Thursday, July 29, 2010
Jim Gibson pulls papers to run for VUSD school board
By the way thanks to the anonymous poster who alerted me about Gibson pulling papers.
If this election campaign is like the previous Gibson campaigns, we can also count on his friend and rabid hater of the middle class and all unions, Kent Davy, editor of the North Times, providing lots of inches in the North County Times to Gibson's unholy views of public schools and public school teachers. There will be uncritical articles in the main body of the newspaper that Stacy Brandt is forced to write. Davy will also provide as much space on the editorial page as Gibson and his tiny group of supporters ask for. Kent Davy, himself, will write editorials in support of Gibson's candidacy. The opinion pieces and editorials will feature Jim Gibson's made up stories and fantasies of hate while promoting his candidacy. They will not be fact checked for accuracy.
The only question is how much money can Gibson raise with his tired old made up stories from folks ignorant of what he is and what incredible damage he has done to Vista Unified School District and VUSD taxpayers' money. Will the local Republican Party continue to provide Gibson with the thousands and thousands of dollars he has used so unscrupulously in the past to create 'mailers of slander' that he fills our mailboxes with just before the election?
His trade mark final mailer is a hit piece that arrives four or five days before the election with wholly fabricated, but very salacious "Gibson facts" about the good schools and fine teachers of VUSD. These 'mailers of error' come out when there is no time to refute his made up stories. The uniformed VUSD voters are left with his warped and self surviving version of events just before they go to the polls.
I am hoping that Jim Gibson as a three time losers (twice for Oceanside City Council and once for State Assembly) will have a much tougher time getting funds this time around. But Jim is a slippery fellow and very good at finding money and talking folks out of it. Malicious story telling and knowing what his audience wants to hear have been his most successful fund raising attributes in the past campaigns.
We might get lucky again like in Dr. Stephen Guffanti's pathetic and lackluster 2008 campaign and not see much of an effort. In 2008 temper impaired, Guffanti was not able to raise money from anyone. He made almost no effort at all in the campaign, apparently thinking he was going to win on charm. Ha!
Jim Gibson does not have Guffanti's personality issues, the only question is how good are his political contacts still? He burned a lot of bridges with his viscous campaign and 'website of deception' that he used against fellow Republican Diane Harkey in his assembly bid. He lost big and she was elected. Has she forgiven him? Will she get in the way of Jim being able to open the golden pockets of local wealthy Republicans? Only time will tell.
If Jim is fully funded by local Republicans, look forward to robo phone call hell again, with Gibson robo calls by the dozens. In past election campaigns, Gibson as a former Republican Central Committee member has been allowed full access to the local Republican robo phone system. In those campaigns, Gibson has been allow to use and use and use that Republican robophone without limit. I have had as many as three Gibson robo calls in one day.
All we will have to counter Gibson's lavish use of expensive robo-phones our are own real people volunteers to make live phone calls where actual people have conversations with the good voters of VUSD. We may not have Gibson's access to the money and wealth but we have truth on our side. We may not be able to hire political consultants, have unlimited money for malicious mailers, get automated VUSD voter phone lists, and the use of a very expensive, state of the art robo phone system, but we have honest folks whose first priority is fact based education not Gibson style, self-aggrandizement and self promotion.
What we do have that Gibson can never get are people like you who will make the phone calls, walk precincts, stuff envelopes and do all the things that an honest grass roots campaign needs. Let's retire Gibson for good in November of 2010.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Silvia Peters strikes out again. What will 'Roxy' blog about this latest debacle?
You may recall that Silvia Peters was a vociferous supporter of the recent poorly organized, and failed, recall stunt launched against three pro public education (Jaka, Chunka, and Lilly) Vista Unified School District trustees.
Now another embarrassing flop.
Not even her philosophically aligned friends like Kent Davy, editor of the dying North County Times, could provide enough support for her angry cause to get off the ground either this time or for last January's recall stunt.
No matter how many articles Davy demanded that his reporters write to 'highlight' the recall in January, there was no traction then or now for Silvia and her very few angry friends.
Davy tried again last week to give Peters and her new cause against Frank Lopez all the free publicity he could, but still almost no one pays any attention to her or her cause. Silvia was convinced that with Kent Davy's help, she could become the leader of a great sweeping populace cause. But who pays attention to the North County Times anymore? The answer is other than Silvia perhaps just the six people Peters conned into coming with her to the Frank Lopez protest.
On the other hand, Silvia Peter's latest embarrassment is still a win for her since she got her name (and picture!) in the North County Times. Whoopee.
Silvia Peters is also of interest because I believe her to be Roxy, the infamous angry and irrational, ANTI public education blogger who posts so frequently in the comment sections following NCTimes articles about VUSD.
Roxy is the blogger who uses CAPITALS CONSTANTLY WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS !!!!!!! to write her wild fantasies about VUSD teachers not caring to teach and really only being interested in terrorizing children, parents and taxpayers in their role as "UNION THUGS!!!!" . Roxy also calls Jan O' Reilly, the "QUEEN OF MEAN!!!!"
