Last Monday, UC President Janet Napolitano reportedly told Katehi to quit or be fired. She cited evidence of abuse of power as well as a series of controversies about Katehi moonlighting without permission and her pursuing costly damage control efforts related to a campus police officer’s pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters at UC Davis in 2011. 

But in another in a series of unusual decisions, Katehi defied Napolitano, leading to her suspension. The electrical engineer’s strategy appears to be intended to force the university to pursue a formal investigation before it can move to oust her. While that inquiry gears up, Katehi and her allies have launched a public-relations counteroffensive, with her attorney claiming she’s being “scapegoated.”

‘Implicit gender bias’ behind suspension?

Meanwhile, two UC Davis professors claim she is only the latest UC woman executive to be a victim of sexism and double standards.

“Women in leadership positions are often the victims of intense implicit bias and, as a consequence, of the phenomenon of ‘single storyism’ — the reduction of their actions to a simple narrative that appeals to the biases of a broad section of society, in this case implicit gender bias and women being incompetent for their position. Whatever they say or do in response is twisted to fit the ‘single story,’” wrote Linda F. Bisson and Rachael E. Goodhue.

That claim may be tough to sustain, given that Napolitano is behind her ouster, with her name on the Wednesday letter that outlined UC’s concerns:

In the letter, Napolitano said UC would investigate the employment of her daughter-in-law, including raises that boosted her pay by more than $50,000 over two and a half years. She also expressed concern about whether Katehi made “material misstatements” about her role in UC Davis spending $175,000 on an attempt to scrub online search results of negative stories about the school – and Katehi herself – resulting from the 2011 pepper spraying of students.

That’s from a Sacramento Bee round-up of the problems that led to Katehi’s forced exit.

Katehi admirers unhappy about her woes

While the largest UC student group welcomed Katehi’s suspension after calling for her firing on April 15, the Bee noted that not everyone was happy. Many Sacramento business and civil leaders are admirers of what Katehi has done at Davis, 15 miles west of the state capital.

Both relate to what happened at the district’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, where her son graduated last year. Kim Abagat, a school counselor, came forward to tell the Voice of San Diego that she had been suspended by the district for nine days for not writing a laudatory college recommendation for Foster’s son, who was ranked 100th in GPA in a class of 147. Abagat said she was punished for telling the truth.

School counselors are the ones who complete an evaluation form – attesting to students’ talents – which are then sent to prospective colleges.

 

In boxes where counselors rate students in terms of academics, extracurricular activities and character, Abagat listed Foster’s son as average or above average. But she checked a box that indicated there was “no basis” to recommend him to college.

 

Abagat said she thought she was doing the student a favor by not recounting in detail his documented behavioral problems.

Former principal had already blasted Foster

The school’s 2013-14 principal has already blamed Foster for her abrupt reassignment and eventual decision to leave San Diego Unified for a job in Los Angeles, sharply criticizing district Superintendent Cindy Marten and her staff for allowing Foster to throw her weight around at the school. But Abagat’s interview with Voice of San Diego and its research fill in the backstory of the lengths to which the district tried to make Foster happy.

The letter kicked off problems for Abagat. In the days after she submitted it, emails show, her access to the college application system was cut off. She could no longer send out recommendation letters on students’ behalf.

 

Another counselor, Megan Blum, wrote a new evaluation for Foster’s son to replace the negative one. Blum listed the student as “Outstanding (top 5%)” and “Top Few (top 1%).”

 

It was a remarkably different interpretation of the same student and grade point average.

Foster declined comment.

Claim: Foster filed $250K damage claim, lied about it

Voice of San Diego followed up this bombshell with another one.

San Diego School Board President Marne Foster months ago distanced herself from a claim seeking $250,000 for the problems a negative college evaluation had allegedly caused her son.

 

It was the student’s father, John Marsh, who filed it. Foster told the Union-Tribune she was “not a party to the claim” and would not comment on it.

 

The problem with that story? Marsh says he didn’t write it – Foster did.

 

“She brought me a blank complaint form and said, ‘Sign it.’ So I did. And I didn’t think twice about it until there was backlash,” Marsh said.

