July 25 the Temecula Valley Unified School District will hold an
election illuminating the best and the worst of politics, including extreme partisanship,
pettiness and their remedies. It is a twisting story of both sides getting their just
desserts and a question of whether the public good will be served.
As a mother I am used to going back to who started it. As a mother I
am also used to learning both sides bear some responsibility.
It all started when Jerry Hobbs decided to resign. Although rumors
flew well before last November’s election of his intentions, he cynically held his
position. Rather than trust in the electorate to fill his seat, he opted to put his trust
in the election of candidates he deemed friendly, thereby hoping his seat would be filled
with a like-minded individual. That didn’t happen.
The new board, full of their new majority but promising division was
not in their vocabulary, proceeded to fill the seat with the one applicant most likely to
cause a furor. Bob Brown was not the only applicant with experience, intelligence, and
willingness to serve. If being able to "hit the ground running" was the
important criteria, applicants such as Mary Ann Cunningham and Doug Blois, who have been
regulars at school board meetings for years, were more likely choices.
What Brown did have was connections – Stew Morris served as
Brown’s previous campaign manager and Brown’s service with the Balloon and Wine
Festival gave him similar ties to the business community which was still smarting from the
whipping the Hobbs/Smith/Elder majority had been giving it for years – and a good
working relationship from his previous service on the school board.
It is not so much the choice of Brown that is annoying, it is the
smug protest of innocence the new majority has filled the intervening months with. Like
the child who just kicked his brother under the table and then says he does not know why
his brother hit him, they continue to insist they have no idea why others would
ridiculously spend $86,000 on an election!
Surely the election is the remedy for self-will run riot on the
school board, but because of its cost, it virtually assured the election of the individual
it was engineered to defeat. Credible candidates with the district budget at heart, could
not bring themselves to participate. Like Moses and Pharaoh, the two sides have so far
only succeeded in bringing whatever plague they wish for the other, upon themselves.
What is disturbing is both sides’ near-sightedness regarding
the value of diversity on a board; on the value of disagreement and the dialogue it
engenders! Indeed, this board is a textbook example! The only action on which they
declared complete unity was an unqualified disaster – the ad taken out during teacher
contract negotiations.
Cooperation, similar views, similar personalities, similar
experience -- for that matter, any experience, are not necessary for successful governing.
What is necessary is the maturity to acknowledge the validity of different viewpoints and
what is helpful, is to interact with respect. I had hoped we were moving in that
direction, but right now it looks like we’re just replaced one ruling clique with
another.