Did I Forget to Mention...

Did I Forget to mention...


What happened on September 23, 2008 at the board meeting that ran until near midnight? APPARENTLY, Harold "Rick" Sayre and Jesus Holguin Took Part in a desperate act of CRIMINAL NEPOTISM and no one said a word (See board minutes September 23, 2008 last paragraph.)





In a unanimous vote by the school board of Moreno Valley unified school district, Victoria Baca, Harold "Rick" Sayre, Jesus Holguin, Jackie Ashe, and Tracy Vackar; voted in favor of the most egregious act of nepotism in any state agency I have ever heard of.  Then to limit the number of witnesses to their unethical act of favoritism, the board members each took a turn at running on about nothing (much like a filibuster) so as to run the meeting as late as possible and according to the board minutes there were no outsiders present.(?) Director of human resources, Willie Ross Hasson, railroaded his son Willie Mark Hasson (A.K.A. Mark Hasson) past , nearly a dozen applicants from within the MVUSD district that were more qualified, more experienced, and with proven leadership skills.  His son, Willie Mark Hasson had no significant leadership experience; further I was told by someone close to the interview process; Mark Hasson had the lowest interview scores of any applicant that interviewed.  However, the board did not question Willie Hasson even though they knew Mark Hasson was his son and Mark Hasson became the principal by proxy of Vista Heights Middle School. Hasson Jr. had the exact minimum requirements to have applied for the job at all.


As if to validate the laws against such nepotism, Hasson Jr.s track record is dismal at best. He has caused several good teachers to leave Vista Heights including the school psychologist. The overall morale of the staff is at the lowest it's ever been in the 14 years of my experience.  During the second month of his newly stolen principalship, locked away in his office; Hasson worked much of the day on his supposed doctoral thesis.  He saw no parent's he dealt with no issues, he simply depended on his father's input to run the school.  And run it he has nearly to the ground. He has divided the staff so to make himself the middleman and coerce both ends against the other.  Then there are the financial issues and the misuse of student funds.  Both deliberate and widespread.  More on that later.  Still, the board as mentioned above including three currently sitting board members, voted five to nothing in favor knowing full well once again that Mark Hasson was the son of Willie Hasson, making themselves complicit in this unprecedented act of district-sponsored nepotism.  Because of the circumstances and the explicit intent of the board to hide this matter from public view, it may well fall under those rare set of legal circumstances that would make this matter a criminal matter.


Regardless of any possible crime, this particular issue is uniquely sad and ethically reprehensible.  To those board members who remain on the board that took place in this farce, I would say it is passed time that you corrected the the wrong that you did to the other candidates and the parents and students of Vista Heights middle school.  It is time to admit and to right this wrong before it is brought out in a way that will take your options from you.  


To the Superintendent of the County School system, I highly suggest you or your representatives interview random staff members not including the five or six sycophants Hasson has mustered, to verify the sad state of affairs at the school and speak with the board about their own policy regarding nepotism and ethics they might surprise everyone and do the right thing.


As far as the financial situation, I have documented to the Riverside County Schools Independent fraud investigator the issues as they stand at many secondary schools. From their position of Independence from the County Office of education's oversight, they rebuked the request of the county fraud team to go in and investigate certain suspicious accounting practices. After reading the recommendations of both the county office of schools and the Riverside Grand Jury, it would appear the district is no closer to compliance than they were in 2005. When the accounting assistant superintendent lied in writing to the same Grand Jury. I see no evidence that the district ever intended to follow the Grand Jury's directions. It is past time for those senior board members to right this act of explicit and intentional wrongdoing in doing including fixing the sad state of affairs at Vista Heights Middle School.  Mr. Holguin keep your promise from our meeting almost two years ago about this very matter! No more lies.


I personally have reason to believe their published "prudent reserve" numbers are in accurate at best. Moreno Valley Unified School District is stumbling possibly spiraling into the abyss of financial insolvency? That's the truth as best I can determine from financial records from previous years. The District hasn't even payed off the mounting attorney's fees from defending themselves from the repercussions of their own petty often criminally liable personal attacks on their employees by MVUSD administrators and the swollen egos of the senior board trustees.




Go ahead ask, "now how would he know that?" I too have fallen victim to the same unwarranted attack on my professional and personal reputation and ultimately my employment for drawing attention to the multitude of problems in house at the district level first. Nothing. More cover-ups. More lies. The same things I write about here in my blogs. My exercise in 1st amendment rights. As it turns out HR and the two senior board members are so anxious to get rid of me that they turned down their own attorneys' advice to settle this matter on two previous  occasions - that's right they ignored their own attorney's high-high priced advice twice in two months. They are burning our tax money on personal and political vendettas that could cost the district over a $million$ dollars in combined attorney's fees and damages (state agencies are exempt from paying court fees) alone. If we go there, that will only be the price of admission. Three to Five years including appeals. WOW that's a ton of your money snatched right out of your child's education. You know the free and adequate education promised by state and federal law. As of today however that is the route we seem to be headed for. 


