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| Text of Maura Larkins Request #2 "How much money did the San Diego County Office of Education Joint Powers Authority pay to Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz...between January 1, 2001 and January 1, 2006?" Shinoff/Ward Response: Your request does not appear to be a request for records, but an overbroad interrogatory. As such, JPA does not possess a document that satisfies your request. |
Maura Larkins response to denial: Interestingly, when I previously asked SDCOE for documents showing how much Shinoff was paid by SDCOE, Shinoff's associate Kelly Angell created pages and pages of new records that did not contain the information I requested. Stutz law firm makes sure the truth is hidden no matter how a public records request is phrased.When I previously requested the documents of contracts between Shinoff and SDCOE, I was told there weren't any. This may be true. At a recent Grossmont Union HIgh School board meeting, superintendent Terry Ryan said Shinoff has a "gentleman's agreement" with the JPA. If that doesn't sound like a backroom deal, I don't know what does. |
Maura Larkins response to denial: The public has a right to this information, Mr. Ward. I'll keep working on rephrasing the request until you provide the information. |
Randolph Ward
SDCOE superintendent and SDCOE JPA top administrator
Randy Ward had Daniel Shinoff write the letter below, in which Shinoff, on behalf of
Ward, refuses to turn over information about Shinoff. Randy Ward won't tell how much
the San Diego County Office of Education Joint Powers Authority paid Daniel Shinoff
from 2001 to 2006.
Also, he won't tell what insurance companies the SDCOE JPA does business with.
SDCOE superintendent and SDCOE JPA top administrator
Randy Ward had Daniel Shinoff write the letter below, in which Shinoff, on behalf of
Ward, refuses to turn over information about Shinoff. Randy Ward won't tell how much
the San Diego County Office of Education Joint Powers Authority paid Daniel Shinoff
from 2001 to 2006.
Also, he won't tell what insurance companies the SDCOE JPA does business with.
Attorneys' Fees
Rising
Written by Administrator
Saturday, 26 January 2008
I'm glad the Lack of Trustees
are actually going to look at
the attorney fee bills to see
what they are billing the
district for.
Rising
Written by Administrator
Saturday, 26 January 2008
I'm glad the Lack of Trustees
are actually going to look at
the attorney fee bills to see
what they are billing the
district for.
School Attorney Fees/Public Records
San Diego County Office of Education keeps secret how much it
spends on lawyers
spends on lawyers
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They monitored the site
every day for around 20 to
45 minutes per day. At $175
to $250 dollar per hour, you
figure that payment out.
When they decided to sue
me for defamation, they
brought out Mr. David
Feldman himself! You
KNOW that cost a pretty
penny! That's probably the
additional $175,000 that Der
Commissar wanted the
Board to approve. And the
Board should have
approved it. They were the
ones who agreed to have
Feldman threaten me. New
GISD Train Conductor Andy
Mytelka gave a little spit and
vinegar speech himself. And
O'Neal gave his famous
"Train" diatribe!
They have no one to blame
but themselves.
The other big money maker
for the attorneys is review of
every single Open Records
Request that comes through
the door. The only reason a
district attorney would need
to review every single Open
Records Request is to
prevent certain information
from making it into the hands
of the public. Take our
latest request for signature
cards for every bank
account the district has. Not
only was that request
reviewed by the attorneys,
but the Lovely and Talented
LeAnne Bram Lundy, has
asked the Attorney General
not to make them give it to
me! Why you ask? Because
they do not want us to see
how many bank accounts
they have and how they shift
money around from one
account to another. And I
suspect that they do not
want the Board Members to
know about the accounts
either!
Here's the deal about Open
Records Requests: The
request can only be for
something that already
exists that they can make a
copy of and give to you. You
can not ask for them to
create a report for you. So I
couldn't ask for a list of bank
accounts from them. They
don't have to produce
anything for me. So I asked
for a copy of each signature
card for each bank account.
Now, assuming they even
know where there money is,
this is a simple matter of
copying each card. It's our
money, we should be able to
know where it's kept. The
actual signatures, driver's
license numbers, social
security numbers, and other
personal identifying numbers
may be redacted from the
copy. That's already part of
the Open Records Law. I
only want to know how many
accounts we have and
where they are. They are
supposed to change banks
every couple of years, also.
This exact type of request is
routinely submitted to school
districts across the state
including Friendswood ISD.
FISD routinely provides
these cards via Open
Records Request to
requestors. The Attorney
General has already ruled
on this issue several years
ago. It's a done deal. The
district must provide them to
me.
