Thursday, June 08, 2006

Question: What Do Chula Vista Elementary School District and the City of Beaverton, Oregon Have in Common?

Answer: They both spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on cover-ups.

Chula Vista Elementary School District in San Diego County is not the only public entity that flagrantly and repeatedly violates laws requiring that government operate in an above-board and transparent manner. We who pay millions to these entities have a right to know how our money is spent, and we have a right to make sure that our money is not used to fund illegal activities.

The city of Beaverton, Oregon, refused for two-and-a-half years to turn over a 19-page document that described the city’s “assertive target approach” to annexation.

“This stopped being about annexation when Beaverton turned the dispute into a matter of trust, credibility and openness in government. The document finally turned over to Nike last Friday should have been given to the company long before taxpayers ponied up the first half million dollars to pay for the city’s legal defense…[Taxpayers] now may have to pay Nike’s attorney fees, too,” The Oregonian said on June 7, 2006. “It’s no wonder taxpayers fight so hard to stay out of Beaverton.”

Thursday, March 23, 2006

An Open Letter to Cheryl Cox, CVESD School Board Member

Dear Ms. Cox:

Your reason for running for mayor of Chula Vista can not be that you want to deliver open and honest decision making.

You have made decisions which were not merely sudden and without broad input, like the decision which you have criticized in which Patricia Chavez was appointed to the Chula Vista City Council, but were made entirely behind closed doors, and were criminal violations of law!

I am sad that you have been tainted by your close association with Patrick Judd, Pamela Smith and Larry Cunningham. I believe that you are a better school board member than they, but you have sacrificed the education of children, and the rule of law, for your political ambitions.

Why not come clean about criminal actions by teachers and administrators at CVESD? And by the way, what progress has there been in the police investigation into the disappearance of $20,000 from the Castle Park PTA? And please explain the OAH decision which is described in detail on my web site, San Diego Education Report.

Four very interesting letters from the judge can be found on mauralarkins.com if you go to Page 22.

Maura Larkins

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Wrongdoers and their lawyers, NOT THE VICTIMS WHO SUE, are guilty of lawsuit abuse. Insurance companies increasingly prefer to pay millions to their lawyers instead of to their victims.

Many of the "Joint Powers Authorities" which insure public entities are controlled by people who use their positions for personal or political advantage, rather than for the benefit of the public. It is an abuse of the legal system to spend taxpayer dollars on lawyers who will help public entities get away with wrongful actions, rather than to give fair compensation to those who have been injured.

When doctors' insurance companies use unethical or illegal tactics to fight victims in court, or intimidate and deceive victims out of court, they are also abusing the legal system.