Councilman in La Puente Seeks to Keep Schools Post

When he won election four months ago to the La Puente City Council, Edward L. Chavez was thrilled.

But when Chavez announced he would keep his seat on the Bassett Unified School Board, a post he had held since 1987, the president of the Bassett school board was less than thrilled.

Now, saying it creates a conflict of interest for Chavez to wear both hats, board President Hector Varela wants the state attorney general’s office to rule on whether Chavez must step down from the school board.

“It’s the old adage, you can’t serve two masters at the same time,” said Bob Corrado, an attorney specializing in governmental conflict of interest suits.

Corrado says he will ask the attorney general’s office to rule on the Chavez case. Corrado said he is acting on Varela’s behalf, not that of the Bassett Unified School Board.

The board has not taken a stand on the issue, said Walt Schwartz, assistant superintendent of human resources for the district, which serves 5,100 students in western La Puente and Valinda.

State law requires that elected officials vacate their office if they win election to a second post that is incompatible with the first. But there is no specified way to determine incompatibility, and the attorney general’s office, which hears many such cases, considers each individually, said Jack Winkler, an assistant attorney general in Sacramento.

In 1982, the attorney general found it would be incompatible for a school board member in Yolo County to remain in office after he was elected to the local City Council. The attorney general gave a similar opinion in a 1966 case in Newark, a small town 20 miles outside Oakland.

Chavez said his duties and responsibilities on the City Council don’t overlap with those on the school board. If an issue ever came up where they did, Chavez said he would abstain from voting.

“There’s no constitution, state or federal, that says I cannot serve two offices at one time,” Chavez said. “I only have one year left on the school board, and all I want to do is serve out my term. Then I’ll focus all my attention on the City Council.”

Chavez pointed out that he is not the first elected official to serve on two boards. Max Ragland, defeated this year as mayor of La Puente, also held elective office on the La Puente Valley Water Board.

Chavez said he and Varela have long disagreed on school issues, and Varela has seized upon his election to the La Puente City Council as a way to get rid of him. Varela denied that his appeal to the attorney general was because of any personal disagreement with Chavez.