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Friday, July 22, 2016
Trustees approve November Bond election
OU$D Bond WATCH 2016
Orange Net News /O/N/N/
It took 7 votes-including a rare parliamentary maneuver to reconsider the final vote - but last night the Orange Unified Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve a $288,000,000 bond measure for the November 2016 ballot.
The
month's long prelude to the final votes-much like a blockbuster movie trailer-
was nothing compared to two-and-a-half hour unfolding of the main event.
With
two public hearings, five Action Items, a teleconferencing trustee (Mark
Wayland from Pennsylvania), community members showing up last minute citing live meeting text messages, last minute resolution amendments, an Anaheim City Council member addressing the
Board and a boisterous audience, it was again high political drama-OUSD style.
The
evening's Agenda included the option of splitting the four high schools into
two School Facilities Improvement Districts (SFID). The two SFID were split
between the major communities that have traditionally voted for the last bonds
and those that helped defeat those bonds.
The
trustees representing the communities in the proposed SFID 1 (Canyon and Villa
Park H.S. feeder neighborhoods)- Andrea
Yamasaki, Kathy Moffat and Dr. Deilgianni-Brydges - all spoke out for a general
all-district bond and voted against the two SFID. Citing polling data, the trio was supported by
audience members who spoke out against the SFID and for a single General Bond
for the whole district-including long-time Anaheim City Councilwomen Kris Murray.
Trustee
Rick Ledesma and John Ortega led the arguments for the SFID stating that an
approval of even one SFID would be the beginning of a path toward getting all OUSD
schools updated.
Out-voted
on creating both School Improvement Facilities Districts in two 3-4 votes (Trustees
Rick Ledesma, Mark Wayland, John Ortega and Timothy Surridge all voting
Yes), the split 3-4 vote was enough to
deny adding bonds for the SIFD to the ballot in the later votes that needed a
super-majority of 5 yes votes. That fact
however, did not stop the back-and-forth discussion on the merits of SFID Bonds
compared to a General Bond.
Lacking
the needed super-majority vote (5 votes), the two Agenda votes to add the two SFID
Bonds to the ballot both failed 4-3.
Adding
to the general confusion of the voting process, last minute amendments to each Bond
resolution was included to satisfy the requirements of the Orange County
Taxpayers Association.
The
last Agenda vote to add a General Bond to the November 2016 ballot passed 6-1
with only John Ortega voting No. Trustee
Dr. Deilgianni-Brydges, who voted against the 2015 Bond (and signed the ballot statement
against it) prefaced her Yes vote for this Bond by stating that the 2016 Bond
did not include cosmetic updates she opposed in 2015, but concentrated on
"curriculum" updates-specifically mentioning science rooms. Deligianni is seeking reelection to her
Trustee seat after loosing a primary bid for the Assembly. Surridge took a
swipe at Deligianni in the earlier SFID votes telling her "Nice to see you
support a bond".
The
6-1 vote was enough to add the Bond measure to the ballot. However, the votes
were not over as Trustee Kathy Moffat sought a unanimous trustee vote. In rare parliamentary
procedure move, Moffat asked for a vote to reconsider the bond vote-in order to
give Ortega ( who is up for re-election) the opportunity to vote with the
majority and send the message to the community that the OUSD Board was
unanimously behind the Bond.
The
motion to reconsider the General Bond vote passed, then the second General Bond
vote passed with Ortega (who first explained his original No vote) switching
his vote to Yes making the final bond vote to add a General Bond to the
November ballot 7-0.
OU$D Bond
WATCH 2016
is a production of Orange Net News /O/N/N/
