Capistrano district accused of violating open meetings law

The Orange County, Calif., district attorney's office says the Capistrano (Calif.) Unified School District board members routinely violated the state's open-meetings law by discussing in secret topics such as construction contracts, how to silence a district critic and ways to prepare parents for bad news about schools, all of which should have been debated in public. The report by the district attorney's office also says board members tried to keep the community from participating in district decision-making and to manipulate public opinion.
Click here to read The Los Angeles Times article.

EARLIER: The Capistrano (Calif.) Unified School District has settled a lawsuit that accused the school board of violating the state's open-meetings law by going behind closed doors to discuss ways to silence a critic. The settlement requires the board to make audio recordings of all closed-session meetings for a year, provide public notice of closed-session items as required by law, provide board members with training on the open-meetings law and pay attorney's fees of $16,000 to the man who brought the suit. (Los Angeles Times)