Ms. Cobbe:

This is to remind you that I await the following public information:

1. The written transcript of the remarks Ms. Olson made at the last Board meeting telling them that they had no chance of getting Ms. Elia's ukase reversed. The teachers need to read that hostile attack by Olson on teachers word for word.
2. Ms. Elia’s retirement package.
3. Ms. Elia’s expense account statement for the past year.

4. Here’s a new request: a statement of the billable hours the Board attorney submitted for Board reimbursement for the research he did to find a phrase in my past columns that Ms. Elia could invoke in threatening to sue La Gaceta. She made this statement to Patrick Manteiga in a meeting that he thought concerned another matter; Ms. Elia's threat to Manteiga represents a species of government-official-extortion gesture to stifle press free speech. It is the kind of threat that is a specialty of ACLU litigation that protects press free speech.

I would like all data on this situation: the request for it, whether the Board approved the project, the attorney’s response, the attorney statement for charges for the research, etc. If the attorney were not Mr. Gonzalez, tell me who it was and apply the request to him or her.

Please don’t say this record does not exist: Ms. Elia told Manteiga in a meeting that he thought concerned about other matters that she could authorize Linda Kipley and Connie Mileto to sue La Gaceta for defamation, apparently using tax dollars to pay lawyers to squelch free press speech. Afterward, Ms. Elia claimed she did not squelch press free speech, and none of the Board expressed public concern that Ms. Elia engaged in an effort to impose restriction on press liberty by what appears to be extortion on Ms. Elia's part.

This sounds like Dr. Lennard's punishment of Mr. Erwin for his reporting criminality in the building area. Instead of punishing the perpetrators of the crimes, Dr. Lennard sicced the Board legal team on Irwin. The Board lawyers lost at every stage and lost the appeal. The Board finally had to pay Irwin after spend hundreds of thousands on legal fees to punish a whistleblower.

Then Board members issued their famous "let's move on" statement. After they promoted the crucifixion of an honest man to punish him instead of the crooks in the building department ripping off taxpayers, the Board members said, "Let's move on" to sugar over their participation in retaliation against a whistleblower. I recall distinctly that Ms. Edgecomb was one of the "move-0n" advocates. There were others. Nobody said, "You know, we should learn something from this case. We should learn not to expect the courts to ratify our punishment of innocent people just to please the superintendent, who wants to cover up his lack of competence."

There must be more ethical people to put on the Board than these collaborators with evil.

lee drury de cesare

Posted on Teacher Blog The Wall (http://call-in-6.blogspot.com/2007/05/eliasmonk.html)

and leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcounch.blogspot.com.