As to why I think that the angry blogger, Roxy, is Silvia Peters, My thinking rests on four lines of evidence. (1)The NCTimes blogger,Roxy, has blogged that her child used to attend Casita, a school she now hates. I am told that coincidentally Silvia Peters had a child at Casita, then transferred the child to Guajome Park Academy (2)Blogger Roxy seems very familiar with GPA as well. Blogger Roxy writes about GPA venomously and frequently. I am told that Silvia Peters had a reputation for making mountains out of molehills at both Casita and then later at GPA. She verbally harangued nice staff members at the two schools who were doing their level best to address her concerns and imaginary perceived slights against herself and her child. No one at either school could make Silvia Peters happy.
(3)Both blogger Roxy and Oceanside resident, Silvia Peters, seem to have the same angry temperament and both make the same kinds of over the top statements.
(4) Following the recent North County Times article about Silvia Peters' plan to demand Frank Lopez resign, the blogger Roxy made the most comments on the article and had by far the largest number of inches of comments. Roxy, the blogger, defended Silvia Peters, Oceanside resident in those comments.
Just thought of one more, Roxy, the blogger, has made several references to the FOXnotNews' Tea Party movement. Roxy wrote she could not blog much one day a few months back because she had a Tea Party rally to attend. Another coincidence, Silvia Peters is using Tea Party "wanted posters" with Frank Lopez face on them that are very similar to the ones that the FOX controlled Tea Party movement has used against President Obama.
In summary, both Roxy and Silvia first had a child at Casita then at Guajome Park. Roxy and Silvia have the same angry temperament. Blogger, Roxy, defended Silvia Peters attacks on Frank Lopez. Both Roxy and Silvia Peters seem associated with the Tea Party. Therefore, I conclude that they are indeed one and the same person.
Why cover Oceanside resident, Silvia Peters, attacks on a Vista city councilman in this blog? Because blogger Roxy (Silvia Peters) has been so prominent in the ANTI public schools, VUSD, VTA and school teachers attacks in the North County Times. Any failure for Roxy/ Silvia is a gain for fact based public education in VUSD.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Rumor: Guffanti will run again. Gibson will as well.
(1) Guffanti's part in the waste of almost fifty million dollars of VUSD taxpayer money does not seem to bother his conscience enough to not run.
(2) Guffanti's participation with Jim Gibson in the delay of the new high school by almost five years causing five additional years of needlessly over crowded high school campuses does not seem to trouble him enough for him to stay out of the race.
(3)Guffanti's support for the teaching in public schools, of the theology of the 'little liar god' creationism*, not only doesn't bother him. It is something he is very proud of.
(4) Nor does Guffanti's support of an organization dedicated to the destruction of all public schools in the United States embarrass him enough to stay out.
No, he wants to come back. He has started his emails again.
The pattern for Guffanti and all the ANTI fact based public education crowd is to turn in their candidate papers on the last possible day at the last possible hour. That day is usually in the second week of August. Look forward to it, NOT!
*NOTE: Little god creationism theology/cult philosophy says that the entire universe is only six thousand years old but only has been made to look 13.6 billion years old. Their 'god' is a poof poof creator god who is a liar and trickster. Their god demands we believe the universe in less than one millionth of one percent of the age their god made it appear to be. This cult like group is a Christian offshoot. Members believe only they and no one else is truly good and moral. Only they are 'real' Christians.
JIM GIBSON
It goes without saying that Jim Gibson will run again. Yes, I know he is currently pretending to be making up his mind. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't." Then suddenly he says, "Ah shucks, people just wanted me to run so bad I had, too."
Jim uses the same ploy before every election, but he always runs.
It seems that running for political office is what gives Jim's life meaning--twice for Oceanside City Council, once for California State Assembly Representative both while a sitting VUSD school board member.
Gee what's more important to Jim? His paid job as VUSD school board member with full medical, dental, vision, and life insurance or running for higher office? Yes, Jim has been PAID by VUSD for every year he has been a school board member with that pay comes full family insurance benefits as good as a full time teacher in the district. What an insult to the good taxpayers of VUSD!
No question, he is running for office again. Gibson loves to run for anything he comes across. Every election provide more chances for him to get his name in the newspaper. Besides where else can he get the 'free' full family insurance coverage and a salary for little or no work?
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Our "angry friend," Silvia Peters attacks Frank Lopez, City of Vista council person
Now City of OCEANSIDE resident, Silvia Peters, is calling for the resignation of City of VISTA Council person, Frank Lopez. Could this new campaign be part of the tea party activities that Roxy posts about? Why else would a resident of one city organize a political campaign against a city council person in a different city from the one she resides in?
Poor Frank Lopez, he now has a very persistent, if not a very smart, and certainly not at all nice opponent.
Read more about Silvia Peters new 'crusade' below.
VISTA: Citizens group asks councilman to step down
Group looking for people who received bad checks
By CIGI ROSS - cross@nctimes.com | Posted: July 21, 2010 6:26 pm |
A group of Vista residents is calling for Councilman Frank Lopez Jr. to resign and for people who may have received bad checks from him to step forward.
