FPPC Plans No Investigation of Honig
The Fair Political Practices Commission has decided against conducting an investigation of possible conflict of interest by State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig because of his ties to a parent-involvement education program run by his wife.
In a memo made public Wednesday, Janis Shank McLean, the agency’s acting enforcement officer, said FPPC was closing the case because the state Political Reform Act excluded state officials from penalties in conflict-of-interest cases until this year. The questions about Honig involved events that happened before this year.
For this reason, McLean said, the FPPC enforcement division “conducted no investigation” and made no determination about Honig’s guilt or innocence.
The FPPC was asked by State Board of Education member Joe Stein and an unnamed second person to look into the possibility that Honig may have persuaded some school districts to contract with the Quality Education Project (QEP), instead of another parent-involvement program, and may have benefited personally as a result.
Nancy Honig is president of QEP, a nonprofit organization that is run out of the Honigs’ San Francisco home. There are QEP programs in 331 California schools, mostly elementary schools.
Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has begun a criminal investigation into Honig’s ties to the program.
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