Three members from the Goldman family are running for the Fremont Union High School District board in a contest for three open seats as observers expressed some skepticism about whether, if all three are elected, they could successfully observe California’s open meeting law and avoid discussing school district business around the breakfast table. -db
San Jose Mercury News
Commentary
August 29, 2010
By the Mercury News
In this election, it’s the Goldman family vs. incumbents
Here’s something you don’t see every day: Three members of the same Sunnyvale household are running for the Fremont Union High School District board in a challenge to a trio of incumbents.
Michael and Miyuki Goldman are running with their son, college student Monet, in a seven-person race for three spots on the board. Sitting members Barbara Nunes, Hung Wei and Bill Wilson are seeking re-election, while Pradeep Jain is also in the race.
Michael Goldman, a software consultant, said he tried to recruit other candidates to run with him, but they had to drop out for various reasons. He then asked his family members, including Monet, who attended Fremont High and is now at Foothill College.
The family patriarch said he was motivated to run by concerns about how the district spends its money; Goldman thinks funding improperly tilts toward the administration rather than teachers or students.
“The incumbents are basically a rubber stamp for the administration,” he said.
But Internal Affairs (IA) had to wonder whether the Brown Act, the state law that prohibits unofficial meetings with a “quorum” of an elected body, would cause problems for the Goldman ticket. After all, there are just five seats on the school board.
And Michael Goldman specifically cited his family’s potential to coordinate as an incentive to vote for the slate. “We work from a common base, and it’s easy to get hold of each other,” he said.
A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office told IA that simply living under the same roof wouldn’t necessarily create a Brown Act violation if all three Goldmans were elected: The trio would have to actually discuss pending board business amongst themselves to run afoul of the rules.
On the other hand, Judy Nadler, a government ethics expert at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, found the situation “troubling.” She wondered how the school district would be able to police the family’s compliance.
“If you live with someone, trust me, the decisions that you’re making and the discussions you’re having become part of your everyday life,” said the former Santa Clara mayor. “It’s not as if you turn off your trustee role when you go home.”
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