The group, called Vista Citizens for Responsible Government, started its campaign against Lopez after officials from the San Diego County district attorney's office said they couldn't prove the councilman intended to write more than $20,000 in bad checks from 2004 to 2008.
After a yearlong investigation, Lopez and his wife, Mary, were charged in June only with a misdemeanor, alleging they failed to pay workers' compensation insurance for employees at their Casa Linda Mexican restaurant on South Santa Fe Avenue.
Silvia Peters, a community activist who lives in Oceanside, said the citizens group handed out about 100 fliers in Vista Village on Friday to solicit witnesses who could help prove the bad check case.
The flier is a mock-up of a Wild West "wanted" poster with a photo of Lopez with jail bars placed over the picture. It also lists an e-mail address and phone number to call for those who believe they received bad checks.
Read the rest of the North County Times article here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_482f703a-fecd-509c-b2bd-79536ada45ab.html
NOTE: Notorious angry blogger, Roxy, has three posts and by far the largest column space after this article. Click on the comment section at the URL above if you wish to read them.
'MySpace' caution--your career is on the line
See the beginning of the article below:
July 19, 2010
The Web Means the End of Forgetting
By JEFFREY ROSEN
Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.
When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is...
Read the rest of the article at today's edition of the New York Times here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?src=me&ref=general
Another article with very good links to a copy of the judge's decision and the photograph in question is found in the Washington Post here.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Jim Gibson as a bully, the Lincoln Club of San Diego, and Letha McWey
The Lincoln Club of San Diego County is the same organization whose current president T.J. Zane says that public employees 'are like drug addicts and taxes are their drug of choice.'
In the November 2002 article entitled, "Funds pour in for two VUSD candidates," Jim Gibson is quoted as saying, "the Lincoln Club representatives just like my philosophy...these people know me."
The reporter in this November 1, 2002 article points out for the first and only time in any North County article that Jim Gibson was a former Republican Central Committee member.
Jim Gibson also said he viewed the 2002 VUSD school board race as between Republicans and Democrats and that is how he has treated all subsequent school board elections.
The position of school board is a NON-PARTISAN position. In California there are no party affiliations listed in the Voters Guide because in our state party affiliation is irrelevant. The first priority of all elected non partisan school board members is supposed to be to getting the best education possible for local students. There are not supposed to be party politics, nor party grandstanding, nor use of the office for political advancement. The office is supposed to be about putting the education of our children ahead of all else.
Jim Gibson does not seem to understand the NON-PARTISAN concept. Like all bullies, he is always looking for an unfair advantage to take for the advancement of his personal power and influence.
The race in 2002 was one in which a registered Republican and school board incumbent, Letha McWey received NO support from the local arm of the local Republican party, the Lincoln Club of San Diego County. That is correct. An incumbent VUSD school board member, who was a Republican in good standing, received ZERO money from the local Republican Party.
Not so odd you think. It was a NON PARTISAN race. So nobody should have received money from a POLITICAL PARTY.
Yet one person did indeed receive money from a political party. Running as a Republican for a NON PARTISAN office, School board member (Jim Gibson) on the same VUSD school board as Letha received NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS from the Republican Party.
How strange that he received any POLITICAL PARTY money at all in a non partisan race. Stranger still that the other incumbent (Letha McWey) who was also registered as a Republican, received ZERO money from the Republican Party. Could Letha's snub have anything to do with Jim Gibson's POLITICAL connections on the Republican Central Committee?
Another similar odd incident happened four years before in the 1998 school board campaign, the first school board election in which Jim Gibson ran for VUSD school board. Letha McWey was at the time, a first term school board incumbent. The incident happened at the local North County women's Republican club. Their meetings were held at the Shadowridge Country Club.
The women's Republican club had invited all the Republican School candidates to speak at their regular October 1998 meeting. Letha McWey, as a registered Republican and prominent, incumbent VUSD school board member running for re-election , came to the meeting to speak. I also attended, as I, too, am a registered Republican. I came to support Letha whom I had known for the last a decade through Y Indian Guides. I, and several other of her supporters, expected to applaud wildly after her chance at the podium.
The event was advertised as a forum for Republicans school board candidates to address this North County Republican women's Club. A little odd, seeing that it was a non partisan race but still we went to support Letha.
The Republican women of Shadowridge allowed Jim Gibson to make his campaign speech at the podium in the front. His speech was filled with very impressive and very emotional, but wholly fabricated, stories about how he and his family had been picked on by evil, union thug, school teachers. The 'supposed' abuse in his most prominent fictional story had purportedly happened at a recent school board meeting where he spoke. I happened to have attended that meeting.
His story(ies) had no basis in fact or reality, but the Shadowridge Republican Women members ate them up--applauding loudly at his 'bravery'. They were the typical "poor Jimmy" stories, he has become so famous for. None of Republican women had been at the school board meeting. How could they know he was lying? In his stories, he cast himself as the lone voice for the taxpayers who was being bullied by those mean teachers. Had I not been at the meeting in question, I might even have believed Jim Gibson. He is a very convincing raconteur.