 

The claim, a necessary step before anyone is allowed to file a lawsuit against the district, said the college evaluation of Foster and Marsh’s son by a counselor at the School of Creative and Performing Arts was “willfully damaging,” and the family needed $250,000 to handle trauma and recoup losses from his rejection to many prestigious universities.

Foster again declined comment to Voice of San Diego. The district quietly rejected the $250,000 claim.

Earlier this month, Foster tried to quell another controversy by saying it was a bad idea to hold a fundraiser in July to help cover college costs of two of her sons — an event  she publicized using district resources. The fundraiser was held at a facility with a district contract and was attended by representatives of institutions that seek favor from the district, such as the head of the teachers union and organizations seeking to provide services to San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest school district with more than 130,000 students and a $1 billion-plus budget.

Self-serving fundraiser a ‘mistake of the heart’

Foster initially depicted criticism of the fundraiser as politically motivated. But after community criticism built and the state Attorney General’s Office launched an inquiry into the legality of a raffle held at the event, she changed her tune, calling the fundraiser a “mistake of the heart.”

Foster, a community college teacher, was elected to the board in 2012.

Frank Engle, a parent of a student at the School of Creative and Performing Arts, first reported on Foster’s unusual interventions on his website in June 2014. But the backlash didn’t begin until a May grand jury report knocked weak ethical standards in the school district and cited Foster’s actions without naming her specifically.

Engle believes that far more blame should be given to Marten, the district superintendent, who has defended what happened at the school while offering no public criticism of Foster. A stock photo Engle uses on his District Deeds website depicts Marten as Foster’s “accomplice.”

Chloe Stirling is a young entrepreneur, and embodies the American spirit. She  has been running her business, Hey, Cupcake!, out of her parents’ kitchen. She brings in about $200 a month baking cupcakes for family, friends, and social events. Chloe sells her beautifully decorated cupcakes for $10 a dozen, and $2 for each specialty cupcake. Chloe even donated cupcakes when a boy in her school fighting cancer held a fundraiser.

After a local story about Chloe ran in BND.com, Health officials in Madison Co., Illinois descended on the sixth grader’s home. If Chloe Stirling wants to continue selling cupcakes, Health Department officials told her she will need to buy a bakery or build a separate kitchen in the family home.

“Working out of her family’s kitchen, the sixth-grader at Triad Middle School is busy almost every week with her business, Hey, Cupcake!” BND.com reported. “She lost count of how many cakes and cupcakes she has created, but it’s been hundreds. Considering she also runs her own pet-sitting business, ‘No Bones About It,’ with about a dozen year-round clients, and plays soccer, Chloe has a full schedule.”

But because she sells the cupcakes, health department spokeswoman Amy Yeager said she needs a permit, KMOV St. Louis reported. Yeager said by not having a permit, Chloe Stirling violates the county’s food ordinance and Illinois State Food Sanitation Code.

It’s obvious regulators like Amy Yeager have nothing better to do than protect the citizens of Troy, Illinois from Chloe Stirling’s dangerous cupcakes.

And that is the problem: as government expands, it hires more regulators who end up looking for busy work, and ways to generate revenue.

Evidence of this are the numerous stories of health department and police officials across the country shutting down dangerous lemonade stands run by 7-year olds:

In Oregon, Multnomah County health inspectors threatened to fine a 7-year-old for opening a lemonade stand in 2010 at a local arts fair without a license.

Georgia police shut down a lemonade stand run by three girls in 2011, saying they didn’t have a business license or the required permits.

Hoping to raise money for a family trip to Disneyland, a Tulare girl opened a lemonade stand in 2009. But because she didn’t have a business license, the city of Tulare shut it down the same day.

In 2011, in Hazelwood, Missouri two young girls scouts were permanently banned from selling girl scout cookies in the front yard of their own home.  A neighbor ratted them out and the police moved in swiftly to shut them down.

A lemonade stand run by kids in Maryland raising money for a pediatric cancer charity was shut down. Authorities originally slapped a $500 fine on their parents until public pressure from the many news stories forced them to rescind the fine.

Ridiculous government health inspectors and police prompted Robert Fernandes to challenge Philadelphia police when he set up a lemonade stand on Lemonade Freedom Day. His website says, Selling Lemonade is not a crime.”

