Recall Target Calls Foes’ Tactics Illegal

Embattled Bonita school board member Robert Green, facing a recall election Tuesday, went on the offensive last week, charging opponents with misleading and illegal campaign practices.

Joining Green in making the allegations was recently elected board member Sharon Scott, who was active in the recall movement at its inception last March.

Green and Scott said recall proponents spread false rumors about Green while circulating recall petitions last summer in La Verne and San Dimas, the two cities served by the district.

“They were out to mislead because they knew the reasons (for the recall) were so vague,” Green said.

The two also allege that teachers backing the recall used school records to compile a list of sympathetic parents, a violation of the state Education Code.

However, leaders of the recall movement have denied both charges, dismissing them as a last-ditch effort by Green and his supporters to forestall a recall they believe is imminent.

“They’re desperate,” said Mel Hawkins, a Bonita High School teacher and co-chairman of the recall committee. “It’s the last week, and they’re going to lose. They’re trying to discredit a legally constituted recall election. It’s all tripe as far as I’m concerned.”

Those who vote to recall Green on Tuesday will also be able to express their preference for his successor. Two candidates, William King, a financial administrator with General Dynamics, and Arthur Lopez, who teaches at an elementary school in Azusa, are vying for Green’s seat if he is recalled.

Both the recall committee and the teachers association have endorsed King, 49, citing his business background as a decisive strong point.

Lopez, 37, received 938 votes in the November school board election, placing fifth in a field of eight candidates.

What had been a low-key campaign intensified last week with Scott’s allegations against recall backers.

Kickback Rumor

Scott said she has received calls from people who said they were told by those soliciting signatures that Green benefited financially from helping to select a computer system purchased by the district in 1985.

“I had heard from different parents around the community . . . that one of the reasons they were recalling Bob Green was that he was receiving kickbacks,” Scott said.

Hawkins said he knew of no petition circulators who had accused Green of receiving kickbacks. Parent Laurie Weiss, co-chairwoman of the recall committee, said those involved with the campaign had heard rumors of kickbacks but found no evidence to substantiate them and did not mention the allegations while canvassing for petition signatures.

“We heard that rumor when we started the recall movement,” Weiss said. “We checked it out and decided not to make that an issue. . . . There was no mention of computers.”

Green described the rumors as “absolutely false” and “slanderous.”

Scott also said that while she was involved with the recall movement, Hawkins tried to give her a list of parents who might be sympathetic to the recall. She said the list apparently had been culled from school records.

‘Handed It Back’

“I didn’t even look at the list,” Scott said. “I handed it back to him and said I wanted nothing to do with that.”

Hawkins denied trying to give Scott such a list. He said that the possible use of school records was discussed at a meeting of the recall committee, which Scott attended, but that the idea was soundly rejected.

“We bounced a lot of things around,” Hawkins said. “We as a group said there were a few things we could not do, (and) one was to go to the school records. We all as a group agreed that we wouldn’t do anything against the law.”

Scott also accused Hawkins of making a “threatening” phone call to her on Feb. 10 in which he allegedly promised retribution against her for supporting Green.

“He point-blank said: ‘Robert Green is going to go down in flames, and you’re going to go down with him,’ ” Scott said.

Hawkins said he was angered that Scott had “betrayed a personal phone call,” adding that he had intended only to inform her that her position on the recall was unpopular with many teachers.

“I told her that she was hitching her wagon to a falling star,” Hawkins said. “I told her that if she lines up with Robert Green, she’ll be lining herself up against the Bonita Unified Teachers Assn., which quite frankly has been a very powerful political organization. I called to warn her, and she said I called to threaten her.”

The final weeks leading up to Tuesday’s vote have proven to be every bit as rancorous as the lengthy dispute between Green and the teachers association that prompted the recall effort.

‘Act of Retaliation’

Green has said the recall campaign, begun last spring by a committee of teachers and parents, is “an act of retaliation” for the hard-line approach he took with teachers during contract negotiations. Green, who describes himself as the board’s financial expert, said the district could not accede to teachers’ wage demands without risking bankruptcy.

Discontent among teachers and parents peaked last spring, when teachers staged a one-day strike and some parents kept their children home from school for a day in support of the teachers’ position.

Critics of the school board said its members had become politically entrenched and unresponsive to the community. Green was singled out for recall in part because his term does not expire until December, 1989, but also because some parents found his attitude toward them “condescending” and “capricious.”

“He was the prime target for a lot of people’s anger, concern and dissatisfaction,” Weiss said. “He was the most outspoken member of the old board.”

