Buying into trouble
(Paragraph four contains corrected information.)
Conflict of interest feud reveals racial rift over PUSD contracting
By André Coleman , Kevin Uhrich 06/24/2010
Love him or hate him, it’s a safe bet that Pasadena Board of Education member Ramon Miramontes will say exactly what’s on his mind. And last week, during a public discussion about possible conflicts of interest, he did just that, revealing for the first time a long-simmering racially charged rift over contracting that is occurring between Miramontes, other board members and top school district staff.
Details of those relationships — contained in documents obtained by the Weekly, a harassment complaint with the district filed against Miramontes by Assistant Superintendent Stephen Brinkman — emerged only after the board’s meeting of June 15.
At that time, Board member Ed Honowitz took time out during the board’s weekly session to rip into his long-time political rival Mary Dee Romney after Romney publicly claimed Honowitz tried to steer through the board a contract for educational services provided by a company that employs his wife. Honowitz denied the claim, saying, “This is not the first time Mrs. Romney,” a two-time candidate for his school board seat, “has tried to smear my wife and me.”
Honowitz was correct in saying that there is no contract between the PUSD and his wife's employer. Honowitz' wife does not work for Community Schools. She works with the Los Angeles Education Partnership, which uses the Community Schools program. Presentations on the Community Schools program were made to the board on September 8, 2009, and the to board's Facilities Subcommittee on March 10. Her name was listed as a "resource" for PUSD to use if it decided to use the Community Schools. No action was taken at either of those meetings.
However, what was new last week were claims by Miramontes that Honowitz had accused him in February of guiding a district contract to a company that his wife does business with, a construction management company that works with a program she runs for the Los Angeles Unified School District that places interns with construction companies.
“I am not defending [Romney] in terms of how she accused your wife, but you know what? You just opened your mouth and said what the facts are, in terms of how you accused my family members … Maybe there is more to that. Maybe you’re really scared and you’re trying to defend something that’s underlying here. So let her talk. The public has the right to talk at the podium. You’re a hypocrite,” Miramontes said.
While raising questions about how people and companies acquire contracts from the Pasadena Unified School District is certainly important, the situation involving Romney’s claims and Honowitz’s reaction to them has opened a window onto even more discontent occurring among board members, particularly Miramontes, with much of that concern focusing on the awarding of contracts.
Honowitz did not return calls for comment on this story. But what he, Miramontes and the other five board members and administrators all knew the night of that heated exchange — but the public was generally unaware of until now — was that behind the scenes Miramontes has been embroiled in a long-simmering, racially charged legal feud with Stephen Brinkman, PUSD’s assistant superintendent for facilities planning, construction, maintenance and operations; a rift largely created over contracting that has come to involve every member of the board and most of the district’s top staff, including Superintendent Edwin Diaz.
Much of Miramontes’ concerns are related to how local Latino businesses acquire — or, more accurately, do not acquire — contracts from the district. In fact, Miramontes, according to the legal documents, last year criticized Brinkman for allegedly trying to get an unidentified “friend of the family” a job with the district as the accountant overseeing funds from Measure TT, the $350 million bond passed by voters in 2008. Diaz denied any of Brinkman’s friends were ever considered for that job. Brinkman declined to comment for this report.
On Feb. 26, attorneys for the district issued a report on an investigation of claims made by Brinkman that Miramontes created a hostile work environment by discriminating against him and harassing him because he is white. In his complaint, Brinkman said Miramontes made things so uncomfortable for him and 20 others at a meeting one time that “it was hard for anybody to function.”
Things became so tense between the two men that Brinkman sometimes found it difficult to even look at Miramontes during public meetings. For his part, Miramontes routinely berated Brinkman in public, at one point telling him, “You’re not in Gilroy anymore,” referring to the city from which both Brinkman and Superintendent Edwin Diaz came to Pasadena in 2006.
Miramontes has also criticized Diaz, who is also Latino, saying he is not doing enough to promote local racial diversity by maintaining a primarily white management team.