Letha was ready to speak next. She was sitting up front at the candidates table not with us in the audience. But when her time came to speak, the chair denied her the podium!
The chair 'dissed' Letha to her face while all of us sitting at her table of supporters looked on in shock.
The chair was refusing to allow a Republican candidate for VUSD school board to have equal time with another Republican candidate. We could not believe it. What was going on?
There Letha was, a registered Republican who had paid to attend a meeting advertised as a Republican school board candidate forum and she was not allowed to speak! She had a table full of supporters who had also paid to attend. How rude! How wholly unfair! Why?
Neither she nor we, her supporters, made a scene. We left quietly at the conclusion of the meeting. We were bewildered by this turn of events.
Only some Republicans were allowed to be heard. Other Republicans were silenced. Letha was silenced. Her views were not heard.
Only much later did we find out about Jim Gibson being on the Republican Central Committee. Apparently Gibson had used his influence to prevent her from speaking at Shadowridge Women's Republican Club.
Jim is not a nice guy. He does not like competition. The free enterprise of ideas is something he avoids. He hates to allow folks with actual facts to contradict his made up stories. He prefers folks only hear his fables of personal heroism against the terrible bullies that pick on him, cheat taxpayers, and don't educate children in VUSD.
One of the reasons Gibson opposed Letha McWey in the 2002 election was that she had voted as part of the three person, fiduciary responsible, majority in favor of a Board Resolution to support Proposition 47. She had supported our local bond, Prop O. She also advocated for the immediate building of the third high school which Jim Gibson opposed and was in the process of trying to kill through delays.
More unbelievably Jim Gibson and Dr. Stephen Guffanti VOTED AGAINST a VUSD resolution in support of Prop 47, the state school bond potentially worth tens of millions of dollars to our district, the district that they were school board members of and supposedly running for the benefit of students and taxpayers.
At the time Gibson and Guffanti voted supporting Prop 47, it was projected to provide as much as 103 million dollars for school construction in VUSD!
Thankfully this state school construction proposition did ultimately pass, but with no help from Jim Gibson or Dr. Stephen Guffanti.
Jim Gibson was Letha McWey's political enemy because she supported fact based public education in 1998 election when both he and Letha were elected. He remained her political enemy in the 2002 election when he was re-elected and Letha lost.
Jim has apparently used his considerable political influence with the local Republican party to hurt Letha because she had supported both our local school bond, Prop O, passed in March of 2002, and the statewide school construction bond (Prop 47) resolution which brought so much more money to our district for new schools. Jim has never been in favor of building new public schools that teach a fact based curriculum.
Jim mostly subverted Letha chances because he could. Bullies are like that. Bullies fear competition. Bullies fear facts and fairness. Bullies make up stories when confronted with the facts of their misdeeds. Bullies cheat to win. Jim Gibson fits the description of a bully to a 'T'.
*NOTE: The North County Times archives have been corrupted apparently by a virus, so the article may no longer be available. Most from before 2005 are not. I have a cut out copy of the article and can reproduce it for anyone interested.
ADDITIONAL EDITOR NOTE AND CORRECTION:
After I first posted this article a few days ago, I realized that the incident at the North County women's Republican Club where Letha McWey was publicly snubbed by her fellow Republican women must have happened in the 1998 school board campaign, not the 2002. My apologies for any confusion it may have caused. My only excuse is 'old man brain'. Sorry.
"Vista Teachers Owe $540,000 to the school district!" SCREAM the ANTIs
Of course we all know the truth. The VTA owes no money to VUSD, none at all. And if they were concerned about wasting taxpayer money they would not support the greatest waster or taxpayer money in VUSD history, Jim Gibson.
Yes,there is a dispute between the VTA and VUSD over what is fair compensation to the school district for a release time president. When the legal dispute is settled, it may turn out that the VTA does owe some money to the school district due to a new interpretation of labor law. However, the statue of limitations on such matters reduces any potential award to $128,242 no where near the half million dollars they SCREAM about in all capitals in their posts.
It may just as likely turn out that school district actually owes money to the VTA. It may well turn out that the VTA has been overpaying the district for the the last six months. It seems the VTA to be above reproach has been paying the district the full president's salary and benefit cost as though the district might prevail, unlikely as that is.
The amount the VTA pays for the release time president was collectively bargained in fair bargaining over many years.
The amount decided for the reimbursement was found to be according to labor law in March 2003 during another legal review by a different law firm.
Reimbursement by the VTA was based on the long standing principal going back to the very beginning of public school collective bargaining in the mid 1970's of paying for the replacement teacher not the full president's salary. When union presidents were released for the day to participate in bargaining, their associations paid only for a sub for their class.
If this new interpretation holds, small teacher associations (bargaining units) will have to stop collective bargaining or only bargain on the weekends as they will not be able to pay a full day's teacher's salary for each release day.
