not even his allies would go along with that plan).
In the latest Surridge led debacle, Surridge admitted personally recruiting his friend Greg Salas after Surridge admittedly independently investigated the political persuasions of those other applicants for appointment to the OUSD Board.
At the last of the three Special Meetings called by the Surridge Majority regarding the Salas Affair, Surridge and Board allies tried to blame the whole Salas Affair on various parts of the Greater Orange Community as they taunted the community leaders who had showed up to the Special Meetings protesting the Salas' appointment as "not representing the whole community".
In the required 30 days, those community leaders, who had put the Board on notice that they were prepared to go down this road, proved that they are doing so with the backing of the Greater Orange voters.
For more information see the You Tube video below- OUSD Timothy Salas explains why he recruited Greg Salas at the 3rd Special Meeting on the Salas Affair.
For more information see the You Tube video below- OUSD Timothy Salas explains why he recruited Greg Salas at the 3rd Special Meeting on the Salas Affair.
ARCHIVAL Information and direct news can be found at:
the Greater Orange News Service http://greaterorange.blogspot.com/
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange News Service
are independent news services of /O/N/N/
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
OUSD moves on 2016 Bond
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE
Independent
insight into OUSD
a news service of
Orange
Net News
/O/N/N/
Amid community political chaos...
OUSD Board
to decide on ground work for possible 2016 Facilities Bonds
The Orange Unified School Board will meet in a Regular
Meeting on Thursday October 15, 2015 and vote on three items that may lay the
ground work for some type of 2016
Facilities Bond election.
This month's "Regular Meeting" comes on the heels
of three disastrous OUSD Special Board Meetings held since the last Regular
OUSD Board Meeting on September 10th. Those three Special Meetings ultimately
resulted in the selection and swearing-in of Greg Salas as the "Provisional
Trustee" for the vacant OUSD
Trustee Area 1 seat and a botched attempt at the Board passing a resolution
aimed at dissuading angered voters from signing petitions now widely being
circulated to oust the appointed Salas in favor of holding an election.
To characterize the selection of Greg Salas as the "Provisional
Trustee" on a 4-2 Board vote at the second of those Special Meetings as
controversial would be an understatement. Since the very moment of the Salas
appointment, community leaders across Anaheim Hills and their community allies
across Greater Orange have been in a basic open rebellion against not just the Salas
appointment, but the very backroom political process that made the unknown and apparently
unqualified Salas an OUSD trustee.
 |
| Surridge leads Trustee majority and OUSD off political cliff |
All this political controversy from just one OUSD Trustee- Timothy Surridge who continues to have three other elected trustees- John Ortega, Mark Wayland and Rick Ledesma...follow him like suicidal lemmings as the trio continue to follow Surridge over one political cliff after another.
Ironically, the State
of the School Report that starts off this Thursday's Regular Meeting will
be a report from Anaheim Hills own Canyon
High School
Now, amid this self-inflicted political chaos, the OUSD
Board plans now to take-up laying the groundwork for some type of 2016
Facilities Bond Election with three items on Thursday's agenda.
October 15th's Agenda Action Item 12 C (page 10) asks the OUSD Board to approve a subcommittee's recommendation to hire Irvine based Fieldman, Rolapp & Associates as OUSD's General Obligation Bond Fiscal Advisor ( the firm also has experience with Community Facility Districts). While the firm's service fee is not listed, it will only get paid if a Bond election is successful. (See below for more information.)
Also on the October 15th Agenda is Action Item 12 D (page
11) to give the OUSD staff direction on preparing for the possibility special
tax districts called School Facility Improvement Districts (aka Community
Facility Districts). These School
Facility Improvement Districts would allow specific areas in Greater Orange-
that have traditionally voted in a majority for the past failed OUSD Facility
Bonds- to approve bonds for their neighborhood's special district schools by approving
a special Mello-Roos tax assessment for their specific district. The firm
recommended in the Agenda Item to study the OUSD demographics for these specific
special districts is Escondido
The third Bond item on the October 15th Agenda is giving the OUSD staff direction on the OUSD
Facilities Master Plan. The agenda item reviews the three different facility
assessments OUSD procured in 2003, 2013 and 2014. The agenda item offers four options to the
OUSD Board: a six month Facility Condition Assessment ( estimated cost $150,000);
a 9 month "update" of
the Long Range Facility Master Plan-last done in 2003 (estimated cost $300,000); a 12 month "new
comprehensive" Long Range Facility
Master Plan (estimated cost $500,000);
or take no action on Facility Master Plans.
