What a fine mess the Orange County Board of Education is.
A lawsuit has been filed by Santa Ana businessman and OC GOP Central Committee member Mike Tardiff against Tustin Council Member Becky Gomez for holding incompatible offices. And its hard to argue against this when Democratic candidate for a seat on OCBE, Paulette Chaffee — the wife of Supervisor Doug Chaffee and a proven campaign sign stealer — filed a similar action against then La Habra councilmember Tim Shaw, who was also elected to the OCBE.
Shaw resigned from the OCBE seat only to be later re-appointed and has since resigned from the La Habra city council. But there’s a lawsuit against Shaw filed by activist Sean Michael Wright and defended by Tustin’s Lee Fink claiming Shaw’s re-appointment violated state law and is demanding a special election even though there’s an election in June. And a judge will sort out this entire mess this month.
And Mrs. Chaffee now has the DPOC endorsement for the election.
Gomez is an exceptional OCBE trustee and if she’s removed, blame Chaffee, Wright and Fink — plus whoever is funding this lawsuit — for the retaliation from the OC GOP on this. The focus should have been on attracting good (and sane) candidates for this controversial body and voter turnout in June. Now, the efort is going to be split to getting Democrats elected and saving Gomez.
And arguments to save Gomez while suing to keep Shaw off the board are weak sauce. Now would be a great time for DPOC chair Ada Briceno to get together with OC GOP chair and work on a compromise to drop all legal challenges and let the voters sort this out.
and judge rules Tim Shaw can stay: https://voiceofoc.org/2022/03/tim-shaw-to-stay-on-orange-county-board-of-education-judge-set-to-issue-opinion/
But Becky is still on the hook.
Don’t forget Lee Fink helped (unsuccessfully) Greg Diamond in one of his frivolous lawsuits or removal.
That in and of itself gives Lee about as much credibility as Elmer Fudd.
What Dan does not mention is that this lawsuit is based on the same theory as a lawsuit brought by Melissa Louden in January 2021, that the Attorney General authorized to proceed in October 2021, which is why Shaw resigned in the first place. Once the AG determined in October that County Board of Education and City Council were incompatible offices, this was bound to happen. In other words, there is nothing about the second lawsuit (against OCBOE, in which I am counsel) that affects this, and in fact, this lawsuit against Beckie was in process before our lawsuit was public.
and yet you lost your case and Shaw remains. The reason republicans pursued the case against Becky is because you couldn’t wait until the election
You’re wrong, again, Dan. They were pursuing the case before my case was even filed. Their timing was purely related to making sure that it her seat could not be put up for election in June, in the hopes that they can appoint her replacement.
https://voiceofoc.org/2022/04/shaw-keeps-seat-on-oc-board-of-education-judge-rules-lawsuit-improperly-filed/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=574c8bfe-4b32-474a-8a0e-e352000697ee
Jeez Lee. Improperly filed paperwork?
Lee. The Republicans I talk to and the Republicans you talk to may not be the same people. It’s possible both groups are telling us different things. The original action against Shaw triggered their response