In a bygone era, if young kids wanted to earn some money, they would set up a stand in front of their home, and sell lemonade, Kool-aid or even homemade cookies. For many children, this was their first opportunity to make and handle money.

Even though Chloe Stirling’s parents are considering building a second kitchen in their basement so she can continue baking, Chloe has more visits from health inspectors ahead of her in the heavily regulated, and dangerous cupcake business.

Friday, the city clerk announced that she rejected the petitions, along with 34,000 signatures, on the grounds some of the petition versions did not comply with election code.

“Due to technical issues identified in the submitted petitions, I find the petition noncompliant with significant provisions of the California Elections Code and the Sacramento City Charter, and therefore insufficient to move forward,” Shirley Concolino, Sacramento City Clerk, said in a press release.

Yet, just last week, the Sacramento County Registrar certified there were enough verified signatures on the petitions to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The signatures were collected by STOP, Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork, and Voters for a Fair Arena Deal, to put the decision of whether a public subsidy for the new arena project downtown, should be on the ballot in the city of Sacramento.

“The4000, a group representing the new downtown arena plan responded to Friday’s decision by saying, ‘For STOP, this has never been about a vote and democracy; it has always been about tricking voters and stalling the arena with a two-part vote designed to blow up the project,’” reported Fox 40 news.

The4000 is a group headed up my Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player. “The downtown arena is an extraordinary, once-in-a-generation project with a profound potential to generate catalytic economic benefits for the downtown, city and region,” The4000 claims.

In the letter Concolino sent to STOP about her decision, she cited the nine different petition versions as being problematic. Concolino said even though the petition’s signatures are valid, they were gathered before STOP officially filed their notice of intent with the city clerk’s office.

By Katy Grimes

SACRAMENTO — It’s audit time for Child Protective Services, part of the California Department of Social Services. A protest rally by 100 people at the Capitol Wednesday morning charged the agency with both abusing its powers and neglecting real cases of child abuse. I took the nearby picture at the rally. Later that day the Joint Legislative Audit Committee of the California Legislature held hearings  on CPS.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia, and Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, made the bipartisan, formal audit request to the committee.  The CPS operates largely in secrecy under the protection of the state courts.

The children

Protesters highlighted the fate of eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez from Lancaster. As the Daily News reported May 28:

“A Palmdale couple were charged on Tuesday with capital murder in the beating of the woman’s 8-year-old son, who died last week.

“Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 29, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 32, were ordered to be held without bail while they await arraignment June 11 in Lancaster Superior Court.

“The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of torture. The District Attorney’s Office will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against the pair.”

Aguirre allegedly cracked Gabriel’s skull, broke three of his ribs, knocked out two teeth, bruised and burned the boy’s skin and shot BB pellets into him.

Pearl Fernandez, Gabriel’s mother, reportedly told police she saw the beating but did nothing to stop it. Gabriel Fernandez died two days later in the hospital.

At the committee hearing, which I attended, Gatto called the boy’s death “horrifying” and the CPS’s actions “unacceptable.” But this was not a fluke. There had been six previous complaints with CPS about the abuse of the boy, and six separate investigations into the abuse of Gabriel in his mother’s home. Yet CPS social workers did not intervene. The sixth investigation was still open on the day of Gabriel’s death in May.

Overreach

Another case taken up at the hearing is a gross example not of neglect of real abuse, but of CPS overreach. Last week I wrote a story on our site, “Sacramento family fights seizure of child by CPS,” about Alex and Anna Nikolayev and their baby, Sammy, 5 months old.

At the hearing, Anna Nikolayev testified she tried to leave Sacramento’s Sutter Memorial Hospital and take Sammy to another hospital for a second opinion, when she was threatened with a call to the CPS. Sammy was born with a heart murmur.

After a nurse at Sutter Memorial tried to give Sammy medicine that a doctor later explained should not have been administered, Anna became nervous about the quality of Sammy’s care. She said she wanted a second opinion from another doctor.

Nikolayev said she felt the doctors and nurses were “pressing us to do surgery.” She was told by the hospital workers, “You are free to leave this hospital, but your baby is not.” The hospital refused to discharge Sammy, then notified the CPS.

Anna told the committee that she took Sammy from Sutter Memorial and went directly to Kaiser Hospital. She met with a doctor there who said Sammy was healthy, did not need immediate open heart surgery, and was free to go home.

