Petition Seeks to Cancel Selection of School Trustee : Brown Act: A group hopes to force the Antelope Valley School Board to fill a trustee vacancy by election. They say the appointment of a former board member violated the state open meetings law.

Alleging favoritism and improper secrecy, critics began a petition drive Monday aimed at overturning a controversial appointment and forcing a special election to fill a seat on Antelope Valley’s high school board.

Critics said they have nothing against Bob McMullen, a former school board member who was picked by the school board last Wednesday to fill the vacancy. But they objected to what they called school officials’ secretive method of picking McMullen, and argued that the choice properly belongs to the voters.

The petition papers were taken out Monday by a group headed by former Antelope Valley Union High School District board President Bill Olenick. Olenick acknowledged he would be a candidate in the election if the petition drive succeeds in gathering about 1,400 signatures of district voters by the Aug. 17 deadline.

“The way the appointment was handled, it was very clear to anyone that this smacked of a good-old-boy deal, and it was a clear violation of the Brown Act,” the state’s open meetings law, said Olenick, who lost his seat in last November’s election.

Under state law, a successful petition, once verified, would immediately cancel the school board’s appointment of McMullen and force the district to hold an election for the job within four months. The seat became vacant when former school board President Larry Rucker died of cancer June 13.

Olenick said he and others upset with the board’s decision want to gather about 3,000 signatures within 10 days and hope to gain a spot on the regular Nov. 6 ballot. Adding the school board seat to that ballot could cost the district about $85,000, the county has estimated.

But county education officials said Monday that time is running short for the November ballot. And they said a successful petition now more likely would result in the district having to sponsor its own separate election at a later date at a cost that could be twice as high as the $85,000 figure.

McMullen’s appointment angered some Antelope Valley residents both because the school board originally could have chosen to fill the vacant seat through an election, but didn’t, and because the monthlong process that led to the selection was conducted in virtual secrecy.

The school board waived its own bylaws that required an open candidate search prior to any appointment. And although district officials now acknowledge McMullen was their likely choice from the start, they refused to even disclose his name until the night he showed up to be appointed.

The board also might have violated the Brown Act open meetings law by meeting last month to discuss McMullen’s appointment, even though the issue was not on its agenda, and by having a series of private communications on the subject between Supt. Kenneth Brummel and individual board members, critics said.

District officials have insisted they did not violate the state’s open meetings law. And they said they picked McMullen to save the district the $85,000 cost of an election, and because he was a 12-year veteran of the board until he stepped down last November to move to Cambria. He says he intends to move back to the district.

Olenick, a Quartz Hill resident, served four years and became board president before being defeated last November. That came after his much-publicized arrest for allegedly hitting his wife in a domestic dispute. No charges were filed and she later recanted the story. They are now divorced.