I "lifted" this item from State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard’s e-newsletter:
***Memo to Eastin: You Lost***
Kudos to Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda – pictured to the right)) for holding the Department of Education’s feet to the fire. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Duvall has been pressing the department for details how they are paying for the attorneys that have thus far not succeeded in prevailing against a department whistleblower. The department says $4 million has been set aside just to pay for private attorneys to defend the department and former Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin. The story is here.
What I find incredible is the statements by the department, and in particular, Delaine Eastin, who along with the department was found liable by two juries. The first jury found that Eastin "acted with malice" and held her personally liable for $1.45 million in damages. That jury awarded the whistleblower $4.5 million in total. The department appealed the decision at public expense. Last month, a second jury upped the damages to $7.6 million.
In the Mercury-News article last week Eastin was quoted saying, "It really is taking money away from the children to give to a guy who’s really no more entitled to it than a man on the moon." Think about the chutzpah of that statement.
The former superintendent was in charge when more than $3.3 million in federal money and untold millions in state education money were given to people to buy Mercedes Benzes and other luxuries with no oversight whatsoever. Then, to make it worse, she treated the revealer of this fraud not with respect or appreciation, but in a way that is now going to cost the state another $7 million in damages, plus perhaps $4 million in legal fees and she is accusing OTHER people of taking money away from California schools.
The department should drop its appeals, pay the money, and send Eastin the bill.
Kudos to Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda – pictured to the right)) for holding the Department of Education’s feet to the fire. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Duvall has been pressing the department for details how they are paying for the attorneys that have thus far not succeeded in prevailing against a department whistleblower. The department says $4 million has been set aside just to pay for private attorneys to defend the department and former Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin. The story is here.What I find incredible is the statements by the department, and in particular, Delaine Eastin, who along with the department was found liable by two juries. The first jury found that Eastin "acted with malice" and held her personally liable for $1.45 million in damages. That jury awarded the whistleblower $4.5 million in total. The department appealed the decision at public expense. Last month, a second jury upped the damages to $7.6 million.
In the Mercury-News article last week Eastin was quoted saying, "It really is taking money away from the children to give to a guy who’s really no more entitled to it than a man on the moon." Think about the chutzpah of that statement.
The former superintendent was in charge when more than $3.3 million in federal money and untold millions in state education money were given to people to buy Mercedes Benzes and other luxuries with no oversight whatsoever. Then, to make it worse, she treated the revealer of this fraud not with respect or appreciation, but in a way that is now going to cost the state another $7 million in damages, plus perhaps $4 million in legal fees and she is accusing OTHER people of taking money away from California schools.
The department should drop its appeals, pay the money, and send Eastin the bill.
Keep up the good fight, Mr. Duvall!