||| FROM MARY CAMPANELLA |||
Re: David Johnson’s letter concerning Kari McVeigh: It’s annoying, but not surprising, that Kari McVeigh’s opponent and her followers would trot out these falsehoods for the third time when the truth has been spelled out for them twice already. But since Mr. Johnson believes “it’s crucial that we examine the facts more deeply” let’s do so.
- Kari filled out her retirement papers and then turned in her resignation. She did so because her board wanted her to engage in race-based hiring. She was committed to hiring the most qualified person, a black woman in this case, regardless of the color of their skin. Initially, when asked by her staff and community why she was leaving she told them there were management disagreements. Unhappy with that announcement, her board attempted to fire her. Kari had to hire a lawyer to explain to the board they could not fire someone who had already resigned.
- The board wanted to fire her so they wouldn’t have to pay the benefits guaranteed in her contract and to punish her for telling the truth. Those benefits were part of the district’s standard contract offered to previous superintendents. Kari had not requested them.
- The issue was arbitrated and for substantially less than her contract entitled her to.
- The San Francisco Chronicle got the story wrong. It was sloppy journalism.
- The first time this was raised, by Jack Cory, was when Kari was hired by the San Juan Island School District. They had concluded there was no merit to the story.
- The second time it was raised, by Jack Cory, was when Kari announced her candidacy for the council.
The end. I hope.
But given that David Johnson claims to be concerned that we have “transparency and accountability” shouldn’t he have disclosed that Stephanie Johnson O’Day is his sister?
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And just like that any credibility that David Johnson might have hoped for has flown out the window! Thanks for the reveal, Mary.
Not quite the end … and David did use his last name, which happens to be the same name Stephanie still uses in addition to her married name. More importantly, before voting, everyone should be aware of some facts and a pattern of behavior inherent in Kari McVeigh, as evidenced by the following lawsuit and news article related to two back-to-back employment departures from two different school districts.
First, the legal decision cited below is from an appeal of a lawsuit that was filed against the BEVERLY HILLS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT where Kari McVeigh was employed as superintendent and turned a blind eye to the actions of Christianson, as planning Director of the school system. Christensen’s compensation went from 113,000 a year to millions of dollars after she managed to convince the district that she could perform the same duties acting as an independent contractor through her wholly owned LLC. Payments to Christensen‘s LLC, Strategic LLC became out of control to the tune of millions of dollars, particularly after Christensen convinced McVeigh and the school board to pass a $300 million dollar bond. when the district tried to terminate her, she sued and won even more money from the school district.
The trial court awarded Strategic $4,310,660 in prejudgment interest pursuant to Civil Code section 3287, subdivision (b), and $2.3 million contractual attorney fees. The total judgment is $20,321,169.
It was overturned on appeal after McVeigh “retired,” essentially walking away from the problem in 2008, and leaving the district with the deficit, the fallout, and stress of an appeal for 10 years, as the appeal wasn’t decided until 2018.
This, voters, is from a legal record, not a news article. The upsetting aspect of this legal record and action is that there was little or no supervision on McVeigh’s watch. That is not the type of oversight, control, and husbanding of resources that we want for our county.
Anyone in a fiduciary role be it as superintendent of a school district or County Council must not have even the appearance of impropriety. This lack of oversight, whether complicit or not is unacceptable in the position of County Council.
Going forward, after leaving BEVERLY HILLS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT in 2008, she became employed as superintendent of the NEW HAVEN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT in December 2008, where she remained contentiously until 2014.
Following is an excerpt from an article posted in the Mercury News on June 5, 2013:
“By CHRIS DE BENEDETTI | Bay Area News Group, Mercury News
PUBLISHED: June 5, 2013 at 4:15 a.m.
UNION CITY — New Haven Unified’s superintendent of schools has announced she is leaving the district, saying her differences with the school board over recent management choices fueled her decision.
Kari McVeigh, the district’s superintendent since December 2008, will step down on Nov.
30, using about six weeks of vacation until she formally retires on Jan. 14, 2014.
“I am proud of the progress that our district has made in the past four-and-a-half years,” she said in a statement released Wednesday.
“But it has become painfully obvious to me that the board and I have irreconcilable differences about the board’s insistence on injecting itself into management decisions.”
In this case, it seems she couldn’t abide by mandates set by the School Board (her bosses), choosing instead to leave, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Do we really want this type of financial and personnel maneuvering in our San Juan County Council?
Sources:
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1895679.html
https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/06/05/new-haven-superintendent-kari-mcveigh-leaving-school-district-citing-differences-with-board/
Thank you Mary Campanella for allowing us to set the record straight. Where is YOUR credibility?
I support David Johnson’s perspective that examining candidates history is important when choosing who we vote for. I support Stephanie O’Day for County Council position one. Stephanie is an attorney versed in land use regulations. She has knowledge that can only come from being a long time resident involved with our local land use regulations. I believe that’s more important for a council member than budgeting credentials relative to some place far from the San Juan Islands.
David Johnson’s perspective of examining candidates history fits another County Council race. Position 2 (Orcas Island) pits Justin Paulsen against Rick Hughes. I support Justin Paulsen as the better choice. Rick Hughes served on the county council for 8 years. In 2015 he voted to approve a Land Bank (LB) acquisition known as Zylstra Lake on San Juan Island. He neglected to abide by code requirements for an approved acquisition plan and an appraisal. Review of county property records illustrate Rick Hughes owns property which abuts 26 connected parcels of LB property totaling 1,779 acres. The following link illustrates a LB document on the impact on property taxes from LB acquisitions.
https://sjclandbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Calc-of-the-LB-impact-on-taxes-750K-4-1-24.pdf
In the last paragraph of this document it states “Being near conservation land boosts property values by up to 20% according to multiple analyses” Over the eight years Rick Hughes was on the county council he could have and should have either recused himself or at the least acknowledged his potential conflict of interest with his personal property holdings when voting for Land Bank acquisitions. He did neither and it’s good reason why Justin Paulsen is the better choice for county council position 2.
Ron, you’re way off the farm as usual, considering that this is a post about Kari McVeigh; but since you, David and the whole San Juan over-the-hill gang are so obviously in cahoots with fake news and conspiracy theories, I feel compelled to respond. Rick Hughes has been a strong supporter of the Land Bank ever since his time on the Council. (Justin is also a strong supporter). Yes, Rick has properties abutting Land Bank preserves–some of which his family has sold to the Land Bank– and yes, properties abutting parks and preserves generally do increase in value, for good and obvious reasons; but none of that implies in any way that Rick’s support is out of self-interest. Instead he recognizes natural land conservation as being for the good of all of us. I would note that one of the three properties you own on San Juan Island abuts the Land Bank’s Zylstra preserve, which presumably increases your property value, and yet somehow you find no joy in that, and, in fact, do nothing but complain about the Land Bank. Not hypocritical? How sad.