Always Read the Fine Print

The firm of board attorney, Tom Gonzalez, has held the job for 37 years, apparently on a handshake. I have suggested several times at the speaker podium that the board fire him and advertise the job so that some new legal blood can be brought in when other area firms have a chance to apply for the job.

My perception of Tom Gonzalez is that he is hip-deep in all the skullduggery of the administration. He was a pivotal person, I believe, in the crucifixion of Mr. Sam Erwin.

Mr. Erwin believed former board member Bricklemeyer was an honest board member and went to her for help. She took him to Tom Gonzalez; they milked him for information and then threw him back out in the ROSSAC badlands so that Dr. Lennard and his thugs could continue the torture of Mr. Erwin.

When the investigator hired by Gonzalez told Erwin that it looked like the investigation was aimed at framing him, Gonzalez cut short the investigation and dismissed the investigator.

Le Gonzalez defends no-bid contracts with great fervor because his firm has had one for 37 years with the board. He also denies that the equal opportunity laws apply to the administration for the same reason I suggest.

Tom Gonzalez's firm, which specializes is ripping off workers for higher-ups I infer, was defense for the board in the Erwin Whistleblower case. Gonzalez did the Erwin deposition. Another lawyer from the firm handled the court-room part of the case. He didn't know his ass from his elbow in handling a jury. He told the jury people sitting for the Erwin case that they had no right to find in Mr. Erwin's favor because they had found that one of the charges, that the administration had violated his contract, was false; hence they had to find that all the charges were false.

That went over like a lead balloon with the jury, of course. It found on the other issues for Mr. Erwin and awarded him $165,000. I heard from a person close to the trial that when the Gonzalez firm complained about the size of the award to the judge, that the judge told Tom et al that if the prosecution had a more competent lawyer, the award would have been even bigger.

I don't think the Gonzalez firm does well before a jury. Most jurors are not the swells and higher ups that the Gonzalez firm is legal servants to. Most juries are ordinary people. I think they feel the condescension directed at them from the Gonzalez gang in court. They talk to them as if they were the hired help.

So I have encouraged a woman administratively mauled when she was a teacher to blow past the negotiations and go to a jury in her case against the schools. People can see what really happened when a case is laid out before them, and they will find for this abused teacher is my belief.

Meanwhile, I want to get from Gonzalez the contract situation that his firm has with the board and the contract the lawyer from the firm had when he defended the board in the Erwin case. If you read the ethics language in the excerpt below from the Ethics Commission, you will infer why I want this information. He will do. Then we will see some labyrinthine twists and turns of the language to extract himself and his firm from responsibilty. But, hey, language is my specialty. I am the linguistics kid. Bring it on is what I say.

Keep in mind that the board did not fire one person for the crimes on school grounds. They looked the other way, or jumped on Erwin, as Candy Olson did, telling him that the would have to prove his accusations. She didn't want to know the truth and did not investigate the crimes herself or preside over an investigation. Like Dr. Lennard and the rest of the thugs who tortured Mr. Erwin, La Olson just wanted him to shut up. lee

http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=5338509888038553180 I filed ethics charges against Gonzalez in the past. I didn't win officially. Lawyers seldom rule against another member of the legal priesthood.

But overall, I won. Gonzalez was in a panic about being charged with ethics violations. He's not used to being on the other side of an accusation. He must have spent two weeks' billable hours crafting his responses to the bar's ethics commission. He denied, denied, denied in the most convoluted, lawyeresque language possible.

The second time I got to comment, I just tore loose and said whatever came into my head. I even criticized Tom's grammar as well as his ethics (he got a bachelor's in English) and had the best old time. I have one rule in my extra-home activities in my golden years: If it's not fun, I won't do it. But another ethics charge against Mr. Gonzalez would be fun. I am eager to see how he wiggles out of this situation. lee

Web Page on Government Ethics:

A local government attorney whose contract with the unit of local government does not include provisions that authorize or mandate the use of the law firm of the local government attorney to complete legal services for the unit of local government shall not recommend or otherwise refer legal work to that attorney's law firm to be completed for the unit of local government.



Ms. Cobbe: The above I extracted from the Web site on ethics for government employees.



I believe a member of Tom Gonzalez's firm litigated the courtroom part of the Whistleblower case that Mr. Erwin filed against the school board.



May I have as public information the 1. contract that this Gonzalez-firm courtroom lawyer had with the school board when the Gonzales-firm lawyer participated in this case, in which I believe Mr. Gonzalez did the deposition with Mr. Erwin? May I have 2. a copy of the current contract that Mr. Gonzalez and/or his firm has with the School Board?



I still await from you a 1. copy of the grievance procedure that employees can use if they believe the board and administration treat them unfairly and 2. the answer to my question of whether the script cataloguing past grievance procedures is public information that a citizen can review.



I ask also that you check with Professional Standards and Ms. Elia to see when I can expect from Ms. Kipley an answer to my inquiry about the three special-education administrators--Mr. Smiley, the principal, and the administrator-- involved in charging Mr. Steve Kemp with child abuse at the Sheriff's office in the Steve Kemp Professional-Standards case. Thank you.



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