Absent trustees deny claims of ducking censure vote

Trustees absent from the Los Banos Unified School District Board last week claimed they had legitimate reasons for missing the meeting, called to discuss the possible censure of board member Tommy Jones due to his corruption charges.

Two of the four absent trustees, Marlene Smith and Ray Martinez, also told the Enterprise they don’t believe the meeting should have been called.

“Jones hasn’t been convicted yet,” Smith said. “If he’s convicted, then that’s a conversation we need to have.”

The Thursday meeting was called to discuss putting the censure of Jones on the agenda for the Oct. 13 board meeting. But it ended after it failed to have a quorum of at least four trustees.

Smith, Martinez, Jones and trustee Carole Duff didn’t attend, while trustees Dennis Areias, Anthony Parreira and Dominic Falasco were there.

Despite the lack of a quorum, a group of about 40 residents remained, with many denouncing the four absent trustees with allegations they were avoiding the issue.

Martinez told the Enterprise he needed to miss the meeting to cover services at his church. Smith told the Enterprise she was busy with a personal matter out of town.

Duffy and Jones didn’t respond to the Enterprise for comment. But Parreira said Duffy said she had a doctor’s appointment, and Jones notified Parreira he was out of town.

Martinez denied that he was ducking the discussion.

“Believe me, I was not happy about not being able to be there, but my first priority is to Him,” Martinez said, noting his deep commitment to his Christian faith.

Smith and Martinez said they didn’t think the censure of Jones should be discussed, at least yet.

“There’s no reason for this yet,” Smith said. “I don’t have enough substance. We can’t make this decision when the court date is coming very soon. When that is done, then we can talk about that and have a discussion.”

Jones, who is accused of bribing another trustee to vote in favor of a construction contract, is scheduled to be arraigned at Merced Superior Court on Oct. 7.

Parreira said the topic of discussing a censure can occur under the “future agenda items” section of the Oct. 13 meeting.

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Absent trustees deny claims of ducking censure vote."