T-R-A-N-S-P-A-R-E-N-C-Y

At last night's Policy Committee meeting, a resident asked a question about our newest School Board Director's financial disclosure statement.  Under the Ethics Commission law, ten days before taking the oath of office, a financial statement of interest must be filed with the local agency.  Our newest School Board Director offered to answer the question, but could not give a direct answer.  Mrs. Birks interrupted the resident by mentioning a situation that occurred with a former Director a few years ago.  The Solicitor took the opportunity to take Mrs. Birks' words and twist them into the resident's words.  The resident was questioning the status of newest School Board Director's financial statement of interest.  I guess we have to file a Right To Know for the answer.  It was also brought up that the Joint Steering Committee should be open to the public.  Here we go again with the District's lack of transparency and lack of respect towards its constituents.  The scary part of all of this is that our newest School Board Director, a lawyer, is the new head of the Policy Committee.  02 01 2011 Policy Committee podcast