School Board Member Is Accused of False Filing

Anaheim City School District officials said Wednesday that they have sought legal advice to see whether they “have an obligation to take action” on an allegation that board member Donald L. Garcia filed false information about his residency when he sought the seat last fall.

A community activist charged at this week’s board meeting that Garcia, a physician, and his wife live with their two children on Serra Drive in Corona del Mar, but that Garcia said his address was 410 W. Vermont Ave. in Anaheim in election filings. Garcia has vehemently denied he did anything wrong, saying that he considers both addresses residences and that he lives in both of them.

Duane Roberts, who once ran unsuccessfully for a school board in another district, vowed at the board meeting to take his complaint to the district attorney’s office.

School officials say the election code requires that school trustees live within the district and that the home must be his or her primary residence. But Roberts, an Anaheim resident who lives outside the district, says he and friends have observed Garcia and his family living full time at the Corona del Mar residence and taking their son to a school near there. Roberts also contends that the Vermont Avenue building is not used by the Garcias at all.

Garcia had sought election to the board last November, but when no one ran to oppose him, he was automatically appointed without an election.

County assessor records show that Garcia and his wife bought the Corona del Mar house in August 1999. The house is valued at $929,000. The Anaheim address is listed by the county as an office building at a value of $223,362.

The Anaheim address is surrounded by a wooden fence. Its yard is completely paved, with white lines outlining parking spots, some marked for “compact” cars. This week the shades were drawn in all the windows in the building.

Numerous neighbors said they have never once seen a light on at that residence and that it has been at least six months, probably closer to a year or more, that they have seen anybody on the property at all.

“We used to see people come in and out a lot,” said neighbor Pablo Garcia, no relation to the school trustee. “But last year, nobody. It’s been completely empty for a long time.”

Donald Garcia did not return repeated telephone calls from The Times on Wednesday. He runs a medical clinic on Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim, directly across the street from the Vermont Avenue address. The clinic’s office manager declined to say whether Garcia ever used the Anaheim address as a home.

The Anaheim City School District board oversees 25 elementary schools. Spokeswoman Suzanne Brown said the district had taken steps to seek legal advice to determine what its role should be.

District attorney spokeswoman Tori Richards said that even if Roberts files his complaint, which he had not yet done late Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office might not investigate. Instead, it might decide the matter should go before the state’s Fair Political Practices Committee, which oversees election fraud.

Times librarian Lois Hooker contributed to this report.