Washoe County Superintendent Pedro Martinez says he will return to work Friday but will continue to proceed with his lawsuit against school trustees.
"I am going to return to work...but this is not going to end the legal issues," Martinez told me in an interview shortly after the trustees, in an astonishing turn of events, acknowledged they had violated the Open Meeting Law, thus voiding their actions last week.
The trustees' statement, first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal's Siobhan McAndrew, contained priceless language that showed the trustees are eager to show at each phase of this embarrassment that they can be more embarrassing:
"....because of the position taken by the media and...Martinez, the Board understands that last week's actions may be void under Nevada law...Rather than debate this complicated issue, we have agreed that last week's events are void."
The position taken by the media? Really?
Translation: "We don't have a legal leg to stand on. At least that's what the lawyer we probably hired illegally by again breaking the Open Meeting Law tells us. So, like Emily Litella used to say: 'Nevermind.'"
These are people responsible for the education of your chidlren, Washoe County residents. Be proud.
I asked school officials to explain how outside counsel Kent Robison was hired without a vote and how much he was being paid. After being promised an answer and pressing several times, I heard crickets.
Martinez said he had been told that in his absence, the board has been "micromanaging" decisions and that "it has beocme really dysfunctional."
So, he added, he is going back to "return some level of fucntionality."
But, Martinez made it clear, he does not trust his elected bosses, he doesn't believe their attitude has changed and he will pursue his legal action.
Looks as if this is, in the Churchillian phrasing, only the end of the beginning.
Washoe County Superintendent Pedro Martinez says he will return to work Friday but will continue to proceed with his lawsuit against school trustees.
"I am going to return to work...but this is not going to end the legal issues," Martinez told me in an interview shortly after the trustees, in an astonishing turn of events, acknowledged they had violated the Open Meeting Law, thus voiding their actions last week.
The trustees' statement, first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal's Siobhan McAndrew, contained priceless language that showed the trustees are eager to show at each phase of this embarrassment that they can be more embarrassing:
"....because of the position taken by the media and...Martinez, the Board understands that last week's actions may be void under Nevada law...Rather than debate this complicated issue, we have agreed that last week's events are void."
The position taken by the media? Really?
Translation: "We don't have a legal leg to stand on. At least that's what the lawyer we probably hired illegally by again breaking the Open Meeting Law tells us. So, like Emily Litella used to say: 'Nevermind.'"
These are people responsible for the education of your chidlren, Washoe County residents. Be proud.
I asked school officials to explain how outside counsel Kent Robison was hired without a vote and how much he was being paid. After being promised an answer and pressing several times, I heard crickets.
Martinez said he had been told that in his absence, the board has been "micromanaging" decisions and that "it has beocme really dysfunctional."
So, he added, he is going back to "return some level of fucntionality."
But, Martinez made it clear, he does not trust his elected bosses, he doesn't believe their attitude has changed and he will pursue his legal action.
Looks as if this is, in the Churchillian phrasing, only the end of the beginning.
Comments: