A Let’s Forget It, Kissy Smooch and Be Pals letter from the County D.A.’s office a year ago this month seemed to slam the door on the story.
Not so fast, bub.
Coming Out of Retirement
I suspect the two schools people in Manhattan Beach may have entertained similar thoughts. It’s over.
Who is going to care about a few hundred bucks billed here or there? The expenses could be justified. So little money is involved you could use the bills to light your cigars.
Think again.
Years passed between what one party admitted and the other denied, according to published reports. The amounts they were charged with misdirecting were dwarfed by the monies involved in Culver City unofficially, around $6500 in one case and evidently less in the other.
Lest you think we are talking cookie-jar stuff, the charges brought last week against both persons illegally using public funds for personal expenses carry four-year terms in state prison.
The Manhattan Beach District superintendent, retired three years ago. He
moved to Florida.
Who knew it would come to this?
The super, Jerry Davis, fifty-eight years old, pleaded guilty on Monday in Torrance Superior Court to misappropriating public funds.
Depending on your definition of chicken feed, it is said that Mr. Davis is reimbursing the District in two separate checks. In paying off the estimated $6500, he is covering money that he spent on theater tickets, eyeglasses, airline tickets and a hotel room among other items.
Not only that, he was ordered to pay fines that could reach a hefty $30,000. Mr.
Davis also will be barred from ever running for public office or holding public
employment in California.
The deeds to which he confessed were reported to have occurred between Nov. 6, 1997, and June 13, 2002.
Mr. Davis will be on felony probation for three years.
Former Manhattan Beach School Board member Mary Rogers, sixty-three, is
charged with misappropriating public monies sometime between Nov. 7, ’00, and
May 20, ’03.
In departing, Mr. Davis tied his retirement to his health. Ms. Rogers, who
defeated a recall effort, chose not to run for re-election last year. She is scheduled to return to court on May 2.
Meanwhile, Back in Culver City
Drawing a correlation between what happened in Culver City and in Manhattan
Beach is far from exacting but surely instructive.
The Culver City case may be over. It may not.
Even though the officially inadvertent indiscretion of the three School Board
members regarding excessive healthcare benefits appears to be behind them, today’s message is:
Do not be so sure.
Just like the little boy who stole from his mommy’s kitchen, a foul-smelling act does not go away. Crimes, like stains on reputations, remain on the books.
If, dear reader, you will glance to the left, you will see three hundred and seventy-nine days have passed since the District Attorney’s Office dashed off a curious letter to the School Board of Culver City.
An honors graduate from the University of Obfuscation, the deputy in the D.A.’s
office who wrote the letter used the kind of language that encourages English teachers to walk off of tall buildings.
Of the assertion that three members of the School Board gained a cumulative total of more than $60,000 in healthcare benefits beyond the legal limit, the deputy District Attorney shrugged one shoulder. (With a law degree, you have the capability of doing that.)
To refresh your memory, the deputy D.A. assured the accuser that our
investigation has revealed sufficient evidence to support your claim.
Ol’ Dep also said, it appears the violations of the Government Code were
inadvertent.
Immediately thereafter, the will of the community faded into flaccidity.
Do you remember from where the powerful liberal group Moveon.org took its
name?
Tired of the ubiquitous coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, certain wealthy
liberals said, It is time to move on.
Displaying that kind of flabby will, you can build a pup tent in the backyard, but you can’t achieve anything worthwhile.
This is a crushingly ironic development four days before a new showcase sculpture of Harry Culver, the founder of this wonderful community, is unveiled on
Sunday afternoon at 2 by the Culver Hotel.
In the years since activist parent George Laase brought the problem of the three School Board members to community attention, I only have heard one word of encouragement from the Board Three.
It was from Ms. Wolkowitz. When she is billed, she will be happy to send a check covering her portion, she said.
Will the final sentence in Ol’ Dep’s letter last year prove prophetic?
After a review of all factors, this office has decided to take no further action against the Board or its members.