Judge Alters Candidacy Statement of County Schools Chief

In what appeared at times to be more a lesson in grammar than a court hearing, an Orange County Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered modifications in the voter pamphlet statement of incumbent county schools Supt. John F. Dean.

After 20 minutes of reading through Dean’s candidacy statement and conferring with attorneys on acceptable revisions, Judge Francisco F. Firmat submitted his final draft, just in time for today’s printing of the voter pamphlet.

The hearing was the result of a lawsuit filed March 21 by Darrell Opp, a regional occupational director who works under Dean and is the incumbent’s only opponent in the June 7 election.

In his lawsuit, Opp alleged that Dean falsely stated that he has reduced the County Department of Education budget and cut staff and administrators. Opp further alleged that Dean’s voter pamphlet statement implied that the County Board of Supervisors and boards of education had endorsed him.

Opp also said that Dean violated election rules prohibiting partisan references in nonpartisan races when he stated that he had been named to the “CRA Hall of Fame,” which Opp contended could be mistaken to mean the California Republican Assembly. In this case, the acronym stands for the California Reading Assn.

The judge ruled that only some parts of Dean’s statement were ambiguous. He modified Dean’s listing of endorsements to clarify that he is supported by individuals serving on several prominent boards and not by the boards as a whole.

Firmat agreed that the acronym CRA might be interpreted by voters as California Republican Assembly, rather than California Reading Assn., which elected Dean to its Hall of Fame, and ruled that it should be spelled out.

Firmat refused to change a sentence that detailed budget and staff cuts during Dean’s administration, ruling that Opp’s attorney, Mark Rosen, did not supply official Department of Education documents to prove that the figures are not accurate.