Wednesday, November 20, 2013

November Board Meeting

Issues discussed during the last board meeting:

·         Susan Lara read a response letter to the Freedom of Information Act request presented by some of the parents, which basically said they will not respond to it because they are not legally bound to respond due the fact that the Regional Center is not a public institution. The only thing Ms. Lara agreed to provide was the list of board member terms with their term period dates and their demographics.

·         The attorney for the fired employees once again defended his clients and stated that Susan Lara signed the so called “bonuses” approval memos that the employees received. Later on Mr. Law said that everything the attorney had said was untrue. 

·         A parent read a letter to the board members asking them to request impact studies before making any decisions and recriminated the board for approving a new contract for Duane Law for 3 years with a salary increase. The parent also requested that the salary of the new CEO be posted on the transparency pages as well as the conditions of his contract. Parent also complained about how restricted it is to get in the executive committee and how it is a very close circle of people.

·         A KRC worker who is also a parent, interrupted the meeting out of order in two occasions to defend the current administration and to protest against the parent who spoke at first.

·         A board member pointed and yelled at the first parent that spoke for several minutes.

·         A Hispanic parent complained about the lack of quality interpreting services and pointed out that Mr. Law had a smirk on his face the whole time the first parent was speaking.

·         More discussion went on among several people regarding the interpreting issue as Mr. Law tried to give different reasons for the lack of it.

·         There was also some discussion about whether Ramona Puget should get a waiver to be part of the board and whether she should be in the Exc. Committee given the fact that she is a vendor and has a conflict of interest. A parent asked if Mrs. Puget would get her seat as Secretary of the board when she comes back. Susan Lara answered that the secretary position would still be hers if she still wants it. 


·         A parent came to the board meeting to ask for help for her son for the third time. She stated she has tried all the normal avenues and so far has gotten no results. Her son’s program will be terminated in 2 weeks supposedly due to unclear terms in the vendor’s contract that has a time limit of 2 years. Neither Susan Lara nor Duane Law offer to help her in any way.