The law firm, Fagen, Friedman, and Fulfrost LLP, hired by our district last fall and whose lawyer came to this brand new conclusion about a collectively bargained policy common in hundreds of school districts across California, including many others in the North County, is a very new law firm founded only four years ago. The quote on their website, "Since our inception in June 2006 with nine attorneys, the firm has grown to 55 attorneys."
The mission statement of F3 (as the law firm calls itself)is, "Our Mission is to help clients achieve their missions." In other words their legal decisions always come out the way their clients (management) want them to come out.
Fagen Friedman and Fulfrost is a law firm used exclusively by management and never by labor.
It is not a surprise given their motto and their clientele that they would decide that our VUSD contract provision bargained for by the VTA for reimbursement of the VTA release time president was 'possibly' illegal.
Personally I do not think their unique opinion will hold. It goes against more than four decades of collective bargaining law.
Here are the articles in the North County Times if you wish to read further:
-----------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_4e832ad6-cc37-5559-95aa-326d5b65e538.html
VISTA: Union challenges VUSD repayment request
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: February 10, 2010 4:20 pm
------------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_deb20837-3110-5b3d-833a-9a5364675995.html
VISTA: Union reimbursement challenge in VUSD could set precedent
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: January 9, 2010 7:00 pm
----------------------------
VISTA: School board agrees to seek limited reimbursement
Union has reimbursed district less than cost of teacher's salary
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: December 10, 2009 11:20 pm |
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5061cdeb-dfc6-546f-b4c2-0e5bc0c59b43.html
--------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5134d22d-eaec-503b-98ff-064e15921fcd.html
VISTA: VUSD board to discuss union reimbursement
Lawyer tells district current arrangement is illegal
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: December 7, 2009 8:20 pm |
-----------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_6164f23a-ab93-5977-af1c-23b5bfc4db9b.html
FORUM: Vista Unified is seeking legal opinion on VTA pact
R. ELIZABETH JAKA -- VUSD trustee | Posted: October 2, 2009 12:00 am
-----------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_63509623-7cf4-5259-9fb7-2817cc3670d8.html
FORUM: Vista teachers union needs to return money
---------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_c9e6be3a-c966-5c67-9dbd-d6744ed46385.html
VISTA: School board trustee wants review of union chief's pay
Gibson asks for lawyers to examine salary issue
STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: September 9, 2009 8:05 pm |
JILL PARVIN -- Vista | Posted: September 25, 2009 12:00 am |
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Local Republican leader says unions are: "are like drug addicts and our tax dollars are their drug of choice."
Well actually he only said that the good teachers you elect to leadership positions in the Vista Teacher's Association and other similar folks elected by firefighters and police officers are drug addicts. I guess that makes the rest of us only 'potential' drug addicts who can become addicted at any time we volunteer to run for a leadership position.
Here is T.J. Zane's quote, "...the public labor union bosses...are like drug addicts and our tax dollars are their drug of choice." See it in full and disgusting context here.
Jim Gibson--Master of Unmitigated Gall
"We always need people in politics that represent taxpayers and put taxpayers first," he (Gibson) said. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_272ade39-da28-594b-8655-2a075aa17eb2.html
This from the school board member responsible for the greatest waste of VUSD taxpayer money in its eighty year history!
Jim Gibson, with help from now former board member, Dr. Stephen Guffanti caused a five year delay in the start of construction at our third high school, Mission Vista High School, that increased the projected costs from 50 million dollars (in 2002) to the actual cost of nearly 100 million today.
That's right Jim Gibson and his henchman in crime against taxpayers, Dr. Stephen Guffanti cost taxpayers in VUSD FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS, yet Jim Gibson claims he is worried about hypothetical taxpayer money waste by someone else! Wow! I guess when you are an expert at something, you talk about it a lot.
Jimmy Gibson, the absolute master of unmitigated gall says he does not think someone else will put taxpayers first! What Chutzpah! Jim Gibson, the remaining VUSD school board member most responsible for the dire economic situation VUSD finds itself in today, claims to be worried about some vague future problem with taxpayer money being wasted by a person not yet elected to public office! Talk about seeing a mote in someone else's eye while having a beam in your own! See Matthew 7:3
Gibson and Guffanti refused time after time to support the start of construction on the new high school at the cheap level primary site identified by the search committee in the Spring 2002 just after our school bond issue, Prop O, was passed. Read the exact quotes (in blue) with URLs from the North County Times about Gibson and Guffanti's wasteful obstructionism here.
Start of construction on what is now named Mission Vista High school was delayed from the summer of 2002 until the spring of 2007 by Gibson and Guffanti. This long delay left our children in overcrowded classrooms and campus for five years more than they needed to be.
In 2002 VUSD for the first time in decades had money in hand to build the high school, yet could not because of Gibson and Guffanti's obstructionism and an obscure California law requiring four out of five school board members to support the acquisition of land.