These two senior trustees and their HR puppet have squandered upwards of $60,000 dollars of your tax money to date on trying to conjure up a story that even their own attorney's know won't fly. All to make me go away. 10 mo.s without pay. Put off work for the first three months without explanation. Then the fictionalized allegations against me. Denied me due process. While they stumbled through different scenarios trying to find something that would stick. They will reach an easy $200 thousand if we have to ready for to a civil court remedy after the Administrative Adjudicative Hearing on Thursday January 19, 2012. (That meeting was postponed indefinitely as Voros tries to starve me out) 


I tried as best I could to avoid this route. I have no interest in taking money from the kids I care about. I met secretly with Jesus Holguin in late November, 2010 and he promised to help, that the nepotism issue was being was "being addressed as we spoke..." He lied. He didn't keep a single promise to correct the problem(s). He simply wanted to see the information I had gathered on Victoria Baca. A former board trustee and all around self serving politico that a friend and I helped to unseat. In fact Jesus himself voted to try and find a way to dismiss me, or starve me out. Rick Sayre backed or forced that play. Rick is up for reelection in November. I now know why he doesn't want me digging around or anyone else for that matter. Much to come on his shenanigans and bully-boy tactics. He was right not to want me nosing around but 10 months without work tends to make me very curious. Come back soon, here at one of the few places you can get your hands dirty and keep your conscience clean.
I, Praetorian

School Counseling Podcast: The Silent Suffering of Too Many Teenage Girls

School Counseling Videocast: The Silent Suffering of So Many Teenage Girls

IF ONLY YOU KNEW?

Well folks, the "Press Enterprise newspaper" did a perfunctory articule on money missing from student fund coffers at three Moreno Valley Unified schools and how the district's accounting department was soooo contrite.

They are going to fix those schools! Attendance and all! If only those three schools represented the real problems. The fiscal wrong doings at Moreno Valley Unified School District are rampant and well beyond any three schools. So too, it has been alleged that such abuses extend back at least 15 years. However, the problems worsened and became more obvious under former Assistant Superintendent Robert Wallace Crank. Crank, eliminated all positions of fiscal over sight regarding MVUSD'S loosely and randomly regulated student fundraising. There has not been any meaning full systematic structure for handling and accountability in that 15 year span . No training of state aligned methods or manuals, bookkeeping software has been mysteriously been wiped out completely (with no server level back up to be found), on ASB account’s computers. Amazingly, on at least three ocassions; just ahead of some official inquiry by an outside agency or the treat thereof.

I do not however, think of the new Superintendent Dr. White as complicit. I believe though she has been kept uninformed by individuals with vested interest in keeping these things hidden. In any case, most of the personnel who knew the truth have left the district by now. Some retired some forced out by a VERY complicit school board  Those who have not gone and might speak honestly, are systematically being forced out by deceit, harassment,  and lies in the hopes of silencing the truth once and for all and avoiding an incredible amount of liability and embarrassment. The majority of this unethical and sometimes illegal action comes from a top administrator who 20 days into his new job at MVUSD, said he “was going to clean up the reputation of HR.” referring to the unethical behaviors notorious of the previous HR Director.

I am referring for the moment, to nearly half a million dollars every year. May be more? Probably more. Stolen, misplaced, misappropriated, or just gone. Its a rough estimate based on my years working with ASB and talking to other advisors. Not to mention that MVUSD refused the County School's Forensic Accounting team access to their books and those of the school sight's "student funds account," One of the problems is almost all fundraising now is done in cash. Due to the logistics of handling returned checks, the schools seldom take them anymore. 


At my sight, large sums of cash were routinely kept in just about any lockable container. Sometimes for months on end.  As an example: In a singular act, five years ago, $10,000 in cash was stolen directly from the safe at one MVUSD middle school. Under the circumstances I was told, it took less than ten minutes to accomplish and there were only five people who had all the necessary keys to walk in and out with the money. No investigation occurred and no further mention was made of it.  The only persons who should have the key and safe combination are the ASB (Associated Student Body or "government") accountant and the school principal.  The cash sits with no oversight and no truly accurate record of it's existence.  No club fundraising cash deposits go through the ASB cabinet approval process as do purchase orders or check requests. They are handled directly by the ASB accountant under the over site and responsibility of the principal.

About MVUSD "clubs." In general regarding fundraising; it is and has always been mandatory for students to pay to participate in extra-curricular activities. Fundraising seldom covers even half the student expenses. Recently this practice has been deemed ILLEGAL in law suits against surrounding school districts. However at MVUSD, the money parents pay is shown on School Board Minutes as “Voluntary Parent Contributions,” but the child can't participate without paying the fee.  Therefore, it appears that participation is neither voluntary nor a contribution. (Handout, gift, or offering.) The courts have recently interpreted "fair and adequate" to mean that all public school activities requiring parents to pay money or monies for participation; Must be offered free to any and all eligible students. This includes extracurricular sports and any student clubs. It is a violation of the law to charge parents or force students to fund raise their share. In one discussion, the practice was deemed "double dipping," because parents pay for their child's education through taxation. The court's interpretation extended to include uniforms and protective gear.

