A member of the Garen Grove Unified School District said she left this week’s school board meeting because of a deal brokered between three other board members just minutes before the start of the meeting to nominate each other for board president and vice president . She claimed that the deal was a violation of the Brown Act, California’s open government law. -DB
By Deepa Bharath
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – School board member Kim-Oanh Nguyen-Lam walked out of Tuesday night’s school board meeting and has said she will not return to work with the board until they resolve a “Brown Act violation.”
Nguyen-Lam alleges that trustees Lan Quoc Nguyen, Bob Harden and George West made a deal among themselves to nominate each other for the ceremonial positions of president and vice president minutes before the start of the Dec. 15 board meeting as they were seated on the dais.
“I was sitting right there shocked and confused,” Nguyen-Lam said today. “I couldn’t believe I saw what I saw.”
Nguyen-Lam said she believes she witnessed a “political conspiracy” to keep her from getting those ceremonial positions. Lan Nguyen said today he does not believe he or anyone else on the board committed a Brown Act violation.
Alan Trudell, spokesman for the Garden Grove Unified School District, said the board has directed the superintendent to contact legal counsel about it.
“The board wants to find out from our attorney whether the process to elect the president and vice president was done legally,” he said.
Nguyen asked Harden at the Dec. 15 meeting if he wanted to be president this year, to which Harden said “yes,” Nguyen-Lam recalled. Then Nguyen moved over to West and asked him if he would nominate Nguyen for the vice president post, she said.
“George agreed with a joke asking Lan Nguyen why he wanted to go for the second-best post,” she said.
During the meeting, the nominations went per the earlier discussion, Nguyen-Lam said. Harden and Nguyen were elected president and vice president respectively.
Nguyen-Lam said the votes were recorded as unanimous although she did not respond one way or the other because she was “too stunned to respond.” The correction to her response was recorded by the board Tuesday.
When Nguyen-Lam brought up the issue at Tuesday’s school board meeting, Nguyen and Harden acknowledged the conversation, but West said he had no recollection of it.
Nguyen said he spoke casually to Harden before the meeting, but doesn’t see it as a violation of the Brown Act.
“I just wanted to talk to (Harden) to see if he would serve as president,” Nguyen said. “I thought if he wanted to serve, I’d support his nomination. And that’s what I did.”
Nguyen said, however, that he does not remember talking to West about it.
“There is no secret here,” he said. “These are ceremonial posts and they are usually a reflection of the trust confidence and support of your fellow board members. You either have it or you don’t. That’s it.”
Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said that if Nguyen-Lam’s account is accurate, then a Brown Act violation would have occurred because when the board majority of three members meets, it technically becomes a “meeting.”
However, if Lan Nguyen’s account is accurate, then there was no violation, Scheer said, because the conversation was only between two trustees, which does not constitute a board majority. If a violation occurred, the simple remedy would be to “do it all over again” during a public meeting, he said.
“A violation may or may not have occurred here,” he said. “It doesn’t sound to me that it is the kind of violation that significantly affects the process or content of policy making. That said, everyone needs to be aware of what the rules are and those rules need to be adhered to – in minor or very important matters.”
Nguyen-Lam said she believes it is a political conspiracy by Lan Nguyen.
“In my six years on this board, I’ve never served as president or vice-president,” she said. “How can I trust this board? How can I believe that they are serving the public with mutual respect and integrity?”
West and Harden could not be reached for comment today. However, Nguyen said Nguyen-Lam is mistaken in her belief that it is all a “Republican conspiracy” against her, a Democrat.
“That’s simply not true,” he said.
Nguyen pointed to Nguyen-Lam’s controversial appointment as Westminster School District’s Superintendent in May 2006, a decision the school board dropped within a week after two trustees rescinded their vote to hire her. Nguyen-Lam sued the district, but later dropped the suit. Nguyen said she viewed that board decision as a political conspiracy, too.
Nguyen-Lam said she will not return to the board room until the issue is resolved.
“By denying that these events happened, they have called me a liar,” she said.
Lan Nguyen said he would be interested in an investigation into the Brown Act issue, but said it is up to Nguyen-Lam whether she wants to attend the board meetings.
“We have a quorum without her, so we can still function without her,” he said. “It’s her prerogative whether or not she wants to serve her constituents.”
Copyright 2010 Orange County Register Communications