For
more facility bond information CLICK
ON
INSIDE the OUSD October 15 Regular
Meeting
Agenda Item 4 C-Closed Session
Property Sales Negotiations:
- Walnut
Site
- Killefer
Site
- Killefer
Annex Parking
Agenda Item 4 D-Closed Session
Superintendent Performance Review
Agenda Item 9 C - Recognition of
the Week of the School Administrator
Agenda Item 14 H-Consent Agenda: El
Rancho Charter -Charter Amendment to change requirement for parent volunteers.
NEXT OUSD BOARD MEETING Thursday
October 15, 2015
Next OUSD Board Meeting -OUSD BOARD ROOM
CLOSED SESSION- 5:00 pm
OUSD Regular Session: 7:00 pm
For more information call the OUSD
Superintendent’s office at 714-628-4040
For budgeting questions call Business Services at
714-628-4015
ARCHIVAL Information and direct news can be found
at:
the Greater Orange
News Service http://greaterorange.blogspot.com/
ORANGE
Unified Schools INSIDE
and the
Greater Orange
News Service
are independent news services of /O/N/N/
Sunday, October 11, 2015
SPECIAL REPORT: SALAS PETITON DRIVE
COMMUNITY UPDATE
SPECIAL REPORT
OUSD in CRISIS
Foothills Sentry* report:
OUSD stakeholders aim to force special
election to void irreconcilable board appointment
by Tina Richards, The Foothills Sentry
* The Foothills Sentry is an
independent newspaper and has no affiliation with the
Orange
Communication System /OCS/ or Orange Net News /O/N/N/
For this
Foothills Sentry story CLICK ON
The Greater Orange News Service Update A community news
service of the
Orange Communication System /OCS/
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Local Insight"
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Orange Net News /O/N/N/ eLECTION Watch 2015 Metro
Talk Metro Views OU$D
Bond WATCH 2015
ORANGE Unified Schools INSIDE COMMUNITY UPDATE
Greater Orange
News SErVICE SPECIAL REPORT
Thursday, October 01, 2015
Surridge admits Salas was a politcal recruit
SPECIAL REPORT
OUSD in CRISIS
OUSD
Resolution against a Special Election dies as....
Surridge admits Salas appointment was political
Number 4 in
a special news series by Orange Net News /O/N/N/
Orange
Unified Board Trustee Timothy Surridge admitted at the Special OUSD
Board Meeting held October 1, 2015 that he had alone took it upon
himself to recruited a candidate based on a political criteria.
Surridge
stated he had recruited and "chose" Greg Salas to be appointed to the OUSD Board
based on that political criteria .
Surridge's
comments came after the Public Comment section of the meeting when community members from
across Greater Orange took the four Board members who voted to appoint the
politically recruited Salas to task.
During those public comments the widely circulated account of a
September 20th statement Surridge made that "Five Republican's are not going to appoint
a Democrat or a Decline to State" was introduced into the public record of the
meeting. Surridge, who took copious notes during the public comments, at no point during the meeting denied making that now widely
circulated statement.
Unlike the last Special Meeting when Salas was appointed, this meeting was video taped for cable broadcast.
Unlike the last Special Meeting when Salas was appointed, this meeting was video taped for cable broadcast.
Surridge's admission that he used the criteria of party affiliation to recruit Salas suggests that Surridge
sought out the information on the other candidate's party affiliations. Party affiliation information was not part of
the application process for the non-partisan trustee seat.