The next day, CPS and the police showed up at the family’s home, claimed they had a warrant and the authority to take Sammy. Anna asked to see the warrant, but the authorities wouldn’t show it to her.  Anna said they told her, “We’re the police. We don’t need a warrant.”

As Alex Nikolayev arrived at home, several police officers pulled him out of his car and “beat him up,” according to Anna. After taking Alex’s keys, the police charged into the Nikolayev home, then took baby Sammy from his mother.

“Give me your son,” Anna said the police ordered her at gunpoint. The police and CPS told her not to resist or fight back.

“Is that not kidnapping?” Anna Nikolayev asked the legislative committee. Her baby was returned to her after three days.

One more audit 

This would not be the first audit of CPS. State Auditor Elaine Howle told the committee that her agency recently audited four CPS offices around the state, in Sacramento, Alameda, Los Angeles and Orange counties.

However, Howle said her agency is equipped to handle audits of three more county offices of CPS. Once underway, the audits are expected to take five to six months. Once completed, the information compiled from the new audits, and the four audits last year, will be compiled into an overall report.

Howle said the audits will examine and scrutinize the protocols CPS uses in deciding the severity of cases, and when a child should be removed from a home.

Follow the money

At the rally and during the hearing, many who testified said CPS is an agency driven by funding, financially incentivizing the wrong actions. The more abuse that’s alleged, the higher the funding for the CPS bureaucracy.

Howle explained her audits would look at the policies and practices in each of the three local offices, and how they reach their decisions. “We also will look at the funding, relative to when law enforcement is involved,” she said.

Lisa Snell, the director of Education and Child Welfare for the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, testified the state needs to change the funding incentives for the CPS. “There’s a lot of evidence that when you change the funding incentives, the number of children removed from homes decreases,” Snell said.

“The motive is funding,” Deanna Fogarty (pictured nearby) testified of her own experience. Fogarty’s two daughters were taken from her by Orange County CPS and were gone for six years. However, Fogarty sued the county and got her kids back. The jury found that two social workers lied to take Fogarty’s daughters away. She was awarded $10.6 million in compensation. The case was appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2011 declined to hear the case, thus upholding the original jury decision.

“This audit is long overdue as was proven by the powerful testimonies shared at the morning rally and in the hearing,” Donnelly told me after the hearing. “California owes a debt of gratitude to the hundreds of citizens who called their representative, spoke out and raised awareness about this audit hearing today.”

Two women told me stories of having CPS show up at their homes after they had taken a child to the hospital for falling and getting hurt. During the CPS visits, the mothers said, things went very wrong, and the mothers were accused of harming their children. Then the police showed up and took their kids away.

One African-American women testified at the hearing to a similar situation. She had two strokes that debilitated her, and while in skilled nursing her white friend and neighbor took care of her children. CPS got involved, and the social worker asked her how and why she could leave her children with the white woman. Her children also were taken away from her while she was recuperating from the strokes.

Donnelly told me, “Stories like that of the Nikolayev family, who had their fragile baby ripped from their arms for no reason, and stories like that of Gabriel Fernandez, who was tortured and beaten to death, show the unbelievable dysfunction and inconsistency within CPS. It is time for a massive change and I am very excited to see this soon-to-be eye opening audit move forward.

“This is a huge win for the many families who have been victimized by Child Protective Services throughout the years and it is a ray of hope showing that we can achieve system wide reform and accountability soon.”

By Chris Reed

A while back, I came upon the amazing stories of Daniel J. Saulmon, a Southern California man who has used video and audio recorders to document vast evidence of police misconduct. Here we go again, with what appears to be the worst abuse of power yet, this time in the L.A. suburb of Hawthorne:

A California man was jailed for four days for attempting to record police officers on a public street.

Daniel J. Saulmon was charged with resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer but the video shows he was standing well out the way of a traffic stop and was only arrested when he failed to produce identification to an approaching officer.

And there is no law in California that requires citizens to produce identification. And even if there was, it would require the officer to have a reasonable suspicion that he was committing a crime.

Will Hawthorne cop Gabriel Lira be thrown off the force?

Nah. This is California. He probably just boosted his chances for a promotion.