O.C. school leaders get a scolding

A report released late Monday regarding controversies afflicting a South County school district found “ill-advised” and “imprudent” decisions that could appear improper but stopped short of actual wrongdoing.

The investigation, paid for by the Capistrano Unified School District, called on the district’s leaders to consider the appearance of their actions and perhaps hold conflict-of-interest seminars.

“The conduct I have investigated points only to a lack of good judgment in various degrees by some district persons,” said the 50-page report, dated Dec. 28, by retired Superior Court Judge Stuart Waldrip.

Waldrip was paid $400 an hour for his five-month look into allegations of conflicts of interest and other wrongdoing that have plagued the 50,000-student district for more than two years.

Although many of Capistrano’s 56 schools are ranked among the state’s best, controversies have included allegations that the board routinely violated state open-meetings law, the resignation of its longtime superintendent after accusations that he kept an “enemies list,” as well as disputes over attendance boundaries, a new high school’s location, portable classrooms and a costly administration center.

Angry parents unsuccessfully tried to recall all seven school trustees in 2005, but candidates they supported claimed three seats on the board in the November election.

The Waldrip report is one of several investigations into the district and its trustees. The district attorney’s office raided Capistrano Unified headquarters last year, and the county grand jury has subpoenaed trustees and administrators. A spokeswoman for county prosecutors declined to comment Monday on the nature of that probe and whether it continues. Mission Viejo city officials have also called for an audit of the district’s construction funding.

Waldrip’s investigation was limited in scope and largely centered on the “enemies list,” the employment of district leaders’ relatives by district contractors and whether employees destroyed or removed documents.

Waldrip saved his harshest words for retired Supt. James Fleming and the “enemies list.” According to the report, Fleming actually ordered the creation of two lists: one with the names of people who received e-mails from recall supporters and a second with the names of those who gathered signatures supporting the recall.

Both included personal information such as the schools attended by the children of recall supporters.

“No apparent nefarious use of this list was made ... but its existence is unfortunate, at best,” Waldrip wrote. “No one should have embarked upon this path in the first place.”

Waldrip also investigated Montano Plumbing’s employment of Fleming’s son, the son of district facilities-maintenance chief Joe Dixon, and district construction chief Mark Bauer’s wife, brother and son.

All were temporary employees except Bauer’s wife, Sherry, who is a part-time office manager and once received a free trip to Fiji that the firm won from a supplier.

Waldrip wrote that he found no evidence that the company gave preferential treatment to any district employees’ relatives.

But he wrote that Fleming should have known better than to suggest that his son work for a district contractor, and Bauer should distance himself from any discussions of contract renewals involving Montano.

The district’s contracting with Culbertson, Adams & Associates, where Trustee Marlene Draper’s daughter serves as a vice president, was not preferential either, Waldrip wrote, but Draper should abstain from any future votes involving the firm.

The investigation also found that former district spokesman David Smollar, who disclosed many of the allegations against the district to the media, probably deleted computer documents and files in violation of state law.

Smollar declined to be interviewed by Waldrip, who called the evidence of destroying records “circumstantial.”

“I will leave it to the law enforcement officials to decide whether the evidence warrants further action,” he wrote.

The Board of Trustees, which received the report Monday, declined to comment on it through President Sheila Benecke. “The Board looks forward to utilizing this report as a tool to refocus our full attention on the mission of educating students,” she said in a written statement.

Longtime Trustee Duane Stiff said he hoped the strife was ending. “We just have to get all this behind us,” he said.

Tom Russell, a recall backer who helped bring many allegations to light, dismissed the report as tainted, noting that Waldrip once worked for the same law firm as the district’s longtime counsel.

“The reality is there was clearly, clearly a scheme of activities which were unethical and probably illegal,” Russell said.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com