Mike Darnold

Smollar rejects Erin Kutnick's suggestion that better PR by Smollar could have averted recall

David Smollar, The Capistrano Dispatch "Kutnick’s snide little remark, that a better PR effort from me might have avoided the recall, is truly laughable. That old bromide -- “if only we had communicated better” -- apes the broken-record spoutings especially of Mike Darnold. He consistently bad-mouthed me to many, apparently never taking the time to peruse his weekly trustee packet from Fleming, filled regularly with positive articles about CUSD teachers and students published in the seven Register weeklies blanketing the district. Perhaps Fleming and Draper failed to mention to Kutnick the numerous op-ed articles I ghosted for Fleming in the LA Times, or the School News Roll Call newspaper I arranged for the district, or my success in keeping the two from being flailed by John Stoessel on ABC’s 20-20, and so on and so forth. The great pr ideas of a $10,000 consultant hired during the recall effort, at the insistence of Draper, were along the lines of bringing real estate agents to the district boardroom for a briefing and placing inspirational sayings on school marquees."

Kutnick is a columnist for The Capistrano Dispatch. Smollar is the former Director of Communications at Capistrano Unified School District.