In addition to complaining about Green’s demeanor, recall backers questioned his ethics in accepting campaign contributions in 1985 that had been solicited by then-Supt. James T. Johnson in a letter written on district stationery. Last March, Johnson received a “private admonition” from the state Commission for Teacher Credentialing for soliciting contributions for Green and board member Frank Bingham.

“Robert Green knowingly took that money and spent it on his campaign,” Hawkins said.

Green has denied doing anything unethical and said complaints about his personal style are based on the teachers union’s resentment of his uncompromising fiscal conservatism.

From the start, Green said he doubted that the recall would get much support from the voters. When the recall measure qualified for the ballot in October, Green said he was less concerned about that than about the reelection campaigns of fellow board incumbents Sue Moran and Roger Campbell.

But on Nov. 3, Moran and Campbell were voted out of office. Biff Green and Robert Watanabe, both of whom had been endorsed by the teachers association, were the two top vote-getters, with Scott winning the third open seat on the school board.

‘Power Base’

“I didn’t misread the community,” Robert Green said. “What I misread was the power of the power base that wanted to get Biff and Robert Watanabe elected.”

Robert Green said the recall effort is the last step in the teachers association’s efforts to control a majority of the school board, adding that it would be financially disastrous for the district if the union is successful.

“They’re getting people elected to the board and then saying, ‘You owe us,’ ” Green said. “If (board members) succumb to the salary demands the union has placed on the district at this time, the Bonita Unified School District will file for bankruptcy by the end of the school year.”

Teachers association President Dan Harden said the endorsement of candidates, such as Biff Green, Watanabe and King, merely reflects the wishes of the union’s 385 members and is not an effort to wield influence over the board.

“(Green) is trying to imply that we control these members, and I would suggest to you that you talk to those people and ask them if they feel controlled,” Harden said. He added that union support of the recall effort would not be decisive.

“I think the issues have already been debated, and I think the people have already reached their decision,” Harden said. “I think they want to complete the change (begun with the November election), and I think Bob Green will be soundly defeated.”

No Strings Attached

King said he did not see any strings attached to his union endorsement.

“I appreciated the teachers association coming out and endorsing me . . . but as far as what happens and how I do things, that’s up to me,” he said.

Among the other board members, only Biff Green has taken a stand in support of the recall. He also said King is the better of the two replacement candidates, but stressed that the teachers association’s endorsement exerted no influence on his position.

Watanabe said he is remaing neutral during the recall campaign.

Scott, who was one of the principal organizers of last year’s student boycott, said she initially supported the recall as the only means of dealing with an intractable school board. However, she said the situation in the district has changed considerably since then.

Scott said that relations between teachers and the district have improved and that Robert Green has “admitted he made some mistakes.” But, she said, a vocal minority in the teachers association has continued to foment discontent against the school board, particularly Green.

“The (recall) movement was intended to better the district, not to be a personal vendetta against any individual,” Scott said.

However, Hawkins has accused Scott of vacillating on the recall issue. “The lady constantly spins,” he said. “You never know where she’s going to be from week to week.”

Cost Criticized

Scott maintained that she has been consistent. “The recall committee is well aware of my position, which has been the same since last April. It shouldn’t come as a surprise.”

Both Robert Green and Scott have criticized the cost of the recall election, which the county registrar-recorder has estimated at more than $47,000.

“I don’t think it’s either a wise or a necessary expenditure of funds, and it’s not because I don’t believe in the democratic process,” Scott said. “But the democratic process is supposed to be based on truth and fact.”

Hawkins has said that cost is justified by the fact that 5,663 registered voters requested the recall opportunity. “We can’t refuse to have an election just because it costs money,” he said.

Another issue raised by Green is that he is the only San Dimas resident remaining on the council. Both challengers for his seat are from La Verne. However, Hawkins dismissed this claim as “a phony issue,” adding that the recall committee was unable to persuade any San Dimas residents to run for the school board.

No Predictions

As the election neared, neither Robert Green, Lopez nor King would predict victory.

Lopez said he is hopeful that months of dogged door-to-door campaigning, during which he spoke with more than 3,000 voters, will compensate for his lack of an endorsement from the teachers association or the recall committee. But in any event, he said, there will be a new face on the school board next month.

“I can count on two hands the number of people I talked to who said they were going to vote against the recall,” Lopez said.

However, Robert Green said he senses that the community, weary after a year of discontent, will think twice before recalling him.

“The word I’m getting is that people are tired,” Green said. “They’re saying, ‘We’ve got three new members, but if Mr. Green goes, where is the experience?’. . .I’ve done a good job. I’ve made an honest effort to do what I thought was best for the district, and I’ve never made a dime doing it.”