The OC Register ran an editorial today calling on the four remaining Fleming Trustees to resign from the Capistrano Unified School District Board. I would have included it in the News Roundup this morning, but due to a case of terminal lameness, it is no where to be found on the OC Register website. So read it here, instead:

Clouds Lifting at CUSD
Board accepts that it violated open-meeting law

The Capistrano Unified School Board’s 4-0 decision last week to accept the Orange County district attorney’s findings that the board had repeatedly violated the state’s open meetings law was perhaps the most sensible decision the board has made in quite a long time. The three newest board members – Anna Bryson, Ellen Addonizio and Larry Christensen – rightly abstained from the vote, given that they had nothing to do with the legal violations of the past board.

In accepting the report, the board has avoided further legal action. The D.A. had vowed to press civil action to force the board to “commit to cease such violations in the future.” The board also agreed to comply with the open-meetings law – the Brown Act – by audio-taping all open and closed-session meetings, seek legal counsel knowledgeable about the act and to undergo special training to comply with state law. The D.A.’s office is sending the report to elected officials throughout Orange County as a warning that the office takes such violations seriously.
   
This is a good development. We’re frequently frustrated by the shabby way local officials treat the Brown Act. The D.A.’s office got it right when it argued, in its report on the Capo board, that “the Brown Act is not a nuisance and neither keeping secrets from the public nor managing the press or public opinion should make elected officials feel ‘comfortable.’ Elected office is not a right or benefit to be jealously guarded by its holder nor does the comfort level of such officials override the public’s right to know.”
   
The Capo board wasn’t caught simply making some innocuous errors. It engaged in a long-running pattern to conceal information from the public. That board was known as a rubber-stamp for the imperious former superintendent, James Fleming, who resigned and is now under indictment on charges related to his creation of an enemies list of parents who backed a recall of his board allies.
   
Supporters of the recall have called on the four original board members to resign – a call echoed by the Orange County Republican Party Central Committee. New recall efforts are under way to remove two of the four members. Those four – Marlene M. Draper, Sheila J. Benecke, Duane E. Stiff and Mike Darnold – could make a second wise decision. They should resign and spare the county’s largest school district continued division.