All VUSD taxpayers needed was either Gibson or Guffanti to allow construction to start. Neither one would. Their ridiculous cries of no! no! no! to every effort to build the school cost our good district taxpayers dearly.
Now spendthrift, Jim Gibson with an apparent straight face pretends to care about taxpayer money. Could that be because an election is coming up for his position on the school board this November?
Monday, July 5, 2010
Levanthal vs VUSD, the real truth
VUSD HAS A PERMANENT INJUNCTION AGAINST IT!!!! LEVANTHAL VS VUSD!!!!!!!
A blogger self named. Ozoner has twice blogged that VUSD was the best district around until 'the ACLU sued the district in the 1980's and all the white children left. Roxy chimed after his most recent post with her LEVANTHAL VS VUSD comment pretending that that case had something to do with Ozoner comment about an imagined ACLU lawsuit in the 1980's.
So much mad spittle and foam on the chins, so little accuracy. Levanthal vs VUSD was a 1997 case. It had nothing to do with 1980s ACLU fantasy of Mr. Ozone
Ozoner wrote on July 3 at
Nothing about Ozoner’s allegation is true.
(1) VUSD is still one of the finest school districts in
(2) I can recall no case where the ACLU sued VUSD in the early 1980’s and
(3) even if the ACLU had sued, one court case does not change the personnel of a school district. The same fine employees would still be employed before, during, and after a lawsuit even the fantasy one that Ozoner has made up.
Roxy never at a loss for misrepresentations pretends that the 1997 Levanthal vs VUSD case has something to do with what Ozoner baseless charges about something Ozoner alleges happened in the early 1980’s--only a decade and a half after Ozoner's 'early 1980's allegation was supposed to have happened, I guess that 15 year gap is what goes for accuracy and truth in Roxy's alternate universe.
Levanthal vs VUSD concerned only a VUSD board policy which prohibited the PUBLIC criticism of HIRED, not elected, employees of VUSD at public meetings. Elected public officials could always be criticized in public, before, during and after Levanthal and Mary Bristol brought the lawsuit against the district. ( Aside Mary Bristol was a former losing, ANTI school board candidate who became infamous for her videotaped comment at a public school board forum that 'anal sex was responsible for the rise in teenage pregnancy.' One wonders how sperm meets egg anally. Worse Bistol profession was nurse.)
Back in 1997, our angry friends, not content with the infamy they brought to our district from 1992-94 (creationism, fact free and racist sex ed, turning down multi million dollar grants), decided they wanted to create ever more problems for our fine district by suggesting publicly at school board meeting after school board meeting a romantic liaison between the then superintendent and a sitting school board member. As I recall both the superintendent and the board member (a clergy member) were married to other people at the time that our angry friends decided the two were having an affair and that it was right and proper had to accuse the two of them of the affair at every school board meeting. Of course our angry friends also included their favorite baseless charge, then and now, financial improprieties of some kind that no one not living in paranoid fantasies could understand.
Most decent folks would think such charges, especially the salacious ones, should be made in private, but not our angry friends.
Our angry friends were stopped from publicly criticizing the then superintendent by the then chair of the VUSD school board on the grounds that the PUBLIC criticism violated not only common decency. but VUSD school board policy.
Most school boards at the time had similar policies. These types of policies against PUBLIC criticism of NON-elected employees were not meant to stop criticism, just to move it into proper channels where all allegations could be investigated for truthfulness before any charges were made publicly. Making the charges privately was not enough fun for our angry friends. They wanted to do it publicly. When they were stopped, they decided to sue.
For some weird reason they prevailed.
Why the court chose to allow personnel matters concerning hired not elected folks, matters that have always been restricted to closed session by every governmental body in America, to now be allowed to be discussed in public, I cannot fathom.
Note:
(1) None of the five school board members then on the board (1997) and named in the suit are currently on the VUSD school board. (One has died)
(2)The permanent injunction is against the enforcement of a single board policy by VUSD--the prohibition against public criticism of the district.
(3) Our angry friends did not completely win their argument in 1997 as the judge in the case wrote, “Court grants in part and denies in part Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and permanent injunction and grants in part and denies in part the Defendants' motion for summary judgment” Plaintiff equals our “angry friends.” Defendant equal the five FORMER VUSD school board members.
Read the case summary here: http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/handbook/cases/Leventhal_v_VistaUSD.pdf
Friday, July 2, 2010
Recall fizzles, as expected angry friends miss deadline for November election
According to Rosemary Ganzon and Kristi Toscano of the San Diego Registrar of Voters, no recall petitions have been turned in--not one petition, not one signature. It is now too late to turn petitions in and get the potential recall placed on the November ballot.
The reasons that Ganzon and Toscano gave for the failure had to do with time constraints. The Registrar's office needs at least 30 days to count and verify the signatures as duly registered voters in VUSD on any petitions turned in. Then the VUSD school board has to have time to act on the result and place the issue on the ballot. There is not enough time before August 6th deadline for those actions to happen. Therefore there can be no recall on the November 2nd ballot.