On another occasion when Brinkman introduced to the school board his staff — which is made up of mostly white and African-American employees — Miramontes publicly stated, “I hope you’re taking into consideration, when you’re hiring more staff, that you consider diversifying the pool to Latino staff members in your division.”
The investigator noted that Miramontes appeared to be implying Brinkman should hire candidates based on race, which would violate state and federal laws.
Based on interviews, videotapes and emails, “Mr. Miramontes is, at times, rude, curt and argumentative. He has been described by various individuals as aggressive, abrasive, unprofessional, rude, divisive, condescending, belittling and threatening,” states the report prepared by Lauren Bullock of the firm Gibeaut, Mahan & Briscoe. But the evidence, Bullock states, shows that Miramontes “is fairly consistent, regardless of race,” when it comes to disagreeing with people.
With that in mind, Miramontes may be subject to a defamation suit over some of the allegations he’s made, but he never did or said anything that could be construed as racially offensive, Bullock said.
“At the very least, comments made [about] a nonpublic figure, the complainant [Brinkman], were irresponsible and shows a lack of judgment on the part of Miramontes. At the worst, the comments may draw a lawsuit, which will have to be defended by Miramontes.”
After being all but cleared of harassment and discrimination charges leveled by Brinkman, Miramontes submitted a letter to the board responding to Brinkman’s claims.
“From the very outset, the investigation was one-sided and the investigator’s own words demonstrate a highly subjective and political end product. Political because the initial claim is meant to silence a public official, a board member who is publicly critical of how the administration executed board policy and board values of diversity and equity,” Miramontes wrote.
The feud, which has been ongoing since last June, has had a negative impact on the board’s ability to function, said Board Vice President Renatta Cooper and Board member Scott Phelps.
“It’s been very stressful,” Cooper said. “We have some real operational issues in terms of how we are going to function. It is even more difficult when you have somebody who is dedicated in going his own way,” she said of Miramontes.
“They are accusing him of all sorts of improprieties,” Phelps said of Miramontes. “Sure, it has hurt the ability of the board as far as moving forward to get resources in some areas. The majority of the board wants to do what the administration wants to do, and Ramon and I don’t want that.”
Click to view documents related to this story.
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Comments
I am astounded that PUSD has a member of the board like Miramontes. He is a disgrace to the Latinos.
It is very obvious that Miramontes is the one that fed the information to the paper. For someone to release confidential documents to sell a paper is sad. Obviously, Miramontes is not a person of integrity.
Apparently, Miramonte's power has gone to his head. I say we all pull together and RECALL this board member since the board is not taking any action.
posted by Disbelief on 6/25/10 @ 04:49 p.m.
Recall the whole board!
posted by pascaljim on 6/26/10 @ 07:17 p.m.
This Pasadena Weekly newspaper is now all about the PUSD. Several articles every week. Blech and vomit and Steve Lamb rocks!
posted by Betty Harris on 6/26/10 @ 10:27 p.m.
Sadly, I have been recently contacted by Board members who were attempting to stab each other in the back for the others self dealing transactions, while hiding their own. They assumed I would attack without doing any of my own research.
Frankly I was disgusted with the whole lot of them as it seemed each was attempting to dirty up the other so his chosen contractor/campaign donor/company tied to a company a spouse was tied to could get minority hiring and outreach contracts. each seemed concerned that money go to people of a particular race, rather than local people as a whole. really isn't America beyond racial identity politics yet? It seems the PUSD isn't.
The buffoonery exhibited by members of all races rivaled those of the insulting characters of newly emancipated Negro Congressmen in D.W.Griffiths "Birth of a Nation". I was physically sick from talking to these vile and disgusting petty office holders who the people of Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre are cursed to have represent them, and who were trying to get me to do their filthy dirty work for them.
There needs to be a more complete investigation by people with judicial power of ALL of the contracting going on at the PUSD, something is really really rotten here!
Sadly, this has only come to light because the White, African-American and Latino good old boys networks seem to be trying to out steal each other and seem to be using elected representatives to do it and grease every contract. Real competitive bidding doesn't seem to even be a thought here.