But, either to throw me off or
give the district time to move
money around, the Lovely
and Talented LeAnne Bram
Lundy wrote the following
letters to the Attorney
General:
Feldman to AG No Sig Cards
Letter 1
Feldman to AG No Sig Cards
Letter 2
I've had some Open
Records Request experts
review my situation and
here's what they say:
"Your request for the bank
authority cards was on
December 6th. When did
GISD inform you that they
were asking for an A.G.
opinion? The law gives
them ONLY ten working
days, which means that
unless they actually WROTE
to the A.G. by then the
information is
AUTOMATICALLY deemed
to be public! That's the law
(Texas Government Code
551 and 552 are open
government law). If GISD
did not compose and mail
their request to the A.G. by
then, the information is
PRESUMED to be public and
after that period has
elapsed, GISD must now
show a compelling reason
that the information should
not be released. In other
words, if they miss the
deadline, their burden
becomes greater. Not much
in the way of consequences
for stalling, is it?"
"On page 2 they cite
"OR2002-7018 and
OR2001-3659". These are
informal letter rulings and I
could only frind the 2002 letter
on the A.G. website. You
should think about calling
Hadassah Schloss, Cost Rules
Administrator, Open Records
Division (512-475-2497) and
see if she can help you find
the letters.
Open letter rulings apply
ONLY to the specifics of the
letter about which they are
written. They do NOT have
the weight of an Open
Record Decision or an
Opinion. F&R know this."
"I will be astonished if the AG
gives them permission to
withhold these documents
based upon their cited
references. I could not find
552.143 or 552.147, but the
first six subsections that they
cited are totally irrelevant. If
the Attorney General had
any cahunas he would
chastise them for wasting his
time (and yours)!"
So, you can see two things:
1) The district tries very hard
to keep damning information
out of the hands of the
public; and
2) The attorneys LOVE this
because it makes them a
LOT of money!!
Again, when will the School
Board wake up?
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| In the above letter, Ward and Shinoff propounded technical legalities as an excuse for keeping information secret. However, when requests have been worded differently, Shinoff has used another favorite excuse: attorney-client privilege. The public is supposed to be your client, Mr. Shinoff. The public is paying you. Why do you advise public servants to harm the public? Why do you feel a need to keep this information secret, Randy? Why do you feel the need to cover-up for Dan Shinoff and Diane Crosier? The January 12, 2007 letter at right was written by Dan Shinoff and sent to Maura Larkins. Since the text is hard to read, important passages have been re-typed below. |
When we received a copy of a
fee bill last Spring, it was a
redacted copy which was in
direct violation of a State of
Texas Attorney General's
Open Record Decision.
However, it was with this bill
that we found that GISD was
paying at least 2 different
attorneys to monitor
gisdwatch. Yes, your tax
dollars PAID for GISD
attorneys to monitor what we
are saying on this site. Not
that they weren't curious and
that many in the administration
building read the site
occasionally.
fee bill last Spring, it was a
redacted copy which was in
direct violation of a State of
Texas Attorney General's
Open Record Decision.
However, it was with this bill
that we found that GISD was
paying at least 2 different
attorneys to monitor
gisdwatch. Yes, your tax
dollars PAID for GISD
attorneys to monitor what we
are saying on this site. Not
that they weren't curious and
that many in the administration
building read the site
occasionally.
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| SDCOE links |
SDCOE Superintendent Randolph Ward
SDCOE JPA's top administrator refuses to tell how much SDCOE
pays attorney Dan Shinoff
SDCOE JPA's top administrator refuses to tell how much SDCOE
pays attorney Dan Shinoff
| Text of Maura Larkins Request #1 "The names of all insurance companies currently doing business with or on behalf of the San Diego County Joint Powers Authority." Shinoff/Ward Response: Your request does not appear to be a request for records, but an overbroad interrogatory. As such, the San Diego Office of Education Joint Powers Authority (JPA) does not possess a document that satisfies your request." |
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| San Diego Education Report |
| SDER |
San Diego
Education Report
Education Report
| SDER |
| SDER |
| SDER |
Galveston, Texas has
the same problem as
San Diego regarding
public records and
school lawyer attacks
on blogs:
The blog: Galveston
Alliance for Neighborhood
Schools
The district: Galveston
Independent School District
the same problem as
San Diego regarding
public records and
school lawyer attacks
on blogs:
The blog: Galveston
Alliance for Neighborhood
Schools
The district: Galveston
Independent School District