Cathy Glaser of the Registrar's office said that it was not uncommon for no signatures to be turned in early. With recall attempts the organizers commonly keep all the signatures until the day they are ready to turn them in--all at once.
I believe in the 1994 recall, we kept the petitions with signatures until the very end as well. However before we turned them in we did massive checking and rechecking of the petitions and signatures to make sure they were correct. Each signature has to have a correct address, the signatures must be signed exactly as the voter signed his/her voter registration card, etc. Checking and counting is a very time consuming process. I have seen no evidence of a organization by our angry friends that is capable of those activities.
Technically our angry friends could turn in recall petitions as late as August 6 and still force a later recall, however the August 6th date would require a special election to be held sometime after November. This special election would cost between $461,000 and $523,000 out of district funds according to Danielle Enriquez of the Registrar's office. Enriquez bases her estimate on the recent costs of the most similar local election--the attempted Oceanside City Council recall that failed during the special election held this spring.
Our angry friends last January when they announced their recall stunt repeatedly said they were launching it at that time so it would go on the November ballot and 'not cost the district one dime'.(1) In this they have failed. There is not enough time for it to make their self imposed deadline.
Of course it would have cost the district far more than a dime even in November. As usual our angry friends were wrong. Even had they qualified for the November 2 election, there still would have been printing and other election costs to the district. A recall on the November ballot would have in fact cost VUSD taxpayers several thousand dollars, but still that would have been considerably less than the half million dollars a special election would now cost our district taxpayers.
Not that our angry friends really care much about wasting taxpayer dollars.
Their great heroes current school board member, Jim Gibson, and former school board member, Dr. Stephen Guffanti, wasted nearly fifty million dollars of VUSD taxpayer funds on the new high school by delaying the start of construction by nearly five years. That delay resulted in increased land costs, increased construction costs, a much inferior site that needed tens of millions of dollars in grading as well as extensive and expensive road work on Highway 76.
Our angry friends have consistently and repeatedly supported Jim Gibson and Dr. Stephen Guffanti and their delays of the third high school along with the colossal waste of taxpayer money those delays cost. It is safe to conclude that another half million dollars of taxpayer waste would not really cause them any concern at all.
However there has been little attempt on the side of our angry friends to collect signatures. There have been no reports of signature gathers outside any stores in town. No reports of church goers confronted by signature gathers after church services. No reports of a very expensive mail in signature gathering campaign. There has been only one letter to the editor in support of the recall and that was back in January. One would have expected many many more letters to the editor if there were a real recall organization. There has virtually been no activity at all with the exception of a short lived booth briefly manned at the City of Vista Strawberry Festival.
This whole thing appears to just be a stunt to get attention for a small group of sad and pathetic folks who have no other purpose in life then to create paranoid fantasies of conspiracies that they can act on to try to hurt hardworking teachers and our fine school district.
The truth is that the voters of VUSD are sick of these people. Even the notoriously anti-union North County Times editorial board has stopped supporting our angry friends. Let's hope our angry friends can find some one else to focus their unearned wrath on. (The blogger, Roxy believed by me to be Silvia Peters, has repeatedly said she is a 'tea party' activist. Perhaps she and the others can use their excess energy in that cause and leave us alone.)
More reading on the failed and fizzled recall by our angry friends:
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/28/three-trustees-in-recall-bid-deny-criticism/
Three trustees in recall bid deny criticism
By Bruce Lieberman, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.
OVERVIEW
Trustees targeted: Steve Lilly, Angela Chunka, Elizabeth Jaka.
Signatures needed for recall, for each trustee: About 9,600, equal to 15 percent of registered voters in the district.
What’s next: Verification of paperwork expected within two weeks, then recall backers have 160 days to collect signatures. If enough signatures are collected, the election would be Nov. 2.
VISTA — Three Vista school trustees who face a recall campaign are rebutting allegations that they are mismanaging district affairs while favoring teacher union interests. (More at URL above)
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http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_d47c6d4f-e3f5-5433-ae25-f08f7c4633fc.html
VISTA VUSD could face another recall
Activists start process that could remove three trustees
By STACY BRANDT - sbrandt@nctimes.com | Posted: January 15, 2010 7:20 pm |
A small group of community activists took the first step Friday toward getting a recall election that would target three Vista Unified School District trustees on the November ballot.
Jill Parvin, a longtime critic of the district's teachers union, presented recall letters to Trustees Angela Chunka, Elizabeth Jaka and Steve Lilly just past midnight Friday at a board meeting that began hours earlier.
(More at the URL above)
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Here are some comments of our angry friends following the above North County Times article last January:
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 8:41 pm
Always Right~~ so are you saying that UNION THUGS are PREDATORS? You are probably right if they bully kids the same way they bully their parents.
Congrats to Jill Parvon (sic) for having the courage to recall the three union puppets. Too bad she did not add Herrera's name to it but she is a sitting duck since she is up or reelection in November.
Where and when cam (sic) I get a petition to sign?????(sic)
****
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 8:36 pm the Oceanside recall is a completely different and quite distinct from VUSD.