Surridge also stated
that he also voted for Salas because he was impressed that Salas visited Orange High School Fletcher Elementary School
During the October 1st meeting Surridge also revealed that he personally knew Salas before
recruiting him. Moffat at the meeting characterized the relationship between
Salas and Surridge as a "friendship".
|
| Greg Salas -appointed trustee for his politics |
Salas
in a strange defense of his appointment, tried to address the concerns in Anaheim Hills
of his intimidation of petition gathers. Salas stated that he was not a
"stalker" and that he just happens to go to shop at Ralphs and goes to Starbucks to get "coffee for his wife".
He however did not address why this week at both locations he engaged the Special Election petition gathers with the subject of intimidating them, nor did he explain why on his shopping trips he tried to engaged citizens who were signing the petitions for
a Special Election.
The
October 1st Special Meeting was called to swear in Salas, explain the Trustee's
votes from the September 22 appointment, and pass a resolution against a
Special Election. OUSD Superintendent
Michael Christensen was dealt the task of swearing in Salas as the Provisional
Trustee. Despite the full Board Room,
after Salas took the oath- not one person applauded- the room was silent as
Salas returned to his seat and said nothing.
After Wayland, Ledesma and Surridge made attempts
to explain their votes for Salas (Ortega never did explain why he voted for
Salas)- the topic turned to the proposed resolution to oppose the drive by the community for a Special
Election.
Several
contorted reasons were offered by Ortega, Ledesma and Surridge against the
Special Election. Primary among those arguments was that a Special Election (
which would be scheduled months before the November 2016 target for a Bond election)
would dash the hopes of passing a Facilities Bond. At one point, OUSD Board President Ortega
argued that if the community did not go for a Special Election - the money saved
could be money used to try and get a Bond passed. This argument was made despite
the fact that it is illegal for a school district to use funds to promote a
bond issue. Other arguments was blaming resigned Trustee Diane Singer, district teachers, the
teacher's union and that Ortega and Surridge repeated numerous times that the audience members who wanted the Special Election did not represent the community at large.
Another
issue the embattled Board members pointed to was that Salas would have to run
for election regardless in November 2016. What
they did not say was that if a Special Election is not called, Salas would be
on the ballot as the incumbent appointed trustee.
However, according to the California Education Code Section 5091 (2) , when the Special Election petition signatures are turned in and "legally verified" then " the provisional appointment is terminated, and the county superintendent of schools shall order a special election to be conducted no later than the 130th day after the determination" . (Click on Ed Code)
However, according to the California Education Code Section 5091 (2) , when the Special Election petition signatures are turned in and "legally verified" then " the provisional appointment is terminated, and the county superintendent of schools shall order a special election to be conducted no later than the 130th day after the determination" . (Click on Ed Code)
Simply put- when the Special Election petitons are certified, Salas will no
longer be a Trustee and will not legally be able to be listed on the ballot as
an incumbent OUSD Trustee during the Special Election.
During
the election resolution discussion Trustee Kathy Moffat once again put the
issue into perspective. Moffat recounted
that it was Surridge who was behind the "paper screening" process
that produced a non-transparent process that led to Salas being in the
"final" three candidates. Moffat reminded the Board that it was
Surridge that proposed that each candidate who made it past the paper screen
would only get a 3 minute public statement.
Moffat also reminded the Board that it was Surridge who did not want the candidates to have a public and transparent
interview-and it was Surridge who urged the candidates to privately contact the OUSD
Trustees.
Surridge
proposed and had his allies on the OUSD Board vote to approve all of his non-transparent
scheme after already recruiting Greg Salas for the Board position.
Moffat said that now after that flawed and non-transparent process
and an a public outcry- Surridge and his allies who recruited and stacked the
deck to vote for their political
candidate now "Point the finger of blame at the community".
After Moffat's comments, the Ortega sponsored Resolution for OUSD to oppose a special election died when it did not receive a second from any member.
After Moffat's comments, the Ortega sponsored Resolution for OUSD to oppose a special election died when it did not receive a second from any member.
SPECIAL
REPORT
OUSD in CRISIS
a special
news series by Orange Net News /O/N/N/
is an independent news service of
Orange
Net News /O/N/N/
