The Sweetwater Union High School District has reached a settlement agreement with one of their critics in a lawsuit challenging the release of public documents.
Kevin O’Neill, a member of the district’s Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, filed a lawsuit in 2013 after the Sweetwater district did not comply with his public records request asking for invoices, reports and other documentation in regard to the district’s dealings with consulting firm ESI International, which the district hired to conduct investigative services.
O’Neill previously said the district told him it couldn’t release any reports to him from ESI because none were created.
In the four-page settlement O’Neill agrees to dismiss his lawsuit; in exchange the Sweetwater district will release documents including the budget breakdown for the human resources department budget for 2012 and 2013.
The district will also provide 42 identified ESI invoices stating the subject matter of the investigations and the reason the specifics of the invoice entries are protected.
In addition, the Sweetwater district will pay O’Neill’s attorney Cory Briggs $32,498.40 in attorney fees.
“The weakness I found in the Public Records Act request is that there is no punishment for not disclosing (records),” O’Neill said.
The district denies any wrongdoing in the settlement, but acknowledges that portions of the public records “were improperly withheld from disclosure by a prior district board and administration.
Briggs said he is glad to know the decision makers at the district are not the same from years past.
“(The settlement) means that the current board is acknowledging that the past administration and the past board were a bunch of bad actors and that they were trying to cover things up,” he said.
Sweetwater district spokesman Manny Rubio said the district should have never withheld documents from O’Neill’s request.
“We understand that there were some requests that were made that we as a district didn’t comply with,” he said. “
And so as part of the settlement we’re just trying to move forward and say ‘OK, let’s open the books,’ and we should have (done so) in the first place.”
Former superintendent Ed Brand and an ex-school board that saw four of five board members indicted on corruption charges spent more than $200,000 for ESI’s services.
In December 2012, the district allocated $50,000 to ESI. Then in August 2013, the board approved an additional $65,000, O’Neill said. O’Neill previously said during the 2012-2013 school year, the board of trustees allocated $100,000 for ESI for the next school year.
ESI International was hired by the district to conduct investigative services. Investigations into whom or what is what O’Neill wanted to know.
Some community members, mostly those critical of Brand, had feared he was investigating them.
Community member Kathleen Cheers said at a September 2013 board meeting that she was not home when an investigator stopped by her house and left his business card.