In Oceanside the unions were doing the recall and people showed they had enough and were disgusted with union thugs.
here Vista will have an opportunity to get rid of union thugs.
****
VUSD Taxpayer said on: January 16, 2010, 4:45 pm
After reading all these blogs, it sounds like the Union thugs have their talking points passed out to their mind-numbed robots!
*****
(1)VUSD Taxpayer said on: January 16, 2010, 4:43 pm
A recall will not cost a dime because it looks like it will coincide with the November election.
****
(1)Plain Truth said on: January 16, 2010, 4:37 pm
There is no added cost to the taxpayer as this November is a general election.
****
Roxy said on: January 16, 2010, 9:48 am
Cal ~~ rage against the district? Try saying that over 85% of the budget goes to pay for their SALARIES, BENEFITS and PENSIONS.
For what? Dirty union politics and no education, kids can’t read, can’t write and cannot calculate, add the highest dropout rate in the state.
Herrera says its because of SIATech dropout recovery program, yeah OK. How and where did these students dropout from?
Before 1994 was when the KIDS COULD READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
See this is the problem with union thugs, they don’t seam to understand kids attend school to LEAN how to READ, WRITE and CALCULATE.
****
(1)VUSD Taxpayer said on: January 16, 2010, 9:21 am
By the way, this recall sounds perfectly timed for the November election so it should not cost the school district one dime.
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VUSD Taxpayer said on: January 16, 2010, 9:19 am
Well done, Jill Parvin and her group! It's about time somebody in the community realizes how bad these 4 board members are. They don't represent us the tax payers - they are bought and paid for by the Union.
Thanks to Stacy who reminded us that the Union has had control of the Board since 1994 AND our district has done nothing but go downhill since 1994! VUSD used to be one of the top districts in Southern California now we have schools that are being sanctioned.
****
BEST PRO PUBLIC EDUCATION POSTS last January:
Cal said on: January 16, 2010, 8:02 am
Roxy - Your rage against the teachers in this district is misguided and silly. You got a lot of moxy to say the district was viable in 1994. Wasn't that when the community got together and sacked the right-wing religious fanatics who were on the board? If you can "recall" the anti-science whackos who wanted to teach creationism along side science were hell bent on taking VUSD's curriculum back to the dark ages. They were recalled because the community wanted our children to have a 21st century education.
And what white flight? Where are all the white folks flying to? Did they get angel wings?Seems like they are all still here driving their kids to school in super-sized SUV's.
This recall is going to be as popular as a fart in church. There is not enough anger in the community to sustain it this tempest in a tea party cup because the legitimately elected board is doing a fine job.
If anyone should be recalled it's that obstructionist hack Gibson, who's sole purpose on the board seems to be developing name recognition for his inevitable run for a higher public office.
****
lostnacfgop said on: January 16, 2010, 7:36 am
The District can't afford this kind of costly, wasteful distraction. The activists proposing it obviously have some energy, some willingness to work to improve things - focus it on a more reachable, more constructive goal. Volunteer in the District to close gaps; push on the existing board to make cuts; push - firmly but civilly, on the VTA to concede that teaching cuts will have to be made - the single biggest component of any school district's budget is salaries and benefits - 65 to 75 percent of most District's budgets. So when you have to cut, there are only so many erasers you can stop buying. Only so many computers you can pass on. Only so many paint jobs you can defer.
This nonsensical recall stuff wastes time, effort and money better spent elsewhere.
****
Discouraged said on: January 16, 2010, 6:34 am
Yes... let's waste half a million dollars like Oceanside did with their recall effort - all to no avail. This district can hardly afford this action, and frankly, I question the soundness (sanity?) of this woman's actions. I remember voting in the recall election back in the early 90s and it had more to do with the fact that the newly elected (Christian) trustees were trying to change curriculum that would have likely been challenged and deemed unconstitutional - and involved a very costly lawsuit. It was such big news that it was covered on "ABC World News Tonight" with Peter Jennings.
Anyone - ANYONE - elected in 2008 inherited an office that included a deficit and guaranteed tough times ahead. This recall will just further divide the community. My kids are grown, but I would probably remove them from this district - not because of the teachers, because my kids with very few exceptions had great teachers - but because of the toxic, vitriolic attitudes and actions of people who are clearly anti-public education.
What a really sad situation.
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http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/trageser/article_873b4dde-cd22-5004-a04b-e4c1c1bfd356.html
TRAGESER 94 recall still splits VUSD
By JIM TRAGESER -- jtrageser@nctimes.com | Posted: January 24, 2010 12:00 am |
This opinion piece by Jim Trageser is full of easily checked factual inaccuracies about the 1994 recall and the Vista Teacher's Association. Trageser never allowed facts to get in the way of his biases. Please do a search for Jim Trageser on this site to read more about this Glenn Beck wannabe.
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Dale Weston Letter to the Editor in support of the recall
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/article_dc99e3f6-5738-561e-ba55-ed6b63810242.html
January 23, 2010
VUSD recall is a good thing