Transparency
Taxpayers Going Postal Over Public Employee Pensions, Perks. Unions’ miscalculation: Opting for secrecy.
June 10, 2010
Column: Peter Scheer, First Amendment
Coalition Public
unions’ traditional strength–the ability to finance their members’
rising pay and benefits through tax increases–has become a
liability. Although private sector unions always have had to worry
that consumers will resist rising prices for their goods, public
sector unions have benefited from the fact that taxpayers can’t
choose–they are, in effect, “captive consumers.” At some point,
however, voters turn resentful as they sense that: (1) they are
underwriting, through their taxes, a level of salary and benefits
for government employment that is better than what they and their
families have; and (2) government services, from schools to the
DMV, are not good enough—not for the citizen individually nor the
public generally—to justify the high and escalating cost. We are at
that point…
Capo district violates open-meeting laws for 5th time
March 22, 2010
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
An Orange
County judge has ruled that Capistrano Unified's school board
violated the state's open-meeting laws in August 2008 when it held
a closed-door evaluation of its then-superintendent, the fifth time
the governing body had been reprimanded in the past three years for
Brown Act violations...
Capistrano district lawyer has run afoul of open-meeting laws
October 03, 2008
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
A school-law attorney who
sat in on a private Capistrano Unified school board discussion in
which open-meeting laws may have been violated has previously
advised school boards to do in private what courts say they should
do in public. Spencer Covert of Tustin was invited to an Aug. 11
closed-session meeting by board President Ellen Addonizio, who said
she wanted Covert's advice to ensure that the board would be in
compliance with the state's Brown Act open-meeting law. During the
meeting, trustees engaged in a sensitive evaluation of
Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter's performance…
Making schools accountable
September 30, 2005
Editorial, The Orange County Register
The governor has signed
legislation that will help parents understand how schools spend
their money. Accountability and transparency of public school
finances advanced a step this week with a new bill signed into law
by the governor. It’s SB687 by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo
Alto. It requires that, beginning with the fall 2006-07 school
year, "estimated per pupil expenditures" and "an average of
salaries paid to" teachers at each public school and charter school
be tallied and reported...