Norwalk-La Mirada : Board Maintains Policy That Allows Hiring of Relatives

After wrangling for six months over nepotism in the Norwalk-La Mirada School District, the board of trustees decided Monday to keep its current policy, which allows relatives of high-level employees to be hired only if they are the most qualified candidates.

The board has come under fire in recent years for several instances of bypassing the most qualified applicants for jobs when board members or other high-level district officials intervened.

The latest controversy arose in January when the board hired David Perez, the son of newly elected board member Mary Lou Gomez, as a security guard. Perez had not been the hiring committee’s top candidate. Gomez said she did not intervene on her son’s behalf, but two other board members said they did.

The move prompted board member Rudy Bermudez, the only member to vote against the hiring, to call for an ethics policy that would ban the hiring of any board members’ close relatives.

However, after six months, the only new policy drafted by attorneys for the district was weaker than the existing code. Bermudez blasted the document Monday night.

“An item like this would make government work for the very few and not for the many,” he said.

Calling for a unified board, Bermudez said he wanted to make the code of ethics stronger, but he would be willing to settle for enforcement of the existing policy.