New Los Banos school board shoots down controversial agreement, ousted trustees claim violations

Shouting and finger pointing colored a brief but contentious special school board meeting Wednesday in Los Banos

Two new trustees were sworn in to the Los Banos Unified School District board before a special board meeting Wednesday, leading to a shift in power on the board and the denial of a second hearing on a controversial work agreement that would have probed district officials’ emails and electronic documents.

The move also led ousted trustees Carole Duffy and Tommy Jones, who were standing to the side of the room, to announce they are filing a complaint alleging the meeting violated the Brown Act.

More than 50 people packed the conference room Wednesday evening at a special meeting in the school district office.

The crowd clapped as new trustees Marg Benton and Megan Goin-Soares sat in their seats on the board.

Gary Munoz, who beat incumbent Dominic Falasco by three votes, according to election results, didn’t attend the meeting. So Falasco took his original spot on the board.

Trustee Anthony Parreira, president of the board, explained that Benton and Goin-Soares were sworn in before the meeting, which was legally sound. He said he reached out to Munoz, but Munoz didn’t respond back Wednesday.

The only item on the agenda was the agreement with Burgess.

The agreement would have launched an investigation into emails and other electronic documents of six unnamed school officials, probing for any wrongdoing relating to the lease-leaseback method of construction used for the construction of Creekside Junior High School and other buildings.

However, critics, including Parreira, have suggested that the probe may be intended to help Jones get more information for his pending criminal case on corruption charges relating to construction at Mercey Springs Elementary, at the expense of school funds.

Trustee Marlene Smith called the special meeting to discuss the contract again after it was shot down during the Nov. 10 meeting, when it was brought up by Jones.

But the discussion on the agreement never took place. The board voted 5-2 against approval of the meeting agenda, effectively ending the meeting, which had been called a day ahead of the regular board meeting Thursday.

Smith and Trustee Ray Martinez voted in favor of the agenda, while Parreira, Benton, Goin-Soares, Falasco, and Trustee Dennis Areias voted against it.

Goin-Soares said she didn’t vote in favor of the agenda because the she was against the agreement.

“I don’t think it’s worthwhile to approve something that doesn’t directly benefit the children,” she said.

After the meeting, Duffy and Jones approached Areais and Parreira, with Jones contentiously talking with Areias before both ousted trustees turned around and Duffy read a written statement.

“I wish to file a complaint on behalf of Tommy Jones and myself — and I’m Carole Duffy,” Duffy said. “This is a blatant violation of the posting and the notice requirements of the Brown Act, and is intended to block the audit of the computers that would probably expose misconduct and corruption.”

As she ended the statement, Jones said to Duffy, “OK, that’s good enough.”

Areias and Jones then got into a brief shouting match ending with Areias laughing off a statement by Jones claiming Areias took money from the district.

Neither Duffy nor Jones explained why they thought the meeting violated the Brown act.

Parreira shot down the notion that the special meeting violated the Brown Act.

“There is no basis in (Duffy’s claims),” Parreira said. “Everything was posted according to the law and met all the requirements.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 7:53 PM with the headline "New Los Banos school board shoots down controversial agreement, ousted trustees claim violations."