Hooven Resigns as President of Burbank School Board

School board President Joe Hooven resigned Tuesday, saying that allegations he tried to cover up a sex scandal involving a 50-year-old woman fund-raiser and a teenage football player are hurting the school district.

“While I have done nothing wrong, the controversy surrounding me personally is having an adverse effect on the Board of Education,” Hooven said in his resignation letter, which he delivered to the district superintendent Tuesday afternoon.

“For me to continue to serve . . . and strive to clear my name would only detract from the more important business of this school district.”

Hooven’s resignation was tied to the case of Salle Dumm, president of a fund-raising group called the Burbank Education Foundation, who was arrested in November on allegations that she lured a 17-year-old Burbank High School football player to her bed with promises that she would donate money to his team. She is awaiting trial in Burbank Superior Court on a felony charge of having intercourse with a minor and a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The political turmoil began in December with the release of a California Interscholastic Federation report naming him and former Burbank High head varsity football coach John Hazelton in a suspected football recruiting scandal.

In an unprecedented move, the school board formed a subcommittee to investigate the allegations in the CIF scandal.

Hooven initially supported the creation of an investigating subcommittee, saying it would give him a chance to clear his name. But he later refused to testify under oath before the subcommittee and called the investigation, which had widened to determine whether he knew about the Dumm incident, “a witch hunt.”

Just last week, the district released transcripts of the subcommittee’s interview with Hazelton, in which the former coach testified under oath that he had told Hooven about the alleged sexual liaison between Dumm and the football player several days after the incident occurred last July, but that Hooven urged him to “keep it quiet.”

Last Friday, Hooven issued a written statement in which he conceded that Hazelton had told him about the alleged sexual incident last July. But Hooven denied trying to cover it up. He said he did not report the information to the district or to authorities because he considered it “third-hand.”

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As an elected official, Hooven was not required by law to report incidents of child abuse, as are teachers and other school district employees. Board members Denise Wilcox and Mike McDonald, who were the investigating subcommittee, said the focus of their investigation was not whether Hooven did anything illegal, but whether he acted morally and ethically.

Hooven was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but school board member Denise Wilcox said she expects the president’s resignation to end the negative publicity the board has received recently.

“It’s unfortunate that it all had to be played out in public, but I think Mr. Hooven did the right thing by resigning,” Wilcox said. “Now the board can move on to the business of education, rather than be held up by these other issues.”

Before that, Hooven had been rising politically and many supporters believed he might one day run for Burbank City Council or higher office.

He was elected to a four-year school board term in February 1993, and was chosen president by his fellow members last May. A small-business owner who had previously served on the city’s park and recreation board, he became a favorite of the local Republican establishment and was the only candidate in the school board election to earn more than enough votes to avoid a runoff election.

“To the many, many people that supported Joe Hooven, he appeared to be philosophically aligned with us,” said Linda Walmsley, an elementary school teacher who worked on Hooven’s campaign team in 1993. Walmsley said she is “saddened” by the recent accusations against Hooven, but would not comment on whether she is still a Hooven supporter.

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But Hooven’s detractors on Tuesday pronounced his political career dead.

“Joe has been a total failure to those who supported him and got him elected,” said City Councilman Ted McConkey.

“He has shown no evidence of leadership, especially in the wake of these scandals. The schools are badly in need of a bond issue, but he and Salle Dumm have probably single-handedly killed any chance of that happening,” McConkey said.

The four remaining school board members are expected to decide within 60 days whether to hold a special election or appoint someone to serve the remainder of Hooven’s term, which expires in May 1997.

Board Vice President Mike McDonald is expected to take over as president until May, when the board is scheduled to choose a new president, said Supt. David Aponik.