Inglewood School Board Race Heats Up : Mayor Sends Letter to Residents Urging Reelection of Dead Candidate

Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent launched an offensive against school board challenger Thomasina Reed this week, mailing a letter to residents that questions Reed’s commitment to the community and urges voters to reelect the late Caroline Coleman in the June 6 runoff election.

Coleman’s campaign, which has proceeded with her name on the ballot despite her death April 22, has been spearheaded by Vincent and by Coleman’s daughters, Lisa and Keely.

Campaign Strategy

Coleman’s daughters, who have been running the campaign mostly from the living room of their Inglewood home, and other Coleman supporters say Reed, a newcomer to Inglewood politics, is not the best candidate to replace Coleman, a 10-year incumbent who was the veteran member of the school board.

A Coleman victory, her supporters say, would give other candidates a chance to seek the seat.

But the Coleman campaign is facing a stiff challenge from Reed, a Ladera Heights attorney who won 26% of the vote April 4, forcing Coleman into a runoff. Two other candidates received a combined total of 29% of the vote. Coleman won 44% of the vote despite making no campaign appearances.

Coleman, who was 51, died less than three weeks after the April primary. Lisa Coleman said her mother had been suffering from cancer for more than a year and died at her home from cardiopulmonary arrest resulting from the disease.

Coleman’s death left one vacancy on the five-seat school board and eliminated its most experienced member. The remaining members--Larry Aubry, Lois Hill-Hale, Zyra McCloud and Joseph Rouzan--each have served less than two years.

If Reed loses, however, board officials must either appoint someone to fill the seat or call a special election.

Reed, 40, has argued that a special election is an expense the school board can ill afford. County officials said they were working Wednesday on projecting the cost for a special election and would report their conclusion to board officials this week. One district official, however, estimated that such an election could cost about $40,000.

‘Laughingstock of Country’

Reed said a Coleman victory, coming less than seven months after the late Assemblyman Curtis Tucker was posthumously reelected, would make Inglewood “the laughingstock of the country.”

“Nowhere else do they continue to elect the deceased,” Reed said.

Tucker, who was reelected last November several weeks after his death from cancer, was later replaced by his son, Curtis Tucker Jr., who won a special election.

Reed, who has been endorsed by Hill-Hale, cites her experience as an attorney and her concern for the improvement of the Inglewood school system as her qualifications for the seat.

She also has been endorsed by County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and U.S. Rep. Julian Dixon (D-Inglewood), who originally supported Coleman. She is also endorsed by U.S. Rep. Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton).

In her campaign, Reed has called for increased attention to the needs of the school district’s Latino students, who make up 40% of the enrollment. She has urged more recruitment of Latino principals and $5,000 incentive bonuses for bilingual teachers.

In addition, Reed said, it is crucial that the board have a fifth member in place before budget deliberations begin. The board has held several budget study sessions, and tentative approval is required by June 30.

The sometimes acrimonious battle between Reed and Coleman supporters--who include Councilmen Anthony Scardenzan and Ervin (Tony) Thomas--has been marked by allegations from both sides concerning Coleman’s deathbed wishes for filling her school board seat.

Statement Produced

Last week, Reed produced a statement signed by Inglewood resident and former council candidate Mark Ganier, stating that Coleman told him the day before her death that she would oppose a special election. Ganier also said Coleman told him she preferred supporting Reed to spending money for a special election.

Coleman’s family, however, has denied that she made such statements.

Vincent, a longtime Coleman ally, in turn mailed his letter to residents, saying that before Coleman died, she told her children to help elect a “successor with a track record of service to the community and its schools.”

Vincent’s letter charged that Reed “meets none of the criteria” and it urged residents to vote for Coleman.

That Reed moved to Inglewood in 1987 and that her daughter did not attend high school in Inglewood have been sore points with Reed’s detractors, who charge Reed with trying to use the school board as a springboard to higher political office.

“We need a person involved in the city, in the school district, who has children who go to the schools,” said Lisa Coleman, 25. “(Reed) was never around before, so why all of a sudden is she running?”

Questions Relevancy

Reed, former minority student recruitment director for the University of Pennsylvania, argues that length of her residency in Inglewood and where her daughter went to school are moot.

“What has that got to do with being qualified to serve on the board?” Reed asked. “Are they saying only people who’ve grown up and lived in Inglewood or have sent their children to Inglewood schools are the only people who can serve on the school board?”

Reed has also questioned how Coleman mailers and campaign literature were paid for. Although campaign mailers on behalf of Coleman were sent to voters the week before the April primary, the expense report filed by her campaign for the period ending March 18 listed no money raised or spent.

A final expense report on the April election was due May 25, but because Coleman is dead, her election committee has until July 31 to file a financial statement covering the third reporting period, according to the county registrar’s office.

Vincent said that after Coleman’s death, an independent committee was formed in her memory to support the reelection effort, including payment for the letter he signed.

Financial Statements

Sandy Michioku, a spokeswoman for the Fair Political Practices Commission, said such independent committees are not legally obligated to file financial disclosure statements if they are not connected with the official election committee and if they spend less than $1,000.

In her financial statement for the period ending May 20, Reed reported raising $4,958, bringing the total for the three reporting periods to $18,848. She also reported having spent $16,364 since Jan. 13.

Both Reed and Coleman supporters say their goal is to help improve the 15,000-student Inglewood Unified School District, which in the past has faced a budget deficit, poor academic performance and allegations of corruption and political interference in board decisions.

In 1985, then Supt. Rex Fortune was fired and later reinstated amid charges that he refused to appoint a friend of the mayor’s as a school principal. Fortune resigned last July to take a superintendent’s job in the Sacramento area. His successor, George McKenna, was hired in October.

Although board member Hill-Hale has endorsed Reed, board members Rouzan and Aubry, both of whom endorsed Coleman in the primary, have made no endorsements in the runoff. Board member Zyra McCloud is also remaining neutral.

Spending district money for a special election, Rouzan said, would mean “we’re going to be without a fifth school board member again for several months, and we have very serious business ahead. . . . It means fewer books, less opportunity to fix up some of our decadent classrooms, less opportunity to reduce class size, less pay for teachers and staff.”

Board President Aubry said the district, which in the past has been financially strapped, now has a reserve of about $1.8 million. But he said the money that would be spent on a special election could be used more wisely.

Hope for Second Chance

Despite those misgivings, a number of potential candidates hope for a Coleman victory Tuesday to resurrect their own chances in a special election.

Jewett Walker, who came in third in April with 19.2% of the vote, said he “absolutely” plans to run if a special election is called.

“I’ve got people making phone calls in selected areas--Ladera Heights, for example--encouraging people to vote for Coleman,” Walker said.

Lisa Coleman, who is rumored to be a potential candidate, said it is possible she might run in a special election but that she hasn’t made a final decision.

And community activist Mildred McNair, who has run unsuccessfully for the school board and a number of other local offices, said she would run again in a special school board election.

“It’s not a vote for Caroline, it’s a vote for fairness,” McNair said. “You’re not voting for a dead person. You’re voting to open up the process.”