In keeping with previous years, more than one MVUSD principal of late has been implicated in possible financial wrongdoings regarding student funds. While seldom investigated by MVUSD in any fair and through manner, the problem itself best documented under deposition (Williams v. MVUSD 2006) by former Director of Secondary Education, Kim Kruger. Who further admitted under oath that the problem was commonplace and that he himself had problems regarding student funds as principal at Valley View High School.

More recently, regarding a here to unnamed middle school and their ASB student fund for the 2009-2010 school year; it opened school with a ledger balance rollover from the previous year, somewhere in the vicinity of $115,000.  Which is extremely high and a strange discrepancy in the rollover for any student fund account. This is the ASB general fund to which all other clubs, excluding parent run booster clubs, deposit their fundraising cash, draw their money, pay their bills and obtain their club status. At the end of these first two months, this middle school's account ledger reportly dropped to just over $7,000.  The ASB ledger entries for this school,  during this time period, are said to not make sense nor add up to any where near $100,000. This example was but one school and one school year in Moreno Valley Unified School District.

Next report; ASB and Booster Clubs. The difference between the two and why both are ripe for cash skimming.

Posted by I, Praetorian at 8:31 AM 

Praetorian: spent 4 years as an ASB co-director for MVUSD and has 14 years as a middle school counselor.

The The ONLY Honest Iinvestigative News of the city of Moreno Valley,

IT ALL OUT FOR THE BENEFIT OF YOU THE PARENTS.

The ONLY honest investigative News of Moreno Valley, California. It is with Great Pride that I Occasionally Plagerize His Hard Work.

A Man I am Proud to Call Friend (When no one else is around...) Gordie of MVGORDIE.COM.
Thanks,
I,Praetorian

When Moreno Valley Mayor Richard Stewart Is Asked To Tell The Truth, His Response Is Silence.

 •December 14, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Mayor Stewart had told the public that it is the responsibility of the City Staff and City Council to clarify any miss information made by the public during the publics portion of speaking during City Council meetings, however that doesn’t seem to be the case when that misinformation or outright lies are the making of the Council or the City Staff themselves.

mvgordie.com had made an email request to seek answers in a truthful nature from Mayor Richard Stewart in regards to public comments and statements made on the record during numerous city council meetings, however no response to the questions asked has been made by the Mayor.

Well I guess if you can’t answer truthfully, or the truth will go to prove that prior statements were in fact incorrect and or misleading, the best answer would be no answer at all.

Although the questions asked were problematic for the City, the public has a right to know the answers, after all the questions were $75 million questions.

Here are the questions which were asked:

Dear Mayor, 

With your last council statements of the need for City Staff and Council to keep the public informed of the truth, by correcting misstatements of facts etc. made by members of the public, maybe you could clarify a few points of interest to me as to some of the falsehoods, misleading statements and so on made by you and members of the City Staff.

Here are just a few which need addressing: 

1.       With the Mayor and City Manager publicly announcing a joint venture between The City of Moreno Valley and Highland Fairview for a mixed use medical complex along Nason Street, can you please tell the public where they can obtain a copy of this publicly announced agreement which we are moving forward through the spending of $75 million in roadway improvements? 

2.       It seems to have slipped my mind but the public hearing on this joint public private project was held when? 

3.       Why is it that the term medical corridor is being misused as to what actions were taken by the City Council on September 26^th, 2006. When that action only limited development in that area to developments which would be compatible with existing medical facilities in the area, and not that development in that area was to be for medical use only? 

4.       Why is it that the Mayor continues to rain down praise upon the City Manager for actions which were not of his making, but were directly out of the playbook of Highland Fairview, and merely appeased their (Highland Fairview’s) desires? Such as designating the eastern edge of Moreno Valley as Industrial (Distribution and Warehousing) Zone, which was the desire of Highland Fairview, and was plainly stated out within their EIR for the Highland Fairview Corporate Park Project, in a letter submitted on their behalf by CB Richard Ellis, as well as converting the use of a portion of the Aqua Bella Specific Plan, to a mixed use medical complex, as stated by Iddo Benzeevi in a letter to the City of Moreno Valley in 2010 regarding Highland Fairview’s desire to keep its development agreement for Aqua Bella active during its annual review. 

5.       Why would the City enter into an agreement to the tune of 75 million dollars with Highland Fairview, when it wasn’t able to finance its Corporate Park Project, and needed to create several joint venture corporation with Skechers, in order for Skechers to seek the funding for the projects construction, with Highland Fairview only supplying the land for which the project sits? 

6.       Has the City even taken the time to see how and whom is paying off the sub-contractors for the Highland Fairview Corporate Park Project, to see if Highland Fairview is even a financially solvent company?

Now did those questions seem to hard to address?

Here is a copy of the exact email sent:Click Image to Enlarge

What was interesting however was how the all references to the “Medical Complex” was avoided until the City Manager mentioned it, Mayor Stewart only referred to it a “The Thing.”

STEAL THIS BLOG PLEASE! I, Praetorian