Red-Faced Recall Effort : Wrong Name Used in Drive to Oust West Covina School Board Member

Organizers of an effort to recall a school board member have found out the hard way that the old adage, “Like father, like son,” does not always hold true.

On Tuesday, members of the pro-recall group were told by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office that they had taken out recall petitions against the wrong man. The name on the petition they submitted was not that of school board member William J. Brutocao, but his father, Angelo J. Brutocao.

“I don’t know who they’re after, and maybe they don’t,” said the senior Brutocao, who has never held elective office. Both father and son are listed in the phone book by their full names.

“It was really embarrassing,” said Arleen Castille, one of the recall organizers. “That’s probably why we haven’t had a reply” from Brutocao.

Despite the setback, the recall effort will go ahead, Castille said.

“All we have to do is serve him under the right name,” she said, adding that the group received Brutocao’s name from a member.

Organizers have accused Brutocao and another recall target, school board President Joe Mount, who was correctly identified on the papers, of misrepresenting themselves at a series of town meetings held to discuss a proposal to close several schools in the district. Another board member, Karen Welts, is not being targeted because leaders of the effort say she never misrepresented her position.

Notification was served to the right Brutocao at Tuesday’s school board meeting, but will not be filed with the registrar’s office until this afternoon, Castille said.

Until organizers get the name right, they cannot have their petition approved, delaying the process of getting signatures, said Marcia Ventura, a spokeswoman for the registrar’s office.

A minimum of about 4,000 signatures is needed to force a special election, but the recall group probably will push for at least 6,000 to ensure that they can get enough valid signatures to put the issue on the ballot by late summer, Castille said.

The recall effort grew out of the controversy that followed the board’s decision last month to close Edgewood High School and three other schools next year to cut costs. A deficit in the 1986-87 school year forced the board to obtain a $3.3-million emergency loan from the state, of which at least $1 million must be repaid this year.

Committee Named

Under a state mandate to balance the books, the district appointed a special committee to make closure recommendations. The School Use Planning Committee, made up of a cross-section of students, parents, teachers and administrators, recommended closing West Covina High School, Hollencrest and Willowood Intermediate schools, and Cortez and Merced elementary schools.

But on Feb. 18, following the recommendation of Supt. Jane D. Gawronski, the school board voted to close Edgewood High School instead of West Covina High School, along with Hollencrest, Willowood and Cortez schools. The board has since deferred closing another elementary school until the financial situation becomes clearer in May.

Since the decision was made, a group calling itself the Edgewood Fact Finders has criticized the administration and school board for closing Edgewood. The group presented a report Tuesday disputing the classroom capacity and building maintenance data upon which Gawronski based her recommendation.

Claims Were Misled

By ignoring the committee recommendation, Castille said, the school board created the controversy.

“We were led to believe with these town hall meetings that they (Brutocao and Mount) were going to go with the recommendation,” Castille said. “We could live with West Covina (high school) if that was the recommendation of the committee. But it wasn’t. I don’t think we would be here if that would have been the decision.”