Public Funding Suspected in Recall Drive

Ventura County school board President Wendy Larner complained to the governor that public funds may have been used in the effort to recall her from office, provoking indignation from recall organizers.

In the letter to Gov. Pete Wilson, the Ojai homemaker says that she is under threat of recall and that the effort is “very likely financed in some part by AIDS-directed public monies.”

But recall organizer Michael Shapiro angrily denied that charge and demanded that Larner make a public apology.

“[This charge] is outrageous, without foundation and a prime example of the homophobic ‘party line’ of the national radical, religious-right wing,” Shapiro said.

Larner’s allegation was contained in a two-page missive mailed to Wilson in July. She also called on the governor to open an investigation into alleged statewide misuse of taxpayer dollars distributed by the Office of AIDS.

Angela N. Miller, the Ventura representative on the county Board of Education, sent a similar letter to Wilson in July. Miller’s letter, however, does not allege that public funds are being used to finance a parallel recall campaign that has been mounted against her.

Both letters were answered by Wayne E. Sauseda, chief of the state Office of AIDS. Wilson’s office referred the letter to the Department of Health, which oversees the Office of AIDS.

“The Department of Health directly reports to the governor and is responsible for public health issues,” Wilson spokeswoman Kristine Berman said. “It was an issue that would be best handled by their office.”

In Larner’s July 7 letter, she tells Wilson she is concerned that state and federal grants distributed by the Office of AIDS filter down to local organizations, such as the Ventura-based AIDS Care and Metropolitan Community Church.

Those groups then use the money to push an agenda that includes “promiscuity, the sexual emancipation of adolescents and special privileges and protections for themselves,” Larner writes.

On Wednesday, Larner admitted she could not prove that public funds have been used to fund the recall movement. But she stood by her statements in the letter.

“I didn’t say I had absolute proof of it, but that it is very possible,” she said. “This is what happens when there is no accountability for this money when it passes down to the local level.”

In his reply to Miller and Larner, Sauseda said grants distributed to state and local AIDS education groups were being used not for lobbying but for HIV education and prevention programs.

Larner said she is not satisfied with Sauseda’s response and may send another letter to Wilson. Miller could not be reached for comment.

Larner said she has no intention of apologizing, and expressed irritation that the recall group had obtained a copy of her correspondence.

“I am owed an apology for having my mail intercepted,” she said. “How did these people get a letter that I privately sent to the governor?”

Shapiro said the letters were public documents and declined to say where he had obtained them. Larner and Miller were targeted for recall after they voted in March to ban Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care speakers from sex education workshops for teachers.