Laguna School Board Members Vow to Fight Recall, Deny Charges

Three Laguna Beach school board members targeted for recall said at a press conference Monday night that they are going to actively fight the effort and that they categorically deny the allegations made against them.

Carl Schwarz, Charlene Ragatz and Janet Vickers said the recall effort stems totally from the Cedrick W. Hardman issue with which the Laguna Beach Unified School District board dealt in October.

They said that the recall leaders’ statement that the need to remove the board goes beyond the Hardman case does not reflect the facts.

Hardman, a former All-Pro NFL football star, was suspended as Laguna Beach High’s football coach after he was arrested in September on charges of drug possession and resisting arrest. But the school board later decided to allow Hardman to continue coming to football practices as a volunteer coach. This action enraged some residents of Laguna Beach, including the police employees’ association.

In the aftermath of the dispute, a recall effort was mounted, aimed at four of the five school board members who voted to allow Hardman to continue as a volunteer coach. In addition to Schwarz, Ragatz and Vickers, the fourth board member supporting Hardman was Susan Mas. The lone opposing vote came from Harry Bithell.

Regretted Her Vote

Mas said at a public meeting in November that in retrospect she regretted her vote, and she did not appear at the press conference Monday night. Ragatz and Vickers said they firmly stand behind their decision about Hardman and have no regrets. Schwarz had a less categorical position, saying, “It may not have been the best decision, but it was the best decision at the time. . . . I felt at the time it was a viable compromise.”

Schwarz, Ragatz and Vickers all said the charges against them by recall leaders are “false and unfair.” They reviewed the points in recall petitions now being circulated in Laguna Beach and categorically denied each one.

“The majority of these (recall petition) statements refer to the Hardman decision,” Ragatz said. She added that she thinks the recall supporters are trying to keep the community in “hysteria.”

Critics of the targeted board members have charged that the three of them had sons on the football team and that the board members therefore could not be objective in deciding the fate of the football coach. Responding to this, Vickers said Monday night that it is true that she, Ragatz and Mas all had sons on the team coached by Hardman, but she said this did not affect their objectivity.

Arrested Sept. 20

Hardman was arrested Sept. 20 on Laguna Canyon Road after he was stopped on suspicion of speeding and the two arresting officers saw a small plastic bag containing a white substance in Hardman’s briefcase as he fumbled for his driver’s license. That substance later was identified as cocaine.

Police said Hardman resisted arrest and shoved around a female police officer at the scene. He was charged with felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor resisting arrest. At the time he was already on probation for a previous arrest for driving without a license and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

On Oct. 24, South Orange County Municipal Judge Richard D. Hamilton said he would suspend the felony charge if Hardman enrolled in a six-month drug diversion program, and Hardman agreed to the proposal.