Aggrieved SMMUSD board member doesn’t go quietly
Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter – 4:01 pm PST December 18, 2020 – Malibu Surfside News
It was supposed a chance for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District would finally to decide how to reopen schools next year during the pandemic and say farewell to longtime board member Oscar de la Torre, who was recently elected to the Santa Monica City Council.
Instead, Thursday’s meeting turned into a melee over De la Torre, who still considered himself a school board member despite having been sworn to the other body.
De la Torre was accused of “hijacking” the beginning of the meeting, where he continued to assume the role of a board member, despite being told by the district’s attorney that legally he couldn’t serve concurrently as a board member and on the council.
After De la Torre was essentially booted from the meeting, he returned during public comment to call out board members and the district for racist actions, among other things.
Superintendent Ben Drati said he’d been in communication with De la Torre regarding the transition plan, and that De la Torre failed to turn in a resignation letter.
Holding both offices, Drati said, would be a problem because the district and the city have contracts together that have to be voted on.
Drati said the issue wasn’t going to be brought up during the meeting, but then De la Torre introduced himself as still being on the board.
James Fernow, the district’s attorney, said
De la Torre then repeatedly interrupted the meeting, saying he wanted to ask a question and that he was continuously being muted on the Zoom call.
“We have a code of conduct at (board) meetings, and you are keeping us from doing the business of the district,” Board President Jon Kean told De la Torre.
The majority of the board then decided to recess the meeting to discuss the matter in closed session, leaving more than 357 audience members waiting online.
Comments such as, “This is reality tv” and “They’re confused about the law” as well as accusations of Brown Act violations were heard on open microphones by the public during the approximately 15-minute break.
When the board reconvened, attorney Fernow explained that under the Government Code, when two public offices are incompatible, a public officer forfeits the first office upon seating to the second.
“Upon swearing in (to the council), De la Torre, forfeited his school board position and is no longer a (board) member, and should be treated as a member of the public community,” Fernow said.
“I apologize to the members of the public here for a very serious topic that effects 10,000 students in our district,” said Kean about the reopening plans. “And to have the meeting hijacked in that matter, I apologize, but we have legal requirements that we had to address.”
The board then agreed to readjust the agenda to hear the school reopening plans earlier in the meeting.
After their discussion about the reopening plans more than six hours later, De La Torre returned to the public comment session to air his grievances.
He brought along Kevin Shenkman, a Malibu lawyer well known throughout California for his legal work with influencing cities to move toward district-based elections. Shenkman disagreed with Fernow’s interpretation, saying Fernow was citing an old attorney general’s opinion.
“There are no court cases on point whether a city council or school board are incompatible offices,” he said.
Shenkman likened it to when a tenant fails to pay rent, the landlord becomes entitled to possession of the property. “That doesn’t mean the landlord can simply go and put locks on the door without going through the appropriate judicial process of an unlawful detainer action, and that is what this school district is apparently doing,” Shenkman said.
De la Torre said it was unfortunate how he was being denied an opportunity to participate as a duly-elected board member, a position he served for 18 years, and he alluded to taking legal action.
He also accused the school district in general of unfairly treating and silencing “people of color” and that he personally felt “marginalized” by the board’s actions.
De la Torre then said he was against the board voting in favor of Kean being allowed to keep his position as board president, calling Kean “a tyrant” who has personally attacked people at meetings.
He also added that no person of color has served in the role, and that Latinos and others deserve to be represented.
“It screams of white privilege, straight up,” De la Torre said. “In order to deal with systemic racism, you have to look at yourself.”
In response, Board Member Laurie Lieberman called De la Torre’s comments “deliberately inflammatory and disingenuous.”
Board Member Craig Foster, the only Malibu resident on the board, defended De la Torre, calling what he said “statistically true.”
Foster asked the board to consider having a restorative and social justice conversation in the near future.
After Foster failed himself to get nominated as board vice president to give Malibu a better voice in talks, the majority of the board voted for Kean to stay on as president and Lieberman was voted as vice president.
“It’s been an interesting meeting,” said Kean, adding he’d planned on giving a speech praising De La Torre for being elected to the Santa Monica City Council.
However, “To be unfairly judged on where I live, my religion and what I look like is tough,” said Kean.