The Gilroy Unified School District failed to collect millions in property taxes in December then retreated behind closed doors Feb. 5 to discuss the matter in possible violation of the Brown Act open meeting law. -DB
The Gilroy Dispatch
Feb 19, 2009
By Sara Suddes
A paperwork error cost the Gilroy Unified School District $6 million in property taxes and has staff scrambling to find funds for a $5.3 million bond payment due in September.
“We don’t know what happened. We’re still working through that. All we know is that the tax didn’t make it to the taxpayers, but the why and the how – we’re not there yet,” Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Enrique Palacios said.
Gilroy property owners caught an inadvertent tax break this December. The tax for Measure J, which property owners have been paying since 1974, didn’t appear on the statements. The district collects $70.50 per $100,000 of assessed value, and uses the collected taxes to pay off bonds which have been sold.
Diligent taxpayers alerted the district to the omission.
Superintendent Deborah Flores and trustees discussed the issue at a closed session meeting Feb. 5, trustees said. That meeting, closed to the public, came under fire from Tom Newton, a leading California First Amendment attorney.
“Here’s a situation where they’ve become aware of a $6 million problem and they’ve never had a public discussion about it,” Newton said. “If so, then there’s a strong indication that they’ve had that discussion in private, which is a violation of the Brown Act.”
The Brown Act governs open meetings in California and requires, other than a few narrow exceptions, that the public’s business to be conducted in open session.